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A complement/ something to compare, to king arthur and his knights of the round table

I have a summer reading project where I must select a work of art, photography, music, poetry, or another piece of literature that complements “King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table” by characters, themes, and/or symbols. I also need to be able to make six to ten connections between the “chosen thing” and the story.

First remember that Roger Lancelyn Green’a book is a retelling, and as such contains inventions by the author not found in his sources. For example Green makes his Mordred to be Arthur’s son by Morgan le Fay, a story which only appears in modern authors. In genuine medieval romances Modred his either Arthur’s nephew, son of King Lot by Arthur’s sister, Arthur’s cousin being the son of Arthur’s paternal aunt by King Lot, or Arthur illegitimate son by his sister King Lot’s wife. If I am thinking of the right book, Green also makes out Perceval to be Gawain’s son, which is also not found in any medieval romance.

Parallel figures to Arthur and his knights appear elsewhere in European tradition.

Irish tradition has two such figures. King Conchabhar is covered in Lady Gregory’s “Cuchalain of Muirthemne”. See http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cuch/index.htm . The war leader Fionn or Finn is covered in Lady Gregory’s “Gods and Fighting Men”. See http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/gafm/index.htm . These retellings are sometime bowdlerized a little but most accurate to the originals.

Denmark has stories about Hrolf Kraki, which were retold in Iceland. The most complete account is the Icelandic saga “The Saga of Hrolf Kraki” for which information on an English translation appears at http://www.viking.ucla.edu/hrolf/maincontents.html and http://books.google.com/books?id=zx_O_WNH_U8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Hrolf+Kraki&ei=CKGfSLOWJaOujgGM7Jn7BA&sig=ACfU3U3m9UG692ZmEC_0rS0bv0hyQzlNiA .

You can also find a translation of a different, shorter version, in the second half of chapter two of Saxo Grammaticus’ “Getsa Danorum”. See http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/saxo/saxo02.htm . The usual story applied to the childhood of Hrolf’s father and uncles is ascribed by Saxo to two other kings, Harald and Halfdan, told near the beginning for chapter seven. See http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/saxo/saxo07.htm .

The Old English poem “Beowulf” places its first tale, the slaying of Grendel and his dam, in Hrolf’s court during the early part of Hrolf’s reign when he was a junior co-king with his uncle King Helga. Hrolf is here called Hrothwulf and his uncle Hoar or Ro is called Hrothgar. Hrothwufl is only mentioned when Beowulf retells his experiences to King Hygelac. Beowulf himself may have originally been identical to the Icelandic hero Boðvar Bjarki in the stories about Hrolf.

In German traditions the corresponding character to Arthur was Dietrich von Berne, derived from the historic Theodoric the Goth. See http://www.northvegr.org/lore/heroic/titles.php . An Icelandic version of the Dietrich story is summarized at http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/nibelung/sum.htm ,

Frankish (French) accounts told tales of the Emperor Charlemagne and his twelve peers. See a translation of “The Song of Roland” at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/roland-ohag.html . However most of the main stories of the Charlemagne cycle such as “Les Quatra Fils d’Aymon”, “Le Pèlerginage de Charlemagne”, or “Ogier le Danois” are not easily available in English.

In 1495 a new Charlemagne romance called “Orlando Innamorato” (“Roland in Love”) by the Italian poet Matteo Maria Boiardo was published. A long competion by Ludovico Ariosto was published in 1532 under the title “Orlando Furioso” (“Roland Gone Mad”) which was extradaordinarily popular for centuries. Bulfinch’s “Legends of Charlemagne” and some other modern treatments of Charlemagne stories are largely based on Boiardo and Ariostos’ inventions. In Bulfinch chapters III to XVII are based on this late version. See http://www.celtic-twilight.com/charlemagne/bulfinchs_ch/index.htm .

Outside of European tales we have Kay Kavus from the Iranian “Shah Namah”.

One could also compare King David and his thirty mighty mean from the Biblical Books of Samuel. David could be compared with Arthur, Samuel with Merlin, the Philistines with the Saxons, King Saul with King Lot, Josiah son of Zeruaiah with Gawain, Uriah the Hittite with Lancelot, Goliath with King Rion, Bathsheba with Guenevere, Absalom with Modred, and Solomon with Galahad.

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