Was king Author a true story?

Question

About he was about to get married with this chick but then his best knight ran away with the chick, and all those stuff. What is a book I can read about this.

So what book can I read of his story?

ok for solara... hold on let me improve the question. (god)
Was king Author a true story?
Details:
Did everthing he went through happen in real life? That he was about to marry with a women but then the women ran away with King Author best knight...



is that better?

Answer 1

We don't know if any of the legend was based on true events, but there are certainly people that believe the story is true. There are tons and tons of books you can read that will tell you different versions of the legend of King Arthur, his Queen Guinevere, and his knights of the round table. I don't know how old you are, so I will just mention some of my favorites.

One of the oldest surviving texts that talks about Arthur is The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malroy
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes, my particular favorite being Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart which features one of the first versions of the story of Lancelot and Guinevere and their adulterous love affair.
The Lais of Marie de France are a good read too, particularly Lanval.
For more contemporary versions, my favorite is The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. She tells the story from the point of view of the female characters, particularly Arthur's half-sister Morgaine. I also liked the trilogy by Rosalind Miles which begins with Guinevere: Queen of the Summer Country.

Another related story is that of Tristan and Isolde. They also feature in many tellings of the Arthurian tales, including in the Malory version. I quite like the version called The Romance of Tristan by Beroul. Rosalind also wrote an enjoyable trilogy about them beginning with Isolde: Queen of the Western Isle.

Edit: To answer more of your question, we really don't know if any of the events of the legend happened in real life, only that there was an actual historical king in Britain's history named Arthur. The basic legend says Arthur somehow attains the sword Excalibur, either from pulling it out of a stone, or from the Lady of the Lake, depending on the version, and becomes king of Britain. He also has Merlin as an adviser. Arthur marries Guinevere, but while she also loves Arthur, she falls in love with Arthur's greatest knight, Lancelot. Lancelot and Guinevere have an affair. But Guinevere and Arthur are definitely married.

Answer 2

there seems to have been a king arthur who led a celtic army in britain some time before 800 ad. he is mentioned by the very early british historian nennius. we know almost nothing about this real person (the period 300-900 ad is called 'the dark ages' because almost all government had broken down, and there were hardly any books being written - we know hardly anything about what was happening then).

but a huge legend grew up around the historical king arthur. much the way that people now tell stories about elvis presley that cannot possibly be true (even though elvis was a real person) people started to tell stories about arthur that were nothing to do with the real person.

the way arthur is shown these days is certainly a load of rubbish. in a film like 'first knight' arthur is shown wearing armour and running a country as if he lived round about 1200 ad. since he lived at least four hundred years before this, it is clearly made-up.

....

if you want to read the legend of king arthur a good place for teens or young adults to start is th white's novel sequence 'the once and future king'. th white knew a lot about the arthur legend, and gets all the essential stuff into his stories.

if you are more ambitious and want to read the legend itself as it was passed on in historical times you should go for thomas malory's 'le morte d'arthur', which is a huge book in early modern english (it seems a little weird at first, but you soon get into it) containing the main part of the arthur story. (it was the main source th white worked from).

there are literally hundreds of different versions of the arthur story from medieval and early renaissance times. it was one of the most popular folktales in england, and in quite a few other european countries also.

Answer 3

Geoffrey of Monmouth first mentioned Arthur in his book of 1156, 'The History of the Kings of Britain', which was supposed to be a chronological record of the kings from Roman times until then. Unfortunately it was wildly inaccurate and is not considered a true account. In the book Arthur fights, amongst others, the Trojans, the Romans, the Saxons, the Welsh, the French and conquers half of Europe, only returning to England when his throne was threatened. The number of knights of the round table vary from 15 to 120. Also, of course, wizards don't really exist and Merlin was thought to have been based on a Welsh wise man. Arthur is the stuff of 'Legend' which means there may be some truth in the stories mixed with invented tales. There is no evidence that England ever had a King Arthur. Also the knights, supposedly, went to fight in the Holy land in the Crusades, in an attempt to find the Holy Grail and of course the King involved there was Richard I (The Lionheart).

Answer 4

DngrsAngl gave the best, most informative and most accurate answer so far.

There are *some* historians who *speculate* that an ancient king named Artos may be the origin of Arthur, but there is little or no evidence supporting this other than the similarity of names and the approximate location of the kingdom. *Very* little is known of this "King Artos".

Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History" is a good starting place, as that work has a brief account of Arthur and is free online.

Mallory is, as mentioned, the authoritative work, but is quite a chore to read (long and middle English). Also free online, but you would be better to get a scholarly edition with plenty of helpful (and chore-making) footnotes.

Lancelot (the knight that ran off with Arthur's wife) is a later French addition to the tales of Arthur. In Malory (the authoritative work), it is noted that the French have far more stories about Arthur than the English. Lancelot is included in Mallory (indeed, Mallory's title is French).

Probably the earliest (and most interesting) stories of Arthur are from the Mabinogion. Get a scholarly translation of these ancient Welsh myths like this
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMabinogion-Everymans-Library-Cloth%2Fdp%2F0375411755%3Fie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1190619392%26sr%3D11-1&tag=wwwjimpettico-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325
I have this edition, and it is excellent, but there are others. Again, Arthur makes up a small portion of this work, but the stories pre-date the French additions (Arthur, Kay and Guinevere, plus several other familiar knights, still make appearances, and Arthur is kind of a rogue.).

As a newbie, I recommend the following books, *in this order*, which is very important.
1) History of the Kings of Britain (online)
2) The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
3) The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck (a modern, very well-done version of Mallory, but it is only about 3/4 complete compared to Mallory)
4) The Once and Future King
If you're still interested at this point (and you should be)
5) The Mabinogion
6) Le Morte de Arthur by Mallory

There are reviews of, and links to, some of these books here:

http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Jim

Answer 5

There is a lot of debate about that. It appears there was a king named Arthur, and he did have a magician named Merlin. Whether all the rest of it is true or not is really up for grabs. There are numerous books about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Guinevere was the Queen's name and Lancelot was the knight's name. Check out your library - the librarian will help you find a number of books on the subject. They're good fun to read.

Answer 6

Old English story passed down and changed over time...

There was a King Arthur, many actually because Arthur was a common name & very few, if any, records were kept back then / still exist so it's hard to tell if any of the story is real.

As for learning more: a search on google should land you a few thousand hits and a library will surely have multiple books based on him.

Answer 7

The historical Arthur was likely a Roman centurion. The stories of his knights, his round table, his complicated relationship with Lancelot and Guinevere, etc., came of the romantic literature of Chretien de Troyes, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Marie de France, and a number of other writers already mentioned.

This book (http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Dark-Warrior-Mythic/dp/0517224445/ref=sr_1_10/104-9792499-1046352?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190650679&sr=1-10) is a great introduction to the historical Arthur.

If you're looking for a fictional account, I enjoyed two books which took very different approaches to the legend: "Queen of Camelot" by Nancy McKenzie and "Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Howard Pyle's collection of Arthurian legends is considered one of the best and most comprehensive - a good place to start if you're interested in a classical account.

Answer 8

What you read in the King Arthur stories are not true. They're fiction.

There is some thinking that the *idea* of King Arthur might have been loosely based on a real, or a combination of several real men.

Answer 9

Arthur was a tribal king who lived long before chain mail was invented much less armor and the concept of knighthood. His name was Artos.

There are NO details about his life other than he was a warlord in Cornwall and even that is iffy.

The whole Arthur legend is fiction. There never was a Guinevere or Lancelot or Percival or any of the others. It was a bedtime story.

Answer 10

King Arthur was not a real person- there never was a king named Arthur in England- but he may be based on a Celtic chieftain- it is a legend that continues to fascinate audiences. The most definitive "text" is by Malory, but there are numerous authors who have written "histories"- there are also some wonderful movies.