Legends of King Arthur: from medieval literature to modern myth
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Who are the hosts and guests of the King Arthur podcast?
Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. And today we are saddling our noble steeds and galloping back to the Middle Ages in search of the legendary King Arthur. And to help us on our quest, we have two chivalrous companions at arms. In History Corner, she's a lecturer at the University of Bristol, where her research focuses on the literature of late medieval and early modern England. Luckily for us, she's also the author of the prize-winning book, Local Places and the Arthurian Tradition in England and Wales, 1400 to 1700. It's Dr Mary Bateman. Welcome, Mary.
Hi, thank you so much. What a joy to be here.
And in Comedy Corner, making a triumphant return to the show, he's a comedian, an actor, a podcaster. You'll have seen him in Taskmaster, Man Down, and again in Taskmaster as Rosematter Fayot's assistant on the wonderful Junior Taskmaster, which is lovely. Plus, you'll have heard his dulcet tones on many podcasts, including my absolute fave comedy podcast, Three Bean Salad. Check it out. But you'll know him best from our previous episodes, including our festive special about Charles Dickens himself. It's Mike Wozniak. Welcome back, Mike. Thank you very much for having me back. I'm very excited.
I'm particularly excited about the topic.
Interesting. I mean, you're a total legend, but King Arthur, total legend. What do you know?
I think it's the sort of thing you carry through your life if you've grown up in Britain. Oh, yeah, I know about that. But do I know about it? I don't know. That's partly why I'm so excited to be here. I think it's a huge subject. There's quite a lot you can know without knowing the details. Yeah, and is it just because I'm familiar with it? Is it just because of some sort of Osborne book as a kid? Or because I played a King Arthur battle as a ten-year-old? It's so familiar, but I doubt there's any details. LAUGHTER We're very excited about getting into it.
Hard. We'll find out if there's any detail. So, what do you know? This is where I have a go at guessing what you, our lovely listener, might know about today's subject. And I think like Mike, you definitely would have heard of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin. Most people will have seen an Arthurian screen adaptation, I think. That's your Disney Sword in the Stone, your boisterous King Arthur with Keira Knightley and Clive Owen, your John Borman's weird and wonderful Excalibur. You've got the kid who would be king. You've got the sing-along Camelot. You've got the BBC series Merlin. There's Dev Patel in the swoon-worthy Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Quite weird, but good. Obviously, the best Arthurian movie ever is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A film I love so much, I wrote my master's thesis about it. I am on home turf today. Amazing. Finally, something I know about. And that's not mentioning all the operas, plays, poems, video games, paintings and books about King Arthur. But where do these stories come from?
Was the medieval Arthur the same as our Arthur today? And just how big was a round table anyway? Let's find out. Right, Dr. Mary, Hollywood's vision of Arthur, or Arthuriana, I think is what we call it, the collective world of King Arthur. Hollywood makes it all sort of shiny armor, knights riding around, ladies in pointy hats, dangerous forests. It's very 14th century. Is that where we start our quest for King Arthur?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Who are the hosts and guests of the King Arthur podcast?
0:44–5:56
2
What are the early origins of King Arthur's legends?
5:56–11:12
3
What role does 'The Mabinogion' play in Arthurian legend?
11:12–16:49
4
How did Geoffrey of Monmouth influence the Arthurian stories?
16:49–23:10
5
Who introduced key elements like the Holy Grail and Lancelot?
23:10–36:15
6
What are the unusual talents of Arthur's knights?
36:15–59:38
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