As the legendary King of Brittany, Arthur has always fascinated authors and artists who, from the earliest novels about the Round Table to their more modern adaptations, have perpetually related his amazing destiny in writings and in film.

How did this 6th-century Breton sovereign become the central character of a vast literary and artistic cycle still being fuelled today? How and why did he earn a place in the pantheon of mythical figures? The challenge presented by this journey with Arthur was to establish the "birth certificate" of the Arthurian myth – a primarily literary myth whose main components were already emerging in the 12th century's founding texts, notably in Historia regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth (1135-1138) and its French adaptation, Roman de Brut by Wace (1155). Readers are invited to follow King Arthur's rise to the rank of mythical hero via the various stages of his heroic biography, from the magical birth of Brittany's great king to his glorious reign and his early death, steeped in mystery.

Laurence Mathey-Maille, an École normale supérieure graduate with a PhD from Sorbonne nouvelle, is a Professor of Language and Literature of the Middle Ages at Université du Havre. She has published several studies on the founding texts of Arthurian literature and on Anglo-Norman historiography.