” for Arthur's headquarters, and it was he who first told us of the Grail, though he didn't associate any religious meaning to it (It was Robert de Boron who is responsible for transforming the grail into a holy symbol, in 1210). He was “the first to supply the literary form of the romance, to the transmission of the stories of Arthur.” (Britannia web page) In the early 13th century, the Vulgate Cycle is written, changing the stories from verse to prose. The material begins to take on more historical and religious overtones, and here the idea that Mordred is the incestuous son ofArthur is introduced (David Nash Ford web page). In the 15th century, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte de Arthur is published. It is “the definitive English Athurian romance” (Britannia web page), and “With one stroke of his pen, he transformed Arthur's Court from Dark Age obscurity to the height of middle age pageantry” (David Nash Ford web page). It is on this book that many of the modern versions are based, but by this time, it is mainly a work of literature, and there is little history left amongst his pages. From these roots, many famous poets and writers have been inspired. William Blake, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Matthew Arnold Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mark Twain, Thomas Hardy, C.S.Lewis, John Steinbeck, Mary Stuart, and many, many more According to Geoffrey Ashe, the popularity of this legend is due to the fact that the stories “appealed to a wide variety of interests, in an age when there wasn't much in the way of imaginative fiction,” and that “there was something for everybody”. He also points out that it “embodies the dream of a golden age which is found in many societies and mythologies,” nd that “it's something we'd like to believe in” (Britannia web page). The number of versions circulating today only goes to ...
