The Arthurian Wing · Reading Path
The Matter of Britain · A reading path in Arthurian mythology
The Return of the King
rex quondam rexque futurus
The matter's deepest reflex: the king is not dead and will come again. It begins as Breton and Welsh political hope (the mab darogan), is reported with a straight face by Wace ("men have ever doubted... whether he liveth or is dead"), is deliberately buried at Glastonbury in 1191 by parties with an interest in his death, survives the burial, and ends carved over Malory's grave-that-may-not-be-one: HIC IACET ARTHURUS, REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS — while Malory himself, scrupulous, will only say "here in thys worlde he chaunged hys lyff."
Every age since has cashed the promise its own way: Tudor genealogy, Victorian moral restoration, the modern novel's endless retellings — each return a reading of what the present believes it is missing. The epitaph turned out to be a publishing schedule.
Where it surfaces
- 2 The Debris of a King — The grave that cannot be found: the Welsh stanza of the graves.
- 10 Wace and the Round Table — Wace reports the Breton hope, without endorsing it.
- 11 Laȝamon: The English Arthur — Laȝamon's promise: Argante will send him again.
- 12 The Uses of a Dead King — Glastonbury 1191: the political burial of the hope.
- 29 Malory III: The Day of Destiny — The epitaph, and Malory's scruple.
- 34 The Novelists' Arthur: White to Bradley — The once and future book: the modern returns.