Еще менее века тому назад филологи располагали весьма скудными сведениями о Томасе Мэлори

4. The concept of the chivalric ideal of Malory and its reflection in the system of images of the novel
The ancient Celts had a very developed cult of heroes. Semi-historical characters, for example, the Celtic king of the 6th century. BC e. Ambiga, or warlords Bellovez and Segovez, very quickly became the heroes of folk legends. This is how the Celtic epic legends developed, the monuments of which are best preserved in Ireland, which was less exposed to foreign influences than other Celtic regions . There is no direct road from the Irish heroic epic to the Arthurian legends, but there is certainly a certain connection between the heroes of Irish and Arthurian legends.
Of the heroes of Irish mythology and the Irish folk epic, King Ulada Conchobar is closest to Arthur. His wisdom and justice are reminiscent of Arthur's analogous qualities, and his court at Emain Maha, consisting of the most valiant and most glorious knights, is Arthur's Camelot. Here is a description of the reign of Conchobar from the saga "Wooing to Emsr": "There once lived a great and glorious king in Emain Maha, Conchobar, the son of Fahtna Fatah. Wealth and wealth were in abundance at the ulads while he ruled. There was peace then, calmness and everything people - good greetings. There was plenty of fruit and every harvest, as well as the harvest of the sea. There was contentment, justice and good dominion over the people of Ireland during all this time. In the royal house in Emain there was splendor, pomp and all abundance ²⁷. " What follows is a description of the royal palace, striking in its splendor and reasonable planning. Noisy meals were often held in the palace, in which all the glorious warriors of the kingdom took part: “Truly, all the valiant warriors from among the men of Ulad found a place for themselves in the royal house during drinking, and yet there was no crowding. They were brilliant, stately, beautiful valiant warriors, people of Ulad, who gathered in this house. Many great meetings of all kinds and wondrous entertainments took place in it. There were games, music and singing, heroes showed feats of dexterity, poets sang their songs, harpists and musicians played their instruments ²⁸. " However, with all the striking resemblance to the court of Arthur, described in chivalric romances (even with the courts of sovereigns in the developed forms of the heroic epic), the court of Conchobar is more primitive and rude; it is not uncommon for sharp squabbles and fights, which was no longer possible in Camelot (at least in the Camelot of chivalric novels), where society was guided by the laws of courtly courtesy. This difference cannot surprise us, because the legends about Conchobar and the legends about King Arthur belong to different stages of cultural development - some arose in a primitive tribal environment, where the decomposition of the tribal system was just beginning, others - in the setting of an emerging feudal society. In the Irish sagas, we have before us the process of transition (through cyclization) from a heroic tale to a heroic epic; the historicity characteristic of the latter is only outlined in them. Irish sagas obviously formed before the Roman conquest and Christianization of the British Isles (Ireland was not conquered by the Romans), Arthurian legends arose later, they bear the imprint of Roman culture, Roman worldview. It is no coincidence that Conchobar is one of the kings of Ireland, while Arthur rules all of Britain, and in fact stands at the head of the entire Western world (which is why he was so often compared with Charlemagne in the art of the Middle Ages).
And other heroes of Arthurian legends find their analogues in the Irish epic. The same Conchobar in the saga "The Expulsion of the Sons of Usnech" is a parallel to King Mark in the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The most popular hero of the ancient Irish, Cuchulainn, may be compared with the Gawain of the Arthurian cycle. And not only with him. Traits of Cuchulainn ("He possessed many gifts," says the saga "Wooing to Emer," first of all, the gift of wisdom (until fighting ardor took possession of him), then - the gift of exploits, the gift of playing different games on the board, the gift of counting, the gift of prophecy, the gift of insight. Cuchulainn had three faults: that he was too young, that he was too bold, and that he was too beautiful ²⁹. Percival.
It would be erroneous to say that the images of Cuchulainn or Conchobar, in the course of the development of the folk-epic tradition, formed the basis of the images of the heroes of Arthurian legends. The motives of heroic childhood, initiation, the search for a distant bride, the fight against a monster, and so on, characteristic of both of them, are the essential components of the biography of an epic hero. Thus, only the general pattern is repeated in the Arthurian tales.