Who Told Arthurian Legends?

Question

Word of mouth, or a specific person? Or were they mainly written works?

Answer 1

Merlin did it. Oh wait that was a movie wasn't it.

Ummm, umm...uh....I think creative writers spread the word of Athur and are stiull doing it today, they are just Unified now under one Guild.

Answer 2

Look: the answer to your question is who didn't? St. Gildas appears to have made a point of not talking about Arthur. He is the closest we have to a contemporary wriitten source, and his On the Ruin of Britain was a polemic, not a history. There is considerable oral tradition among the Welsh, which has been written down in the proverbs known as the triads and in other places. The Mabinogion has some wild stories about him and his court: one of them, Culhwych and Olwen gave us the word Ogre from Olwen's father, Ogyr Van. Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first to put down a written account of him in his History of the King's of Britain. It was certainly based on legendry (oral tradition) and not entirely reliable. The early Troubadors and Trouveres, such as Chretian des Troyes then picked up the story and composed their own versions of these stories as exemplary tales of courtly love. It is interesting that the Mabinogion, which actually dates in written form from this period, though it appears to preserve earlier tales, has a grail story which shows Chretian des Troyes's influence. By the time of Mallory (and William Caxton who edited and published his manuscript) this was the official version of Arthur. You will get roughly this narrative in the Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Brittanica or in introductions to the triads, the Mabinogian, Chretian des Troyes and Wolfram Von Eschenbach, or Mallory.

Answer 3

It came from many places, though it was in likelihood base on a 5Th century roman who tried to become king when the Romans left