Age of Chivalry

It was time of high adventure and romance. Knights would seek out adventure, hoping to test their skills, mettle and prowess as a warrior.

A knight would also try to win the love of a lady or damsel, either by rescuing her from an adversary or demonstrating his skills in a jousting tournament.

Courtly manner was considered to be almost as important with the ladies, as well as the knight's use of the sword and lance.

The time of King Arthur represents the Golden Age of Chivalry.

In Timeless Myths, the Age of Chivalry deals with retelling a collection of popular tales of King Arthur.

The collection of tales and romances about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table became known to the French as "La Matiere de Bretagne" or the "Matter of Britain" (as oppose to the legend of Charlemagne in the "Matter of France").

The earliest sources of the legend come from Celtic storytellers in Wales and Brittany between 7th and 10th century AD. However, it wasn't until the early 12th century when Geoffrey of Monmouth gave us the first full account of Arthur that this legendary king became a household name. Writers after Geoffrey come from Wales, England, France and Germany between the 12th and 16th century; the writers from these countries became the major contributors of Arthurian legend. The Legend of Arthur can even be found in Italy, Spain and the Scandinavia.

Since there were many accounts on the life of King Arthur, I have divided this into two main parts: those of the Early Tradition and the Alternative Accounts. The Early Tradition relied on three sources from Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace and Layamon.

The Alternative Accounts relied on various sources from Vulgate Cycle and Post-Vulgate Cycle, and from writers such as Chretien de Troyes, Robert de Boron, and Sir Thomas Malory. Since the alternative version is larger and varied greatly, I had to divide this into several pages. I named the early life of Arthur on this alternative version, Legend of Excalibur. The Alternative Tradition also includes the Vulgate Cycle — Lancelot, Queste del Saint Graal, and Mort le roi Artu. (See Vulgate Cycle.)

The Vulgate Cycle or Lancelot-Graal prose cycle introduced a new change to the legends, that of the love of Lancelot for Queen Guinevere and a new version of the Grail quest. These two events would ultimately bring about the downfall of Arthur's kingdom.

Another page also deals with the quest for the Holy Grail. There are many versions of the Grail quest. Indeed, there are two different traditions about the Grail. Those stories that have Perceval as the hero, and the other, later tradition that has Galahad as the new Grail hero. I will deal with both traditions on separate pages.

The Knights' Tales retell several other stories where Arthur takes a less active role. These stories deal with the adventure of individual knights. It included the stories of the "Knight of the Lion", "Erec and Enide", "Gawain and the Green Knights", and the most popular medieval romance of them all — "Tristan and Isolde".