began in northern France in the twelfth century and spread to the entire Western world. They took as their background themes, stories of old Rome and Charlemagne's court, and especially the Celtic tales that filtered in through Brittany and England (Evans 56). These tales dealt with the Knights of the Round Table at the court of King Arthur, who was, in fact, a British Christian chief of the fifth century. Religion and mysticism haunted the legend of King Arthur, especially in the various romances of his quest for the Holy Grail (Dijkstra 77). These present the ancient theme of the quest, which paralleled the actual experiences of the crusaders. The primitive Celtic literature had the character that persists in Yeats and other modern Irish writers: love of the fantastic and marvelous; blurring of the natural and supernatural; acceptance of magic, wonder, fairies, witches, and talking beasts, trees, and fountains as commonplaces (Jordan 69). The idea of love as a tragic destiny, and wild soaring poetic description, transformed the lives of simple men (Jordan 71). This was all a realm of the imagination conceived my great authors during the Middle Ages and was translated into medieval garb (Evans 74). Perhaps very few people realize what a very great realm of the imagination the legends of King Arthur are, and how vast a literature it has become. During the Middle Ages, this was the great theme of creative writing in poetry and prose (Evans 137). Not only in England, but preeminently in France and Germany were there also romances of Arthur. In fact, they existed in every language of Christendom at the time (Lunt 121). This spirit was preserved in the re-workings of writers throughout history. The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, whether truly every existent or not, have had a profound influence on virtues, ideals, morals, and literature throughout history.The legends of King Arthur of Britain and his...
