King Arthur. Guinevere. Lancelot. Merlin. These are all names that society still has a soft spot for after centuries of myths and legends. Stories of love, lust, magic, honor and duty seduce our imaginations and entrap us within the lines of the texts. However, it is now the year 2002, the technological and Internet age. Is it possible for these ancient characters to trancend time and telephone wires? Being such mystical and popular subject matter, Arthurian legends websites multiply faster than rabbits. Nevertheless, there are a few sites that do the royal soap opera justice.
One of the most intriguing webpages can
be found at http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html. King Arthur
and the Early British Kingdoms: History and Legend had the most
information available to the viewer. It
begins with links to the answers to the most basic of questions (ex. Was Arthur
a king? Was Arthur a Myth?). There are
also timelines depicting the Arthur stories and how they compare to actual
history, and an early British timeline.
It has a number of Arthurian character biographies, and the site also
contains a brief history about Glastonbury Abbey. One of the most valuable parts of this website is the many links
to other websites relating to Arthur and his friends.
Another site that is enjoyable is The
Camelot Project at the University of Rochester (www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm). It is reminiscent of our own beloved Grendel
website except that The Camelot Project is much more specifically geared toward Arthurian legends than our
eclectic site. One of the most
interesting sections in the Camelot Project is the “Women of the
Arthurian Legend.” A student can click
on the “Female Characters” link in the Women of the Arthurian Legend section in
order to find out about all of the female characters in the story of Arthur and
hundreds of text and image links depicting each woman.
One more website that is worth perusing
is a little off the beaten path. It is the
official website of Glastonbury Abbey (www.glastonburyabbey.com). The reason that this is so engaging is that
it gives true life to fiction. Click on
the “Myths and Legends” link and find out about Avalon and the actual burial
place of Arthur.
Constructing a website in this day and
age is easier than it has ever been.
And, therefore, there are a lot of crackpot sites that give us
misleading information or are just plain boring. These three and a few others, however, do the glorious tale
justice.