King Arthur: The History and Story of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur, Camelot, Excalibur, Merlin, Lancelot & Guinevere and the Holy Grail. These well-known figures and objects and their adventures, quests and love stories are legendary, but where did the stories come from and who wrote the legend as we know it today? This video explores both the historical history of King Arthur, and all of the major developments of the story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table.
Arthur’s story has its earliest roots in Celtic poetry from the time of the Saxon invasion of Britain. Before his mention in Nennius’ work, Arthur was mentioned by name as a great hero in the Welsh Poem Y Gododdin, which was believed to have been written shortly after the Battle of Catraeth in 600 CE. Other than mentioning that Arthur was a great warrior, the Y Gododdin doesn’t say anything else about him, and so when Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing his Historia Regum Britanniae, or History of the Kings of Britain, in the 12th century, he pieced together bits of poetry and myth of Arthur in addition to some creative license, and created a story which would elevate Arthur to an unforgettable legend.
From the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, we explore the changes, additions and modifications of the story of Arthur by men such as Robert Wace of Normandy, Chrétien de Troyes, the Vulgate Cycle, Thomas Malory and Alfred Tennyson. Then, we have a look at the Arthurian legend today.
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- CHAPTERS -
0:00​ Introduction
0:51 Where does the story of King Arthur come from and was he a real person?
2:05 Development of the Legend: Geoffrey of Monmouth
3:00 Geoffrey of Monmouth's tale of King Arthur
5:48 Robert Wace of Normandy
6:56 Robert de Boron
8:19 Chrétien de Troyes
12:48 Wolfram von Eschenbach
13:37 The Vulgate Cycle
16:00 Thomas Malory and Alfred Tennyson
16:56 The Arthurian Legend Today
19:40 Outro
- WANT TO KNOW MORE? -
King Arthur www.worldhistory.org/King_Art...
The Historical King Arthur www.worldhistory.org/article/...
Guinevere www.worldhistory.org/Guinevere/
The Literary Development of the Arthurian Legend www.worldhistory.org/article/...
Merlin www.worldhistory.org/Merlin/
Lancelot www.worldhistory.org/Lancelot/
Grail Legend www.worldhistory.org/Grail_Le...
Excalibur www.worldhistory.org/Excalibur/
Thoman Malory www.worldhistory.org/Thomas_M...
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- ATTRIBUTIONS -
You can find all attribution and credits for images, animations, graphics and music here - worldhistory.typehut.com/king...
- MUSIC USED -
41-There-Were-Three-Young-Ladies-FULL-SM440
Greg Joy (SOCAN)
download.audiohero.com/#!deta...
- THUMBNAIL IMAGE -
www.flickr.com/photos/dspende...
David Spender
CC BY 2.0
World History Encyclopedia
www.worldhistory.org
#kingarthur

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

Who is your favorite Arthurian character and why? Or your favorite story? Let us know!

[@andrewleonard1964]

Perfect thanks

[@t0ph4t1]

knights of ni. do i need to explain further?

[@4per8]

by far the best retelling of the legends was 100% sonic and the black knight, such a good game

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

We'll have to check it out. Thanks for watching!

[@avalonjustin]

It's no wonder that most people don't know the full history of the Arthurian legend. It was added to and changed so many times by many writers.

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

That's very true. There are countless adaptions out there. Thanks for watching! 🙂

[@Blacklistedreadings]

I love your shirt!

[@bilgitv9136]

Greetings from Azerbaijan 🇦🇿😘😘😘

[@abdelrahmanmustafa8937]

My favorite character is King Arthur himself because he is a paradigm of heroism and justice

[@grazontv7164]

Its Dadhoure Galahad's Stepbrother who was Purest among all Knights...😇

[@guitarmanrjb]

I love the BBC Series Merlin on Amazon Prime . . . I wish there was more at the end - the story seemed unfinished as to the mention of the "once and future King Arthur" . . and a teaser clip showing Merlin present day after a 18 wheeler buzzes by as he is strolling Lake Avalon.

[@MrAndyPee]

they made arthur and merlin gay......

[@MrAndyPee]

not cool.

[@grimmm421]

@@MrAndyPeeur lame gay people are fun

[@igodz5903]

What is the song called that starts at 0:22

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

It could be this: 41-There-Were-Three-Young-Ladies-FULL-SM440 Greg Joy (SOCAN) download.audiohero.com/track/23208251

[@siddharthabiswas382]

why did the Arthurian stories slip into oblivion in Britain and soon were hijacked by French authors?

[@marieascot]

Surely you mean historian Bede pronounced Bead. Hopefully i will get round to adding my video about Bedes world near Newcastle onto my channel.

[@marieascot]

This is my video of Bede's World Medieval Living Museum Jarrow Tyne and Wear where the Monk living and did his writing kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKCuo3-id5idoKs

[@TheRomanTitan]

Matter of fact my dad did ancestral research and found out his family came from that time and era thing was there was actually Arthur and Guinevere and Merlin

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

You never know. 😉

[@johndewey6358]

King Arthur is of Scythian ancestory, he fought as a Scythian under the Romans.

[@Wicknews8100]

Truthfully I've found a Quartz Amulet with the lady of the lake handing A King on a white horse the sword and a creature who resembles a donkey but human at the same time. Arthur means Art on Stone, literally. The sword is clearly visible with an inscription on the handle. Idylls of the King means "idols", the stone is a 2 inch Quartz Blade, when illuminated with a flashlight the image appears. As far as myself Ive only ever been about fairness and serving justice, that's me, and a lot of people hate me for it but I hate liars and criminals. The stone is displayed on my short feed

[@Tekmirion]

It reminded me the monty pythons comedy 😄

[@MrAndyPee]

which show's you have a dead sense of humor.

[@Tekmirion]

​@@MrAndyPee Check your sense or your timing in the sense of humor then if you didnt like it

[@abdelrahmanmustafa8937]

I have no intention to be crowned king arthur

[@artifactis]

i gues its still just a story about the sun

[@PenCatStudio]

Is it just me or does this video steal lines from Overly Sarcastic Production’s video on King Arthur?

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

All our videos are based on the articles from our website, which then get adapted into scripts.

[@PenCatStudio]

@@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia okay! Thank you for the clarification :)

[@AnhTuPhucDerrickHoangCanada]

theyre not medieval theyre prehistory

[@sabiantheomnivore5592]

They're bollocks...

[@marciojosecoutinho2192]

😄

[@nickhair3856]

WTH is ce?

[@mindylawrence7357]

Common Era

[@RalphEllis]

Some heresies about Arthurian Legend for you. a. There is no mention of the Arthur story before Monmouth and Oxford in 1135. Gildas, Bede and others do not mention King Arthur, let alone the rest of the legend. b. The great hero of Arthurian Legend is Joseph(us) of Arimathaea, who is said to have been a knight working for Commander (Emperor) Vespasian. c. Several of the manuscripts (especially in the Vulgate Cycle), say that Arthurian Legend was written by Josephus Flavius in the 1st century. Troubling, eh? The answer to all this can be seen in that Arthurian Legend only appears with Monmouth and Oxford, after Crusaders and Templars arrived back in Europe from the Crusades. And note that the First Crusade went to Antioch-Edessa, Beyond the Euphrates, before it went to Jerusalem. What is the connection here? The Answer is that the Crusaders knew there were gospel secrets in Edessa, that had remained hidden behind the velvet veil of the Council of Chalcedon and the iron curtain of lslam, ever since the 5th and 8th centuries. That is why Eschenbach’s Parsival starts its Arthur story in Mesopotamia under King Barus (King Agbarus, the 1st century of Edessa). That is why High History says that Perceval was the nephew of the gospels’ Nicodemus. That is why Perceval’s father owned the donkey that had belonged to the gospel Nicodemus. All very troubling, eh? The answer is that Arthurian Legend is actually a secular gospel, about the historical Jesus as a real, secular, 1st century king of Edessa. But it was dressed up as a 5th or 6th century story of Britain, to evade Church censors (and Church funerary pyres). In reality the Galles (the Welsh) refers to the Eunuch Galli priests of Galilee and Syria. Which is why Jesus asked for his disciples to become eunuchs in Math 19:12. That is why Simon was called Peter-Kephas, the stone, because the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend was a sacred stone - the sacred omphalos-elagabal stone of the Galli priests of Syria. The stone that Scottish Templars claim they still possess x the Stone if Scone. There is much more to this story than meets the eye. See the book ‘The Grail Cypher’ Facebook: ralphellis144 Ralph Ellis

[@bridgetmbdrennan]

And Ireland they invaded too

[@sabiantheomnivore5592]

Never existed. A bit like people in the year 2750 claiming that a person called Superman was a well-known 20th-century hero or there was an expedition to an unknown planet repulsed by it's giant blue-skinned residents.

[@WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

The legend of King Arthur still plays an important part in history, and he may be based on a real historical figure, although nothing is proven yet. Thanks for watching!