About the King Arthur Faire
The purpose of the King Arthur Faire is to educate the public about the historical roots of Arthurian legend, separating what we may know from what has been added to the story over the centuries. Set in the early 6th century AD, fairgoers, performers and merchants are encouraged to emphasize the political, social and visual aspects of a specific period in time.
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In Search of the Historical King Arthur
King Arthur is undoubtedly the greatest medieval figure, mythical or real. The Knights of the Round Table, Camelot, Merlin, and the quest for the Holy Grail are legendary, ever growing in embellishments with the retelling. And that is just what has happened throughout time. The tale has grown and metamorphosized in the retelling, diverging from any actual account of history in so many ways that it is difficult to tell where many of the embellishments begin and the original historical figure of King Arthur ends.
What do we actually know about the historical King Arthur? Not a whole lot. He was born in the late fifth century. He attracted followers, and as the "Duke of Battle" he fought invading Saxons. We know that he probably did not rule any land, he did not have what we would consider a castle, and since knighthood did not exist at that time, he had no knights.
We can infer some things about King Arthur and the world that he lived in from other events at the time. England had previously been under Roman occupation, and while they were strict and often ruthless in their rule, the Romans did ensure local peace throughout the regions that they occupied. In the later fourth and earlier fifth centuries the Roman occupation of England withdrew toward Rome, taking their security through military might with them. This evacuation left England open to invading forces of the Saxons, Picts, and Irish raiders. The land was caught in a military vise making it a very dangerous place to live, and a warrior that could effectively organize and lead troops to fight off their enemies was sure to attract followers seeking some semblance of safety.
There are some recorded stories of King Arthur's bravery, but it was Geoffery of Monmouth who brought many of them together in his History of the Kings of Britain. Arthur is depicted as heroic king with a great army of knights at his command. The embellishments of Arthur's greatness added to the climax of the book and may have helped justify and solidify the ruling monarchy's claim to the throne.
After Geoffery of Monmouth, other writers have helped embellish the stories further still. We can thank the French poet Chrétien de Troyes for adding the images we have of Camelot to the story, and it was in the late fifteenth century that Sir Thomas Malory gave us the Knights of the Round Table.
Medieval books were primarily considered teaching tools, and so writing works of historical fiction may have easily taken readers by surprise, assuming fact where to our modern sensibilities fantasy was often at work. It is clear now that whether they intended to or not, each writer and artist who has chronicled the Story of King Arthur has added to some part to the tale. Similarly, Arthur has also kept up with knightly progress, taking on the virtuous principles and armored garb of the warriors throughout medieval history according to the customs and perceptions of the writers and artists of the time.
Even in our modern age, the legend of King Arthur strikes a metaphorical note. Arthur is a protector of the downtrodden, a just and worth ruler, and a tragically fallible human being seeking liberty for his people. The legend of King Arthur survives today with all of its fantastic and mythical qualities because we want it to. The lure of Camelot beckons to us across the centuries, a place that never existed. We seek it just as others have for centuries before. The King Arthur Faire in Stroud Oklahoma works to meld the fictional with the factual in a plausible manner without severing the fantastic from the formula.