This pathfinder is to aid the high school teacher in sources that provide background on the subject of King Arthur. These sources would be used to give the teacher a greater understanding of the myth and reality behind the legend of King Arthur as well as provide additional reading sources for students who may wish to explore the topic more in-depth. Teachers of all levels and experiences will find this guide helpful as it provides a variety of sources from various print mediums and Internet or electronic sources as well.

C. The Libraries to be used.

Thomas Cooper Library, Main Library

1322 Greene Street, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C. 29208

(803) 777-3142 fax (803) 777-4661 http://www.sc.edu/library/tcl.html

(To search Online Catalog, click on USCAN)

Charleston County Public Library

68 Calhoun Street, Charleston, S.C. 29401, (843) 805-6801 http://www.ccpl.org/

(Click on Search the Library's catalog on the left side)

D. The Scope of the topic.

The questions to discover are these: 1) Did King Arthur exist? 2) If in fact he did exist, who was he? There seems to be little doubt that such a person existed, but the question remains "who was he?" This is the difficult question. There seems to be a consensus that Arthur was some type of a leader of Britain at the end of the 5th century. Possibly he was a King, a feudal lord or simply the best knight around. In the five centuries following his death (which itself is debated) many persons passed along stories about him telling of his bravery and leadership from generation to generation. Many also told of the exciting adventures of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

"In 1136, a Welsh priest named Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a book in Latin called, 'The History of the Kings of Britain.' " Most of the stories were about Arthur and were claimed to be true. "Throughout the Middle Ages, French writers...wrote lots of books about King Arthur". "They wrote as if Arthur lived in the Middle Ages like them" and added to the story the concepts of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, the Holy Grail and chivalry.

"In 1470, an English knight named Sir Thomas Malory" wrote a long book called "The Death of Arthur", often referred to "Le Morte D'Arthur". "It was one of the first books in Britain ever to be printed instead of handwritten. There were lots of copies available. So King Arthur stories became very popular with everyone."

(www.earlybritishkingdoms.com)

As you embark on this study you will be amazed at how much material that you will find on the topic. It is both exciting and overwhelming wading through the mountains of info. Our goal with this pathfinder is to show you what we found to be most helpful. You will quickly find yourself lured away from the "path" toward other interesting resources. This is fine, just remember to check back occasionally. We don't want you to miss a thing!

The scope of the task is to figure out what is true and what is not true. This situation is treated in an interesting way by one Arthur enthusiast by categorizing his Website pages this way: "Realistic King Arthur" and "Fantastic King Arthur". For the skeptics, he provides an "Unbeliever's Page". http://www.geocities.com/~betapisces/kingart/arthur1.htm

E. The best place to find definitions of words that you may encounter.

Lacy, Norris J. and Geoffrey Ashe. The Arthurian Handbook. New York: Garland, 1988.

This source is located at the Thomas Cooper Library, call number PN685.L3 1988.

The Arthurian Handbook offers a brief survey of the legend of Arthur and the literature that has evolved from him and his mystique. It covers all periods from the 5th century until the present. This book has lots of illustrations and pictures that show how Arthurian Literature is portrayed in art. It includes an extensive Chronology of time before, during and after Arthur. This book shares information about the origins of Arthurian Literature. There is an extensive Arthurian glossary. It is an excellent resource that is easy to understand and is organized effectively. It is much more concise than its big brother, The New Arthurian Encyclopedia.

Norris, Lacy J. and Geoffrey Ashe. The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1986. This source is located in the reference section at the Thomas Cooper Library, call number DA 152.5.A7 A78 1986.

There are so many people and places in the story of Arthur that this becomes a barrier to learning about the topic. For more information, please see the 3rd One Page "Summary on Problems" for a discussion of "Names" in Arthurian Literature. Two more resources are listed there.

F. The best introduction to the topic.

Reiss, Edmund. "Arthur, King." World Book Encyclopedia. 22 vols. Chicago: World Book, 2002. Located in the Charleston County Public Library with call number 031 World in the reference section.

"Arthur, King" World Book Encyclopedia Volume 1 , p. 757-758 gave an excellent introduction to the topic. The article didn't assume that the reader knew who all the characters were, like many sources do. There are so many names and places in the story of King Arthur that is very easy to get lost and confused. The first two lines sum up the topic very well: "Arthur, King, was a legendary king of medieval Britain. He became the main character in some of the most popular stories in world literature. For almost 1,000 years, writers have told of Arthur's brave deeds and the adventures of his Knights of the Round Table." (World Book, p. 757) When one reads that they understand what is said and are encouraged to read on. The article goes on to share the history of the different early accounts and how they were not limited to one language. The article briefly summarizes the plot in one paragraph.

The next two paragraphs talk about the variations on his death. The final paragraph tells about Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur from which many authors have based their work on.

G. An expanded overview of the topic from a subject encyclopedia related to the topic.

The New Arthurian Encyclopedia (edited by Lacy) offers an expanded overview of the topic. We looked up "Arthur, Character of" and found a one page, two column, single spaced article. There is another 3 3/4 pages on "Arthur, Origins of Legend". The information is very thorough and specific. The book arranges articles by categories: arts, characters, history/legend/archaeology, literature (all languages), themes/motifs and objects. There are a lot of good illustrations. The map on page 20 is particularly good. There is also an extensive bibliography section as well as a chronology section.

Another good book on this is Encyclopedia of Traditional Epics (Jackson) The length and scope of the article on Arthur was similar to that of the Arthurian Encyclopedia.

Jackson-Laufer, Guida M. Encyclopedia of Traditional Epics. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1994. This source is located in the reference section of the Thomas Cooper Library, call number PN56.E65 E64 1994.

H. The major general bibliographic control sources.

Books-

Guide to Reference Books. Ed. Robert Balay. 11th ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1996. 2040 pages. Located in the reference section of the Thomas Cooper Library with the call number Z1035.1 .G89 1996.

This book is an excellent resource for finding reference books on any subject. You can look up any topic in the extensive index at the back and it will tell you where to look in the book for related reference books. The book is divided into sections according to major subjects and then subtopics under that. Turn to page 511 then look for the bold letters and numbers, BE338. You will notice that each subtopic is numbered consecutively. Below are the subjects that you might want to look at:

Arthurian Dictionary- BE 344 (both Minary's and Moorman's)

Arthurian Encyclopedia- BE 343,

Arthurian Handbook- BE 342

Arthurian Legend and Literature- BE 340

Bibliography- BE 338, BE 339

Indexes- BE 732, BE 1165

Romances - BE 342. BE 343. BE344

Videos- R.R. Bowker. Bowker’s Complete Video Directory 2002. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1990.

Videos can often help to make any lesson come alive for the students. This book will help you to find the best for the situation. This book is very useful, particularly to teachers because they can easily look up a given curriculum area and find videos that are related to that subject. There are several useful indexes included that make it very practical. This source is located in the Thomas Cooper Library in Columbia, call number PN1992.95.V29 located in the reference section.

Serials- LaGuardia, Cheryl. Magazines for Libraries 2002 (4 volumes). New Providence, N.J.: RR Bowker, 2002.

This source is located in the Thomas Cooper Library, call number Z6941.M23 in the reference section. This book is intended for general readers, public libraries and college/university libaries. It lists the best serial publications since 1969. At the front of the book the Table of Contents takes on the form of "Listed by Subjects". Although there aren't any specific Arthurian magazines listed in this book, you may want to look at the Classroom Magazines section (p. 393-403) for a lot of practical magazines and the Education Magazines section (p. 553-592) for more academic titles. At the back there are several kinds of indexes. You may want to look up Literature Renaissance, Medieval Archaelogy and Medieval History (specifically entries #736, 3733 and 4479.)

Others- Adamson, Lynda G. Literary Connections to World History (7-12): Resources to Enhance and Entice . Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998.

This book contains recommendations for historical fiction, biography, collective biography, history, multimedia (Video/CD-ROM) that are specifically selected for use with seventh through twelve grade classes. The resources are intended to reinforce multiple curriculums. . R 016.909. Adamson in the reference section.

I. The bibliographic control sources that are related to the specific topic.

Mediavilla, Cindy. Arthurian Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999. Located in the Thomas Cooper Library, call number is Z1231.F4 M43 1999.

Includes an introduction to the characters, themes and legends. This bibliography is specifically for young adult fiction and there are appendixes that list books by reading level from middle school to high school. There is also a core reading list and a list of short story anthologies.

Includes a bibliography of other bibliographies and reading related to characters, themes, history, literature and general topics.

Reader's Advisor, Vol. 1: The Best in Reference Works- British Literature and American Literature. Ed. David S. Kastan. 14th ed. New Providence, N.J.: RR Bowker, 1994.

As the title states, this book contains bibliography on reference works in regard to British and American Literature. Although it is not primarily on King Arthur it has some good entries on Arthurian Literature.

J. Subject headings that may be helpful to search by utilizing USCAN at the University of South Carolina Thomas Cooper library or the local library's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) include:

USC's Thomas Cooper Library OPAC http://www.sc.edu/uscan/uscan2.html

Look on the left hand side near the bottom and click on Thomas Cooper Library (Main)

Do a subject search on some of the examples that are listed below.

Charleston County Public Library OPAC: http://www.ccpl.org/marion.html

Click on "Search by Subject". You can narrow your search to Books or Videos etc. by clicking on the "Type of Materials" drop down menu. Do a subject search on some of the examples that are listed below.

Arthur, King

Arthur, King --Dictionaries Arthur, King --Bibliography

Arthur, King --Drama Arthur, King --Drama --DVD

Arthur, King --Drama --Video Arthur, King --Fiction

Arthur, King --Homes and haunts --England --Glastonbury Region

Arthur, King --Juvenile drama --DVD Arthur, King --Juvenile drama --Video

Arthur, King --Juvenile fiction Arthur, King --Juvenile Literature

Arthur, King --Legends Arthur, King --Legends --Juvenile literature

Arthurian legends --history and criticism Arthurian romances --Dictionaries

Arthurian romances --Bibliography Arthurian romances Sources

Britons --Dictionaries Britons --Bibliography

Britons --Kings and rulers Britons --Kings and rulers

Grail --Folklore Great Britain -- History --To 1066

Great Britain -- Antiquities, Celtic Knights and knighthood Folklore

K. The local call numbers that you should consider browsing.

Some libraries use Library of Congress Call Numbers, but most use Dewey Decimal. Schools and Public Libraries tend to use Dewey, while academic (college and university) libraries often use Library of Congress.

Here are some Dewey Call number sections that you might want to check at your school or at the public library:

Books in Reference section: R 016.909 (Bibliography books of works on specific subjects)

398 Folklore 809 History, description and criticism

913 Geography of and travel in the ancient world

914 Geography of and travel in Europe

942 Geography of and travel in England and Wales

Fiction Biography Serials Videos

Here are some Library of Congress Call Number sections that you might look at if you get the chance to go to Thomas Cooper Library or another academic library:

DA152 History of Great Britain --Celts, Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans

PN685 thru PN685 Literature General --Medieval to 1600

PR1111 English Literature --Special Classes of Authors (Literary Collections)

PR1119 English Literature --By Period

PR1195 English Literature --Poems

PR2042 thru PR2043 English Literature --Anglo Norman Period. Early English. Middle English

PR4922 English Literature -- 19th century, 1770/1800-1890/1900

L. At least two really good books on the topic.

Epics for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied

Epics. Ed. Elizabeth B. Alouna. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2001. This source is located in the Young Adult Reference and reference sections of the Charleston County Public Library with call number [YR] 809.132 Epics or [R] 809.132 Epics.

This book looks at Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory and analyzes it. The book is very easy to understand and is very well organized. The section on Arthur includes: intro, author biography (Malory), plot summary, glossary of characters, media adaptations, themes and topics for further study, historical context, a discussion guide to compare and contrast 14th century to the late 20th century, a list of other related books, and a critical overview by four scholars.

Day, David. The Search For King Arthur. New York: Facts On File, 1995. Located in the Charleston County Public Library with call number 942.014 Day.

This book will help your students answer the question as to whether King Arthur really existed. This book places the topic in its historical context. It presents the historical evidence that has been provided by archaeology.

Adamson, Lynda G. Literary Connections to World History (7-12): Resources to Enhance and Entice . Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. Located in the reference section of the St. Andrews branch of the Charleston County Public Library with call number R016.909 Adamson.

This book names some other books that would be useful for teaching 7th -12th graders: Literary Connections to World History (Grades 7-12): Resources to Enhance and Entice (Adamson).

M. The indexes and abstracts that you could use.

Expanded Academics ASAP (DISCUS)

http://www.sc.edu/library/alphaindex.html#E -

You may want to seek assistance at the Reference Desk using this index. The link above is for the Thomas Cooper library. You'll need to scroll down to this title.

Type in subject (examples: arthur king, arthurian literature, arthurian romances, etc.) We got good results with Relevance search. You may want to start by selecting "Search for words in title, citation, abstract" under your search entry. You can print out the title or the abstract.

You can also have the service email you the article if it is available online. This is a very good site with relevant articles. We found information about an Arthur museum that we had looked everywhere for. The email feature is nice.

Humanities Abstracts (on Wilson Web) This database is available at either Thomas Cooper or the Charleston County Public Library. You may want to ask for assistance at the Reference Desk in getting to it. This was the results that we got when we used Subject. 1. Arthurian (subject) returned 22 entries 2. arthur king (subject) returned 43 entries. You may want to try Keywords as well. This site is very easy to use. You can easily do Boolean searches by using the drop down menus: and, or, not. We'd suggest that you sort by "relevance" and that you select "peer reviewed". Our returned list was quite relevant. When we searched this index there were a lot of book reviews that come back for books related to Arthurian literature and this would be helpful to a teacher teaching a literature class. The titles seemed relevant to teaching high school literature.

N. The primary journals that you might consider browsing on the topic.

Arthuriana. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University. This serial can be found in the Thomas Cooper Library with call number PN685 .Q855

Arthuriana- quarterly journal published by the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch that is dedicated to all aspects of the Arthurian story from the inception in the Middle Ages to enactment in the present moment. Arthuriana is the only academic journal in the world on Arthurian subjects and is poised on the cutting edge of current debates on Arthurian topics. This journal has many current topics compared to Arthurian events and people.

http://www.smu.edu/arthuriana/

Avalon to Camelot – Quarterly published journal on matters Arthurian. This journal focuses more on interpretation of the traditional characters and events of Arthurian legend. This journal is no longer in print, but there are copies in the Thomas Cooper Library. The illustrations and paper used in the journal give a legendary storybook-feel to the journal.

(Avalon to Camelot. Chicago, IL: Avalon to Camelot, Inc. This serial can be found in the Thomas Cooper Library with call number PN57.A6 A824.)

O. The professional associations that you might want to contact and which might produce the journal(s) you would like to browse.

The International Arthurian Society, founded in 1948, exists to promote the scholarly study of the literature, legends, and iconography relating to King Arthur and his court. The Society holds a major international academic conference every three years in different European countries; it publishes an annual Bibliographical Bulletin which lists and summaries all scholarly publications -- books, articles and editions -- devoted in that year to Arthurian matter. This is the association that was recommended to us by several of those we contacted. http://www.dur.ac.uk/arthurian.society/

The North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society. To join the society, look for IAS/NAB on the right. http://www.smu.edu/arthuriana/index.html Their web site introduces the society this way... "The International Arthurian Society, founded in 1948, exists to promote the scholarly study of the literature, legends, and iconography relating to King Arthur and his court. The Society holds a major international academic conference every three years in different European countries; it publishes an annual Bibliographical Bulletin which lists and summarizes all scholarly publications -- books, articles and editions -- devoted in that year to Arthurian matter."

There are a variety of other associations and society's that you might be interested in. Many of them are listed at this site:

http://historymedren.about.com/cs/societies/

P. Selected websites especially portals that relate specifically to the topic.

Arthurian Pedagogy - http://www.smu.edu/arthuriana/teaching/highschool.html#lessons - Information and resources specifically for teaching the Arthurian legend in high school. There are a number of links to other sites with lesson plans, paper topics and projects. This site contains a smorgasboard of information that will be very helpful and relevant to your study. It is well organized and is very simple to navigate.

Gateway to the British Isles - http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html - Timelines, maps, texts, resources, history and much more all related to Arthur. This site has a great variety of information. This would be a good site to guide your students to. It is arranged in such a way that they can follow the subject headings and do their own Internet study right there. The material is researched and very clearly presented.

King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table - http://www.kingarthursknights.com/ - Historical Arthur, Legendary Arthur, other characters, books and maps are in the name of Arthur are all explored on this site. Good information without being too overwhelming. This site has a good variety of information without being too overwhelming. The text for each section is concise and to the point. We especially like the Q&A section. The questions and answers are interesting and relevant.

The Camelot Project at Robbins Library, sponsored by the University of Rochester, is an electronic database of Arthurian texts, images, bibliographies and basic information. We like this site for the wealth of information it provides. This would be a good tool if a person were interested in expanding his/her interest in King Arthur to explore a variety of mediums related to Arthur: Images, other reading, and more Websites! http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm

Q. Selected electronic discussion groups that you might wish to consider joining.

Arthurnet: This one was recommended by Mr. Ford from Britannia.com. He said that he had been members of others for sometime, but this was by far the best. It was also recommended by Ms. Seaman. (Both of these are introduced further in section "Y"). This listserv is run by Judy Shoaf. For instructions on how to subscribe, see this site: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Arthurnetfaq.htm

This is the same listserve, moderated by Ms. Shoaf, but at a different site: http://www.smu.edu/arthuriana/arthurnet.htm

Here are the archives for Arthurnet: http://www.mun.ca/lists/arthurnet/

You might also try: TEACHMEDLIT-L. It is a discussion list for teaching medieval literature. Send a message with no subject to listserv@uwplatt.edu and put

"sub TEACHMEDLIT-L Your Name" in the message body.

There are plenty of other electronic discussion groups that you might consider later on. Many are listed here: http://www.towson.edu/~duncan/acalists.html

R. The almanac or yearbook that relates to the specific topic.

The Arthurian Yearbook ,I. Ed. Keith Busby. 1st Edition. New York: Garland Publishing, 1991. No longer in print.

Arthurian Yearbook – edited by Keith Busby, published by Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. This book is no longer in print, but is available "used" through amazon.com and half.com. There were three editions of the yearbook, 1991 – 1993. The ISBN for the first edition is 082407209X, the second edition is 0815303378 and the third edition is 0815315392.

S. The best place to find any names of persons associated with the topic.

This topic is covered more extensively in the One Page Summary on problems that you might encounter near the end of the paper. However, two resources are...

Many of the characters are explained concisely and clearly in:

Epics for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Epics. Vol. 2. This book is edited by Elizabeth B. Alouna.

Another book that contains more in-depth information on more of the characters is

Ryan, Pamela. A Dictionary of King Arthur’s Knights. Charleston, SC: Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America, 2001. This book can be found in the Thomas Cooper Library with call number PN685 .R93 2001.

Pamela Ryan's A Dictionary of King Arthur's Knights. This book tells about all of the different Knights and all of the Kings, including feudal lords. These names were drawn from Le Morte d'Arthur.

For an extensive list of authors that have written about King Arthur and Arthurian Literature visit this web site:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/contents.htm This site lists authors and their books. The list is compiled and hosted by the Camelot Project and are highly recommended by Arthurian scholars.

T. Where to find historical fiction, essays, poetry, and quotations.

· Essays- Braswell, Mary Flowers. Bugge, John. The Arthurian Tradition: Essays in Convergence. Univ of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, 1988. Thomas Cooper Library call number PN57.A6 A78 1988.

This title is a collection of essays on medieval and modern analysis of works of art, literature and history in the Arthurian tradition. The goal of these essays is to encourage the Arthurian reader to take “new pathways of exploration” into Arthurian studies.

· Poetry- Lupack, Alan, ed., Arthur, the Greatest King: an Anthology of Modern Arthurian Poems (forword by Raymond H. Thompson). Garland: New York, 1988. Thomas Cooper Library call number PR1195.A75 A78 1988.

This source is a collection of poetry on King Arthur by such well-known writers as Wordsworth, Tennyson, William Morris, Emerson, C.S. Lewis and Sinclair Lewis. We thought it was interesting to see a compilation of known writers and each person’s take on the Arthurian legend and characters.

· Historical Fiction- Adamson, Lynda G. Literary Connections to World History (7-12): Resources to Enhance and Entice . Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998. Located in the reference section of the St. Andrews branch of the Charleston County Public Library with call number R016.909 Adamson.

· Quotes- Rees, Nigel. Cassell Companion to Quotations. London: Cassell,1997. Thomas Cooper Library call number PN6081 .R4325 1997, located in the reference section. There are a few quotations that would be useful in this book.

U. Government documents related to the topic.

We found some government documents at the parliament web site: http://www.parliament.uk/

We searched under King Arthur. There are more, but these were the best.

The first article can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/eqxx

The House of Commons Debates. 18 July 2002. The United Kingdom Parliament. 24 June 2003 <http://tinyurl.com/eqxx>.

This debate has to do with the fact that film producer Steven Spielberg was coming to create a television series based on King Arthur and that there is some debate over the location of the actual "Camelot".

The second article can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/eqy4

The House of Commons Debates. 18 July 2002. The United Kingdom Parliament. 24 June 2003 <http://tinyurl.com/eqy4>.

The basis of this debate is similar: "Thanks to some recent American scholarship, it has been discovered that no less a person than King Arthur was not from the west country, from Tintagel or Glastonbury, as has generally been believed in the past, but was firmly based in Carlisle.

In addition, there is considerable interest in conserving the locations that are often mentioned in his escapades. The English-Heritage department is charged with this task. They have free publications and information at this site: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

V. Maps or travel guides.

Britannia - http://www.britannia.com/history/artrav.html

Britannia includes a geographic description of places related to Arthurian Legend. This site is more of a guide to tell you about destinations where one might travel to that are part of the Arthurian legend. There is also a link on this site to Britannia’s tour online where travel arrangements can be made.

Astral Travel - http://www.travelbritain.com/tourism/astral/tour_kingarthur.html
"The Magical Tour". A 'real' tour to retrace the steps of King Arthur. Avalon, Glastonbury and other British historical sites are included in this one-day tour.

Travel Notes - http://reservations.bookhostels.com/tours/travelnotes.org/tourdetails.php?TourUID=309

King Arthur backpacking and walking tour which, brings King Arthur to life. Stonehenge, Avalon, Glastonbury are among the sites toured in this tour which allows the traveler time to reflect on the ancient surroundings.

Cornwall Online - http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk/heritage-trail/Welcome.html

Experience one of the castles in Cornwall and wonder about the history that took place around you Tintagel castle is said to be the castle of Uther Pendragon, Merlin and King Arthur. Travel to the Castle of King Arthur's Great Halls- (see Castles- Tintagel)

W. Special collections or museums.

There is a museum in Tintagel, UK that is renowned for its glass paintings of King Arthur. It conains the "Grand Hall of Chivalry" with a throne and granite round tables.

"The Once and Future Camelot (museum dedicated to the memory of King Arthur, the 6th century ruler of Camelot)." Times Educational Supplement 30 June 1995: 19.

Here is the URL for the Tintagel Castle.

http://tinyurl.com/f8nt

Birmingham (UK) Museum & Art Gallery has a temporary exhibition of Holy Grail Tapestries- Chamberlain Square, Birmingham B3 3DH

+44 [0]121 303 1966 for further information PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=*"PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=*"PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=*"Fax: +44 [0]121 303 1394

http://www.bmag.org.uk/exhibitions/holy_grail/

Online collection of "Camelot Art" - http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/artmenu.htm

X. Sources of money for research on the topic.

The Foundation Directory 2003 (Jacobs) lists the following:

Campbell Young Leaders, Inc. 101 W. Main St. Greenville, S.C. 29601

Youth's Friends Assoc., P.O. Box 5387, Hilton Head, S.C. 29938 (843) 671-5060 Walter J. Graves, Sec'y-Treas.

Others are listed under Education #2477 - South Carolina

There is money out there for Arthurian studies. Here is an example:

Computer-Based Study of Arthurian Romance by University of Pittsburgh, PA. They received $150,000 over a period of two years for a study of early-fourteenth-century illustrated texts of the Lancelot-Graal romance.

Y. Local persons or organizations that you could contact.

Ms. Myra J. Seaman is an assistant professor in the Dept. of English at The College of Charleston. She is teaching a graduate course focused on the manipulation of the Arthur material in Middle English texts this summer (2003). Email her: mailto:seamanm@cofc.edu or call her at 843-953-7148 FAX: 843-953-3180

Krista Sprecher recently received her Master's degree from the University of Charleston and is a grad student at Citadel in English. Scott Lucas, a professor in the Department of English at Citadel said that, "She has a strong knowledge of Arthuriana Literature". You can contact her at Kritter117@aol.com.

Though not local, David Nash Ford is very knowledgeable and helpful on this topic. He is the editor of the History Department of the Britania.com Website. We wrote to him and he gave us permission to allow others to contact him. You may email him here: mailto:dford@britannia.com

He and his wife have created their own Website on the Early British Kingdoms. The site includes an excellent section on King Arthur. Mr. Ford is also the artist of the drawings.

He and his wife's Website: http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/index.html

A kid's version of their Website: http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kids/index.html

His biography: http://britannia.com/history/davidbio.html

One Page Summaries

1. Summary of the topic.

King Arthur and the Arthurian Legend is an exciting topic for a high school English or literature class. This pathfinder is designed to guide a high school teacher in selecting resources to assist in teaching about King Arthur and familiarizing him/herself with the topic.

Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia and Charleston County Public Libraries were used to search for print resources for this pathfinder. There is so much information available on King Arthur, any local academic and public library would have similar information. There are also some very good web resources that have a variety of information on Arthur, legendary and historical, available.

King Arthur is well known as the key figure in the Arthurian legends, but was he a real person? Is there any real evidence that he existed or was he entirely made up in the minds of storytellers. This can be a quite interesting topic to explore. While the legend is romantic, full of kings, knights, ladies and wizards, the early references offer some historical basis for King Arthur. The resources chosen in this pathfinder offer sources that give information on both sides of the story and will possibly pique more interest in your students to do some exploring of their own.

Even the study of the literature about Arthur will be interesting. Did you know that Malory wrote Le Morte d'Arthur while he was in prison, his second home away from home? Don't stop your study until you find out exactly why he was in prison.

Lead your students on a tour to Cadbury and Tintagel Castles, Glastonbury the island in the marshes, and the fortress at Caerleon. These are just a few of the interesting places that will help you determine for yourself what the real story is.

2. Summary of any special problems that the you might encounter.

There are two problems that we encountered and that you might encounter, too. The first involves understanding who is who. The second problem is narrowing down the wealth of information into a usable amount that you can use. Hopefully, this pathfinder will help you with the latter. Just don't wander too far off. Let's look at the first problem.

There are so many characters and writers involved in Arthurian Literature that it is a struggle to understand who is who. For example, in Le Morte d' Arthur there are 281 different knights and 70 Kings (and feudal lords) mentioned. Add these to the many names of Arthur and the many places mentioned, and you have quite an extensive list. To add to the problem, the characters change depending on what material you are reading. For example, Mordred may be Arthur's nephew or his illegitimate son.

Here are some of the characters that you are probably familiar with: Archbishop of Canterbury, Guinevere, Lancelot or Launcelot, and Merlin. Here are some that you may still be familiar with: Galahad, Gawain, and Igrayne. Now if you know these, you may already be an expert: Agravaine, Bors de Ganis, Elayne, Gaheris, and Kay.

All of these characters and a few others are explained concisely and clearly in:

Epics for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Epics. Vol. 2. This book is edited by Elizabeth B. Alouna.

Another book that contains more in-depth information on more of the characters is Pamela Ryan's A Dictionary of King Arthur's Knights. This book tells about all of the different Knights and all of the Kings, including feudal lords that are mentioned in Le Morte d'Arthur.

Here are but a few of the names that have been attributed to Arthur: Breton King,

"High-King of Britain", Cumbrian King, Cuneglasus, Dumnonian King, "Man of the North", Riothamus ("Greatest King") and Scottish King.

In addition, you will run across many names of historians, writers, and researchers, etc. There are those who wrote long ago such as Chretien De Troyes, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Thomas Malory. Then there are contemporary writers such as Geoffrey Ashe, Richard Barber, Norma Lorre Goodrich, W.F.Skene, T. H. White and

James J.Wilhelm. For a longer list of writers and their books, go to this Website

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/AUTHMENU.htm

C. Summary of our comparison of the topic as treated in two general encyclopedias. (one online and one printed)

For the purpose of making a comparison, we looked at the Britannica Online "Arthur King." <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=9812. >. and the print version of World Book Encyclopedia Reiss, Edmund. "Arthur, King." World Book Encyclopedia. 22 vols. Chicago: World Book, 2002. We particularly liked the flow and ease of reading in the World Book. For example: The opening sentence of each:

World Book - "...was a legendary king of medieval Britain."

Britannica Online - "legendary British king who appears in a cycle of medieval romances (known as the matter of Britain) as the sovereign of a knightly fellowship of the Round Table."

The two tell how the Arthurian stories began and questioned the authenticity of them this way:

W.B. - "...historians know little about him. Storytellers passed on the earliest tales about Arthur word of mouth. These storytellers may have based the tales on an actual British leader who won minor victories over German invaders in the early A.D. 500's."

B.O. - It is not certain how or where (in Wales or in those parts of northern Britain

inhabited by Brythonic-speaking Celts) these legends originated or whether the

figure Arthur was based on a historical person. Assumptions that a historical Arthur led Welsh resistance to the West Saxon advance from the middle Thames are based on a conflation of two early chroniclers".

If this article is typical, it would seem that a person has to have a pretty good vocabulary to understand the Britannica version while the World Book is quite easy to understand. On the other hand, if you need to know a lot more details about the topic, Britannica is probably the way to go. While the World Book article only makes reference to a time frame (a year or a century) three times; the Britannica, even though the article is about half as long, mentions seven. Only one of the World Book years is a specific date and all but one is rounded to the nearest 500. Three of the seven dates in Britannica were specific years.

The World Book does a much better job compiling the story into an understandable and unified topic. The final paragraph speaks of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. The Britannica article stops three centuries earlier. There is no clear indication where to continue the article or topic.

The online version is beneficial in that it is searchable, easy to copy and paste. It also has some other nice features. It shows the proper citation for MLA, APA or Britannica style. One can email the article to someone else or of course, print it out. In addition to the regular version, there are Student, Concise and Elementary versions. We didn't feel the writing was vastly improved. Britannica also made recommended web sites. However, the search feature did not work very well with the three alternative versions nor the Websites. There was also a video and media section, but again the search feature was not effective.

We found the information in the World Book to be much more helpful and interesting. The article was clear and concise. It serves as an excellent introduction to the subject of King Arthur. One needs to use other sources to do a more extensive study. We were hopeful that the Britannica would take the student further, but the online Britannica did not live up to its potential. It was much too difficult to read and the web features didn't work very well. In our opinion, the World Book was much better.

4. Summary of our comparison of two search engines on the topic.

We performed a search for “Arthurian legend high school” on Google (http://www.google.com) and Overture (http://www.overture.com) and received very different results. The results of the Google search yielded of 8,040 sites. The first site is a good one, Arthuriana Pedagogy. This site has lessons plans for the classroom and other topics and project to be used for high school classes. After the first few sites, the results had the words ‘Arthurian legend’ and ‘high school’ in them, but they were not specifically related to high school teaching and learning.

The same search using Overture brought back very different results. Overture did not indicate the total number of sites, but many of the first 200 sites were related specifically to King Arthur and high school teaching or learning. There were a few miscues here and there, but it was much more accurate than we expected and more accurate in what we have experienced with other search engines. Many of the sites were lesson plans for use with teaching about Arthurian Legend, others were class web pages created by students that contain K.A. related links and others were book and class lists that mention King Arthur. One problem we found however is that some of the links were to "Page Not Found". Unlike Google, Overture did not have a cache feature. That is one of those nice features that can really save the day or at least let you know you're not going crazy, there really was such a site. We agreed that we would definitely give Overture a try the next time we go searching.

We were also pleased with the results that we achieved with About (http://www.about.com). It creates a neat directory-type format. About.com works well with broad searches such as ‘King Arthur’ as it looks for subjects related to King Arthur and will list all the subjects it finds, such as ‘Medieval History’, ‘King Arthur: Real Man or Mythical Legend’, ‘King Arthur’ (which includes a variety of links to different subjects in itself), ‘Arthurian Studies’, just to name a few. Within each of the subject results is a directory of sites related to that topic.

The terms we used for searches specific to King Arthur and high school with our comparison sites are ‘Arthurian legend high school’, ‘King Arthur high school’. ‘Arthurian legend high school’ brought back more matches than ‘King Arthur high school’. ‘Arthurian legend’ is a more specific term, or using King Arthur with another word such as ‘King Arthur characters’, ‘King Arthur history’ works better when using a search site such as Google or Overture. ‘King Arthur’ or ‘Arthurian legend’ is more broad, but a subject listed site, such as About, produced good results with those terms.

Overall we recommend using Overture for specific searches and About.com for more general

searches of this topic.

A citation to the style manual used.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

Works Cited

Adamson, Lynda G. Literary Connections to World History (7-12): Resources to Enhance and Entice . Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1998.

Arthur, General of the Britons. 1997. Britannia Internet Magazine, LLC. 16 June 2003 <http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kageneral.html>.

"Arthur King." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2003. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 June 2003 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=9812. >.

Arthur, King of the Britons. 2000. Britannia.com, LLC. 16 June 2003 <http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kaking.html>.

Braswell, Mary Flowers. Bugge, John. The Arthurian Tradition: Essays in Convergence. Univ of Alabama Press: Tuscaloosa, 1988.

Cassell's Companion to Quotations. Comp. Nigel Rees. London: Cassell Books, Inc., 1997.

Ed. Norris J. Lacy. The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. N.p.: n.p., n.d.

Epics for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied

Epics. Ed. Elizabeth B. Alouna. Vol. 2. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, 2001. 188-234.

Ford, David Nash (2003) Early British Kingdoms - www.earlybritishkingdoms.com. Meredith Software: Swansea

Guide to Reference Books. Ed. Robert Balay. 11th ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1996. 2040 pages.

Jackson, Guida M. Encyclopedia of Traditional Epics. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1994.

LaGuardia, Cheryl. Magazines for Libraries 2002 (4 volumes). New Providence, N.J.: RR Bowker, 2002

Lupack, Alan, ed., Arthur, the Greatest King: an Anthology of Modern Arthurian Poems (forword by Raymond H. Thompson). Garland: New York, 1988).

Lytton, Edward Bulwer.King Arthur: An Epic Poem. G Routledge: London, 1875.

Reader's Advisor, Vol. 1: The Best in Reference Works- British Literature and American Literature. Ed. David S. Kastan. 14th ed. New Providence, N.J.: RR Bowker, 1994.

Reiss, Edmund. "Arthur, King." World Book Encyclopedia. 22 vols. Chicago: World Book, 2002.

Ryan, Pamela . A Dictionary of King Arthur's Knights. Mt. Pleasant, S.C.: The Nautical & Aviation Company of America, Inc., 2001. 150 pages.

The Foundation Directory 2003 Edition. Ed. David G. Jacobs. 25th ed. New York: The Foundation Center, 2003.

The Arthurian Handbook. Ed. Geoffrey Ashe, and Norris J. Lacy. New York: Garland, Inc., 1988. This book tells about Arthurian legends portrayed in art. It has lots of illustrations and pictures. It includes an extensive Chronology of time before, during and after Arthur. This book shares information about the origins of Arthurian Literature. There is an extensive Arthurian glossary.

The Arthurian Traditon. Lupack, Alan, ed., Arthur, the Greatest King: an Anthology of Modern Arthurian Poems (foreword by Raymond H. Thompson, Garland, New York, 1988).

The House of Commons Debates. 18 July 2002. The United Kingdom Parliament. 24 June 2003 <http://tinyurl.com/eqxx>.

The House of Commons Debates. 18 July 2002. The United Kingdom Parliament. 24 June 2003 <http://tinyurl.com/eqy4>.

"The Once and Future Camelot (museum dedicated to the memory of King Arthur, the 6th century ruler of Camelot)." Times Educational Supplement 30 June 1995: 19.

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