Arthur, the rightful king - chapter 4 - the golden age; a Mystic Realms eBook



	4 The Golden Age

Lundy, Isle of Avalon

Arthur, the rightful king

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Decades of relative peace and prosperity followed Arthur's comprehensive defeat of the Anglo -Saxons at Mount Badon

'At the beginning of this period in time the Roman Empire was in decay, but it was still in existence. Roman Gaul became France, kingdom of the Franks.

.. Badon.. The British had beaten back the barbarians. They stood alone in Europe, the only remaining corner of the western Roman world where a native power withstood the all conquering Germans. Yet the price of victory was the loss of almost everything ther victors had taken arms to defend. What emerged was a new world, startling not only because it differed from the past, but because it differed from the rest of Europe.

The war had begun when the emperor Valentinian was newly dead. Roman Gaul became France, land of the Franks. Italy changed no less. What had been the western Roman Empire in the childhood of the victors of Badon was now wholly comprised within the powerful Germanic kingdoms of Gaul, Italy and Vandal Africa, with the smaller states of Spain.'

The Age of Arthur - John Morris

Arthur's victory ensured the survival of an educated literate christian society far longer than any where else in the world. Rome itself was devastated by barbarians, and when the roman church created itself as the successor of the empire it met a fully formed Christian church expanding from the west.

The Holy Grail

'ladies of the lake' refers to the family of female priestesses who lived on the Isle of Avalon.

'Lady of the Lake' is the title of the chief priestess.

Nimue, Vivian and Morgan are all names attributed to the Lady of the Lake by various authorities.

The Lady of the Lake is said to have been married to the Fisher King.

'The Questing Beast'

'Are the thoughts of a unicorn real thoughts?'

Symbol of the Otherworld

Malory's Morte d'Arthur tells how when Arthur entrusted the care of Excalibur and the enchanted scabbard to his sister Morgan, she has them secretly copied.

When Arthur, Urien and Accollon hunt a white unicorn, they find and board a mysterious ship. ( symbols of passage to the Otherworld). Under the spell cast by Morgan, Arthur fights with Accollon, neither recognising the other. Morgan has armed Accollon with Excalibur, Arthur has the forgery. Arthur sees thru the trickery aand kills Accollon. Arthur realises Morgans part in events.

While Arthur recovers from his wounds, Morgan attempts to steal Excalibur. She fails, but gets away with the enchanted scabbard. Arthur pursues her but before he can catch her, she throws the scabbard into the river and turns herself into a stone.

'Then she rode into a valley where many great stones were, and when she saw she must be overtaken, she shaped herself by enchantment unto a great marble stone'

Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur. Book IV, Ch. XIV

'A storm was coming,....

......but the winds were still,

And in the wild woods of Broceliande,

Before an oak, so hollow, huge and old

It looked a tower of ivied masonwork,

At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay.'

tennyson, The Idylls of the King

Part 5 Decline and Fall

All Mystic Realms Books are Here

If you want to read more about Arthur, we recommend both 'The Idylls of the King ' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and 'Le Morte d'Arthur' by Sir Thomas Malory. Download the eBooks here