English 83

I found The Coming of Arthur to be rather postmodern at points because of its use of multiple people’s views and opinions about King Arthur’s birth and conception, as well as the structure of placing the story of his conception and birth within another story. The reader is left to contemplate each telling and to form their own opinion if they are not familiar with other Arthurian tales.

The Coming of Arthur is set as a story within a story. The outer story is about King Arthur coming to help “Leodogran, the king of Cameliard”, who had “one fair daughter [...] fairest of all flesh on earth,” (2) fight a “heathen horde, / Reddening the sun with smoke and earth with blood” (3). Once Arthur has defeated the horde he asks Leodogran for his daughter, Guinevere. Leodogran debates whether to allow his daughter to marry Arthur (notice there is no reference to what Guinevere thinks or feelings, indeed we are told that when the King Arthur and his knights arrived to fight she was unable to tell who was Arthur and so did not even see him)–”How should I that am a king, / However much he holp me at my need, / Give my daughter saving to a king, /And a king’s son?” (6) and in doing so sets up the telling of multiple narratives about Arthur’s conception and birth.

Leodogram asks his chamberlain about Arthur, but does not get any satisfactory answer. Next he asks Arthur’s knights Ulfius, Brastias, and Bedivere and Bedivere tells him the story of Gorlois, Ygerne, and Uther but the story is full of ambigutities and does not say anything about Uther disguising himself as Gorlois, of course maybe Tennyson does not mention it because he assumes that that incident was not common knowledge. Although Bedivere says that Arthur was Uther’s son and born too early because of Ygerne’s grief, but Loedogram questions:

If Arthur were the child of shamefulness, / Or born the son of Gorlois, after death, / Or Uther’s son and born before his time. Or whether there were truth in anything / Said by these three (8)

After this Leodogram questions “Lot’s wife, the Queen of Orkney, Bellicent” (8) and she tells of seeing a likeness of Uther in Arthur “when he spake, and cheer’d his Table Round” (9) after taking oaths of fealty and tells the tale of Excalibur, but then says that Arthur does not look like Ygerne, Gorlois or Uther because they were all “dark” and Arthur is “fair”. She tells this fantastical tale of Arthur coming from waves aflame to the hands of Merlin.

It is a dream that convinces Leodogram to give Guinevere to Arthur. None of these rumors and varied narratives which are less than reliable are enough to convince Leodogram. This is quite different from some of the earlier Arthuriana where no one doubts anyone else and there is no question of what is the truth. It is assumed in those narratives that that story told is the truth and not merely a version of the truth. Just some thoughts!