King Arthur–whether he was ever really a king or not–eludes historical precision. But for some fifteen hundred years he was, after the Bible itself, the story, the earthly representative, of Christendom. That he has been almost forgotten, just in the past 50 years, shouts from the housetops the poverty of our culture.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem, published posthumously by his son, is about Arthur’s fall, and the ruin of his kingdom.
My book review is about the great things that Arthur accomplished, and how his life changed the world for the better.
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant…”
It’s hard to even comprehend how greatly our culture has changed in just my lifespan. When I was born, 65 years ago, this was a Christian nation. That is not to say that everyone was Christian or even that every Christian was living up to the standards of the Bible, but the preponderance of Christianity at that time is obvious. King Arthur was part of the lore which explained us as a people in the terms of Christianity and a sense of decency and fairness. Whether King Arthur was one real individual, or an amalgam comprised of parts of real heroes of the past is secondary to the fact that these Christian values were celebrated and held up as a model of heroic behavior.
What strikes me more than anything, is just how much we’ve lost. The world of our time is all but unrecognizable from the perspective of just 60 years ago.
Lee, your comment on Fate and Fortune even in Christian authors is interesting. One of my own favorite version of the Arthurian legend is Tennyson’s, and he does get God’s Providence into Arthur’s fall. The sins of man and women as causative factors are there, but most of all there’s Arthur’s speech to Bedivere as Arthur lies dying. The most memorable lines, to me, are:
“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfills Himself in many ways
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”
“Version” should have been plural. I blame the typo on my feverish state. Which is as good an excuse as any for carelessness.
“Idylls of the King”–I really must re-read that, it’s been too long.
Fate is a big part of the Islam religion. During the Renaissance the money that was going to the monks in the monasteries began going to the artists who were seen as the new prophets and priests. As Ecclesiastes states, “There is nothing new under the sun.”