Geoffrey Ashe: King Arthur. The Dream of a Golden Age

King Arthur is a unique figure, perpetually fascinating yet strangely elusive. He is many-faceted, a topic for specialists in literature and mythology, in archaeology and history; no specialist study has exclusive rights in him, and he transcends them all. For medieval Europe his legend was the greatest single theme of creative writing. But familiar as his medieval image may be, it 'is not the whole story. His most impressive quality is his power to continue for century after century, fading out and always returning in different guises – as a patriotic leader in Post-Roman Britain, as a larger-than-life hero of Welsh saga, as a king of courtly romance, as a Victorian paragon, as a recurring character in modern fiction, films and children's books. The secret of his vitality lies in his relation to a perennial myth or dream, one that takes a variety of shapes in legend, in religion, even in politics.