ABSTRACT
There is an inherent contradiction involved in bringing King Arthur to America. A king is, by virtue of his title, a representative of advancement by birth rather than by hard work and natural talent, and so should be unpopular with American audiences. Yet the legends surrounding Arthur are, if anything, more popular in America than in Britain. This is because many American authors interested in the Matter of Britain have managed to adopt strategies to deal with the paradox of making a king and his subjects appealing to an audience that believes in democratic ideals. Their strategies take several forms. Some authors simply ignore the figure of Arthur and focus instead on the legend's other characters. Merlin is a frequent focus of American Arthurian works. His power to shape and control his environment brings him in line with recurring figures in American popular culture, such as Paul Bunyan or Superman, other folk heroes who are larger than life. Merlin is, for instance, the central character in the earliest American Arthurian work, Joseph Leigh's Illustrations of the Fulfillment of the Prediction of Merlin (1807), and in Lambert Wilmer's early nineteenth-century play Merlin, in which Arthur's wizard is presented respectively as prophet and controller of nature. Still other authors have found fascination in the Grail motif, which functions as a moral center in works like "The Vision of Sir Launfal" or as a perverted notion of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby.
