Week 8 Mythology King Arthur

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Mythology of King Arthur
As people mature, they change; sometimes they become better human beings who are self-confident, thoughtful and kind. Sometimes their experiences make them weak or cruel. This study explores how some of the characters in “King Arthur” change in the course of this myth:
Arthur
When Arthur was fifteen, he unknowingly pulled out a sword in the stone in the churchyard in London. He was ignorant of the impact of his action that would make him the King. When Ector reveals this notion to him, he says,”Why do you suppose such a thing? It does not make any sense, and it cannot be true” (Malory, Lanier, and Wyeth, 1-5). To him, pulling out the sword was just but a simple task. However, he was not aware that he was the only one who could do it.
Arthur shows no self-confidence in him. Even after knowing that he would be the king, he says that he does not know how to be the King of Britain. This response shows that he had no confidence in himself as young as he was.
He was fearful. When made the King, he was afraid of the dukes and decided to retreat to a high castle (Malory, Lanier, and Wyeth, 10-25). However, they are imprisoned for two weeks. As a king, he should have shown courage by taking control of the situation. However, it took Merlin to convince him of this. Merlin tells him, “Appear before them without fear in your heart. Answer their questions as their chief and their king…” (Santha, 44-49).
As Arthur matures, he becomes one with high qualities of a leader.

He has strength, courage, and confidence unlike when he was a small boy. He becomes kind and generous to all his subjects. He is seen to be courteous, loving and tolerant to all. He rules with justice, and all his subjects and servants love him even them that were against him when he was being appointed the king.
The same Arthur who retreated in fear of the Dukes becomes the greatest king. He conquers many territories including Rome through his courage and wisdom. He was courageous enough to fight and kill a giant in Mont-Saint-Michel.
Arthur is however ruined by anger when he demanded that the queen is condemned to death over their relationship with Lancelot (Chopra, N.P). This passion also drives him to pursue Lancelot when he agrees to Gawain’s rush judgment. This makes him lose stability of his kingdom and ends up losing his two best knights of the roundtable.
The king also sacrifices his subjects, his queen, and state for the loyalty of Gawain, which he should not have done. The experience of Lancelot’s affair with the queen makes him weak in making decisions. He agrees to follow Gawain and put his kingdom at risk. For this, Mordred takes advantage and assumes the kingship. This shows disloyalty to his people as he strives to strike vengeance on Lancelot.
Lancelot
He was the greatest knight of the roundtable. He was loyal to the king and the queen and showed heroic deeds. However, he becomes disrespectful to the King by engaging in a love affair with the queen, Guinevere. He tells her, “…You are my earthly joy, and I love you too much to give you up for anyone – even Arthur, my lord, and king.”
Lancelot betrays his loyalty to the king. When the king organized a tournament at Camelot, Lancelot decided to attend in disguise and fought on the side against the king. He encouraged his relatives too to fight on his side (Chopra, N.P).
He, however, changes in the course of the story when he saved the king from being killed by his nephew, Sir Bors. This shows his loyalty to the king. When he returns to Arthur with the queen, he publicly puts to an end the relationship he had with Guinevere, the queen. This shows how sensitive he is to the king’s marriage as this could have ruined Arthur’s marriage.
Lancelot becomes a good person at the end. He changes to become a priest in the chapel where King Arthur was buried. He turns to prayer and fasting as part of his life.
Guinevere
She is the Queen, the wife of Arthur. However, after some time she betrays him by falling in love with Lancelot. She even tells Lancelot that, “I will not choose to live once you are dead.” They even go to the extent of exchanging rings hence demonstrating their deep love for each other.
When Mordred plans to marry her, she is thoughtful and finds a way to escape from him. This shows her loyalty to the king by not accepting such a thing. After the death of Arthur, Guinevere joined a convent and became a nun. She turns out to be good as she spent her days praying, fasting and performing deeds for the poor. She repents of her sins and clearly admits that her affair with Lancelot was the cause of the deaths of the king and the noblest knights. Her experience made her be a better person in life.
Gawain
He is an expert advisor to the king being Arthur’s second principle knight. His advises the king not to judge the queen so hastily, guiltily or condemn her to death (Foster and Sherman 3-4). However, he changes to become haste in judgment when Lancelot accidentally killed his two brothers. This experience makes him cruel even to his friend. He swears to avenge their death and fight with Lancelot as a result. He misadvises the king and sets him against Lancelot too, which becomes the beginning of the destruction of his kingdom.
During the last days of Gawain, he accepts his fault of rash judgment and makes peace with Lancelot. He publicly cleared him of the blame and urged the king to cherish him with honor.
Mordred
He is faithful to the king. He discloses to him about the illicit affair of Guinevere and Lancelot, something no one could have done. The king trusts him so much that he left him in charge of his kingdom including his wife, his land and his people.
However, he betrays the king’s trust by being not loyal (Foster and Sherman 3-4). He schemed to reign in Arthur’s place and even marry the queen whom he loved. He lied to the people by using fake letters that Lancelot had killed the king so that he was crowned the king of Britain. The two became enemies due to Mordred’s behavior. Mordred later engages in a supremacy battle with Arthur that led to his death and stimulated the death of the king.
The relevance of the characters
In this story, I can relate with Arthur. In many instances, I see myself in him. As I grew, there many things, I was not sure and confident of but with time, they have become clear to me. I am convinced and wiser as I mature. Many times, I have followed my friend’s decisions that have not always turned out to be good. At times, I have rushed into judgments only to realize later that I was wrong. When presented with a big responsibility, one is fearful because you do not know what is expected of you. However as one takes courage to take the responsibility, then I realize that I could handle it correctly.

Work Cited
Chopra, Deepak. The Return Of Merlin. 1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 1995. Print.
Foster, Tara and Jon Sherman. “King Arthur In The Twenty-First Century: Kaamelott, BBC’S Merlin, And Starz’S Camelot”. Arthuriana 25.1 (2015): 3-4. Web.
Malory, Thomas, Sidney Lanier, and N. C Wyeth. The Boy’s King Arthur. 1st ed. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1917. Print.
Santha, Miklos. “Relativized Arthur-Merlin Versus Merlin-Arthur Games”. Information and Computation 80.1 (1989): 44-49. Web.