King Arthur and His Myths

In the last section to work with Celtic mythology we are going to show a variety of songs that cover the stories of King Arthur. As it was seen above almost all the songs considering Irish mythology are reworked by bands of Ireland and Northern-Ireland, with only one exception of Suidakra, coming from Germany. Opposing the local interest of Irish mythology, the most well-known British myth, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table exceeds to a wider, international audience. On the following pages we are going to meet German, North American and British groups who have chosen to be inspired by King Arthur.

522 "Goddess of war, serpent of doom / Destroying all who encounter you / But there is one who you won't kill / There is one whose blood won't spill // Seeker of souls, taker of heads / I watch you conjure war among men / I will strike each form you take / Till you return to me and seal my fate // For one last glory I will prevail / The Morrigan she calls out my name [...] She appears to me before my eyes / Baying for blood in each disguise / Tell me now, how does it end? / Whisper to me, prophetess of death [...] She disappeared from my sight / I knew I would not return from this fight / A black crow waits before I die / As I depart, she'll watch my spirit fly" Darkest Era, The Last Caress of Light, Metal Blade Records, 2011.

152 According to the sources the person we know as King Arthur of Britain lived around the year 500 AD. His figure is full of controversies, considered on one hand to be a real person who fought the Saxons at the battle of Badon Hill, and united the tribes of Britain after the decline of Roman rule,⁵²³ on the other hand he is held as a fully mythological figure without any connection to reality. Nevertheless, his figure and stories are quite late inventions in British thought and show many similarities to certain Irish stories.⁵²⁴ The first and most important source of the later Arthur mythological cycle comes from the times around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth.⁵²⁵ The core of the story is gathered from Monmouth’s work,

“Historia Regnum Britanniae”, with the emergence of Uther later called Pendragon, then Arthur and his hostilities with his natural son, Mordred.⁵²⁶ There are many different sources to the development of the Arthur cycle that contain the other well-known plot events, like the Grail-quests, the appearance of Lancelot, the story of the sword closed in rock, the magical sword of Excalibur, etc. that spring a whole genre of Arthurian romances (e.g. the works Chrétien de Troyes or Wolfram von Eschenbach).⁵²⁷

Mordred’s Song⁵²⁸ from German power metal act Blind Guardian is joining the yet witnessed method of giving an insight into a mythological figures mind by writing a song from their perspective. Now we have the song that Mordred, the illegitimate son of Arthur sings before the final battle to fight with his father for the throne. The song is written with an omnipotent insight into the events to come; as Mordred has the knowledge of that he will lose the battle against his father. We see the disappointment in the heart of the song’s hero of being a king’s son cast out of the legacy and inheritance of the crown. Much grief and sadness is gathered in the song that is a preparation for a battle in vain making the cry of Mordred even more tragic than it is originally. The burden of duty is also weighing the shoulders of the speaker referring to the war that he fights in as one he has not chosen but was forced into it.

These images together aims to show that the antagonist of the Arthur legends may have his own viewpoint of the events, colourizing the original duality of dark and light or good and

523 Or is a mixture of different historical personages, from the 4^th century to 6^th century, with either Briton or Roman lineage. C. Scott LITTLETON, Linda A. MALCOR, Szkítiától Camelotig, Nyíregyháza, Szkíta Szarvas Könyvkiadó, 2005, 78-84.

524 For more information please see: Charles SQUIRE, ibid. 1999, 257-260.

525 C. Scott LITTLETON, Linda A. MALCOR, ibid. 78.

526 Book 8 to 12, in Hungarian please see: Arthur király históriája, Geoffrey of Monmouth Britannia Királyainak Története című krónikájából, transl. KISS Sándor, Máriabesnyő, Attraktor Könyvkiadó, 2011, 5-104.

527 Sz. S., Artur = Mitológiai Enciklopédia, ed. Sz. A. TOKAREV, Budapest, Gondolat, 1988, 573-574.

528 "I've lost my battle before it starts / my first breath wasn't done / my spirit's sunken deep / into the ground / why am I alone / I can hear my heartbeat / silence's all around // See hate will rise / so don't come closer / fear your child / born with a king's heart / but fate fooled me / and changed my cards / no one asked if I want it / if I like it [...]" Blind Guardian, Imaginations from the Other Side, Virgin Records, 1995.

153 bad found in the legends depicting prince Mordred as an evil one who is of greed and vengeance against his father without a right.

Avalon, the second most famous place in Arthurian legend (after Kamelot) and the death of King Arthur is the topic of Cradle of Filth’ song, entitled Haunted Shores.⁵²⁹ Cradle of Filth is one of England’s most controversial metal acts, starting as a black metal band later developed into an extreme form of gothic metal, not only in the regards of music but in lyrics as well, touching many Romantic English and more ancient literary works. Avalon is a heavenly place in Celtic mythology incorporated into the Arthurian cycle, an island of paradise, the place where King Arthur travelled and later died.⁵³⁰ In the song we see the dying King Arthur travelling to the haunted shores of Avalon. This is a lamentation song of another hero in the manner how we have seen it before in the case of Cú Chulainn as well. The life cycle of the King is presented with short references on his war to unite the country, his magical sword, the Excalibur what he orders to be returned to the fairy of the lake, from whom he received it, and so on. The picture is somewhat similar to Mordred’s Song showing the mighty king in agony just before his death, creating a more human and less divine impression of him bringing his figure closer to the listener.

Grave Digger, a band enthusiastic towards not only Greek but especially Celtic mythology spent an entire record for the stories regarding the yet mentioned magical Excalibur sword. The title track of their album named after the sword is Excalibur.⁵³¹ Although the whole recording would be worthy for an analysis now for the sake of showing different aspects of the same story we choose only one song for presentation. The song works with the common identification of the sword drawn from the stone by Arthur before elected to be king with the magical sword that was given by the fairy of the lake to the King.⁵³² The child Arthur is shown as an orphan set to reign after his deed of drawing the sword from the rock. His role and importance is stressed as well with the unmistakable identification of the two mentioned swords. In this regard we may assume that Grave Digger does not

529 "[...] From the woods, Pendragon-born, I rose Arcturius. / A proud, audacious king mantled in the vehemence of lust. / Death and destiny undaunted me, I drew a throne divided. / In awe of the glorious battles won, my dark Goddess provided. [...] Morganna art thou near me? / Languid, I wend my path to grave. / Cast my sword to the sulphyd grasp, / of the naiad neath the silvered lake. [...] More so than thine, else thy dew-lidded eyes, / art for the Banshees song. / Or our souls entwined like vein upon, / the haunted shores of Avalon [...]" Cradle of Filth, Dusk and Her Embrace, Music for Nations, 1996.

530 Charles SQUIRE, ibid. 1999, 337.

531 "Unknown heir / Orphaned page / A King to be / Come his Age / For God's sake // Sorcerer / Sword in Stone / Release will / Bring the Throne / For the Chosen One // The Almighty will point out / The only royal blood in the crowd // EXCALIBUR / SWORD OF THE KINGS / TAKE ME ON YOUR WINGS / BACK WHERE I BELONG / EXCALIBUR [...]" Grave Digger, Excalibur, GUN Records, 1999.

532 Patricia MONAGHAN,ibid.2008,164.

154 misunderstands the concept of two different swords (as we have seen their approach towards the Odyssey to be authentic) but it is an intensifying motif to highlight the importance of the later King Arthur and his sword(s) that led him to victory over his enemies. A hero’s praising is shown in the whole records, reviving the romantic interest in Arthurian lore.

The last song comes from American power metal band named after the legendary capital of King Arthur. Kamelot’s piece, Shadow of Uther⁵³³ is from their 1995 album, The Fourth Legacy. The first part of the song is a praising of Arthur’s merits turned into the shadowing legacy of his father, Uther Pendragon. The song is entitled about this shade that is Arthur was born of illegitimacy thus his fall is caused by his illegitimate son, Mordred. This motif stressed in the song sheds light on the less glorious details of the romanticized Arthur picture, attempting to give a more differentiated interpretation of the story. With the song of Kamelot we arrive to the closure of the analysing section of our study. The last task remaining after the gathering of data is to reach the consequences in the summary.

533 "Due to the legend / a new king will come / rise in the morning horizon / brave and believing / for wars to be won / born with the heart of a lion / he will fight for a country unite / till the last drop of blood confines the oath / till all will respect him wherever he roams [...] he will be holding / the sword in the stone / knights of the kingdom will join him / bring back the honor / of Pendragons name / from where the cauldron is boiling // but the shadow of Uther restrains / all the efforts to reunite the realm / a witch of his own blood from heaven expelled [...]" Kamelot, The Fourth Legacy, Noise Records, 1999.

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