By WALNICE NOGUEIRA GALVÃO*
King Arthur became pop and was associated with all types of esotericism or occultism
Apparently, King Arthur did not exist, but he generated an opulent literary estate. And this has been since he was born, or not born, at Tintagel Castle, in English Cornwall, between the 5th and 6th centuries more or less.
Slowly, it became pop and was associated with all types of esotericism or occultism. There are organizations of druids in Europe, who carry out rituals in the forests, certainly in search of the Golden Branch studied by Frazer, an ingredient in Asterix's magic potion.
The International Arthurian Society, based in England, brings together serious university experts with doctoral theses and published books. Richard Wagner could not resist and betrayed strictly Germanic mythology when composing the opera parsifal, bringing into play the Fisher King who is dying from a mysterious wound and the machinations of the sorceress Kundry.
In cinema, the Arthurian saga proliferated and had everything, from Monty Python's crazy treatment to Sean Connery's 007 as Arthur. Every year new films appear featuring the king, Queen Guinevere, the wizard Merlin, the Fairy Morgana, Lancelot of the Lake, Percival, Gawain or Galvão, Galahad, Camelot Castle, the seat of the court, the sword Excalibur. In the chivalric novel, swords have their own name.
In the Louvre you can admire the Joiosa, or Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne officiating at the consecration of the French kings. But Durindana, or Durandal, of Roldão in Chanson de Roland, unfortunately it was lost. From there to comics and video games, it was a step.
The saga of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table belongs to what literary studies call the “matter of Britain”, one of the two great cycles of chivalric prose novels that flourished in the Middle Ages, especially between the 12th and 14th centuries. The other great cycle belongs, of course, to Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France, and is called “Carolingian matter” (or “of France”),
The latter had an unexpected survival in the Brazilian hinterland, being one of the favorite subjects of cordel romance. A third, less glossy cycle deals with “classical” or Greco-Latin material.
And the forest of Broceliande, then, how did it get out of it?The quest for the Holy Grail English and ended up in France?
It must have gone along with the bagpipes, which seems to be, but is not, a characteristic of the Scots. On the contrary, it appears in many places, especially those associated with the Celts or Gaelic languages. Little is known about the Celts mentioned by Julius Caesar in From beautiful gallico, which identifies them with the Gauls. They are barbarian peoples, that is, Europeans who will form Europe and speak vernacular languages, coming from the mixture of Latin and Indo-European languages.
Therefore, we find bagpipes in Wales, Ireland, in certain corners of Spain (Galicia), Portugal (Trás-os-Montes), or Italy, and even on the Greek island of Crete. When arriving at a conference in Rennes, capital of Brittany, if you are surprised by bagpipers leading a ciranda, right there on the street, the best thing to do is to join the dance.
Brittany is a French province, where Britons live, and Great Britain is a country, where Britons live. Migrations from the second to the first brought the settlement. But there were more exchanges: William the Conqueror was not a Briton, just a Norman neighbor, and he conquered England in 1066. Given this, Brittany, and therefore France, also claims King Arthur and the demand for the Holy Grail – and not only the bagpipes.
In the impressive oak forest that is Broceliande, in Brittany, lies the tomb of Merlin, the wizard, a great character, advisor to King Arthur. How he jumped the English Channel and buried himself in France is a poorly told story, even for a wizard. Would he have come during the migrations? The tomb is nothing more than stacked stones, arranged in such a way that they leave cracks, where it is customary to insert notes with requests to Merlin.
In addition to the wonderful forest and the tomb, there is also a lake where a submerged cathedral lies. If you're lucky, you'll hear the toll of the bells, somewhat muffled by the tons of water, of course. It was from her that Debussy was inspired to compose The cathedral encompasses.
*Walnice Nogueira Galvão Professor Emeritus at FFLCH at USP. She is the author, among other books, of reading and rereading (Sesc\Ouro over Blue). [amzn.to/3ZboOZj]
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