Near the end of
his life, our great King Arthur seeks answers to questions that still haunt
humanity. He is alone in his pavilion on the battlefield at Kent, exhausted,
old, and weak. Is he resting for his battle with Mordred, his son? No, he is
wrestling with the eternal questions about why human beings have wars. Why
would he waste time trying to figure out what is still unsolvable? He does it
for us, for humanity.
Arthur does not
believe in original sin. Therefore, he does not believe that humans are born
evil. Instead, he believes that people are basically good. You see, Arthur
believes that people can live successfully by reason—that we can figure out
what troubles us and find solutions without fighting. Arthur is a lover of
humanity, of all living things. Have we not always known this about Arthur? Did
we not notice his ingenuousness when he was Merlin’s pupil? Our king is in
denial about his best friend and his wife—he cannot conceive in dishonor or
hatred in anyone he loves. And he loves both Lancelot and Guinevere. It also seems
as if he cannot see Mordred’s obsessive hatred for Lancelot. King Arthur's justice may seem odd to us, but that is because it is pure, free of partiality.
I am incredulous
that even as an old man, King Arthur is almost as innocent as he was as a
youth. Why do you think I have dedicated myself to testing the worthiness of
his knights? I do it for my king—to be part of something greater than I,
something that will benefit humanity. King Arthur believes in his knights to
the core of his being, making him vulnerable. And I will not stand by and let
such a good man be taken advantage of if I can do anything about it.
Our king has
become a great teacher in his own right—Merlin would be so proud of his pupil.
King Arthur has already figured out that the reasons for war are complex. But
he shares them with us so that we can take up where he leaves off, so that we
will hopefully find a “cure” for wars. He tells us some of the possibilities
for war—suspicion, fear, possessiveness, greed, resentment, and ancestral
wrongs. It is up to each of us to take up our symbolic Excalibur and use our
might for right.
When King Arthur
tells Thomas to remember what he says, he is talking all of us. King Arthur is
handing us his candle in the wind, and we must not let it go out.
Yours in peace,
Bertilak
Bertilak,
ReplyDeleteI love the way you introduce your thoughts. You're so right. Arthur thought for us - for humanity. My only questioning forms out of your address on Arthur's feelings toward Guinevere and Lancelot. You say he was in denial. Maybe he was in denial, and maybe I'm giving Arthur too much credit for wisdom, but I think it was tactic, not denial, that directed him. In addition, the poor guy was torn. Arthur did love both Guinevere and Lancelot, and he definitely knew about their relationship with each other, but he had to have known two other things as well: the people he loves are happy, but they'd be executed or banished if proof of their affair got out. Arthur takes an emotional seat in the situation, rather than a political one, and I don't think he could have done anything differently without sending an entirely unintended message!
-Lady of the Lake