There may
have been a historical Arthur, Comes Britanniae, after the Roman
withdrawal. Ye Amherawdyr Arthur, "the Emperor Arthur," may have
lived and fought, and led the Brythons to battle. But there may also
have been a Brythonic deity, or culture hero, of the same, or of a
similar name, and myths about him may have been assigned to a real
Arthur. Again, the Arthur of the old Welsh legends was by no means
the blameless king--even in comparatively late French romances he is
not blameless. But the process of idealising him went on: still
incomplete in Malory's compilation, where he is often rather otiose
and far from royal. Tennyson, for his purpose, completed the
idealisation.
As to Guinevere, she was not idealised in the old Welsh rhyme -
"Guinevere, Giant Ogurvan's daughter,
Naughty young, more naughty later."
Of Lancelot, and her passion for him, the old Welsh has nothing to
say. Probably Chretien de Troyes, by a happy blunder or
misconception, gave Lancelot his love and his pre-eminent part.
Lancelot was confused with Peredur, and Guinevere with the lady of
whom Peredur was in quest. The Elaine who becomes by Lancelot the
mother of Galahad "was Lancelot's rightful consort, as one recognises
in her name that of Elen, the Empress, whom the story of Peredur"
(Lancelot, by the confusion) "gives that hero to wife." The second
Elaine, the maid of Astolat, is another refraction from the original
Elen.
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