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Arthurian Romances: The Characteristics Of King Arthur

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Ayşenur Aydın Res. Asst. Ali Belenli IED 272 English Prose and Poetry 07.05.2015 Arthurian Romances Since his first appearence in fifth and early sixth century A.D., King Arthur inspired many authors, many literary works. Yet, there are many doubts that he really lived. This question is quite debatable and the answer couldn 't be enough to be sure. According to Malory " The earliest known account of the fall of Arthur 's kingdom is contained in three short chapters of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae written in 1136 . . . " (Malory viii) . After Geoffrey of Monmouth, there are many other adaptations of King Arthur stories, both in English and French. Therefore, this paper aims to inform about King Arthur, and Arthurian …show more content…

There are seven main characters in those romances; King Arthur, adviser of Arthur and wizard Merlin, Arthur 's half sister and in the same time his biggest enemy Morgan le Fay, an example of good knight and Arthur 's nephew Sir Gawain, Guenevere the queen and his lover but also in the a brave knight Lancelot and Arthur 's shadow Mordred. Those characters ' traits differ from each other, on the other hand, traits of each character are various in different literary works. As Spivack and Staples point out in The Company of …show more content…

On the other hand, Arthurian romances includes courtly love tradition. In romances such as Arthurian, women play more central roles than early Germanic epics such as Beowulf. Those romances were written to entertain court, that 's why they included female-male affairs more than bloodshed and fights. So, according the courtly love, mostly there is a brave knight who loves the lady of the castle and he is motivated by lady; he tries to please lady, fights for her. Also, Arthurian romance includes chivalric code, as we can see in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain represent a noble-brave knight, who accepts a deathly offer and goes on a journey which includes many dangers, but he is not afraid of death because honour is the most important thing for a knight. He resist temptations, he stays loyal to the lord of castle, also to the lady. That 's how a knight must be according to chivalric code: Loyal to lord, a good lover and a good

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