History Myth / KingArthur

* LawfulStupid: Arthur. So determined to bring about this new Rule of Law idea that he lets himself be used by evil people in the guise of upholding the law.

** A later English author, Layamon, also named his helmet as Goswhit (Goose-White) and his chainmail shirt as Wygar (Battle-Hard, from Old English ''wigheard'').

* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: Any historical King Arthur who did exist hardly had access to a magical sword in the stone, an immortality inducing scabbard and fought off any villains like Morgan le Fay.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade:
** Historians have debated for generations whether Arthur was truly historical at all, but if we accept that the "original Arthur" was a Romano-British leader who temporarily stopped the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, he has been greatly transformed and magnified into the [[TheGoodKing Arthur]] [[TheChosenOne of legend]].

Most stories of Arthur today are based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''[[Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae History of the Kings of Britain]]'', written after the Norman Conquest of England, and where Arthur comes in near the end as the BreakoutCharacter. Geoffrey was probably the single most influential recounter of the legend. He was one of the first to call Arthur a ''king'' -- in practice TheHighKing ruling over other kings -- as Arthur was more often called just a ''soldier'' or ''war-leader'' in earlier material. Also, he first wrote down (perhaps made up) Arthur's OriginStory -- he was conceived via a BedTrick thanks to the other Breakout Character, the wizard Myth/{{Merlin}}. Geoffrey was the first to write of Merlin, Arthur's queen Guinevere, and Arthur's sword {{Excalibur}} in their commonly recognizable forms, though their prototypical counterparts appeared in Welsh and Cornish material which was mostly recorded after Geoffrey wrote, giving historians headaches as to which really influenced which. He also wrote that after Arthur's final battle with his nephew Modred (later Mordred), he was taken away to the mystic isle of {{Avalon}} to be healed of his wounds, and implicitly wait until he is needed again.

* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: One of his earliest appearances treats him as a war-leader who beat the Saxons in twelve battles, fighting together with the British kings. This implies he himself was not thought to have been a king at this point. A variant text of the same document is more explicit, saying that he was chosen twelve times as commander though many others were of more noble birth.
* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: He owns a magical unbreakable sword that he could only pull if he was the true rightful King (other times given to him by the Lady of the Lake), and he repeatedly backs up his prowess in the legends.

*** In a roundabout way, ''Artorius'' itself may possibly be Celtic in origin, deriving from the hypothetical names ''Artorix(s)'' or ''Artorigos'', 'Bear-King', or ''Artorigios'', '[[{{Patronymic}} Son]] of Artorix' i.e. 'Son of the Bear-King' if we want to split hairs. In other words, ''Arthur'' may be a Celtic version of a Roman name, or a Celtic version of a Roman version of a much older Celtic name, all ultimately connected to Celtic words for bears and possibly kings.

** A later English author, Layamon, also named his helmet as Goswhit (Goose-White).

** A theory popular for decades links ''Arthur'' to the Celtic word for [[BearsAreBadNews 'bear']], ''arto'' (later, Welsh ''arth''). Since the bear was seen as a mighty and dangerous animal, the hero bearing a bear-name would naturally have to be a huge {{badass}}. For a similar example see the Germanic figure of Literature/{{Beowulf}}, whose name is thought to mean 'bee-wolf', thus 'bear' as well.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: One of his earliest appearances treats him as a war-leader who beat the Saxons in twelve battles, fighting together with the British kings. This implies he himself was not thought to have been a king at this point. A variant text of the same document is more explicit, saying that he was chosen twelve times as commander though many others were of more noble birth.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Arthur is pretty much the gauge by which you can read the Author's opinion on proper kingship. Thus, in the Welsh legends he does his own AsskickingEqualsAuthority and leads from the front and challenges the church on occasion, while to Mallory and the French he's your typical wellmannered and cuckolded King who leads from behind and isn't actually that great of a fighter. Modern writers have made him badass, cowardly, conflicted, compassionate, and tyrannical. And usually they do that while telling the exact same plot!

* CloudCuckooLander: “Rhonabwy’s Dream,” am earlier Welsh satire, has Arthur in this role. During one of his battles, Arthur decides to set up camp and play chess or gwyddbwyll against Owain. As they play, Arthur’s men attack Owain’s ravens. Owain then gets a squire to raise a battle flag and the ravens attack (and kill) some of Arthur’s men. It gets to the point that Owain’s ravens are carrying men into the air and ripping them to pieces. Arthur and Owain keep playing gwyddbwyll until Arthur decides enough is enough and crushes the pieces. It’s also worth noting that Arthur is an emperor here, fighting alongside armies from Denmark, Norway, and receiving tribute from Greece.

-->--'''[[Creator/ChristianBorle The Historian]]''', ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}''

** A lot of this applies to Lancelot and Guinevere too, though their appearances are also not really specified in the source texts either. It nevertheless helps with the visual storytelling. If Arthur is the blonde "golden boy" then Lancelot tends to be brunette for contrast, and to invoke the TallDarkAndHandsome type. The inverse is also seen, with Lancelot being the blonde "golden boy" and Arthur being the more conventional brunette to be upstaged by him, and the "golden boy" image is subverted through Lancelot's cheating with the queen. Sometimes Guinevere is blonde as the "golden girl" so that this image is subverted with her infidelity. But she may be dark brunette to invoke the AloofDarkHairedGirl type as translated to a regal bearing, while her husband and/or lover may have lighter hair for contrast. Sometimes Guinevere is a redhead or a lighter brown etc. so that they all have contrasting hair.

** In Mary Stewart's ''Literature/TheMerlinTrilogy'', he is black-haired and dark-eyed, akin to Merlin since they are [[RelatedInTheAdaptation cousins of a sort]]. Mordred is also a brunette with dark eyes, which sets him apart from his fair-haired half-brothers and is a clue to his father's identity.
** A lot of this applies to Lancelot and Guinevere too, but their appearance is also not really specified in the source texts either.

** In the Welsh material, his ship is named Prydwen (Fair-Face), his [[InvisibilityCloak mantle of invisibility]] is named Gwen (White), his sword (later known as Excalibur) is named Caledfwlch, which most literally translates as "Hard-Gap" or “Hard-Cleft” (i.e. "hard-cleaver", "hard-cleaving" or "cleaving what is hard") -- though ''caled'' "hard" is also used poetically to mean "battle" (because battles are hard), his spear is named Rhongomyniad (Striking-Spear), his shield is named Wynebgwrthucher (Evening-Face), and his dagger is named Carnwennan (Little-White-Haft).

** ''Pendragon'' is also meaningful as it seems to be a [[TheMagnficent honorific title]]: ''pen'' is Welsh for 'head' or 'top' and ''dragon'' is archaic Welsh for, well, [[OurDragonsAreDifferent 'dragon']], borrowed from Latin ''draco'' (possibly by way of French ''dragon'', like in English, and it's ''draig'' in modern Welsh). ''Dragon'' was also used figuratively in Welsh poetry to mean 'warrior'. So ''Arthur Pendragon'' could mean ''Bear-like Warrior Chief''. (We're avoiding ''Bear-like Dragon Chief'' only because it's {{Metaphorgotten}}, sadly.)

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: The medieval texts don't really describe his physical appearance, except for the relatively late ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'' which only says once that he has grey eyes. But since he's TheHero, modern visual representations will sometimes (if not often) make him blond to signify his personal goodness.

** In Mary Stewart's ''Literature/TheMerlinTrilogy'', he is black-haired and dark-eyed. Mordred is also a brunette with dark eyes, which sets him apart from his fair-haired half-brothers and is a clue to his father's identity.

** As codified by ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur''- in Arthur's last battle, he [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice skewers]] Mordred with his spear, but Mordred [[PullYourselfDowntheSpear drags himself closer]] and [[TakingYouWithMe mortally wounds the king]] with his sword as he dies. Not technically a mutual kill if he's just out of commission in Avalon but close enough.

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Spouts off several in the "Lucius" section of ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur''.

*** According to classical Roman naming conventions, ''Artorius'' was a wider family or clan name (''nomen''), and was paired with one's personal name (''praenomen'') and direct family name (''cognomen''). The Artorius clan (or rather ''gens Artoria'' in Latin) had several members from different family branches attested to from written records and artifacts. These people included one Lucius Artorius Castus, who became an high-ranking officer and local government official in the 2nd century AD, and he is pegged by some scholars and thus the works inspired by them as ''the'' inspiration for the legendary Arthur, though this is problematic in many ways.[[note]]For one thing, in modern terms his name would be something like "Lucius Castus of Clan Artorius", and so he'd be better known in his day as Castus, just like how to this day we refer to UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar as "Caesar" for short; another thing is that he lived far too early for Arthur's conventional origin story fighting the Saxons.[[/note]] Since Roman naming conventions grew looser as the centuries passed, it's possible that in time Artorius was used in the late Empire as a personal name, though there's no record of it from archaeology or written records.

%%* MutualKill: With Mordred.

*** According to classical Roman naming conventions, ''Artorius'' was a wider family or clan name (''nomen''), and was paired with one's personal name (''praenomen'') and direct family name (''cognomen''). The Artorius clan or house (or rather ''gens Artoria'' in Latin) had several members from different family branches attested to from written records and artifacts. These people included one Lucius Artorius Castus, who became an high-ranking officer and local government official in the 2nd century AD, a and he is pegged by some scholars and thus the works inspired by them as ''the'' inspiration for the legendary Arthur, though this is problematic in many ways.[[note]]For one thing, in modern terms his name would be something like "Lucius Castus of Clan Artorius", and so he'd be better known in his day as Castus, just like how to this day we refer to UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar as "Caesar" for short; another thing is that he lived far too early for Arthur's conventional origin story fighting the Saxons.[[/note]] Since Roman naming conventions grew looser as the centuries passed, it's possible that in time Artorius was used in the late Empire as a personal name, though there's no record of it from archaeology or written records.

*** According to classical Roman naming conventions, ''Artorius'' was a wider family or clan name (''nomen''), and was paired with one's personal name (''praenomen'') and direct family name (''cognomen''). The Artorius clan (or rather ''gens Artoria'' in Latin) has several members from different family branches attested to from written records and artifacts. The most famous or notorious such person is one Lucius Artorius Castus, who became an high-ranking officer and local government official in the 2nd century AD, pegged by some scholars and thus the works inspired by them as ''the'' inspiration for the legendary Arthur though this is problematic in many ways[[note]]for one thing, in modern terms his name would be something like "Lucius Castus of Clan Artorius", and so he'd be better known in his day as Castus, just like to this day we refer to UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar as "Caesar" for short; another thing is that he lived far too early for Arthur's conventional origin story fighting the Saxons.[[/note]] Since Roman naming conventions grew looser as the centuries passed, it's possible that in time Artorius was used in the late Empire as a personal name, though there's no record of it from archaeology or written records.

** The origin of ''Pendragon'' is clearer: ''pen'' is Welsh for 'head' or 'top' and ''dragon'' is archaic Welsh for, well, [[OurDragonsAreDifferent 'dragon']], borrowed from Latin ''draco'' (possibly by way of French ''dragon'', like in English, and it's ''draig'' in modern Welsh). ''Dragon'' was also used figuratively in Welsh poetry to mean 'warrior'. So ''Arthur Pendragon'' could mean ''Bear-like Warrior Chief''. (We're avoiding ''Bear-like Dragon Chief'' only because it's {{Metaphorgotten}}, sadly.)

* MeaningfulName: ''Arthur'' is of uncertain etymology, but often in modern retellings, it is in-universe a meaningful name and also a [[AwesomeMcCoolname cool]] one, due to two main competing theories about the origin of the name, which informed these modern writers.

* MeaningfulName: ''Arthur'' is of uncertain etymology, but often in modern retellings, it is in-universe a meaningful name if not also a [[AwesomeMcCoolname cool]] one, due to two main competing theories about the origin of the name, which informed these modern writers.
** A theory popular for decades links ''Arthur'' to the Celtic word for [[BearsAreBadNews 'bear']], ''arto'' (later, Welsh ''arth''). Since the bear was seen as a mighty and dangerous animal, the hero bearing a bear-name would naturally have to be a huge {{badass}}. For a similar example see the Germanic figure of Literature/{{Beowulf}}, whose name is thought to mean "bee-wolf", thus "bear" as well.

*** According to classical Roman naming conventions, ''Artorius'' was a wider family or clan name (''nomen''), not a personal name and was paired with one's personal name (''praenomen'') and direct family name (''cognomen''). The Artorius clan (or rather ''gens Artoria'' in Latin) has several members attested to from written records and artifacts. The most famous or notorious such person is one Lucius Artorius Castus, who became an high-ranking officer and local government official in the 2nd century AD, pegged by some scholars and thus the works inspired by them as ''the'' inspiration for the legendary Arthur though this is problematic in many ways[[note]]for one thing, in modern terms his name would be something like "Lucius Castus of Clan Artorius", and so he'd be better known in his day as Castus, just like to this day we recognize UsefulNotes/GaiusJuliusCaesar as "Caesar" for short; another thing is that he lived far too early for Arthur's conventional origin story fighting the Saxons.[[/note]] Since Roman naming conventions grew looser as the centuries passed, it's possible that in time Artorius was used in the late Empire as a personal name, though there's no record of it from archaeology or written records.