Who is King Arthur?

Even though we have only had one week of class, I can tell many of my interpretations of King Arthur’s will be wrong.  I’m not too surprised though, especially because most of my knowledge of this time period comes from comedy and movies.  I’m excited to be proven wrong, but also a bit sad that Monty Python’s Holy Grail is slightly inaccurate. 

           There is this image of a knight that is selfless and willing to do anything for everyone else, but himself.  I question how much of what we believe in are just bedtime stories or of a man that Britain can stand behind.  Books tell us there is a man, which lived in Britain, and had the perfect ideals that is what we think of when we think of medieval knights.  When I think of a knight, in the late Roman Empire, I think of a knight more interested in plunder of other countries, than fighting for what is right.  Although there had to be at least one, possibly King Arthur, that had the right combination of ideals to be remembered throughout history.

            To me, Arthur was just an ideal, an ideal of someone that people wanted to lead them away from the life they had.  It’s not that much of a stretch to believe that people living in the dark ages wanting to not worry about death more than life.  If they had a knight to be their trail blazer, than the people of Britain would move onwards and upwards towards a better life.  I desperately want Arthur to be a real person, but I’m a bit of a skeptic.  Hopefully this class will enlighten me, and equip me with knowledge to make a better decision.