Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

290 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[338]beginning of Arthur's reign in the year 505, recounts his warsagainst the Saxons, and says he ultimately conquered not only allBritain, but Ireland, Norway, Gaul, and Dacia, and successfullyresisted a demand for tribute and homage from the Romans. Heheld his court at Caerleon-on-Usk. While he was away on theContinent carrying on his struggle with Rome his nephew Modredusurped his crown and wedded his wife Guanhumara. Arthur,on this, returned, and after defeating the traitor at Winchesterslew him in a last battle in Cornwall, where Arthur himself wassorely wounded (A.D. 542). The queen retired to a convent atCaerleon. Before his death Arthur conferred his kingdom on hiskinsman Constantine, and was then carried off mysteriously to“the isle of Avalon” to be cured, and “the rest is silence.” Arthur'smagic sword “Caliburn” (Welsh Caladvwlch; see p. 224, note)is mentioned by Geoffrey and described as having been made inAvalon, a word which seems to imply some kind of fairyland, aLand of the Dead, and may be related to the Norse Valhall. Itwas not until later times that Avalon came to be identified withan actual site in Britain (Glastonbury). In Geoffrey's narrativethere is nothing about the Holy Grail, or Lancelot, or the RoundTable, and except for the allusion to Avalon the mystical elementof the Arthurian saga is absent. Like Nennius, Geoffrey findsa fantastic classical origin for the Britons. His so-called historyis perfectly worthless as a record of fact, but it has proved averitable mine for poets and chroniclers, and has the distinctionof having furnished the subject for the earliest English tragicdrama, “Gorboduc,” as well as for Shakespeare's “King Lear”;and its author may be described as the father—at least on itsquasi-historical side—of the Arthurian saga, which he made uppartly out of records of the historical dux bellorum of Nenniusand partly out of poetical amplifications of these records madein Brittany by the descendants of exiles from Wales, many ofwhom fled there at the very time when Arthur was waginghis wars against the heathen Saxons. Geoffrey's book had a