BLACK IN CAMELOT (ver.3.5)1 Mythcon 46, Mythopoeic Society, Colorado Springs, CO, August 1, 2015 by Kris Swank, Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona (kswank@pima.edu) Detail from The Abbreviatio Domesday Book of 1241.2 When the television program Merlin debuted on BBC One in September 2008, viewers quickly noted that a number of key roles were played by actors of African, Middle Eastern and Latin American heritage, including the lead roles of Guinevere and Lancelot. The reaction to this multi-ethnic casting was mixed. The following two quotations are typical. On the one hand was the reaction of Internet blogger, “Eurasian Sensation”:  “It seems like a blatantly PC move which flouts any notion of historical accuracy. Well, maybe not historical accuracy per se, since Merlin is pure fantasy, but you know what I mean. You wouldn't throw random European actors into Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to play Chinese noblemen, so why do the equivalent here? Since it is apparently 1 An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the “Tales After Tolkien: Medievalism and Twenty-First Century Fantasy Literature Panel II,” 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 12 May 2013. 2 The Abbreviatio Domesday Book of 1241 includes an illustration of a black man from an account for Derby. “Africans in Medieval Britain.” The Decrypters (television program). National Geographic Channel. video.nationalgeographic.com. [2012?] Video.  2 set in Britain circa the 5th Century AD, surely they should try and capture the feel of the era. Back then, ethnic diversity meant the Angles and the Saxons” (Eurasian Sensation). On the other hand, New York Times’ reviewer Alessandra Stanley commented that Arthurian legend  “is eternally reworked to suit the sensibilities of the age” and that the BBC’s Merlin “is tailored to the age of Obama…[where] Merry Olde England looks a little like a White House cabinet meeting: there is a lot more diversity to the realm than just Britons and Saxons” (C1). However, both detractors and supporters, alike, failed to recognize that an all-white Camelot is, itself, a fiction of the modern age. The presence of Africans in early Britain and continental Europe is attested in both archeological and historical records. While “Saracens and “Moors” are featured in several medieval Arthurian romances. Whether intentionally or coincidentally, the BBC’s Merlin, and other 21st century Arthurian adaptations which include non-white or at least non-English characters, are participating in centuries’-old tradition. This presentation will explore the tradition of racial and ethnic diversity in Arthurian legend by examining three major topics:  First, the historical evidence  Second, the medieval Arthurian texts  and Third, 21st century Arthurian-themed television and film An outline and a lesson plan based on a much shorter version of this paper is available for free download at my Academia.edu website. But today’s presentation is almost 3-times longer than those versions, with more theory and more examples from both the medieval and contemporary eras.  3 I. Historical and Archeological Evidence. I.A. Historical “Moors” Paul Edwards, the inaugural Chair in English and African Literature at Edinburgh University wrote, “There is clear evidence of Africans resident in Britain from the Romano-British period” (1). For instance, stone inscriptions from around 200 A.D. at Hadrian’s Wall record the presence an auxiliary unit of Moors stationed near Carlisle (Edwards 1); and a tombstone found on the Wall records the death of one “Victor, aged 20, of the Moorish nation” (Edwards 1). The biography of Roman Emperor Septimus Severus (146-211 A.D) includes the description of an encounter with an Ethiopian soldier “who was famous among buffoons and always a notable jester”; and the emperor was “troubled […] by the man’s ominous color” (Edwards 1). Upon discharge, many soldiers simply continued to live where they had served (Leach 131); and there’s evidence of an early Afro-Romano-British community in York [the Roman Eboracum] (Edwards 1-2). In fact, in 2010, researchers from the University of Reading studying skeletal remains from the 4th century Roman legionary fortress at York determined the remains were possibly those of a black or mixed-race woman from North Africa. I was in York earlier this month and viewed her skeleton and grave goods myself. She was buried with luxury items: jet and elephant ivory bracelets, a blue glass-jar for cosmetics or perfumes, a glass mirror, and a possibly Christian inscription, all indicating that she was very affluent and possibly have been a Christian (Leach, 134-5). Maghan Keita noted that “The African in medieval Europe is […also] referenced extensively in the primary sources” (“Saracens” 66). 9th century Irish annals and a 13th century history of the Earls of Orkney both record the presence of Black slaves arriving from Islamic Spain. Medieval Irish scribes refer to these as blamanna (literally ‘blue men’) (Keita “Race” 134; Edwards 4). Researchers from the University of Dundee have determined that a 13th century skeleton buried on the grounds of a former Carmelite priory in Ipswitch belonged to a man originally from Tunisia. Researcher Xanthe Mallett said, he "would have had to have been of some note to be buried in the friary" (“Medieval African Discovered”).  4 And from the late 15th and 16th century, several “Blackamoors” lived at the English and Scottish courts. The Scottish kings of the period had several African servants with names like “Petir the Moryen” or “Pete the More” and Elen More (the analog of the character from Susanna Clarke’s novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, an orphaned slave boy who was dubbed “Stephen Black”). Edwards argues that the kings’ gifts to these servants – Oriental cloth, a pension, the freedom of movement – give the impression of honored retainers, treated no differently than other people at court in the early 16th century (Edwards 8-9, 12). A study published in 2007 revealed a rare genetic marker of West African origin in eight Yorkshire men who shared the same rare Yorkshire surname, and whose most recent common ancestors lived in the late 18th century. This was the first genetic evidence of a long-lived (though tiny) enduring African presence within the “indigenous” British population (King). So, while not shown to be present in large numbers, these representative cases demonstrate that there were Africans and their descendants living in the British Isles during both the Roman and Medieval periods, and they occupied various social positions, including some of considerable standing. I.B. Imagined Moors At the same time, a few Moorish characters were part of the popular culture: one of the three Magi who visited Christ at his nativity; Prester John, the legendary Eastern Christian king; and Saint Maurice, (or Mauritius) remembered as a 3rd century Christian Roman soldier from Egypt who chose martyrdom rather than attack fellow Christians. “The Latin word Mauritius meant ‘black African’ or ‘Moor,’ which might suggest that Mauritius… was a composite person of legend rather than a single individual” (“Christian Warrior Saints,” 2011). There was also the black-masked devil, a stock character in popular medieval English theater, who, with his little demon “boyes blo and blake,” would goad sinners into hell with their pitchforks (Edwards 7).  5 I.C. Historical “Saracens” As for “Saracens,” the kingdoms of Islamic Iberia had contact with France and England at least as early as the time of Charlemagne. 10th – 13th century Arabic accounts make it clear that Iberian Muslim merchants, envoys, and raiders ventured into the Atlantic at least as far as the British Isles (see Metlitzki 121-24). In one example, 13th century chronicler Ibn Dihyah wrote of “a curious account of [a 9th century] embassy ‘to a great island in the Encircling Ocean . . . three days’ sailing, or 300 miles, from the mainland.” According to the account, “the arrival of the Saracen ambassadors caused a stir among the people who came running to stare at them” (Metlitzki 20-21). Then, of course, there was the cross-cultural contact brought about by the Christian crusades to the Holy Land, in the 11th thru 13th centuries. I.D. Imagined Saracens “Saracens” also appear in the stories of the era, but, as Donald Hoffman wrote, “Exactly who the Saracens were thought to have been differs widely […],” they could be Syrians, Arabs, Sicilian or Iberian Muslims (43). Cohen writes that “Saracen” was “a mobile category which could be made to encompass almost any non-Latin Christian [especially Arab Christians, 137]. Jews, for example, were always in danger of being conflated with Muslims” (134). And, Dorothee Metlitzki writes, “By the twelfth century Saracen was a generic name for any attacker” (126). For example, in the Chanson de Roland, the “Saracens” are attackers from Islamic Iberia. For Laƺamon, a Christian monk writing in 12th century England, heathen Saxons worshipped Saracen gods (Metlitzki 119, 121). And, King Horn, an early 13th century Middle English chivalric romance describes “Sarazin” raids in which the “Saracens” have often been interpreted to actually have been inspired by Viking raiders (Metlitzki 120). As Hoffman wrote, “Whoever the ‘Saracens’ were, they were always someone else […] E. Jane Burns defines the problem with admirable clarity: ‘In addition to its more common meaning as “pagan” or “Muslim,” the term “Saracen” in many Old French literary texts simply means “not French”’ […] to which Malory might add ‘not English’ (43),”3 and we might also add “not Christian” 3 E. Jane Burns, ‘Saracen Silk and the Virgin’s Chemise: Cultural Crossings in Cloth.’ Speculum 81 (April 2006): 376, as quoted in Hoffman.  6 (especially Latin Christian). The Sultan of Babylon (a Charlemagne text from around 1400), captures the dilemma succinctly; it says some Saracens are “bloo, some yolowe, some blake as More.” Added to that, the Saracen was also often depicted as a churlish giant (White 194), for example, the Ethiopian “giant Estragote, a footsoldier in the [Sowdone of Babylon]’s army, […]is barely human with its dark skin, boar’s head, and monstrous strength” (Cohen 126).4 Vernagu, in Rouland and Vernagu, was forty feet tall, fifteen feet broad, measured four feet across the face, and had a formidable nose: he looked lothliche, and was swart as pitch”.5 Moors and Saracens, then, were present, in both reality and imagination, in the very countries and time periods where Arthurian legends and romances developed. It should be no surprise that both Moors and Saracens appeared in the medieval legends of King Arthur. II. Arthurian Examples II.A. The Turke and Sir Gawain (The Celtic “Other”) In The Art of Fiction, John Gardner set a (now famous) exercise for the aspiring writer: begin a novel with “either a trip or the arrival of a stranger (some disruption of order…)” (203). The Turke and Sir Gawain, a Middle English romance explores a motif that Gardner would have recognized well: the arrival of a stranger who disrupts the order of Arthur’s banquet hall. In this story, the stranger is described as “. . .not hye, but he was broad, And like a Turke he was made Both legg and thye” (Hahn, Turke, lines 12-15, emphasis added). 4 Sowdone of Babylon, late 14th or early 15th century, East Midlands 5 Rouland and Vernagu, before 1330, East Midlands.  7 He is “like a Turke” –short, broad, strong of leg and thigh. No other physical description is given. Thomas Hahn, the poem’s modern-day editor, argues that “the categorical term ‘Turk’ operates as an indeterminate Orientalist stereotype of difference and exoticism”; like ‘Saracen,’ the term ‘Turk’ defines otherness, but not necessarily an Oriental otherness. The stranger proposes an exchange of blows, which Gawain accepts. Gawain strikes his blow, but the Turke defers his, charging Gawain to follow him out into the world, out into the wild— “He led Sir Gawaine to a hill soe plaine. The earth opened and closed againe - Then Gawaine was adread.” (lines 66-68) The pair enters the hill, and comes upon a deserted castle, where a sumptuous meal has been laid out in the hall. These are decidedly Celtic Otherworld Journey motifs. Next, Gawain and the Turke take a boat to the Isle of Man, traditionally, a Celtic territory. Aisling Byrne writes that “Medieval English writers typically depict […] territories of the Celtic world either as areas of wildness and threat, or as realms of magical and otherworldly significance” (42). Gawain and the Turke battle the King of Man—“a heathen soldan” [sultan] who is protected by a company of “giants strong and stout” (lines 130 & 132). Gawain defeats the Sultan but only with the help of the Turke, who has super-human strength, agility, and (conveniently), a cloak of invisibility. Then, instead of delivering his blow to Gawain, as is his right, the Turke begs Gawain to behead him with a magical sword. In doing so, Gawain releases the Turke from an enchantment, because, as it turns out, the Turke was really the English (and Christian) knight, Sir Gromer, suffering under a Fée enchantment. The two return to Arthur’s court, and Arthur appoints Sir Gromer as the new King of the Isle of Man. The plot of The Turke and Sir Gawain, as you might have noticed, has quite a bit in common with another Middle English romance, Gawain and the Green Knight: the Beheading Game,  8 the journey to a Celtic Otherworld, super-strong giants, and a Christian knight under a fairy enchantment. The “Turkish” element has simply been laid on top of, what is at heart, a Celtic fairytale. In his article, “The Intruder at the Feast,” Byrne writes that in these two Middle English romances (and other similar tales), “[Arthur’s] court embodies civilization, rationality, order, peace […] intruded on by forces of wildness, conflict, churlishness and the unknown” (34). With Arthur’s appointment of the Turke/Sir Gromer as the new king of the Isle of Man, “the outlying Celtic territory which the poem has portrayed as a land of savagery and magic is absorbed into a single British identity” under Arthur’s control (Byrne 46). Arthur’s lands are the civilized center; traditionally “Celtic” lands are the uncivilized wild (not French, not English, and not Christian). By civilizing and assimilating the Turkish (or Giant Green) “Other” (the surrogate of the Celtic Otherworld), the entire Celtic realm is thereby civilized and assimilated into Arthur’s realm. II.B. Malory. Le Morte Darthur. The Arthurian legends derived from French sources have a similar imperial ambition: to civilize and assimilate the dangerous “Other” – but their worldview extends far beyond the British Isles. II.B.1. Priamus. Sir Thomas Malory, wrote his Morte Darthur in the 15th century. In one of the stories, “Of King Arthur and the Emperor Lucius,” Arthur’s chieftains hale from Western Europe, including Celtic lands, while on the side of the Roman Emperor are the “Saracen” rulers of the East, as well as traditionally Jewish Nazareth & Galilee, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian Greece and Macedonia (Malory 116-117). Hoffman writes, “The alliances in Malory and the Morte seem to reflect a prejudice against the South, the Mediterranean countries, in addition to the expected prejudice against Asian and African nations” (44), “[for] the schism [between Latin West and Orthodox East] hardly made the Christian East much more acceptable than the Mohammedan alternative” (Hoffman 45-46). Lucius may be the Emperor of Rome, but it is the “wrong Rome”: Constantinople. And Lucius is the wrong kind of Christian: Eastern Orthodox—in other words, “not French, not English, and not (Latin) Christian.”  9 In Malory’s story, Gawain (again) is riding in the wild where he encounters a mounted knight: Priamus, a prince of Tuscany, from the noble bloodlines of Alexander the Great, Hector of Troy, Judas Maccabeus and Joshua, he says, I am “of Alysaundir and of Aufryke and of all the Oute Iles” (Malory 137), in other words, he is the surrogate of the entire Mediterranean. Arthur agrees to baptize Priamus as a (Latin) Christian and make him a knight of the Round Table, if he will help Arthur defeat the Emperor Lucius and his allies. This, Priamus does. Peter Goodrich writes, “It has been the habit of some commentators to refer to Priamus as a Saracen, but nowhere does Malory identify him as such, nor does Priamus show any sympathy for his supposed fellow Saracens” (14). Hoffman calls Priamus a “quasi-Saracen,” a representative of all that is noble about the East (48), while Keita argues that Priamus, “declares himself to be an African” (70). But in the end, that he is “not French, not English, and not (Latin) Christian” is all that matters. Like the Green Knight and the Turke “Priamus is subsumed in the Arthurian orbit and the supremacy of the West is once again established, thus neutralizing the threat of […] the Other” (Hoffman 48). By assimilating this one guy, Malory subsumes the entire Mediterranean basin–Muslim, pagan, Jewish, and Orthox Christian–all under Arthur’s control. II.B.2 Palomides. Sir Palomides, the Saracen Prince and son of the Sultan of Babylon, first appears in the 13th century French Prose Tristan (Lupack, 3878), where he is a knight at the court of Isolde’s father, the King of Ireland. He is referred to as the “Black Knight” (Keita “Race” 134) for his appearance at a tournament as “wearing a black shield and two swords” (Keita “Saracens” 68). Keita argues that this sobriquet refers not only to his ‘noeres armes’ (black armaments), but also his Africanness (Keita “Race” 134). But it is from Malory’s 15th century Morte D’Arthur that Palomides is best known to readers of English (Lupack, 388). We know this 15th century image is Palomides because in Malory he bears a “checky” shield of “whyte and blacke.”  10 (Image source: Evrard d’Espingues. Le Rommans de Tristan et de la Royne Yseult la blone royne de Cornoaille, MS illuminations. 1463, http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/feuille/palamede/) But is Malory’s Palomides black? Scholars do not agree. Hoffman states that “Skin color is never mentioned [in Malory]” (49). In these 15th century manuscript illuminations, Palomides appears to have the same skin color as everyone else from Arthur’s court. (Images source: Evrard d’Espingues. Le Rommans de Tristan et de la Royne Yseult la blone royne de Cornoaille, MS illuminations. 1463, http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/feuille/palamede/) But Keita claims that “the Saracen [in medieval literature] can be characterized as African” (68). And indeed, there are many medieval illustrations of Saracens with skin color that is dark  11 brown, or blue, which is, according to Clark, “a color often substituted for dark gray, brown or black in medieval art” (65). (Image source: “Chess game between a [brown] Saracen and a white man.” Book of Chess of Alfonso X the Wise. 13thc. In Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Karen C. C. Dalton. The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of Discovery": From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Reprinted in ARTstor. 23 Apr. 2013) (Image source: Gratian. “White soldier armed with a lance, fighting a black Saracen on horseback.” Decretum Gratiani . 14th c. In Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Karen C. C. Dalton. The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of  12 Discovery": From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Reprinted in ARTstor. 23 Apr. 2013) (Images source: “Imaginary encounter between Richard I and [a blue] Saladin,” 13thc. Wikimedia Commons. 06 October 2008. Image. 23 Apr 2013.) But regardless of whether or not Palomides’ skin was dark, he is clearly labelled a “Saracen,” and treated as an “alien Other. In fact, he is doubly “othered,” being not only Saracen but also a member of the Celtic Irish court. Armstrong points out that Palomides’ great friend and rival, Tristram, is himself a Celtic Other. She writes, “Malory's text tells us constantly […] that the court of Cornwall is far inferior to that of Arthur, repeatedly, knights of the Round Table scoff at the abilities of Cornish knights” (199). "For I wyste nevir good knyght com oute of Cornwayle hut yf hit were sir Trystram" (Malory 555.20-22). There is a “continuum of Otherness […] based upon the idea of [Arthur’s court, King Arthur himself]” (Armstrong 182), at the center, Celtic knights further out, Palomides and his Saracen-born father and brothers even further out. Despite Palomides prowess at arms—he ranks just behind Lancelot and Lamerok at the Tournament of Surluse—Palomides is never counted among Arthur’s best knights. In fact, Arthur bursts out, “A Jesu!...this is a grete dispite that such a Saryson shall smyte downe my blood!” (Malory 2.663).  13 Palomides is not always an honorable character, though, acting out several Orientalist stereotypes: he lusts after Isolde and abducts her; he is sometimes effeminate; and he behaves in an unchivalrous manner at a tournament (Hoffman 50). Palomides’ duality is manifest in that “checky” shield of “whyght and blacke” (Malory, 330) . Lani Visaisouk studied the heraldry in the Morte and concluded that Malory used shield colors as a form of symbolism (23): white for purity, black for impurity, evil or death (25-26). Visaisouk writes, “Palomides’ usual checky brings to mind a paradox, or perhaps a checkered character, a knight with both good and bad qualities… [a] dual nature…” (Visaisouk, 27-28). Palomides is, however, eventually invited to join the Round Table but only after he agrees to Christian baptism. But almost the same moment Palomides is baptized, Galahad arrives and initiates the Quest for the Grail. Palomides does not join that quest, but instead leaves court to pursue the Questing Beast (a notably fruitless endeavor). He then largely disappears from the rest of Malory’s text. Hoffman says “Thus he is no sooner assimilated into Camelot then he is erased, an outsider and an alien once again, praised and neglected, Christian and forgotten” (58). And Lupack remarks that Palomides remains “someone who is on the fringes of Arthurian society, if not totally alien to it” (389). II.C. Parzival Parzival is an earlier text, written in the first fifteen years of the 13th century by the Bavarian poet-knight Wolfram von Eschenbach. Basically corresponding to the late 12th century French Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram adds two “prequel” chapters focusing on the life and death of Perceval’s father, as well as three chapters that conclude the action left unfinished by Chrétien. Wolfram’s poem also deals with several black or ethnically Other characters. Parzival’s first English translator, Jesse Weston, wrote “The German poem is, throughout, remarkable for the wide spirit of tolerance displayed towards those outside the Christian pale” (Vol. I, Bk. IX, note for line 259).  14 According to this story, the Angevin prince Gamuret marries the Moorish Queen Belakané after defending her African kingdom from invaders. Her skin and hair color, and that of her people, are repeatedly emphasized—“dusky,” “black as the night,” “raven headed”—as is the difference in their religions—heathen and Christian. Gamuret eventually abandons her, not knowing she is pregnant with his son. Gamuret returns to Europe, marries a Christian princess and fathers Parzival. Belakané’s son, Feirefis, grows up and travels to Europe to seek his father. Eventually, he meets Parzival is invited to meet Arthur. Feirefis’ mixed-race is manifested on his very skin. The embodiment of Palomides’ “checky shield,” Feirefis is born “as a magpie the hue of his face and hair” (Vol. I, Bk. I, line 906), born at once “dark and light,” “black and white” (Vol. I, Bk. I, line 901 & 902). He is described as having “spots in his skin” (Vol. II, Bk. XVI, line 400), so perhaps we are meant to think of a person with vitiligo (pic of Sembene McFarland), the skin condition that causes dark-skin to have light patches. By the time of his meeting with Parzival, “Feirefiz, though a heathen, is possibly the most powerful man in the world” (Keita, “Race,” 186), for he has inherited Africa from his mother, India from his first wife, and has conquered by his own hand much of the East. He is also fabulously wealthy: his armor is encrusted with precious jewels. Arthur invites Feirefis to join the Round Table. Not long thereafter, Feirefis falls in love with the Grail Maiden, Répanse de Schoie, and converts to Christianity in order to be with her. Note the order here: Feirefis is invited to join the Round Table first, while still a pagan. This, I believe, is a unique case in Arthurian literature. As we’ve seen, the Round Table happily colonizes outsiders—but only after they are baptized or disenchanted back into Christians. But Feirefis is invited to the Round Table while still a pagan! That he is Gamuret’s son, and already half-French, may have been a factor, but Arthur’s preoccupation with Feirefis’ jewels doesn’t seem to hurt either. Keita writes, “The union of Feirefiz and Repanse […] is representative of the union of East and West” (“Race,” 136). The Grail charges Feirefis to return to the East and convert the people there. The supremacy of the West (and Christianity) is once again established, and the threat of the alien Other is neutralized once again by subsuming a representative Other into the  15 Arthurian orbit, this time to encompass all the lands under Feirefis’ rule, which include Africa, India and the East. The German poem may display tolerance towards those outside the Christian pale, but, by the end, even they have been brought inside of it. II.D. The Romance of Morien I will conclude this second section of the presentation with the protagonist of a little-known Arthurian poem. The Romance of Morien is extant in 5,000-lines of a single early 14th century Dutch MS of the Lancelot. It was possibly translated from an earlier French original, and “none of the adventures it relates are preserved in any English text” (Weston). However, Morien’s story is so similar to that of Feirefis in Wolfram’s Parzival that one must have influenced the other, or they were both derived from a common source (again, possibly French). In this story, Perceval’s brother, Sir Agloval, has a liaison with a Moorish princess while questing in the Land of the Moors. Agloval returns to Europe, unaware he has left the princess pregnant with a son, Morien, who, unlike Feirefis, is born “all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth. His shield and his armour were even those of a Moor, and black as a raven” (Weston 8). Thirteen years later, Morien, now a self-made knight, seeks his father in Europe to ask his aid in restoring his usurped mother to her throne. There he meets Gawain and Lancelot in the wilderness. Like Saint Maurice, the name “Morien” is derived from the word “Moor.” And as Belakané’s blackness is recurrently emphasized in Parzival, so is Morien’s, but here, blackness is much more explicitly linked to the devil, at least in the minds of the people who encounter Morien for the first time. He is variously described as: o “black as a raven” (Weston, 8). o “black as pitch” and “ black as burnt brands” (Weston, 10). o Gawain, at first, “deemed that [he] was a devil” (Weston, 8). o And, the common folk who see him, “deemed they had seen the Foul Fiend himself” (Weston, 23), despite the fact that Morien has been raised as a Christian.  16 Morien is also noted for his size and strength, in terms that equate him with Saracen giants:  “He was taller even than Sir Lancelot, and black withal” (Weston)  He seemed to them so huge, and black withal” (Weston)  “He was taller by half a foot than any knight who stood beside him, and as yet he was scarce more than a child” (Weston).  “he was so huge, and had shipped his steed [i.e. carried his horse aboard a boat], which was in seeming over-strong” (Weston). Morien is presented as uncouth, savage even. When he first encounters Gawain and Lancelot, he challenges them to fight. A common practice in medieval Arthurian tales, but here, one which Gawain criticizes: “Tis an ill custom this to which ye are given […] Had ye but asked in courteous wise that which ye have a mind to know, this knight had […] answered ye right goodwill” (Weston 17%). Cathy Darrup writes, Morien’s “blackness (like his aggressive behavior and menacing speech) is fearsome to the other characters […] he is perceived as bestial and violent […] the sexual, aggressive, pugnacious ‘savage’ on the one hand and the delicate, fragile and exotic ‘oriental’ on the other” (Darrup 20). Notice that it is Gawain who instructs Morien how to behave courteously; once again, Gawain is the conduit by which the wild and churlish “Other” is civilized. After a few minor adventures, the father and son are united, and Agloval agrees to return with Morien to the Land of the Moors, marry Morien’s mother, and help her regain her throne. Darrup writes, “Even though the Mariaen treats the black-skinned foreigner with some compassion, he is ultimately shown the door, never, presumably, to return” (22). Wrap-up. There are a few other minor characters whose names intriguingly point to “blackness,” or at least, ethnic “otherness”—Sir Klias “the Greek” and the Turkowit, both in Wolfram’s Parzival, and the brothers Sir Maurel and Sir Mores mentioned only once and  17 posthumously in Malory’s Morte, both of whose names, like Morien’s, are derived from the word “Moor.” In medieval Arthurian romances—whether of Middle English, French, German or Dutch origin—the function of the racially and ethnically different characters is—to put it plainly—to be colonized, assimilated, along with the territories they represent, under Arthur’s dominion. The black knights, once integrated, then slip quietly into oblivion: Priamus is sent off to France to govern on behalf of Arthur; Palomides disappears in pursuit of the Questing Beast, only to return briefly in Malory’s final battle to die unceremoniously, on the losing side; Feirefis and Morien return from whence they came, taking Arthur’s (and Christianity’s) standard with them. The two dark queens, the mothers of Morien & Feirifis, are always geographically remote. Neither one ever comes to Camelot, or even steps foot in Europe. But their African kingdoms are both secured by the intervention of white, European Arthurian knights, Gamuret and Agloval. If medieval Arthurian romances were a television series, the “black” characters would be “guest stars of the week” rather than playing leading, or even recurring roles like Gawain and Lancelot. The “black” or “foreign” characters come onto screen for a single adventure each, and then disappear once those adventures are completed. III. Contemporary Depictions. Whether they realize it or not, contemporary Arthurian TV & film which cast dark-skinned, or “othered” characters are largely re-enacting these same roles:  Kira Knightly, Ben Kingsley’s Ambrosius: “The Celtic Other”  18  Iowen Gryffd’s, Santiago Cabrera’s, and Once Upon a Time’s Lancelots as “The Pagan/Saracen Other”  Gwen’s Brother &, Whoopie Goldberg, Martin Lawrence, & Once Upon a Time’s Lancelot as “The Black Knight”  Batiatus & Ulfius as “Maurel & Mores”: “The Expendable Other”  Gwen, Guinevere & Aiysa as “Queen of the Moors”  Ben Kingsley’s Ambrosius, Djaimon Honsu’s Bedevere in King Arthur, and Once Upon a Time’s Merlin as “Magical Other” Of the dozen or so 21st-Century, English-language films and TV series based on medieval Arthurian legend only a handful have significant casting of People of Color (PoCs). III.A. The Last Legion (2007) is an Arthurian prequel set in the 5th century, at the end of the Western Roman Empire.  Nonso Anozie portrays the Roman legionary, Batiatus. He stands in the background, speaks little, excels in battle, however while much-less experienced white warriors survive the film’s climactic battle, Batiatus is killed. Silent Giant trope. Like Sinbad movies, Nasir in Robin of Sherwood, and early Dr. Who. Black men without a voice.  Anglo-Indian actor Ben Kingsley plays the Merlin-figure, Ambrosius. Though British, he is well-traveled and lived in late Roman Italy where he was tutor to boy-emperor. Exotic. Mysterious. Dark.  Aishwarya Rai plays the romantic lead, Mira, a woman warrior from India. Like the Moorish queens of mediaeval romance, she is exotic, an object of desire – but she is actually the only Person of Color who survives the events of the film and becomes fully-integrated into British society.  “Saracen giant (incorporated), Enamoured “Muslim” princess, Defeated Sultan”  19 III.B. Camelot (2011) was a 10-episode series on the Starz network.  Jamie Downey plays Arthur’s knight, Ulfius. [Slide: You can see him here standing behind Arthur, where he stays throughout the series.] Like Batiatus from The Last Legion, Ulfius remains in the background, speaks little, has no featured storyline, and is killed in the climactic battle at the end of the series. (“Saracen giant”)  Chipo Chung, an actress from Tanzania & Zimbabwe, plays Morgan’s servant Vivian. Vivian tells Morgan that her family was brought to England by the Romans hundreds of years ago as slaves, and remained when the Romans left. But instead of making her Romanized, or even Anglicized, the producers of Camelot decided to emphasize her African “otherness” – including facial tattooing & speaking with an African accent, despite the fact that her ancestors have lived in Britain for hundreds of years. III.C. Merlin is a series on BBC television which lasted 5 seasons (2008-2013).  As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, its cast included several People of Color in key roles, not just as background or supporting players.  We have seen Dark Queens and Black Knights as far back as medieval Arthurian romances but they were all born to nobility. It is notable that in Merlin, these characters are portrayed as commoners who must climb up the social ladder.  Lancelot (played by Chilean-born actor Santiago Cabrera) is not portrayed as the son of a king, or of the Lady of the Lake, but as a village orphan. And he is killed before Guinevere and Arthur even marry. Thus he is excised from the central role Lancelot has held in Arthurian legend since the 12th century.  Guinevere’s brother Elyan (played by Nigerian-born Adetomiwa Edun) begins as an itinerant blacksmith, eventually joins the Round Table knights, but when a prophecy requires a sacrifice, like Batiatus & Ulfius, Elyan is killed off.  Guinevere’s and Elyan’s father is executed when he is wrongly accused of sorcery. And two other black Round Table knights, Sir Ewan and Sir Pellinore, and killed after having just one speaking line.  20  And, it is noteworthy that television’s (and perhaps history’s) first mixed-race Guinevere (played by Anglo-Caribbean actress Angel Coulby) is also the first Guinevere not to be the daughter of a chieftain or a king, but to start as a serving maid, the daughter of a blacksmith.  This fact was not lost on Internet blogger Ankhesen Mié, who said— o “Once again, it shows how white people see people of color [POC]. To them, when telling a flattering story -well, what they consider a flattering story -of a POC, it has to be one of rise and triumph, with the POC's initial state being servile status… So the Brits wanted to present us with a Gwen of color? Fine. But they're clearly doing it for their benefit. Had they done it for our benefit, Gwen would've been introduced as a princess, daughter of a king and queen, worthy of open wooing and proper respect at all times from all characters.” III.D. Once Upon a Time is an American series on ABC television which has so far run 5 seasons (2010-2015). Arthur, Merlin and other characters have been mentioned, which establishes Camelot as one of the kingdoms in contact with The Enchanted Forest home of the show’s major characters. The first Camelot character presented was Lancelot, played by an African- American actor (Season 2. Episode 1.). The casting call for Lancelot specified the producers were looking for an actor of African descent, which was welcome to some viewers, as Once Upon a Time has had an overwhelmingly white cast. His initial story-arc is a tragic throwaway in service to the story arcs of the show’s major (all-white) characters. All of Lancelot’s heroic actions occur in flash-back and mostly off-screen. In a later season, more characters from Camelot were introduced, including a black Merlin and Portuguese Guinevere; Lancelot was resurrected. Throughout a half-season, their character arcs were completed and, like Morien and Fierifis, sent forever off-stage. III.E. Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur is the first entry in a proposed 6-film franchise and set to be released in the summer of 2017. What’s notable about this film for the current discussion is that initially it was reported that British-Black actor Idris Elba was being strongly  21 considered for the “Merlin” role in the film, a character here called Bedivere, but a deal never materialized. The role eventually went to French-Beninian actor Djimon Honsou, who is physically remarkably similar to Elba. This suggests that producers were seeking actors of a certain type for this role. Bedivere will train and mentor the young Arthur. In that, it appears he will be playing a similar role to the Merlin-esque Ambrosius played by Ben Kingsley in The Last Legion: a figure just bordering on the Orientalist stereotype of a mysterious, exotic warrior-mage who possesses arcane wisdom and cunning – a stranger who stands both within and outside of the local culture. But until we see the movie, this is highly speculative. Conclusion So not only is the presence of black and brown characters in 21st century Arthurian media consistent with medieval Arthurian literature, but their portrayal and treatment is also fairly consistent. Just as Morien, Feirefis and Palomides are geographically removed from the court of Camelot at the end of their stories, Batiatus, Ulfius, Elyan and Lancelot are removed by their deaths. It is the Dark Queens who have experienced the most change in their portrayal from medieval legend. While the mothers of Morien & Feirefis remain geographically remote from Arthur’s court, Mira in The Last Legion and Guinevere in the BBC’s Merlin begin as outsiders, but both manage to integrate into British ruling-class society. Hoffman said that Malory’s “Palomides the Saracen remains, whether assimilated or ultimately erased, as a shining example of Camelot’s failure to embrace difference fully, but [it is] an exceptional instance of its willingness to try” (61). Likewise, the handful of 21st century medieval Arthurian films and television programs which have chosen to incorporate black and brown characters are also exceptional – but they also fail to embrace difference fully. These characters frequently remain liminal – simultaneous insiders and outsiders, central yet marginal, brothers and aliens – with only a rare few fully integrating into Arthurian society. Like Palomides, Morien and Feirefis before them, the knights and queens of 21st century Arthurian media have discovered that to be Black in Camelot is still to be liminal.  22 SOURCES: “Africans in Medieval Britain.” The Decrypters (television program). National Geographic Channel. [2012?] Video. video.nationalgeographic.com . Armstrong, Dorsey. “Postcolonial Palomides: Malory’s Saracen Knight and the Unmaking of the Arthurian Community.” Exemplaria 18.1 (2006): 175-203. BBC One: Merlin. bbc.co.uk/merlin. 2013. Images. 23 Apr 2013. Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Karen C. C. Dalton. The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of Discovery": From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Burns, E. Jane. “Saracen Silk and the Virgin’s Chemise: Cultural Crossings in Cloth.” Speculum 81 (April 2006): 376- Byrne, Aisling. “The Intruder at the Feast: Negotiating Boundaries in Medieval Insular Romance.” Arthurian Literature XXVII. Ed. Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Boydell & Brewer, 2010: 33- Chandler, John H., ed. The King of Tars. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2015. Rpt. on Robbins Library Digital Projects: TEAMS Middle English Texts, University of Rochester. http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/chandler-the-king-of-tars. Chris 73. “Saint Maurice Magdeburg.” Wikimedia Commons. 11 December 2004. Image. "Christian Warrior Saints." World History Encyclopedia. Ed. Alfred J. Andrea and Carolyn Neel. Vol. 10: Era 5: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions, 1000-1500. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 586-587.  23 Clark, Willene B. A Medieval Book of Beasts: The Second-Family Bestiary. Commentary, Art, Text And Translation. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 2006. Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. “On Saracen Enjoyment: Some Fantasies of Race in Late Medieval France and England.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31:1 (Winter 2001): 113-146. Curry, Andrew. “A War Diary Soars Over Rome.” NationalGeographic.com. n.d. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/article.html. 30 May 2015. Darrup, Cathy C. "Gender, Skin Color, and the Power of Place in the Medieval Dutch Romance of Moriaen" Medieval Feminist Newsletter 27.1 (1999): 15-24. Rpt. on Medieval Feminist Forum, http://ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol27/iss1/6/. “Drawing of a reliquary bust of Fidis, Saint Maurice's sister, for the Abbey in Halle,” from Liber Ostensionis Hallesche Heiltumsbuch. c.1525-27. Image of the Black in Western Art (Harvard University). Rpt. in ARTstor. Image. 22 Apr. 2013. Edwards, Paul. The Early African Presence in the British Isles: An Inaugural Lecture on the Occasion of the Establishment of the Chair in English and African Literature at Edinburgh University. Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh University, 1990. http://www.cas.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/27297/No_026_The_early_Afri can_presence_in_the_British_Isles__Inaug.pdf 30 May 2015. Eurasian Sensation. “How Come There’s a Black Chick in ‘Merlin’?” 25 July 2009. Blogspot.com. Web. Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.  24 Goodrich, Peter H. “Saracens and Islamic Alterity in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur.” Arthuriana 16.4 (2006): 10-28. Hahn, Thomas, ed. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995. Rpt. on Robbins Library Digital Projects: TEAMS Middle English Texts, University of Rochester. http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/hahn-sir- gawain. Hoffman, Donald L. "Assimilating Saracens: The Aliens in Malory's Morte Darthur." Arthuriana 16.4 (2006): 43-64. “Julia Tertia.” Aaron Watson. Romans Revealed. University of Reading / Runnymede Trust. n.d. Image. 23 Apr 2013. www.romansrevealed.com/the-stories/julia-tertia.html. Keita, Maghan. “Race: What the Bookstore Hid.” Why the Middle Ages Matter: Medieval Light on Modern Injustice. Eds. Celia Chazelle, Simon Doubleday, Felice Lifshitz, and Amy G. Remensnyder. New York: Routledge, 2012: 130-140. —. "Saracens and Black Knights." Arthuriana 16.4 (2006): 65-77. King, T.E., et. al. “Africans in Yorkshire? The deepest-rooting clade of the Y phylogeny within an English genealogy.” European Journal of Human Genetics 15.3 (15 Mar 2007):288- 93. Rpt. on PubMed, 24 Jan 2007. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17245408. Leach, S. et al. "A Lady of York: Migration, Ethnicity And Identity In Roman Britain." Antiquity 84.323 (2010): 131-145. Loomis, Roger Sherman. “More Celtic Elements in Gawain and the Green Knight.” The Journal of English and German Philology 42.2 (April 1943): 149-184.  25 Lupack, Alan. “Palamedes.” The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, 387-94. Malory, Thomas. Complete Works. 2nd ed. Eugène Vinaver, trans. New York, Oxford University Press, 1971. “Medieval African Discovered in England.” Medieval News. 02 May 2010. Web. Merlin. Prod. Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. Perf. Colin Morgan, Bradley James and Angel Coulby. Cardiff: BBC Wales, 2008-2011. Television program. Metlitzki, Dorothee. The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977. Mié, Ankhesen. “The Queen of Camelot as a POC.” At the Bar. 03 July 2010. Web. Osborn, Marijane. Nine Medieval Romances of Magic: Re-rhymed in Modern English. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2010. “Richard versus Saladin [13th century].” Wikimedia Commons. 06 October 2008. Image. “Saint Maurice,” Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop, German, 1472-1553. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Eva F. Kollsman, 2005. Rpt. in ARTstor. Image. 23 Apr. 2013. Scobie, Edward. “The Black in Western Europe.” African Presence in Early Europe. Ed. Ivan Van Sertima. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1985. Snowden Jr., Frank M. Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970. Stanley, Alessandra. “Merlin: Once and Future Sorcerer.” New York Times [New York edition]. 19 June 2009. C1. Web.  26 Swinburne, Hilda. “Gahmuret and Feirefiz in Wolfram's ‘Parzival’.” Modern Language Review. 51.2 (April 1956): 195-202. Visaisouk, Lani. Heraldry and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. Master’s Thesis. University of Utrecht, 2006. Web. Weston, Jessie L. The Romance of Morien. London: David Nutt, 1901. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, 2005. Web. White, Beatrice. “Cain’s Kin.” The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays by a Group of Scholars in England Honouring the 75th Birthday of Katharine M. Briggs. Ed. Venetia Newall. Routledge, 2004; 2013: 188-199. Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival: A Knightly Epic, Vol. I. Trans., Jessie L. Weston. New York: G. E. Stechert & Co., 1912. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, 2007. Web. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47297. Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival: A Knightly Epic, Vol. II. Trans., Jessie L. Weston. New York: G. E. Stechert & Co., 1912. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, 2007. Web. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47298. 

BLACK AND LIMINAL IN CAMELOT1,2 by Kris Swank, Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona (Image source: “Africans in Medieval Britain.” The Decrypters (television program). National Geographic Channel. video.nationalgeographic.com. [2012?] Video. 17 June 2012.) When the television program Merlin debuted on BBC One in September 2008, viewers quickly noted that a number of key roles were played by actors of African, Middle Eastern and Latin American heritage, including the key roles of Guinevere and Lancelot. The reaction to this multi-ethnic casting was mixed. The following two quotes are typical of the objections and praises. An Internet blogger called “Eurasian Sensation” wrote: 1 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Non-commercial users are allowed to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and/or to adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, as long the following conditions are met: 1.) the original work must be attributed as “Black and Liminal in Camelot by Kris Swank, Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona”, 2.) For any reuse or distribution, the license terms of this work must be made clear to others, and 3.) derivative works must be shared alike under the same terms as this original work. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. Images are the property of the respective copyright holders. 2 This paper was originally delivered at the “Tales After Tolkien: Medievalism and Twenty-First Century Fantasy th Literature Panel II,” 48 International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, 12 May 2013.  2  “It seems like a blatantly PC move which flouts any notion of historical accuracy. Well, maybe not historical accuracy per se, since Merlin is pure fantasy, but you know what I mean. You wouldn't throw random European actors into Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to play Chinese noblemen, so why do the equivalent here? Since it is apparently set in Britain circa the 5th Century AD, surely they should try and capture the feel of the era. Back then, ethnic diversity meant the Angles and the Saxons” (Eurasian Sensation). On the other hand, New York Times’ journalist Alessandra Stanley commented that Arthurian legend  “is eternally reworked to suit the sensibilities of the age” and that the BBC’s Merlin “is tailored to the age of Obama…[where] Merry Olde England looks a little like a White House cabinet meeting: there is a lot more diversity to the realm than just Britons and Saxons” (C1). However, both detractors and supporters, alike, largely failed to recognize that an all-white Camelot is, itself, a fiction of the modern age. The presence of Africans in early Britain and continental Europe is attested in both archeological and historical records. While “Moors” and “Saracens” are also featured in several medieval Arthurian romances. So the BBC’s Merlin, and other 21st century adaptations of Arthurian legends which include Black characters, may be more historically accurate than is recognized in popular thought. But a related issue is how these characters are portrayed. While archeological and historical evidence suggests that people of African origin were integrated into real-life Roman and medieval British society, Black characters in both medieval and 21st century Arthurian fiction remain largely on the fringes: To be Black in Camelot is to occupy liminal spaces. Recent archeological and historical discoveries suggest Africans occupied a variety of social roles in Roman and medieval Britain. Here are a few examples:  3  Roman records mention an African soldier who served in 3rd century England (Snowden, 142 & 303). Scobie notes that Julius Caesar brought African legions to Germany (Scobie, 197). And Keita concludes that the Roman Empire “counted a significant number of Africans among its men-at-arms, a large and visible contingent of whom were stationed in Britain” (72).  Researchers from the University of Reading have determined that skeletal remains from the 4th century Roman legionary fortress in York were possibly those of a black or mixed-race woman from North Africa whose rich grave goods indicate she was affluent and possibly a Christian (Leach, 134-5). The study’s authors note that “North Africans are well documented in the epigraphic record of Roman Britain” (Leach, 137).  Researchers from the University of Dundee determined that a 13th century skeleton buried on the grounds of a former Carmelite priory in Ipswitch was that of a man originally from Tunisia. He "would have had to been [sic.] of some note to be buried in the friary," said researcher Xanthe Mallett (“Medieval African Discovered”, 2010).  The Abbreviatio Domesday Book of 1241 includes an illustration of a black man from an account for Derby (“Africans in Medieval Britain”).  The Times of London reported tax records from 15th century England identifying three people as black Africans (“Medieval African Discovered”, 2010). While not shown to be present in large numbers, these cases prove that there were Africans living in Britain during both the Roman and Medieval periods, and that they occupied various social positions, including some of considerable social standing. Saint Maurice (also known as Saint Mauritius) is remembered as a 3rd century Roman soldier from Egypt who chose martyrdom rather than attack fellow Christians. “The Latin word  4 Mauritius meant ‘black African’ or ‘Moor,’ which might suggest that Mauritius… was a composite person of legend rather than a single individual” (“Christian Warrior Saints,” 2011). The Germans of Magdeburg so revered St. Maurice that they invented a sister for him who they named Fidis, or “faith”. Africans were present, then, in reality and imagination, in the very countries where Arthurian legends and romances developed. It is understandable, then, that some dark-skinned knights and ladies were included in the medieval legends of King Arthur. Here are three examples. The Romance of Morien.  Morien is a metrical romance of about five thousand lines extant in a single 14th century Dutch manuscript of the Lancelot.  Like Saint Maurice, the name “Morien” is derived from the word “Moor”.  Morien is the son of Camelot’s Sir Agloval and a Moorish princess with whom he had a liaison while questing in the Land of the Moors. Thirteen years later Morien, now a self-made knight, seeks his father to rescue his mother who has been disinherited.  Morien’s overall blackness and resemblance to the devil are recurrently emphasized in the text. He is called o “black as a raven” (Weston, 8). o “black as pitch” and “ black as burnt brands” (Weston, 10). o And though Morien is Christian, Sir Gawain “deemed that [he] was a devil” (Weston, 8).  And, the common folk “deemed they had seen the Foul Fiend himself” (Weston, 23).  In England, Morien meets and challenges Lancelot and Gawain, and eventually gains their goodwill by promising to behave courteously (since he behaved “savagely” at their first meeting). He has a few adventures, and …  …Ultimately unites with his father, Agloval. They return to the Land of the Moors, where Agloval weds Morien’s mother and proclaims her the Queen of the Moors.  5 Parzival’s Feirefis.  The circumstances of Morien’s birth and introduction to Arthur’s knights are similar to those of Feirefis, from Wolfram von Eschenbach's 13th century German poem Parzival.  The European prince Gamuret fathers Feirefis on the Moorish Queen Belakané. Gamuret then leaves her, marries a Christian princess, and fathers Parzival.  Like Morien, Feirefis grows up and travels to Europe to seek his father.  He meets Parzival and the two do battle. When they realize they are half-brothers, they embrace, and feast at Arthur’s court.  Unlike Morien, whose skin is “black withal”, Feirefis’ skin reflects both his father and his mother, “at one while was he black and white… as a magpie” (Wolfram, 31). Also unlike Morien, Feirefis begins his story as a heathen, a worshipper of Jupiter. Wolfram suggests the variegation of his skin color is indicative of a dual spiritual nature. “Hell's darkness, and light of Heaven, alike have their lot and part” (Wolfram, 3).  Feirefis renounces Jupiter and is baptized a Christian. Then he is finally able to see the Grail. He marries the Grail bearer and together they leave Arthur’s lands to spread Christianity in the East. Sir Palomides in Malory’s Le Mort D’Arthur.  Sir Palomides [Palamydes, Palamedes, etc.], a Saracen and the son of the Sultan of Babylon, first appeared in the 13th century French Prose Tristan (Lupack, 3878)...  …But it is from Malory’s Morte D’Arthur that he is best known to readers of English (Lupack, 388). Palomides bests Sirs Gawain, Agravaine and Kay in jousting, and ranks just behind Lancelot and Lamerok at the Tournament of Surluse. [Image: Here he fights Tristan. We know this is Palomides because he bears a “checky” shield of “whyte and blacke” as Malory refers to it.] Yet despite his prowess with arms, he is never counted among Arthur’s best knights.  6 (Image source: Evrard d’Espingues. Le Rommans de Tristan et de la Royne Yseult la blone royne de Cornoaille, MS illuminations. 1463, http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/feuille/palamede/) But is Palomides black? Not all scholars agree. Hoffman states that “Exactly who the Saracens were thought to have been differs widely” throughout the Middle Ages (43), and “Skin color is never mentioned [in Malory]” (49). Armstrong points out that “Saracen” was a notoriously flexible term in medieval literature used to describe not only Arabic followers of Islam, but also “Jews, pagans, Africans, Hungarians, and various heretics” (183). [Images: And in these 15th century manuscript illuminations, Palomides appears to have the same skin color as everyone else from Arthur’s court.] (Images source: Evrard d’Espingues. Le Rommans de Tristan et de la Royne Yseult la blone royne de Cornoaille, MS illuminations. 1463, http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/feuille/palamede/)  7  But Keita claims that “the Saracen [in medieval literature] can be characterized as African” (67-68). Indeed, there are many illustrations of dark-skinned Saracens.  [Image: Saladin, jousting against Richard Lionheart in a 13th century manuscript, is blue, “a color often substituted for dark gray, brown or black in medieval art” (Clark, 65)] (Images source: “Imaginary encounter between Richard I and Saladin,” 13thc. Wikimedia Commons. 06 October 2008. Image. 23 Apr 2013.)  [Slide: And here a Black Saracen plays chess against a white man.] (Image source: “Chess game between a Saracen and a white man.” Book of Chess of Alfonso X the Wise. 13thc. (ARTstor), in Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Karen C. C. Dalton. The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of Discovery": From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Reprinted in ARTstor. 23 Apr. 2013)  8  [Slide: …And a white soldier fights a black Saracen on horseback.] (Image source: Gratian. “White soldier armed with a lance, fighting a black Saracen on horseback.” Decretum Gratiani . 14th c. (ARTstor), in Bindman, David, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Karen C. C. Dalton. The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of Discovery": From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. Reprinted in ARTstor. 23 Apr. 2013) But regardless of whether or not Palomides’ skin was dark, he is treated exactly as Morien and Feirefis – as an “alien Other”. Palomides is brought to the Round Table through a conversion to Christianity, but even then he is not fully integrated into it. His duality is manifest in his “checky” shield of “whyght and blacke” (Malory, 330) – in other words, the heraldic version of magpie skin. Visaisouk concludes that Malory used shield colors as a form of symbolism (23): White for purity, and black for impurity, evil or death (25-26). “Palomides’ usual checky brings to mind a paradox, or perhaps a checkered character, a knight with both good and bad qualities… [a] dual nature…” (Visaisouk, 27-28): Saracen and Christian, alien and brother, good and bad. Hoffman points out that Palomides remains “quintessentially Other even if that otherness is not always determinate” (Hoffman, 43). Although his conversion to Christianity occurs at the start of the Grail Quest, he does not join that quest, but instead leaves on his own to pursue the Questing Beast and thus largely disappears from the rest of Malory’s text. Hoffman says  9 “Thus he is no sooner assimilated into Camelot then he is erased, an outsider and an alien once again, praised and neglected, Christian and forgotten” (Hoffman, 58). And Lupack remarks that Palomides remains “someone who is on the fringes of Arthurian society, if not totally alien to it” (389). Liminality Then and Now. Despite their prowess, their nobility and their Christian faith (by birth or conversion), Morien, Feirefis and Palomides are all portrayed as liminal characters, poised between the worlds of Europe and heathen lands, black and white, Heaven and Hell. All are accepted by Arthur’s court, yet remain on its fringes. The externality of Morien, Feirefis and Palomides is reinforced geographically at the end of their stories: all three knights depart from court. Morien returns to the Land of Moors. Feirefis goes East to spread Christianity. Palomides largely disappears on his solitary search for the Questing Beast. The two dark queens, the mothers of Morien & Feirifis, are also liminal figures. Both are beloved by Arthurian knights but remain geographically remote. Neither one ever comes to Camelot. If medieval Arthurian romances were a television series, the “black” characters would be “guest stars of the week” rather than playing leading, or even recurring roles like Gawain and Kay. Instead, the “black” characters come onto screen for their own adventures and disappear once those adventures are completed. Of the dozen or so 21st-Century, English-language films and TV series based on medieval Arthurian legend three have significant casting of People of Color.  10 (Image source: IMDB.com) The Last Legion (2007) is an Arthurian prequel set in the 5th century, at the end of the Western Roman Empire.  Nonso Anozie portrays the Roman legionary, Batiatus. He stands in the background, speaks little, excels in battle, however while much-less experienced white warriors survive the film’s climactic battle, Batiatus is killed.  Aishwarya Rai plays the romantic lead, Mira, a woman warrior from India. Like the Moorish queens of mediaeval romance, she is exotic, an object of desire – but she is actually the only Person of Color who survives the events of the film and becomes fully-integrated into British society. (Images source: IMDB.com)  11 Camelot (2011) was a 10-episode series on the Starz network.  Jamie Downey plays Arthur’s knight, Ulfius. [Slide: You can see him here standing behind Arthur, where he stays throughout the series.] Like Batiatus in The Last Legion, Ulfius remains in the background, speaks little, has no featured storyline, and is killed in the climactic battle at the end of the series.  Chipo Chung, an actress from Tanzania & Zimbabwe, plays Morgan’s servant Vivian. Vivian tells Morgan that her family was brought to England by the Romans hundreds of years ago as slaves, and remained when the Romans left. But instead of making her Romanized, or even Anglicized, the producers of Camelot decided to emphasize her African “otherness” – including facial tattooing & speaking with an African accent, despite the fact that her ancestors have lived in Britain for hundreds of years. (Images source: BBC One: Merlin. bbc.co.uk/merlin. 2013. Images. 23 Apr 2013.) Merlin is a series on BBC television which lasted 5 seasons (2008-2013).  As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, its cast included several People of Color in key roles, not just as background or supporting players.  We have seen Dark Queens and Black Knights as far back as medieval Arthurian romances but they were all born to nobility. It is notable that in Merlin, these characters are portrayed as commoners who must climb up the social ladder.  12  Lancelot (played by Chilean-born actor Santiago Cabrera) is not portrayed as the son of a king, or of the Lady of the Lake, but as a village orphan. And he is killed before Guinevere and Arthur even marry. Thus he is excised from the central role Lancelot has held in Arthurian legend since the 12th century.  Guinevere’s brother Elyan (played by Nigerian-born Adetomiwa Edun) begins as an itinerant blacksmith, eventually joins the Round Table knights, but when a prophecy requires a sacrifice, like Batiatus & Ulfius, Elyan is killed off.  Guinevere’s and Elyan’s father is executed when he is wrongly accused of sorcery. And two other black Round Table knights, Sir Ewan and Sir Pellinore, and killed after having just one speaking line.  And, it is noteworthy that television’s (and perhaps history’s) first mixed-race Guinevere (played by Anglo-Caribbean actress Angel Coulby) is also the first Guinevere not to be the daughter of a chieftain or a king, but to start as a serving maid, the daughter of a blacksmith.  This fact was not lost on Internet blogger Ankhesen Mié, who said— o “Once again, it shows how white people see people of color [POC]. To them, when telling a flattering story -well, what they consider a flattering story -of a POC, it has to be one of rise and triumph, with the POC's initial state being servile status… So the Brits wanted to present us with a Gwen of color? Fine. But they're clearly doing it for their benefit. Had they done it for our benefit, Gwen would've been introduced as a princess, daughter of a king and queen, worthy of open wooing and proper respect at all times from all characters.” Conclusion So not only is the presence of black and brown characters in 21st century Arthurian media consistent with medieval Arthurian literature, but their portrayal and treatment is also fairly consistent. Just as Morien, Feirefis and Palomides are geographically removed from the court of Camelot at the end of their stories, Batiatus, Ulfius, Elyan and Lancelot are removed by their deaths.  13 It is the Dark Queens who have experienced the most change in their portrayal from medieval legend. While the mothers of Morien & Feirefis remain geographically remote from Arthur’s court, Mira in The Last Legion and Guinevere in the BBC’s Merlin begin as outsiders, but both manage to integrate into British ruling-class society. Hoffman said that Malory’s “Palomides the Saracen remains, whether assimilated or ultimately erased, as a shining example of Camelot’s failure to embrace difference fully, but [it is] an exceptional instance of its willingness to try” (61). Likewise, the handful of 21st century medieval Arthurian films and television programs which have chosen to incorporate black and brown characters are also exceptional – but they also fail to embrace difference fully. These characters frequently remain liminal – simultaneous insiders and outsiders, central yet marginal, brothers and aliens – with only a rare few fully integrating into Arthurian society. Like Palomides, Morien and Feirefis before them, the knights and queens of 21st century Arthurian media have discovered that to be Black in Camelot is still to be liminal.  14 SOURCES: “Africans in Medieval Britain.” The Decrypters (television program). National Geographic Channel. video.nationalgeographic.com. [2012?] Video. 17 June 2012. 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