HL3044 The Legends of King Arthur Assignment Semester 1, AY2025-26 | NTU

Instructor: Dr Kevin Teo (kevin.teokc@staff.main.ntu.edu.sg)

Course description

Who was King Arthur, and how did he evolve into the household name that we know today? Where did the legends of his knights originate, and how did they develop over time? How widespread were the Arthurian legends across medieval Europe, and what made them so appealing to authors of English literature in more recent centuries? These are some of the questions we will explore in this module, which surveys the long development of several of the major narratives involving King Arthur, the men and women surrounding him including Merlin, Morgan le Fey, Vivian, and his knights, stretching from their medieval origins to modern literary and mediatised adaptations. The first half of the module focuses on medieval texts, which will be studied in translation. You will gain an understanding of the generic, stylistic and thematic uniqueness of these medieval texts, as well as an awareness of the ways in which each text reflects the composer’s explorations of the fundamental moral questions underpinning themes such as chivalric heroism, ideals of masculinity and femininity, and romantic love. The second half of the module turns towards modern reception and adaptation, and here you will explore the changing significance and adaptations of the Arthurian tradition as they evolve within the recent two centuries. As Arthurian adaptations and reinventions continue to be produced and to occupy the public consciousness in the twenty-first century, this module seeks to offer you a sense of the enduring appeal of the legends of the ‘once and future king’.

Course Readings

• Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain [selections]*
• “Culhwch and Olwen,” in Patrick K. Ford, trans., The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales (Los Angeles: U of California P, 2019)* (short story)
• Gwyneth Lewis, trans. The Book of Taliesin: Poems of Warfare and Praise in an Enchanted Britain (London: Penguin Books, 2020) [select poems] *
• “Lancelot, Knight of the Cart,” in Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll (London: Penguin, 1991)* (translation of poem)
• Judith Shoaf, trans. The Quest of the Holy Grail. Toronto: Broadview P, 2018.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. and trans. William Allan Neilson (Read Books, 2021)
• Simon Armitage, trans. Death of King Arthur (London: faber and faber, 2021)
• Thomas Malory, Le Morte De Arthur: The Winchester Manuscript, ed. and trans. Helen Cooper (Oxford: OUP, 1998) [selections]
• Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King (1859) [selections]
• Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon (1983)

Films and television media:

• Camelot (television drama series, Starz TV production) (2011) (select episodes)
• The Adventures of Merlin (BBC television drama series) (2008-2012) (select episodes)
• A Knight’s Tale (Hollywood movie) (2001)
• Tristan and Isolde (Hollywood movie) (2004)
• King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Hollywood movie) (2017)
• The Green Knight (Hollywood movie) (2021)

*Texts to be provided by instructor on course website Recommended Optional Readings (But Not Necessary):

• “Perceval,” in Nigel Bryant, trans., Merlin and the Grail. Joseph of Arimathea; Merlin; Perceval (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001)*
• “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell,” in ed. Stephen H.A. Shepherd, Middle English Romances (New York: Norton, 2022)* online versions at The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell | Harvard’s Geoffrey Chaucer Website and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell for Helping King Arthur (sfsu.edu)
• Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan and Isolde. With Ulrich von Turheim’s

Continuation. Trans. William T. Whobrey. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2020.

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Assignments

Participation (10%):

You will be expected to come to class prepared to discuss the set readings for the week and participate actively in discussion.

Presentations (10%):

Every week, small groups students will take it in turn to present on the topic and readings of the class, guided by worksheets provided by the instructor.

To do well on the team assessment, it is necessary for you to demonstrate positive interdependence and teamwork. In principle, you will receive the same marks as your team. However, your individual score may vary based on instructor observations and peer feedback about your contributions to the group project.

Mid-term essay (40%):

Your first essay will explore a key aspect of on one or more of the medieval texts covered in the first half of the course.

Planned weekly schedule

• This is a provisional and tentative reading schedule, subject to possible changes according to sudden holidays which might clash or the students’ reading pace. We will stick as closely to it as possible.

Course Policies:

Attendance and Participation: The success of any seminar depends on the active participation of all its members.  Barring illness or emergencies, you must attend every seminar.  You must arrive on time, having done the required readings and any assigned work, and be ready to participate in the class discussion.  Failure to do so will reduce your participation grade significantly.  If you need to miss a class either due to family emergencies (compassionate leave) or job purposes, you must get in touch with me before that week’s meeting and an official letter or medical letter needs to be given to me, especially in the event that you are unwell.

Late Work and Extensions: if your essay is late, it will be marked down by one third of a letter grade (5 points) for each day that it is overdue (i.e. a paper that would have received an A will receive a A-).  No work will be accepted more than three days late without prior permission.  Extensions will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, including documented illness or genuine emergency.  You can earn a two-day extension if you work on your paper with a writing coach at the LCC Communication Cube. If you require extensions for deadlines, you need to seek permission from me at least two days in advance before the deadline. Please do not inform me right before the deadline at the very hour or after, because it reflects very badly on your timing.

Seeking Help Outside Class: you are encouraged to use any form of legitimate aid to help you write papers and research topics that interest you.  Obvious sources of legitimate assistance include your tutors, the coaches at the LCC Communication Cube, and the subject librarians at the library.  If you work on a paper with a writing coach, you are eligible for a two-day extension.  Please speak to me if you would like to take advantage of this!

Generative AI: generative AI (such as ChatGPT) is not designed for research and essay writing in the humanities and is inclined to make things up alongside inaccuracies of information.  If you intend to use generative AI for your work in any capacity (such as image generation), you must get written permission from me first.  You must follow the university’s prevailing policies about how to acknowledge the use of generative AI in your work.  Although it can be a useful tool, you must not use it to replace your own thinking or learning.

Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty: Don’t do it!  If I find that you have misrepresented someone else’s work or wording as your own you will fail the assignment and possibly the course.  If you are unsure of how or when to cite a source, please ask me or refer to the university’s academic integrity resources online. Where in doubt, remember to adhere to the MLA (Modern Language Association) style of citation which is used in literary humanities.

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Essay Guidelines

• Because your mid-term essay and final term paper form the main bulk of your assessment, at 40% respectively, the expectations are different from those for a presentation.
• Your papers have to be typewritten in Times New Roman, font size 12, and in MLA (Modern Language Association) format which is the standard for most English departments.
• The definition of a good essay as opposed to a bad one is relatively clear, and when I read an essay, I look for the markers of a clearly articulated argument with a defined thesis statement (point of view), substantial evidence which is derived from the text(s) studied, and also, coherent connection of ideas between the different paragraphs and your overall line of argument.
• If you are relying on critical sources, such as secondary readings, critics, and other scholarly opinions in various fields, you need to acknowledge them. Unacknowledged critical material which is passed off as your own original reading counts as a form of misrepresentation, and is a serious academic offence which can actually turn up on the Turnitin check.
• Again, while I do not dictate the line of argument for students to explore or go along, I expect students to refrain from consulting each other about the topics they are doing together so as to avoid them writing whole paragraphs and sentences which read as the same. (Such a case once emerged with two students in a medieval class, and I had to verify it with the department graduate head in my graduate university at Calgary, who could not find evidence of plagiarism online despite the two essays reading as the same in at least one to two paragraphs.)
• The average word length for the mid-term essay would be around 1000-1500 words, while the word length for the final term paper would be around 2000-2500 words. There is allowance for exceeding the word length by around 10-15%, but I do not recommend doing so. The hallmark of good writing is the ability to write concise and succinct papers which answer the questions you have asked directly and clearly, and if you are actually taking way more than you really need to answer a critical query, it reflects on the quality of writing badly.
• Your essays should have the question at the top on the first page, below the header which has your name and/or matriculation number.
• Footnotes and bibliography are not counted in the word count. (Ideally, even despite that, I recommend that before submission, you should do a word count beforehand.) Most students used to do printed copies and submitted them to me in person before the deadline, but in the event of Turnitin now being the norm, I expect that to change, and online submissions will be the norm.
• Essay topics need not be among the ones which I have provided. You can email me in advance to check. For example, if you have done a presentation on the gender politics underlying “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and it is not in the topics provided, you are free to expand that topic into an essay proper. In all matters of doubt, just let me know and verify with me.
• Please do not wait till the day itself to ask for a deadline extension, because this is extremely unfair to the other students who have worked very hard to meet the deadlines for this course and other courses. You should ideally ask for a deadline extension at least 24 hours in advance. In the event of an absence of notification, for every day that you hold back on the submission, there is an automatic deduction of the grade by 5 points (an A becomes an A-, a B+ to a B, etcetera).
• The use of AI and any other form of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT and Deep Seek is not allowed. Generative AI does not work well in the humanities and social sciences, and has a tendency towards errors and inaccuracies (including the citations and formatting), and sometimes, it might even generate new passages and pass them off as part of the texts of study proper. If you really need to use generative AI in any capacity, please seek permission from me first before doing so.

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