How Did Religion Influence King Arthur

Early Religious Influences on the Tales of King Arthur
While the story of King Arthur of Britain has captivated audiences for hundreds of years, many different versions of this tale have survived through the ages. One of the earliest full accounts of Arthur comes from the British historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote about the Pendragon family in his work, Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) around 1136 AD. As the legends of the Pendragon began to spread, more accounts began to emerge, such as that of Sir Thomas Malory, a Welsh knight under the reign of Edward IV, in his epic Le Morte d’Arthur (“Sir Thomas Malory”). However, Malory’s work did not come to light until it was published by William Caxton in Westminster
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain hints at the darker side of this story by drawing on Pagan influences in Celtic society and tradition. Just as cosmological phenomenon play a vital role in Christian tradition, astrological events were rich symbols used in Celtic Pagan traditions. When Merlin describes his vision of “the star, and the fiery dragon under it” in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, he is drawing on an old tradition that dragons were considered to be a symbol of devil and Pagan worship (Geoffrey of Monmouth Chapter 8.15). Druids and Druidism, an ancient and mostly forgotten sect of Celtic Paganism that served as a political, economic, and religious framework in early Celtic society, were especially interested in astrological events (Dougherty 54-55). Pomponius Mela, a geographer in the first century AD, wrote that the reason they would have placed an important role on stars and cosmology, and thus on Arthur’s birth, was because “[the Druids] claim to know the size of the earth and the cosmos, the movements of the heavens and stars, and the will of the gods” (Koch 612). Druids rooted much of their thinking in the natural world and even “claimed to be able to control the elements” (Cahill 115). Druids were not wild,
Rather than mutually exclusive religious traditions, the tales of Arthur and his court are filled with religious symbolism and traditions of both Christianity and Paganism alike. For the most part, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account of Arthur in the History of the Kings of Britain presents Arthur as “a kind of superman, towering above his underlings in a world of magic,” while Malory’s account “is not altogether unified… one time he is a king in a fairy land… at another, he is a truly English king with his loyal followers… concerned in bringing England glory with their swords” (Reid 14). In essence, Geoffrey of Monmouth was drawing inspiration for his tale on earlier accounts of Arthur which would have expressed more Celtic Druidic roots, while Sir Thomas Malory’s account was published much later and drew on Christian tradition that was introduced, while adding in fairy tale elements to create a good story. While not mutually exclusive religious accounts, the stories of King Arthur, in a sense, create a tradition that allows Christianity and Druidism to coincide as one, all the while still holding value and meaning to both sides. While many think of the phrase “the Once and Future King” upon hearing the name of Arthur, these accounts testify to Arthur being “the Christian and Pagan