King Arthur & the Holy Grail

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

King Arthur and the legends surrounding him are known from medieval times throughout western Europe, but his origin is as a Welsh folk hero. The module traces the earliest development of the Arthurian legend from its Welsh beginnings, looking at our earliest sources to bear witness to Arthur (from Wales in the ninth to the eleventh centuries), and considers how this hero from a far western-European culture became famous throughout the world. The Celtic origin of the theme of the Holy Grail is examined as well as the way it became represented and adapted in later literature and culture. The Welsh origin of the character of Merlin the Magician will also be studied. Original sources in translation will form the basis of the study of all these themes.