ed." These latter rarely
mention Arthur, but the former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it, to the
"full-blown Arthurian romance." Chretien de Troies, the most famous of
the old French trouveres in the latter part of the twelfth century, made
the Arthur legend the subject for his "Romans" and "Contes," as well as
for two epics on Tristan; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to
the same cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance
became known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic
form in the "Parzival" of Wolfram of Eschenbach, "Tristan und Isolt" of
Gottfried of Strasburg, "Erec and Iwein" of Hartmann, and "Wigalois" of
Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are
Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec,
Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot. From France the
Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the
Netherlands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into England.
One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton (1485) was
a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either compiled by him in
English, from various of the later French prose romances, or translated
directly from an already existing French compendium. Copland reprinted
the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last of the black-letter editions
appeared. A reprint of Caxton's "Kynge Arthur," with an introduction and
notes by Robert Southey, was issued in 1817--"The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes
of Kyng Arthur." The most complete edition is that by Thomas Wright,
from the text of 1634.

The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many places
and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with his
exploits, such as "Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, "Arthur's Oven," on
the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre of his
queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth century. Near
Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentargain, a headland called after him
"Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany. In the
Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in which the
patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig. There was one
anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend exist. Milton was
meditating an Arthurian epic in 1639; and in our own day the interest of
the legends about King Arthur and his knights has been revived by
Tennyson's "Idylls of the Kin