Dragon at Caerphilly Castle in Wales.
Steve Vidler/Alamy
From Merlin to the country’s red dragon, there are a lot of legends and magic to promote to international tourists.
A24/Eric Zachanowich
The hero of The Green Knight, played brilliantly by Dev Patel, is flawed and less than honorable. The film is a deliberately unromantic exploration of the world of King Arthur and his court.
The chivalrous peasant teenager Joan of Arc is a hero of French independence.
De Agostini/G. Dagli Orti via Getty Images
Chivalry is not an elite men’s club. Women have always been involved.
The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon by Edward Burne Jones.
Wikimedia
It’s a malleable mythos that has been adapted by kings and queens as well as artists and filmmakers.
Katherine Langford plays Nimue in the latest retelling of the Arthurian legend.
Netflix © 2020
The new adaptation of the ancient Arthurian legend is unlike anything you have seen before.
20th Century Fox
The various readings of this national myth can tell us a lot about our cultural and political time and place.
Rebecca Ferguson as Morgana in The Kid Who Would Be King.
20th Century Fox
Yet again sexism rears its ugly head in this portrayal, from Arthurian legend, of a much maligned woman.
The Achievement of the Grail / Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Is the Grail the chalice from the Last Supper – or the Crucifixion? Does it contain the elixir of life? Or is it Mary Magdalene’s womb?
Holly Hayes/Flickr
A forensic dig into early British history means we can finally understand the heroes and stories that created a composite king.
Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Guy Ritchie’s blokey remake of the Arthur legend fails to establish any kind of coherent narrative.
Warner Bros
Somehow the sword Excalibur becomes the central character in this laddish remake of the Arthurian legend.
Vortigern (Jude Law) addresses the crowd in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Safehouse Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, Warner Bros.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is an at times thrilling, at times bizarre, viewing experience that blends classic English myth with a gangster aesthetic.
Vuk Kostic/www.shutterstock.com
Historic heroes like King Arthur have helped audiences through the ages to cope with troubling times.
How true is the ‘true’ story of King Arthur?
Shutterstock
Did King Arthur really exist? We don’t know but the Arthur we all know and love is entirely fictional.
Guenevere in May, Malory’s Le Morte D'Arthur, abridged ed. Alfred W. Pollard, illustrations by Arthur Rackham, 1917.
Bangor University Library Rare Book Collection
We just can’t have enough of all things Arthurian – the legend and its many possible permutations never cease to fascinate.