I. Introduction
Arthur, legendary king of the Britons in ancient times, and the major figure in Arthurian legend. Arthur expelled foreigners from Britain, brought peace to the country, and established a kingdom based on justice, law, and morality. He held court at his castle at Camelot and instituted an order known as the knights of the Round Table. Eventually his realm crumbled, and his illegitimate son Mordred grievously wounded him in battle. Many versions of Arthurian legend say that Arthur will someday return, when he is again needed by Britain.
II. Legend
Arthur is the son of King Uther Pendragon and the lady Ygraine (who was married to Gorlois, the duke of Cornwall, when Arthur was conceived). After Arthur is born, the magician Merlin gives him to a man named Hector (also called Antor) to be raised with Hector's son, Kay. Arthur grows up as a commoner, but then he alone succeeds at a test devised to choose Uther's successor: Arthur draws a sword from a stone (or, in some versions of the story, from an anvil).
Because of his humble origins, Arthur must overcome strong opposition from the British nobles to his royal claim, but eventually he is crowned. To help him in his task of leading Britain, he receives a great sword, Excalibur, offered by a hand that rises mysteriously from a lake. To defeat Britain's enemies, Arthur undertakes a series of wars, conquests, and invasions. After Arthur completes these, Britain has a long period of peace and security. Arthur sets up the Round Table as a meeting place for his knights. The shape of the table ensures that all who sit around it are equal in status.
Arthur meets and marries the lady Guinevere, but she and Lancelot, one of Arthur's favored knights, eventually fall in love, and their relationship divides Camelot. The ruin of the kingdom is hastened by the quest for the Holy Grail, the sacred cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. However worthy an enterprise the quest may be, it takes Arthur's best knights away from court and leads many of them to their deaths. Once Arthur discovers Lancelot and Guinevere's love affair, his own system of justice requires that he condemn his wife to death. Lancelot rescues her, however, initiating a war between his forces and those of Arthur and the knight Gawain.
During the conflict with Lancelot, Arthur learns that the Romans plan to attack him. He fights and defeats them, but at the same time his illegitimate son (or, in some texts, his nephew), Mordred, tries to usurp the throne. Arthur then battles Mordred in a terrible conflict on Salisbury Plain that leaves many knights dead. Arthur kills Mordred, but before dying, the young man gravely wounds the king.
Facing death, Arthur orders one of his knights (Bedivere or Girflet, depending on the story) to throw Excalibur into a lake, so that the sword cannot fall into the wrong hands. Versions of the legend differ about Arthur's fate thereafter. Some say that he dies and is buried, others tell that a boat (usually containing a number of women, including Arthur's half sister Morgan le Fay) takes him away to the island of Avalon. Many works promise that Arthur will return when Britain again needs him to subdue the nation's enemies and to bring peace and security to the land.
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