“Here lies Arthur, king who was, and king who will be.”
»Tukaj počiva Artur, kralj, ki je bil, in kralj, ki bo.«
So reads the inscription on King Arthur’s gravestone in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. Writing in the 15th century, Malory couldn’t have known how prophetic this inscription would turn out to be. King Arthur has risen again and again in our collective imagination, along with his retinue of knights, Guinevere, the Round Table, Camelot, and of course, Excalibur. But where do these stories come from, and is there any truth to them?
Tako pravi napis na nagrobniku kralja Arturja v knjigi Arturjeva smrt Thomasa Maloryja. Ko je Malory to zapisal v 15. stoletju, ni mogel vedeti, kako preroški bo postal ta napis. Kralj Artur se je znova in znova porodil v naši skupni domišljiji, skupaj s svojim spremstvom vitezov, Guinevere, okroglo mizo, Camelotom in seveda Excaliburjem. Ampak od kod prihajajo te zgodbe in ali je v njih kaj resnice?
King Arthur as we know him is a creation of the later Middle Ages, but his legend actually has its roots in Celtic poetry from an earlier time: the Saxon invasions of Britain. After the Romans left Britain in 410 CE, Saxon invaders from what’s now Germany and Denmark quickly capitalized on the vulnerability of the abandoned territory. The inhabitants of Britain fought fiercely against the invaders through several centuries of turmoil. There are hardly any written records from this time, so it’s difficult to reconstruct an accurate history. However, surviving poetry from the era gives us some clues. One of the poems, The Gododdin, contains the very first reference to Arthur, though Arthur himself doesn’t actually appear in it. It says a different warrior, named Gwawrddur, was skilled at slaying his enemies, but was no Arthur. That’s not much to go on, but whoever this Arthur was, he must’ve been the gold standard of warriors. Whether he ruled anyone, or even lived at all is, unfortunately, less clear.
Kralj Artur, kot ga poznamo, je stvaritev poznega srednjega veka, ampak legenda o njem ima dejansko korenine v keltski poeziji iz zgodnejšega časa: časa saksonske invazije Britanije. Po tem, ko so Rimljani zapustili Britanijo v letu 410 našega štetja, so saksonski osvajalci iz današnjega ozemlja Nemčije in Danske hitro izkoristili ranljivost zapuščenega ozemlja. Prebivalci Britanije so se srdito borili proti osvajalcem preko več nemirnih stoletij. Iz tistega časa imamo zelo malo zapisov, zato je težko pravilno rekonstruirati zgodovino. Kljub temu nam ohranjena poezija iz tega obdobja poda nekaj namigov. Ena izmed pesmi, "The Gododdin", čisto prvič omeni Arturja, čeprav sam Artur dejansko ne nastopa v njej. Pravi, da je bil drugi bojevnik z imenom Gwawrddur izurjen v ubijanju svojih sovražnikov, ampak vseeno ni bil tako dober kot Artur. To nam ne pove veliko, ampak kdorkoli je bil ta Artur, je moral veljati za zlati standard bojevnikov. Žal pa ni jasno, ali je komu vladal ali če je sploh živel.
Despite this uncertainty, references to Arthur caught the attention of an aspiring historian hundreds of years later. In 1130, Geoffrey of Monmouth was a lowly cleric with grand ambitions. Using Celtic and Latin sources, he spent years creating a lengthy chronicle titled, "The History of the Kings of Britain." The centerpiece of this tome was King Arthur.
Kljub negotovosti so omembe Arturja, stoletja kasneje, pritegnile pozornost ambicioznega zgodovinarja. Leta 1130 je bil Geoffrey iz Monmoutha skromen duhovnik z velikimi ambicijami. Več let je uporabljal keltske in latinske vire in tako ustvaril dolgo latinsko kroniko z naslovom “Zgodovina britanskih kraljev”. Glavni junak je bil kralj Artur.
History is a generous term for Geoffrey’s account. Writing six hundred years after the Saxon invasions, he cobbled together fragments of myth and poetry to compensate for the almost complete lack of official records. A few of his sources contained mentions of Arthur, and some others were realistic accounts of battles and places. But many featured mythic heroes fighting long odds with the help of magical swords and sorcery. Geoffrey blended them all: A magical sword called Caledfwlch and a Roman fortress called Caerleon appeared in his source material, so Geoffrey’s Arthur ruled from Caerleon and wielded Caliburnus, the Latin translation of Caledfwlch. Geoffrey even added a wise counselor named Merlin, based on the Celtic bard Myrrdin, to Arthur’s story. If Arthur did live, he would likely have been a military leader, but a castle-bound king better fit Geoffrey’s regal history.
Zgodovina je radodarno ime za Geoffreyjevo pripoved. Pisal je šesto let po saksonski invaziji, zbral je odlomke mitov in poezije ter s tem skušal nadomestiti skoraj popolno pomanjkanje uradnih zapisov. Nekaj njegovih virov je omenjalo Arturja, drugi so bili resnični opisi bitk in krajev. Ampak veliko jih je predstavljalo mitične junake, ki so se bojevali, kljub majhnemu upanju za zmago s pomočjo čarobnih mečev in čarovnije. Geoffrey je združil vse skupaj: magični meč Caledfwlch in rimljansko utrdbo Caerleon, ki sta se pojavila v njegovi izvirni literaturi, zato je Geoffreyjev Artur vladal iz Caerleona in vihtel Caliburnus, latinski prevod Caledfwlcha. Geoffrey je Arturjevi zgodbi dodal pametnega svetovalca Merlina, ki je osnovan na keltskem pesniku Myrrdin. Če je Artur res živel, je bil najverjetneje vojaški vodja, ampak Geoffreyjevi veličastni zgodovini je bolj ustrezal lik kralja iz gradu.
Geoffrey’s chronicle got the attention he’d hoped for, and was soon translated from Latin into French by the poet Wace around 1155 CE. Wace added another centerpiece of Arthurian lore to Geoffrey’s sword, castle, and wizard: the Round Table. He wrote that Arthur had the table constructed so that all guests in his court would be equally placed, and none could boast that he had the highest position at the table. After reading Wace’s translation, another French poet, Chrétien de Troyes, wrote a series of romances that catapulted Arthur’s story to fame. He introduced tales of individual knights like Lancelot and Gawain, and mixed elements of romance in with the adventures. He conceived Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere’s love triangle. In addition to interpersonal intrigue, he also introduced the Holy Grail. Chrétien probably based his Grail’s powers on magical objects in Celtic mythology. He lived in the middle of the Crusades, and others imposed the preoccupations of the time on the Grail, casting it as a powerful relic from the crucifixion.
Geoffreyjeva pripoved je pritegnila pozornost, na katero je upal, in kmalu jo je pesnik Wace okoli leta 1155 n.š. prevedel iz latinščine v francoščino. Wace je dodal še eno značilnost Arturjevemu izročilu o Geoffreyjevem meču, gradu in čarovniku: okroglo mizo. Zapisal je, da je Artur dal zgraditi mizo zato, da bi bili vsi gostje na njegovem dvoru enakovredni, in da se ne bi nihče mogel hvaliti z višjim položajem pri mizi. Po branju Waceovega prevoda, je še en francoski pesnik, Chrétien de Troyes, napisal serijo ljubezenskih romanov, ki so katapultirali Arturjevo zgodbo v slavo. Predstavil je zgodbe posameznih vitezov, na primer Lancelota in Gawaina in zmešal elemente romantike s pustolovščinami. Ustvaril je Arturjev, Lancelotov in Guineverin ljubezenski trikotnik. V medčloveške spletke je vnesel še sveti gral. Chrétien je najbrž temeljil moč grala na magičnih predmetih iz keltske mitologije. Živel je sredi Križarskih vojn in drugi so postavili skrbi časa na gral in mu tako dodelili vlogo mogočne relikvije iz časa križanja.
Numerous adaptations in French and other languages followed from Chrétien’s work. In the course of these retellings, Caerleon became Camelot, and Caliburnus was rechristened Excalibur. In the 15th century, Sir Thomas Malory synthesized these stories in Le Morte D’arthur, the basis of many modern accounts of King Arthur.
Sledile so številne priredbe Chrétienovega dela v francoščini in drugih jezikih. Med temi priredbami je Caerleon postal Camelot, in Caliburnus se je prekrstil v Excalibur. V 15. stoletju je Sir Thomas Malory združil zgodbe v »Arturjevo smrt«, ki je osnova številnih sodobnih pripovedi o Kralju Arturju.
In the thousand years since Arthur first appeared in a Celtic poem, his story has transformed over and over to reflect the concerns of his chroniclers and their audiences. And we’re still rewriting and adapting the legend today. Whether or not the man ever lived, loved, reigned, or adventured, it’s undeniable that the character has achieved immortality.
V tisočih letih odkar se je Artur prvič prikazal v keltski pesmi, se je njegova zgodba kar naprej spreminjala, da bi odražala zainteresiranost njegovih kronistov in njihovih občinstev. Še danes to legendo predelujemo in prilagajamo. Ne glede na to, ali je ta mož kdaj živel, ljubil, vladal ali živel pustolovsko, je nedvomno, da je njegov lik postal nesmrten.