LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 196, 20 August 1930, Page 6

LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR.

A congress of scholars interested in the romances of King Arthur and the Bound Table, as set forth by chroniclers from Xannius in the seventh century to Mark Twain in the twentieth, will be held this month at the Boyal Institution of Cornwall.

The entire legends, from the simple talcs of King Arthur to the adventures of the king'sknights, Eric, Lancelot, Yvain, Perceval and

Galahad, will be discussed again by men of recognised literary merit from both Europe and America. The Boyal Institution has promised its help in solving the literary problem of the legends, which present such unsolved questions as whether or not Arthur M - as a true historic figure about whom a series of romances was woven, whether the grave found in the reign of Henry 11. was Arthur's or another's, and if there is any foundation for the popular stories of Arthur's Round Table.

Dr. J. Armitage Robinson, Dean of Wells, England, has offered to conduct the party over the traditional sites of Glastonbury, associated with Joseph of Arimathea and the legend of the Grail. Those who have signified their intention of attending include Professor Edmond Faral, of the Sorbonne, Paris; Sir Edmund Chambers and Dr. Eugene Vinaver, of Oxford, and Professor Loomis. The legends of King Arthur have been a subject of literary controversy for centuries. The real creator of Arthur as a legendary hero is commonly accepted as Geoffrey of Monmouth, who, in his "Historia Regum Britanniae." of the twelfth century, presents him in the full-grown stature of a national hero.

I ! Among the country folk of Scotland legends sprang up about him, legends which were finally carried over to Brittany, which caused French poets to compose lays about him, Meanwhile,the episodes and characters surrounding the Bound Table gradually changed and more attention was paid to Arthur's knights than to the king himself. Some of the modern writers who have treated the romances have been Tennyson, Swinburne, Wagner, Matthew Arnold <?.nd Mark Twain.