Entre Celtas e Germanicos: a odisséia de Artur no imaginário medieval

The present essay intends to discuss the traditional thesis of the Celtic origin of the narrativesand myths concerning King Arthur and the Holy Grail, mainly based upon the work of Heitor Megale, recognized as the most important scholar authority in terms of Arthurian studies in the Portuguese and Brazilian worlds. This Celtic origin postulated by Megale shall be contrasted, in this paper, with the recent anthropological and linguistic studies of the American anthropologists Scott Littleton and Linda Malcor. Their assumptions place the remote origins of the Holy Grail and King Arthur in an ancient/ancestral culture, which spread throughout the Eurasian area and remained unknown for much time: the Alamannic Nart sagas. From this interface, it is suggested that the Arthurian myths have actually developed from that Alamannic matter, which blended with Celtic and Greco-Roman heritages during the Middle Ages. Such hybridization was mediated by Christianity and accomplished in the context of the dialogue between erudite literacy and popular orality.