By Olivia Ring

“So many scholars have spent so much time trying to establish whether Arthur ever existed at all that they have lost track of the single truth that he exists over and over.” – John Steinbeck

 I found Excalibur lodged in the hood of a 1995 Ford F-150.  Despite the rot that surrounded it, Excalibur remained pristine, untouched. Engraved on the side of the truck read a message — “to be recovered when Arthur returns — The Once and Future King.”

The Legend of King Arthur states that Arthur will return when his people need him the most. Society has clung onto this legend, reinventing it, reimagining it.

Arthur ages along generations kin, morphing into what his people need in that moment in time.

I stare at Excalibur sitting there with no marks along its side, no fingerprints on its helm. It seemed as if nobody had seen it for a long time. Why me? Why this moment? I am brought back into a state of remembering — of contemplation.

I.

1889, London, England. Victorian Age.

The museum looms tall, built with cobblestone and adorned with iron detailing. There are pointed, arched windows coupled with stained glass depictions of Knights, Kings, and Queens.

As she looks among the art displayed upon these walls, she notices elements of the Arthurian Romance seem to be displayed on almost every surface.

John William Waterhouse’s “The Lady of Shalott” sits before her, a shining example of Victorian engagement with the Middle Ages.

The solemnity of her expression plastered in the center of a luscious green landscape, her hair billowing in the wind. Though she isn’t a recognizable figure of Arthurian egend, the painting is recognized widely, and is often considered one of the most important pieces of art of the Victorian period.

Medieval Art provided a sense of comfort for the Victorians that she stood among. Whilst the changes caused by rapid Industrialization loomed outdoors, within the walls of Camelot, they were able to detach from the noise and the smog. The idealistic depiction of these romances created an escape from the perpetual sense of suffocation outside.

It seemed to her, too, that the ideas presented in these paintings had imbued themselves into other aspects of Victorian society. Queen Victoria herself was obsessed with the ideals of Chivalry that were established in Arthurian legend. The politics that governed society were dictated by people who clung onto an idealized depiction of the Middle Ages – of destiny, of Arthur.

The public, too, were just as engaged with the idyllic concept of Chivalry. It seemed that they clung onto the sense of justice, honor, and morality established in the Chivalric Code.

Medievalism reappears in times of strife because society reflects on the Middle Ages as a time where justice, goodness, and values of camaraderie persevered – an unattainable ideal.

II.

1981, Los Angeles, California.

As she steps into the halls of the Movie Theater, she looks at the posters that hang on the wall. It seems, to her, a small step ahead of the Victorians. Instead of King Arthur being portrayed by oil on a canvas, he was positioned on a large poster, with a guarantee that you could spend 90 minutes watching the rise and fall of Camelot.

Following the Vietnam War, society had become increasingly aware of the uncertainty and political unrest that surrounded them. With creative voices of the mid-century becoming more progressive, Arthurian legend has begun to become widely regarded as a falsified myth of past idealization.

She sees films that completely satirize the stories that were once regarded as a paragon. The romanticization of these myths are combatted through films like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, that poke fun at the behavior and expectations that the Middle Ages put upon members of Medieval society. It seems to her that filmmakers have started to argue that we should be moving forward as a society instead of clutching onto the past.

Excalibur sets the stage for fantasy epics of the future, creating both large scale battle scenes and tender, romantic moments. It creates visual landscape evocative of the Victorian Medieval Revival.

Still, so many people were desperate for an escape. So, like the Victorians, they clung onto a rose-tinted past, immersing themselves in the Legend of King Arthur once again. As she walked into a screening for Excalibur, she saw every seat filled, large crowds of people congregating to relive Arthur’s life – invest themselves in his triumphs and woes, and to detach from the strife they experience.

III.

Today.

Amidst the current state of our world – submerged in a perpetual state of confusion, grief, and unknowing. There are always signs within a generation’s popular culture: the armor, the insistence on chivalric values.

Though, instead of the traditional retellings, filled with the conventional actors in the world of Camelot, modern Arthurianism has been taken by a new concept: that anyone can be King Arthur.

Despite the variety in perspectives, Arthur himself had never changed. His story remained the same: the sword, the knights, the fall of Camelot. However, with changing times, and changing cultures, people desired a new Arthur: one that represented everyone. Regardless of gender, of class, of your station in society, anybody could be Arthur. And that concept within itself was a form of comfort.

***

Maybe now is the time. Now we may need Arthur more than ever. Though not in physical form, Arthur has returned time and time again — to teach, to console, and to represent the ideals of chivalry — ideas that we keep returning to. Centuries go by and we still desire a figure like Arthur. That must account for something. ■