This Is For JALLEN!

Question

You answered a couple of my questions about the presumed location for Lancelot's ancestral home and Morgan's Castle Charyot. I was just curious as to where you attained your knowladge of such a complex subject as that of Arthurian lore. I find it utterly intoxicating, the lure of truth behind the so many fabrications, and have never encountered anyone who shared the same sentiments for the literature that I did. The help and clarifications that you give on the subject here are priceless. I just wanted to say so for all of the askers you've helped. Thank you.

Answer 1

I have long had a great interest in genuine medieval Arthurian legend. The secret to gaining expertise in the area is simply to read the original texts, whether in translation or in the original languages.

That said, there is possibly not a single incident in medieval Arthurian tales that is historical. Or possibly some material is historical, but we have no way of distinguishing it from the fiction with which it is mixed and so we cannot know that a particular part of a story is historical.

As a result commentary varies from Norma Lorne Godfrey’s books which claim that the medieval romances are largely true if you interpret them in accordance with Godfrey’s theories,and N J Higham’s insistence in “King Arthur: Myth-Making and History'' that even the earliest mentions of Arthur are likely to be already false, legend. Obviously works by learned scholars which differ so widely cannot be base on truth. All we have are theories about Arthur

based mainly on what the author wants to be true.

The “lure of truth” can be a dangerous lure, when truth is not available. Instead one of many possibilities or even one of many impossibilities may replace truth in the eyes of an individual. A novelist probably knows that there is little historic truth in what he or she writes, when the subject is Arthur of Britain. Many of the readers do not know that, and start citing material first found in a novel, or a film, or even a television show, as though it were history.

Tennyson invented the story that Lancelot was a messenger sent by Arthur to Guinevere, and that Lancelot and Guinevere fell in love on their way back to Arthur’s court. Yet this invention by a modern poet is cited to by some as a genuine medieval tradition. Of course, in our own time Tennyson is not very popular, and so material invented by T.H. White or Marion Zimmer Bradly is more likely to be falsely repeated as genuine Arthurian legend.

Answer 2

Thanks  Guinevere.  

And I  found the location of CAMELOT two weeks ago.

It is located in a couple of beautiful Valleys in Humboldt County, California and includes the hamlets of HONEYDEW, PETROLIA AND CAPETOWN.  If you would like a description of the area, email  [e-mail]   .

The area is part of the Lost Coast of California.