Warriors and Wilderness in Medieval Britain

<p> Tracing the development of the King Arthur story in the late Middle Ages this book explores Arthur's depiction as a wilderness figure the descendant of the northern Romano-British hunter/warrior god. The earliest Arthur was a warrior but in the 11th century Welsh tale <I>Culhwch and Olwen</I> he is less a warrior and more a leader of a band of rogue heroes.</p><p> The story of Arthur was popularized by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Latin <I>History of the Kings of Britain</I> and was translated into Middle English in Layamon's <I>Brut</I> and the later alliterative <I>Alliterative Morte Arthure</I>. Both owed much to the epic poem Beowulf which draws on the Anglo-Saxon fascination with the wilderness. The most famous Arthurian tale is <I>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</I> in which the wilderness and themes from Beowulf play a leading role. Three Arthurian tales set in Inglewood Forest place Arthur and Gawain in a wilderness setting and link Arthur to medieval Robin Hood tales.</p>