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Derivative Works / Arthurian Legend

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A list of various adaptations and derivative works of the legends around King Arthur, including the Holy Grail.

For more derivative works referencing the legends less directly, see Referenced By/Arthurian Legend. For our purposes, if Arthurian elements (characters, items, settings, etc.) show up directly or as a "real" part of the universe, it probably goes in here. If the references are more of homages or allusions, or treating them as fiction, it probably goes in there.

See also Merlin and Excalibur for specifically their appearances in various media.

Original works:

  • The Arthurian Legend. For more details on the sources, see the "Medieval sources" folder on that page.

Adaptations and derivative works

    open/close all folders 
    Arts 
  • The Lady of Shalott (Holman Hunt) depicts the moment the titular Lady, Elaine of Astalot, exchanges glances with Lancelot and is henceforth cursed. This is symbolized by the mirror in her tapestry cracks.
  • The Lady of Shalott (Waterhouse) portrays Elain of Astalot's final moments. She's in a white dress and floating adrift in a boat, accompanied by candles and wearing a sorrowful expression.

    Anime & Manga 
  • The myths were adapted into two series by Toei Animation in the late 1970s/early 1980s:
    • Entaku No Kishi Monogatari Moero Arthur (lit.: "Story of the Knights of the Round Table: Burn Arthur"). A number of foreign language dubs are called simply "King Arthur", although there was an English dubbed compilation movie called "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table".
    • Moero Arthur Hakuba No Oji ("Burn Arthur: Prince on White Horse"). Video game players may recognize the theme song of the latter series from the arcade game Frogger if they got far enough.
  • Kin'iro no Mabinogion: Arthur Ō no Imōto-hime by Nanpei Yamada is about three high schoolers transported from modern Japan to King Arthur's time.
  • Minagoroshi no Arthur (Murderous Arthur) hits Arthur and Mordred with Adaptational Villainy and Adaptational Heroism respectively, as Mordred is the protagonist and Arthur is a tyrant, though the Saxons are the Greater-Scope Villain.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins draws influences from the Arthurian myth. To name a few: The main character Meliodas is named after Tristan's father, while two others are named Ban and Elaine after Lancelot's parents. The country in which the series takes place is called Britannia and there is a kingdom called Liones (from Lyonesse). An allusion to the Sword in the Stone was made by one of the antagonists, and Arthur himself eventually appears as a supporting character, mentored by a Historical Gender Flip version of Merlin.
  • SD Gundam World Heroes has Knight World, a world themed solely after this mythos, complete with its own King Arthur (Arthur Gundam Mk-III).
  • Soul Eater features Arthur's sword Excalibur as the legendary sword who's... extremely annoying as fuck. However, it is implied that Arthur himself put up with Excalibur and the sword wasn't as annoying when in Arthur's hand, even growing a beard. Now, without Arthur, though... yep, super annoying as ever.
  • In an episode of Time Trouble Tondekeman, our time-traveling protagonists accidentally screw up the part where Arthur is supposed to draw the Sword from the Stone, and once they realize their new-found friend's true identity, they must set "history" back on track, coincidentally also sparking the British love of footy.
  • Vinland Saga has Askeladd, leader of a band of Viking mercenaries who is in truth the last living direct descendant of Arthur (Artorius), and thus he eventually declares himself to be the rightful king of Britain. A flashback shows Artorius leading the Britons (Welsh) against the Anglo-Saxons (English) centuries earlier.

    Comic Books 
  • Arthur The Legend by David Chauvel and Jérôme Lereculey, Followed by a prequel series about Merlin.
  • In Camelot 3000, published by DC Comics but not part of the DC universe, Arthur and Merlin return in the year 3000 to defend Earth against an alien invasion led by Morgan le Fay. The knights are reincarnated in various forms (they're from different nationalities, Tristan is female, Perceval is a grotesque mutant), and the various storylines like the Grail quest and the Lancelot-Guinevere affair play out again.
  • In the DC Comics universe, Camelot is a recurring element in its backstory. Characters linked to Arthur's court include:
    • The Demon Etrigan, a fiend from Hell summoned by Merlin to defend Camelot in its final hour against Morgaine le Fey. Morgaine has gone on to become a recurring foe of both Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America.
    • The Shining Knight, a member of the Round Table who was frozen in ice for many centuries (years before Captain America thawing out with The Avengers was a glimmer in Stanley Lieber's mind) and decided to keep protecting Britain by fighting Those Wacky Nazis.
    • Grant Morrison's Shining Knight book, a part of his Seven Soldiers maxi-series, revealed that the King Arthur myth keeps repeating throughout history: the Shining Knight in question (a different version from the previous example) is thrown forward in time from a more Celtic rendition into modern Los Angeles.
    • The Silent Knight, another one of Arthur's knights and a previous incarnation of Hawkman and the (adopted) ancestor of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.
    • Madame Xanadu, who was once Merlin's lover and Morgaine's sister, Nimue.
    • According to The Books of Magic, Arthur himself slumbers beneath the earth in Fairyland, awaiting the day Britain needs him again.
    • Aquaman, King Arthur Curry of Atlantis, is sometimes compared to King Arthur. At one time, his Hook Hand was even replaced with a hand made of magic water given to him by the Lady of the Lake.
    • Demon Knights is set shortly after the most recent fall of Camelot, and Arthurian mythos ties in heavily, along with elements from Gran Morrison's Seven Soldiers. Merlin appears, established as the son of Lucifer himself, who is trying to invade Avalon (though he's not exactly keen on the idea).
    • Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table was an Elseworlds story featuring Batman as... a Knight of the Round Table.
  • Camelot was the setting for multiple albums in the Belgian comic book series De Rode Ridder.
  • Don Rosa's Donald Duck story "The Once and Future Duck" has Donald, his nephews, and Gyro Gearloose traveling back in time and meeting King Arthur... only this Arthur is a lot closer to the historical figure that may have inspired the legends. Once again, Don Rosa shows his work.
  • Dracula vs. King Arthur: In which Dracula is transported to his timeline and begins a conquest to take over Camelot, turning many of Arthur's knights and even his wife along the way.
  • Part of the backstory of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen includes King Arthur and Camelot, which is mentioned several times in the source material. The major addition to the mythos is that one of the Leagues members, the immortal genderchanger Orlando, was present not only when King Arthur was crowned, but was also part of the Round Table, and, after surviving the final battle, salvages Excalibur from the battlefield, which remains a treasured possession of his/hers, until present day.
  • In Hellboy The Wild Hunt, Hellboy meets Morgana Le Fay of the Arthurian mythos, and discovers that his mother was the last remaining descendant of King Arthur, via the daughter of Mordred, and so he is the rightful king of Britain, as well as Hell. After some hesitation, he takes up Excalibur to call together an army of "The Noble Dead of Britain" to combat Nimue/The Morrigan's evil army of The Fair Folk.
  • Immortal Red Sonja: This arc tells the story of young Red Sonja after the fall of Camelot.
  • King Arthur - Excalibur Unsheathed: A one-shot that tells the story of young Arthur when he was his older brother's squire until he pulled out the legendary Excalibur.
  • Matt Wagner's Mage trilogy, Mage:The Hero Discovered, Mage:The Hero Defined, and Mage:The Hero Denied, features King Arthur and a whole lot of other culture heroes reborn in twentieth-century America and recapitulating the myth. Kevin Matchstick is King Arthur reborn, Edsel is the Lady of the Lake, Mirth literally is an immortal Merlin, et al. The Fisher King, the Marhault Ogre, Crom Cruich and the Wild Hunt put in appearances, often with some modernization. Excalibur manifests as a glowing white baseball bat.
  • Similarly to DC, The Marvel Comics universe also treats the Arthurian myths as real in-universe:
    • The backstory of Black Knight.
    • Probably the most famous King Arthur story in the Marvel Universe is a trilogy of Iron Man stories by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, in which Iron Man and Dr. Doom visit Dark Ages Camelot (published in 1981), King Arthur's revival in the future (published in 1989), and have an adventure searching for Excalibur in the present-day (2008).
    • In the first post Heroes Reborn Avengers story arc, the reunited Avengers fight Morgan Le Fey who uses the Scarlet Witch to transform reality into an alternate Medieval version where she is the absolute ruler.
    • Morgan Le Fay is a recurring supervillainess. In the Bronze Age, she was mostly Spider-Woman's archenemy. These days she'll pop up and give any superhero a hard time. She uses her son Mordred as her dragon.
    • Merlyn was the original patron of Captain Britain and a major character in The Black Knight & Captain Britain: The Otherworld Saga (which updated the spelling of his name from Merlin to Merlyn). In the A Crooked World Captain Britain arc it is revealed that he's a powerful cosmic being who helps police The Multiverse. Merlin's many, wildly varying appearances in earlier Marvel stories are explained by the fact that when dealing with humans, Merlyn likes to shapeshift and give people wildly contradictory impressions of him so that no-one knows what he's really all about. Thanks to Marvel once publishing their own comic for Doctor Who, at least one version of him is heavily hinted to be a future, slightly morally dodgy version of the Doctor himself (See the Doctor Who entry on the Live-Action TV section below for further details).
    • In the early '60s, a villain who was ostensibly Merlin was introduced, but he was one of the ancient mutants with psychic powers rather than an actual wizard. After fighting Thor in the Merlin guise, he returned to his magic sleep, only to reawaken again and fight the X-Men under the guises of the Warlock and the Maha Yogi. It was later revealed that this Merlin was an impostor who possessed part of the Bloodgem.
    • Rom Spaceknight once encounters the frozen form of King Arthur in a subterranean chamber, slumbering away the ages until Britain's hour of greatest need will awaken him. As an alien, Rom doesn't know who Arthur is, but as a Knight in Shining Armor himself, he feels an instinctive kinship with him.
  • Muppet King Arthur: Kermit as Arthur, Rowlf as Merlin, Piggy as Morgana, Camilla the Chicken as Guenevere and Gonzo as Lancelot. The twist is that the Arthur/Morgana and Guenevere/Lancelot pairings are stable, there's no Love Triangle and they all live Happily Ever After. The Lemony Narrator notes that this isn't how it's supposed to go, but there we are
  • Once & Future by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora begins with Arthur's return and explores the nature and symbolism of myths and legends, taking an All Myths Are True approach with the Arthurian legend taking the most spotlight. Various competing versions of Arthur and crew show up.
  • Requiem Vampire Knight, of all series, has King Arthur as the King of the Dystopians. He and his knights have SdrawkcabNames for some reason. And his evil (and therefore power, given how thing work on the world of Resurrection) rivals that of Big Bad vampire king Dracula.
  • Unholy Grail is a Horror reimagining of the story with a demonic Merlin manipulating Arthur and his Knights for his own purposes.
  • Witchblade: The eponymous weapon is the feminine counterpart to Excalibur.

    Comic Strips 
  • One strip of Herman shows a man in a fishing boat who caught The Lady of the Lake, who is still holding onto Excalibur.
  • In one The Phantom comic, it was revealed that one of the ancestors of the Phantom was a Knight of the Round Table. note 
  • Prince Valiant, subtitled "In the Days of King Arthur".

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
Any modern Arthurian literary work written in the 20th century and beyond that is not about either a) Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur/Mordred/Morgan and the rise and subsequent collapse of the court or b) specifically about Merlin, is generally going to be about the Grail Quest, despite dozens of other possible plots. However, Tristram and Iseult (usually under the German forms of their names, Tristan and Isolde) by themselves are also becoming more popular, mainly due to the popularity of romance stories. The genres used may vary from Historical Fiction (no magic and Saxon hordes as Mooks), to Heroic Fantasy, and the story can be set either in the Dark ages after the fall of Rome or in the present day, when King Arthur has returned.

Medieval

  • The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck. A modern-English adaptation of the Arthurian legend, based on the Winchester Manuscript text of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D Arthur. Sadly, Steinbeck died before finishing and it currently ends with the tale of Lancelot.
  • Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy: The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March retells the Arthurian legend and several others alongside the story of Arthur de Caldicot, heir to the Mediaeval estate of Catmole, as he travels to the Holy Land on crusade.
  • Camelot Rising trilogy by Kiersten White (The Guinevere Deception, The Camelot Betrayal, and The Excalibur Curse)
  • Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
  • Dawnflight by Kim Headlee features a dangerous Guinevere, here called Gyanhumara, who's from Scotland and finds herself in an Arranged Marriage with one of Arthur's untrustworthy allies. Then she and Arthur meet, fall into love (and plenty of lust), and wind up becoming a Battle Couple, breaking off her engagement by the end. Notably, several key subplots and characterizations were derived from Norma Goodriche's theories on the mythos.
  • Gillian Bradshaw's Down the Long Wind trilogy, consisting of Hawk of May, Kingdom of Summer, and In Winter's Shadow, follows in the footsteps of Sutcliff, casting the story in terms of historicity, with sub-Roman Arthurian forces and messy political and relationship tangles. However, she also includes elements of the supernatural, focusing on the character of Gawain (called here by the Welsh name Gwalchmai, another Sutcliff parallel) and his battle against the forces of Darkness summoned by his mother Morgan, and his allegiance to the forces of Light (capital letters firmly in place). The historical bard Taliesin serves as an stand-in for Merlin's usual role. The first two books focus on Gawain's journey, and he continues as a major figure in the final volume, but Guenevere (called Gwynhwyfar in the trilogy) takes the role of viewpoint character.
  • David Drake's early novel The Dragon Lord: Drake has commented that the personality of his Arthur — a military genius, but vicious and twisted — is a cross between Alexander the Great and Adolf Hitler.
  • P.N. Elrod and Forever Knight actor Nigel Bennett collaborated on a trilogy where Lancelot is Richard D'Orleans, a knight who is turned into an ethical vampire after his sire, Lady Sabra, who is later the Lady of the Lake, causes him to lose a tournament. He becomes the titular Keeper Of The King until Arthur's death. Galahad looks a lot like him but isn't actually his son since he's a vampire by then. In the present, he's Richard Dunn, a private detective who's trying to get his hands on the Holy Grail before an evil vampire can. Drinking from the Grail can save a vampire from becoming mode-locked in their 'true' beast form, which they get locked into as they grow older.
  • Jack Whyte's A Dream Of Eagles series follows several Celtic, Roman, and Frank characters as they weave a "could have been, realistic" take on Arthurian legend.
  • Parke Godwin's Firelord and Beloved Exile, which use the post-Roman warlord versions of the story. What little magic appears can be handwaved away, and The Fair Folk are cast as the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain. Notable in that the second book deals with the aftermath of the legends, following Guenevere through a fragmenting Britain after Arthur's death.
  • Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene contains a barely recognizable version of Arthur set prior to his coronation. Merlin also features in Book III.
  • The GrailQuest series by J.H. Brennan are Gamebooks where the main character is instead a farm boy (or girl) turned knight named Pip (with the mind of the reader implanted in him). Merlin would send him off on tongue-in-cheek adventures.
  • Gwenhwyfar by Mercedes Lackey, which takes the Welsh tradition that Arthur married three different women all named Guinevere (Gwenhwyfar in Welsh) and tells the story of the third girl.
  • Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve is a new demythified version of the story. The main character is Gwyna, the real Lady of the Lake, who is a slave girl taken in by the bard Myrddin (pronounced almost exactly like Merlin), and helps Arthur to deceive people into thinking he's a destined hero. Most of the names return to something akin to their medieval versions, with Kay being Cei and Bedivere being Bedwyr.
  • I Am Mordred by Nancy Springer tells the story of King Arthur from Mordred's perspective. Written as a young adult novel, it touches upon nearly all of the main Arthurian characters and it heavily plays upon the dichotomous themes of destiny and free will. Maybe Mordred isn't all that bad and maybe King Arthur isn't the paradigm of honor and chivalry he's always portrayed as. She also wrote a prequel, following Morgan in her early years.
  • Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King, a series of long poems, was very influential in the 19th century.
  • Phyllis Ann Karr's The Idylls of the Queen (a title playing on Tennyson's Idylls of the King) is a retelling of part of Malory's Le Morte D Arthur as a murder mystery, using Kay as the Characternarrator/detective and Mordred as his sidekick.
  • King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
  • Peter David wrote the Knight Life Series, with King Arthur set in the present day. The first book, Knight Life, has Arthur (using the name "Arthur Penn") Schwarzenegger his way into the office of Mayor of New York City. The second book had him quit being President to find the Holy Grail. And the third had the simple plan of his using the Grail to produce a healing tonic.
  • Tennyson also wrote various other Arthurian poems not included in the above cycle. For instance, The Lady of Shalott is closely based on Elaine of Astalot's myth. It's an Adaptation Expansion delving into her cursed life — first when she can only see the world by means of a mirror in a tapestry and then when, upon meeting Lancelot, she's doomed to die. She names her the Lady of Shalott.
  • The Lantern Bearers and its sequel Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff take the legend back to its roots, including partly Romanized Britons fighting off invading "Sea Wolf" Saxon raiders, the difficulty in gathering and maintaining mounted warriors, horses barely big enough to carry large men and saddles without stirrups, near-starvation every winter, ambiguous mysticism and superstition regarding both curses and the Hill Folk, rare chainmail armor stolen from enemy war chiefs in place of "shining armor", and a dilapidated ex-Roman hill fort replacing "Camelot". On top of that, the novels are part of a loosely connected historical fiction series following a Roman soldier and his Briton, Saxon and Norse descendants down through the centuries. One of Sutcliff's other novels, The Shining Company, does not feature the family directly but is about the events that inspired Y Gododdin, with the legacy of Arthur weighing heavily upon the fading Briton resistance. She also wrote three novels directly retelling the medieval Arthurian romances as opposed to Arthurian pseudo-history: The Sword and the Circle, The Light Beyond the Forest and The Road to Camlann.
  • Mary Stewart's The Merlin Trilogy (and its sequels) tell the story of Arthur from Merlin's perspective. The point of view changes to Mordred for The Wicked Day. There is also a "side story," The Prince and the Pilgrim.
  • One of the more popular modern versions of Arthurian legend is The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and its sequence of novels, a retelling from the point of view of feminist neopaganism which began the trend of highly sympathetic readings of Morgan.
  • Douglas Clegg's Mordred, Bastard Son is another retelling of the legend from Mordred's point of view, casting Arthur as an incestuous rapist and Morgan and Morgause as insanely violent trauma victims. Oh, and Mordred's gay and in love with Lancelot.
  • Mordred's Heirs takes a twist on the legend to be true in its backstory.
  • Terry Pratchett's short story "Once and Future" features a time traveller stuck in the past re-enacting Arthurian legend. In a twist, the king who pulls the sword from the stone happens to be a woman.
  • The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead, beginning with Taliesin, have Celtic mythology being mixed with Atlantean (clearly Greek-influenced) mythology and is written from a strongly Christian perspective.
  • The Road To Avalon by Joan Wolf is another historical-style demythified retelling, one that makes Morgan the non-villainous childhood friend turned one true incestuous starcrossed love of Arthur.
  • Marcus Pitcaithly's The Realm of Albion is set in an Arthurian world, albeit a few centuries before Arthur's birth.
  • David Gemmell's Stones of Power sequence includes a duology set in Dark Ages Britain that doesn't directly retell the Arthurian legend but implies it might be the historical basis for it; there's a love triangle between the protagonists whose names are not quite Arthur, Gwinevere, and Lancelot, and there's a magic sword.
  • Gerald Morris's The Squire's Tales retells a number of Arthurian legends. Classic King Arthur stories accompanied by a reconstruction of Camelot and Arthur as heroic ideals while deconstructing courtly love.
  • Jane Yolen's Sword of the Rightful King retells the story of of Excalibur.
  • T. H. White's The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn.
  • Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles tells a largely historically plausible version of the story with lots of Saxon mooks, setting Arthur as a Celtic king fighting against the Saxon invasion of Britain. The same author's Grail Quest series moves the quest for the Holy Grail up to the time of the Hundred Years' War, by which time Arthur is a legend, claimed by the English, Welsh, Scottish, and Bretons as one of their own. It also subverts a number of traditional aspects, especially in regard to Mordred (who is Arthur's half-brother and his king) and Lancelot (who is a treacherous coward).
  • Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince, the first volume of The Lion Hunters series set in sixth-century Britain and Ethiopia, focuses on Medraut's fraught relationships with his mother Morgause and his young half-brother Lleu, Artos's legitimate son and heir.
  • William Morris wrote quite a few poems about Arthurian characters.
  • The Wizards, Warriors and You gamebook series is set sometime after King Arthur's rule. Arthur and his knights are long deceased, but their actions and legacy still leave an imprint in the setting. The Warrior's sword was forged by the same smith who made Excalibur, and the Wizard was tutored by Merlin himself. One book even features the knights of Camelot coming back as ghosts to haunt the kingdom.

Other

  • Meg Cabot's Avalon High. It's actually not bad, or better than a lot of teen fare out there, at least.
  • Lavie Tidhar's By Force Alone is a heavily Darker and Edgier retelling of the story, which keeps the supernatural elements but depicts all the characters in Low Fantasy style as self-serving thugs and politicians. Arthur is a sociopathic London Gangster who takes advantage of the chaos of post-Roman Britain to make himself high king, Merlin is one of The Fair Folk who draws nourishment from being at the centre of mythic events, and the Grail is a crashed alien spaceship.
  • Cassandra Palmer is a time traveling clairvoyant who in one book goes back in time and meets Merlin, whom she recognizes as a mage she knows by another name in the modern day.
  • The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. Most specifically The Grey King and Silver on the Tree, the fourth and fifth in the series, respectively. Arthur, himself, makes only minute appearances in the series but many aspects reveal a heavy Arthurian influence (with a few events being direct consequences of the Arthurian Legends). And, of course, there's Uncle Merry.
  • In the 4th installment in Disgaea Novels Laharl and Flonne travel back in time and meet King Arthur.
  • In Tim Powers's novel The Drawing of the Dark, Duffy, a 16th century mercenary, learns to his dismay that he is the reincarnation of King Arthur (and other older European heroes), sent to protect Vienna (and a magical dark beer) and thus all of the magical forces of "the West", from the Turkish invasion and thus the magical forces of "the East". Merlin is still around as Duffy's sage mentor, going by the name Aurelianus.
  • In Dragons in Our Midst, the main character, Billy Bannister, is the second coming of Arthur. The entire plot is built around the Arthur/Christianity principle.
  • In The Dresden Files most prominently Micheal's sword, Amoracchius, is Excaliburnote . It was kept at one point by Merlin who is a historical figure (and "wizard Superman")note  that made such an impact his name has become the title of head of the wizard White Council and nominally most powerful wizard on Earth. Harry Dresden's second mentor Ebenezer McCoy has his journals via a long Master-Apprentice Chain so readers might eventually find out more of that period. Harry's mother is also called Margaret Le Fay but this is a partial Red Herring as it comes more from her close relationship with both Fae courts.
  • Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc. features Merlin as the CEO of the company.
  • Tom Holt's Grailblazers is a comedy that transports the Knights of the Round Table to modern day Britain. They've given up their quest for the Holy Grail and now deliver pizza, until they're forced to thwart a financial conspiracy by the lost city of Atlantis. It turns out the grail was in one of their garages.
  • Arthurian mythology is apparently true in the world of Harry Potter, which is hardly surprising given that the series is, after all, a Fantasy Kitchen Sink. In the first book, two of Harry's first Chocolate Frog cards are of Merlin and Morgan le Fay, and throughout the series, there are references to a medal of valor known as the "Order of Merlin", but we're not really given any details beyond that — except that he's a Slytherin. Merlin seems to be a wizarding version of an extreme Memetic Badass and/or Folk Hero, as wizards generally swear by him in a fashion similar to how people swear by Jesus ("Merlin's Beard", "by Merlin", "Merlin!", "what in the name of Merlin", etc.) However, he was probably not a religious/holy figure, as not all references are reverent ("Merlin's Pants", "what in the name of Merlin's saggy left--") Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley may or may not be named after Guinevere ("Ginevra" is the Italian form of "Guinevere"), which would be... interesting what with her father being named "Arthur". And then there's her brother Percy (Percival?).
  • C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength brings back Merlin as a person who trod the line between light and darkness when the distinction was less sharp. Both the heroes and villains are concerned about which side he'll be on when he awakens. It also depicts "Pendragon" as a divine title, now held by one of the heroes, and implies that it descends from "Numinor" - a misspelling that annoyed his friend J.R.R. Tolkien no end.
  • The Knights of Pleasure/Avalon Nights by Erin Crane: sensual anthology novel where a beautiful sorceress enchants the Knights of the Round table and forces them to recount their most ribald adventures.
  • The Magic Cave/The Hidden Cave by Ruth Chew concerns two young children who find Merlin trapped inside an oak tree (although he's there by his own error, thanks to wanting to know what was inside an acorn, rather than due to Nyneve). The titular cave is actually a transformed drainage pipe which uses portal magic to take Merlin and the kids to various places, such as the library, the botanical gardens (for herbs to do magic), and eventually the museum to obtain an artifact (the Eye of Horus) to take Merlin back to his own time.
  • In The Magic Treehouse books, one of the major characters is Morgan Le Fay, who helped the kids in disguise for the first four books. They had no idea until she revealed herself near the end of Book 4.
  • Nightside: Several versions of Arthur, Merlin, and even the Lady of the Lake show up; usually due to alternative timelines, time travel, or just general weirdness. Only one Excalibur, though.
  • According to Night Watch (Series), Arthur was a not-particularly-nice puppet king of Merlin, the most powerful Dark Other of all time.
  • Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy is a Space Opera in which the Arthurian legend is not just a Twice-Told Tale, but a forty-two-times-told tale. The current Arthur is Ari, a teenager girl who pulls Excalibur out of a tree. Her friends turn out to be counterparts of the knights, also with twists. The twists come as a shock to Merlin, who is used to things following a more traditional pattern (and who, after millennia of slowly aging backwards, is also a teenager).
  • In Phoenix in Obsidian by Michael Moorcock, part of his wider "Eternal Champion" series, "Artos the Celt" is indicated to be one of the incarnations of the Eternal Champion throughout the multiverse, and his sword is a manifestation of the demonic Black Sword the Champion always wields in some form (most famously as Stormbringer, as wielded by Elric).
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel uses Sir Palomedes the Saracen Knight, one of the more obscure Arthurian characters.
  • John C. Wright's The War of the Dreaming delves into the Arthurian mythos, and includes Merlin as a character in the present day. It notably re-examines certain aspects of the story, such as what the heirs of Arthur would do if they were actually around.
  • The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner conflates Norse and Arthurian myth with real places in England. The cave with the sleeping Knights (and their horses) is a local legend in Alderley.
  • The young adult novel, Winter of Magic's Return by Pamela F. Service, and its sequel, concerns three young children in post-nuclear war England. One of them turns out to be a youthened/reborn Merlin who had lost his memory and, even after he gets it back, has some issues with remembering spells and making them work right. Ends up becoming a Magic Comes Back scenario.
  • Young Indiana Jones and the Ghostly Riders by William McCay has the young Indy visit Wales during holiday, where his schoolmate's family's coal mining business is threatened by sabotage. In the course of foiling the villains, Wales being "King Arthur country" is discussed, along with the possible history behind the legends. Indy and his friend discover the silver dragon ring and later the treasure of Artorius, aided by the ghost of Morgen, who is noted to have suffered Adaptational Villainy as Morgan le Fay. While wearing the ring, Indy briefly sees a vision of (or magically goes back in time to see, it's ambiguous) Artorius's men and Morgen fleeing the destruction of Cadbury Castle, identified as their fortress of Camlann (Camelot), and bearing the treasure which Indy and his friend later find. The treasure saves the mine from going under, and Indy's friend is revealed to be Artorius's distant descendant.

    Live-Action TV 

Medieval

  • The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot, the first UK series made in colour.
  • Arthur of the Britons was a series featuring a realistic Arthur as a warlord fighting Saxon invaders in Dark Ages Britain.
  • Camelot: A 2011 series co-produced by Starz and GK-TV.
  • Cursed (2020), a Netflix series adapted from the YA novel of the same name; a loose retelling of the legends focused upon Nimue, who wields a magic sword strongly implied (but never outright stated) to be Excalibur to save the Fey from a genocide led by the Catholic Church. Several other Arthurian characters show up, though they often bear little resemblance to their legendary counterparts; Arthur himself isn't Uther's son and the future king, instead being a mercenary and Nimue's love interest. It also takes place several centuries later than is traditional, with Britain facing invasions from Vikings rather than Saxons.
  • Kaamelott: A French comedy, close in spirit to Asterix, with Anachronism Stew aplenty (Arthur is a Briton raised by the Romans who ruled Britain for them, though since they're kind of busy going through five Emperors per year they don't bother them too much, and the knights wear 16th-century plate armor). At least in the first seasons, it focused on everyday life and mundane events at Kaamelott (though it also included mythological/historical jokes from all over the middle ages). Most characters range from quirky to complete idiots, with King Arthur acting (most of the time) as the Only Sane Man. Over the years the show did include more serialization and became more of a drama.
  • Merlin (1998): A Mini Series starring Sam Neill in which Queen Mab figures in place of Morgaine Le Fay, brings Celtic mythology into play.
  • Merlin (2008): A BBC Saturday Night series focusing on the early life of the wizard. It follows the legends only loosely, with Arthur raised prince of Camelot and Merlin a boy close to Arthur's age who is Arthur's servant and must hide his magic due to King Uther and later Arthur forbidding magic in Camelot. Gwen/Guinevere is the servant of Morgana introduced as Uther's ward and only revealed as his daughter in season 3. Mordred is a Druid boy who may or may not be Arthur's nephew, Gwaine is a noble hiding as a commoner, and Lancelot is a commoner for real. Gwen is seduced by a zombie-type Lancelot but never cheats on Arthur.

Other

  • Babylon 5: "A Late Delivery From Avalon", and other references. In that episode King Arthur himself arrives on the station but turns out in fact to be a gunner whose actions triggered the devastating Minbari war in the show's backstory. He adopted the King Arthur persona as a way to cope with his guilt. Arthurian symbolism makes sporadic appearances throughout B5 and Crusade in the form of the council of races, and the sword and shield on the emblem. This episode also makes a mistake on the part of the writer — or at least on the part of the characters. Doctor Franklin protests that the man cannot be Arthur because his speech patterns are too modern... An interesting observation, since King Arthur shouldn't be speaking English at all!
  • Briefly mentioned in the Charmed (1998) episode; "Sword and the City", Piper pulled the sword Excalibur from the stone in a very Arthurian-style and later became corrupted by it. Turns out her firstborn son Wyatt is the real Chosen One destined to wield it and Piper is meant to keep it safe ala the Lady of the Lake. Oh, and the Merlin-expy who shows up is actually evil and The Corrupter.
  • The Doctor Who serial "Battlefield" has near-future Earth invaded by two factions of Magic from Technology Arthurian knights from a parallel universe, the good ones serving the (dead) Arthur and the evil ones led by Morgana and Mordred. It is strongly suggested that their Merlin was a future incarnation of the Doctor himself.
  • The Fantasy Island episode "King Arthur in Mr. Roarke's Court", which brings Arthur (played by Robert Mandan), onto that 70s island, leaving a guest whose fantasy was to meet King Arthur (Tommy Smothers) to keep him out of trouble 'till Roarke can put him back in his proper place and time.
  • The Goodies protect a descendant of King Arthur from having Camelot seized by a greedy land developer. Because medieval law still applies on Arthur's land, Hilarity Ensues as both sides resort to torture and jousting to force the issue. Gags include Excalibur being used as a club (because no-one can remove the stone from the end) and Ye Secret Weapon — a giant magnet that proves highly effective against metal armor and swords.
  • Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: In "Once Upon a Future King", Arthur is portrayed initially as a brutal warlord corrupted by Morgan la Fey's influence. When he attempts to seize Excalibur from the stone, Merlin sends him back in time to ancient Greece where he comes into conflict with Hercules, but eventually learns from the demi-god's example and pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
  • In the series 'The Knights of God' the tale of King Arthur is retold in a dystopian future Britain with a young King battling to topple the theocratic dictatorship of Brother Modrin.
  • Legends of Tomorrow: The Legends visit Camelot in "Camelot/3000", where Camelot's existence and Anachronism Stew elements are justified by it being created by another time traveler looking to protect the MacGuffin.
  • The first season of The Librarians 2014 draws heavily from Arthurian myth — Arthur's crown and Excalibur are components of the Serpent Brotherhood's plan in the pilot, Morgan le Fay is the Villain of the Week in "And the Rule of Three", and the season finale "And The Loom of Fate" confirms the heavy foreshadowing throughout the season that Dulaque and Jenkins are actually Lancelot and Galahad, respectively.
  • In the MacGyver (1985) episode "Good Knight MacGyver", as he is prone to do, Mac gets clocked on the head and finds himself transported to King Arthur's court, where he saves King Arthur, discovers Merlin to be little better than a stage magician, clears the good name of his ancestor, prevents the early discovery of gunpowder by Morgan La Fey, and finally reveals his own first name.
  • Mr Merlin: A modernized Merlin seeks out a present-day hero to teach.
  • Once Upon a Time visits Camelot for the first half of the fifth season. It's closely linked with the show's Dark One mythology; Nimue was the original Dark One, and the dagger is actually the missing tip of Excalibur.
  • King Arthur ended at #51 in One Hundred Greatest Britons.
  • An episode of Robin of Sherwood has the second Robin Hood Robert of Huntington's godfather, an old man named Agrivaine, send his daughter to summon Robert to his decaying castle so that he can inherit a priceless treasure and protect it from a band of mercenaries who have been hired to steal it. Neither the mercenaries nor Robin know what the treasure is, and Agrivaine will only reveal it after the battle is won. After Robin and his gang manage to successfully fend off the mercenaries, a dying Agrivaine reveals that the treasure was the Round Table, which his family (descended from the Sir Agrivaine of King Arthur's time) has guarded ever since. As Agrivaine had no son, he needed to bequeath the Table and the decaying castle (which is Camelot) to a male heir to guard until King Arthur can return. Arthur does return briefly to ask if Robin will accept the responsibility, which he politely declines (citing his responsibilities as the Son of Herne the Hunter). Robin instead suggests that Agrivaine's daughter should serve in the role, which King Arthur accepts.
  • Stargate SG-1: Merlin is revealed to be an Ancient who had stayed on Earth to develop a defense against the Ori. Camelot is on another planet, and SG-1 finds the Sangraal, a piece of Merlin's anti-Ori weapon. They never quite confirm who Arthur actually was, but Daniel theorizes that he was a mortal whom Merlin helped ascend. Morgan le Fay was also an Ancient, sent to stop Merlin. In a subversion of the mythology, she ended up aiding him (and SG-1).
  • The Twilight Zone: in the 1986 episode "The Last Defender of Camelot" an immortal Lancelot and Morgan La Fey team up to prevent a revived Merlin trying to resurrect King Arthur and place him back on the throne, preferring the democratic society that has grown up since Camelot's fall.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess has Xena encounter the Knights of the Round table, casually pulling the sword from the stone before restoring it.

    Music 
  • Ayreon's "The Final Experiment" involves the protagonist going to King Arthur's court and getting on Merlin's bad side.
  • Blind Guardian's "A Past and Future Secret" is about King Arthur and the fall of Camelot. "Mordred's Song" is, unsurprisingly, about Mordred. "The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight" is about Tristan and Isolde. The singer's other band Demons & Wizards has "Winter of Souls," which is also about the conflict between Arthur and Mordred.
  • A large portion of the songs by Heather Dale. Her album, The Trial of Lancelot, is filled with songs entirely about Arthurian mythology. Among others:
  • Grave Digger's Concept Album Excalibur is based on the legend of King Arthur.
  • There is a power metal band called Kamelot. While they haven't really played on Arthurian themes in any of their recent work, their fourth studio album featured a song titled "The Shadow of Uther". And their third album was titled Siege Perilous.
  • Rick Wakeman's Concept Album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Various edits of the opening track, Arthur, which tells us briefly of Arthur's ascendency, have been used by The BBC to herald every general election since 1979 (with one exception).
  • The Mechanisms' Concept Album "High Noon Over Camelot" is a queer Space Western retelling of the quest for the G.R.A.I.L.

    Pinballs 
  • In Crystal Caliburn, the player is King Arthur, and must assemble the Knights of the Round in order to undergo a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail.

    Tabletop Games 

Medieval

  • GURPS Camelot, which includes rules for three possible settings: "Traditional", "Historical", and "Cinematic" with the option of mixing-and-matching depending on what you want to be accurate mythology, what you want to be realistic Dark Ages, and what you want to be Rule of Cool. All three Camelots are referenced in GURPS Infinite Worlds, which notes that the "Historical" Arthur (Artorius Riothamus) is one of many Arthurs found in otherwise non-mythic timelines, fitting just about any theory as to who the "historic" Arthur was.
    On any parallel with a current date between 410 and 660 A.D., the Patrol by now routinely expects to discover the “real Arthur” in a North Welsh hill fort, a Scottish border wall, or a detachment of Roman cavalry.
  • Pendragon is heavily based on Malory's Le Morte D Arthur, but not afraid to plunder other sources if need be, and notable for magic causing the timeline to advance rapidly from the Dark Ages (complete with marauding Picts and Saxons) right through to the 15th century during the course of Arthur's reign allowing just about any Arthurian tale from any of myriad versions of the myth to be fit in somewhere. The Great Pendragon Campaign explicitly identifies the phases of Arthur's reign with periods in the history of England, from the Norman Conquest to the Wars of the Roses, in terms of the political situation and the available technology.
  • Shadows over Camelot is a board game styled after the Arthurian myths, where the players take on the roles of Knights of the Round Table of their choosing (including King Arthur himself). The knights cooperate in going on quests and defending Camelot against encroaching evil forces—with a twist that one of them is secretly evil (i.e. the other players don't know who the traitor is) and must work to ensure Camelot's downfall.
  • In Werewolf: The Apocalypse, King Arthur is a werebear. Yeah, it is awesome. And, considering the commonly accepted etymology of the name, a Stealth Pun.

Other

  • TSR's Amazing Engine game, Once and Future King supplement. The game takes place during the 46th century (4,500-4,600 A.D.) throughout the Earth's solar system, with everyone involved (including King Arthur and his knights) using high tech devices and weaponry. Merlin is a computer program with Artificial Intelligence. How did this come about? Scientists created clones using DNA from 5th century British warriors and programmed their brains with the principles of chivalry. The clones rebelled against their creators and took over the solar system by force.
  • Mage: The Awakening:
    • Merlin tricked the tyrant-god Exarchs into destroying Camelot, as creating a fallen utopia was the final project he needed to Ascend as an archmage. The Exarchs were so pissed off, they retroactively wiped Camelot from existence... but they couldn't erase everything, as what Merlin had done had such a big effect on reality it forced the Anthropomorphic Personification of Fate to adopt Mordred's iconography as part of theirs.
    • Dark Eras 2 presents a historical Camelot where the supernatural is a known presence, with the various creatures of the Chronicles of Darkness by and large keeping to the shadows to avoid attention as they pursue their agendas.
  • What the Noble Knight archetype in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG are based on, with the exception of Joan. To wit, Artorigus is Arthur, Laundsallyn is Lancelot, Gawayn is Gawain, Medraut is Mordred, Gwalchavad is Galahad, Drystan is Tristan, Borz is Bors, and Peredur is Percival.

    Theatre 
  • Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot, an adaptation of White's The Once and Future King focusing on the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot Love Triangle.
  • Henry Purcell wrote the "semi-opera" King Arthur, or The British Worthy (1691), at least one number of which, the Cold Song, is popular today. The libretto by John Dryden dumps pretty much all characters apart from Arthur and Merlin in favour of a new cast of new characters; Arthur ends up marrying Emmeline.
  • La Légende du Roi Arthur, a 2015 French musical.
  • Richard Wagner's Parsifal is somewhat loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Arthurian romance Parzival. Wagner's earlier Lohengrin also tangentially touches the Grail myth. Note that Wagner moves the action from the 5th to the 10th century A.D.
  • Eric Idle and John Du Prez's musical Spamalot, an adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail focusing on being very silly.
  • Artus - Excalibur, a 2014 German-language musical.

    Theme Parks 
  • The now-defunct Camelot Theme Park in Lancashire, located at one of the claimed locations of the actual Camelot.
  • Disneyland and Disney World have the Sword in the Stone based on the Disney movie, which guests can draw under supervision of the crew.
  • French history theme park Le Puy du Fou (with particular emphasis on medieval times) has a "Knights of the Round Table" show.

    Toys 
  • SD Gundam Gaiden Knights Of The Round Table is themed heavily after Arthurian legend, telling the story of how Crown Knight Gundam brought together new members for the Knights of the Round Table to reclaim the Britis Kingdom from the Zabiloniya Empire. Years later it got a prequel, New Testament SD Gundam Gaiden Gundam King Story, starring Crown Knight Gundam's father King Gundam I and telling the origins of how the old Knights of the Round Table first formed.

    Video Games 

Medieval

  • One of the early Sierra games was Conquests of Camelot, involving King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail and the three knights that went missing in search of it. It combines almost every aspect of the Arthurian mythos, and naturally, has room for several Monty Python references.
  • The player character of the Interactive Fiction game Guenevere is the titular queen and the story opens on the day of her marriage to King Arthur.
  • King Arthur & the Knights of Justice
  • King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame
  • Knights of the Round, a Beat 'em Up with Arthur, Lancelot and Perceval as playable characters, taking a few visual cues from Excalibur.
  • Sonic and the Black Knight: an Alternate Universe version of the Arthurian myth with the Knights portrayed as Sonic characters and an evil descendant of Merlin pulling the strings.
  • Wild Blood, a Hack and Slash game where the player assumes the role of Lancelot who must defeat Arthur's evil handmaiden, the sorceress Morgana.
  • Vampyr (2018), an Action RPG set during The Spanish Flu epidemic in London. While largely an original story following a doctor recently transformed into a vampire, several elements of the Arthurian Legend appear during the game. It turns out that Merlin is actually an ancient incorporeal vampire dedicated to the protection of England who chose the player character as a new champion to defeat the Morrigan, with Arthur having been a previous vampire champion.

Other

  • Arthur has technically been in the Assassin's Creed universe since Assassin's Creed II, where a segment in the Truth puzzles left behind by Subject 16 hints that Arthur was a Templar (or to be specific, a leader of the Templar precursor, and Excalibur was a Piece of Eden. The actual sword finally made an appearance in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, where protagonist Eivor can acquire it by pulling it out of an Isu pedestal.
  • Eat Me: The setting is the castle known in Arthurian legend as Castle Charyot. In the backstory, Morgan Le Fay took control of it from the fairies and held it for a hundred years before it was taken back in a bloody battle.
  • Various characters from Arthurian legend show up in Grimms Notes; King Arthur, Morgan, Merlin, Galahad and Lancelot are playable heroes, while Guinevere, Gawain and Mordred remain as NPCs.
  • In Hidden Expedition: A King's Line, the player character is summoned to Europe to assist with uncovering what may be Arthur's tomb. The game takes an interesting turn, as it offers a possible explanation for the many conflicting legends about King Arthur: there are actually multiple Arthurs, with the name being a hereditary title among Welsh nobles. The last surviving Arthur fell in battle against Edward I, who in real life was a thorn in the sides of the Welsh princes, and the player eventually discovers the Holy Grail concealed beneath Mount Snowdon.
  • King Arthur, despite being British, is included in Honor of Kings, where it's mostly filled with Chinese historical and mythical figures. He's a Simple, yet Awesome close combatant akin of Garen from League of Legends (The creator of the game, Tencent, also owns Riot Games). When the game is ported into its international form, Arena of Valor, Arthur is largely unchanged, but his background is changed to fit in the new narrative taking in a new world of Athanor, but he shares the same 'King who ruled his people justly, rallies and defends them in time of need' background with the original King himself, in addition of having an identical descendant living in present time and having the same personality.
  • In Smite, King Arthur was first referenced via the skin for Tyr titled 'King ArTyr', which is mostly a parody of him based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Fast forward to late 2018, and the game included both Arthur and Merlin as playable characters, despite the game majorly consisting of Gods and famous monsters from mythologies. Despite the lack of godly essences, unlike the likes of Hercules or Cu Chulainn (both of them half-Gods), Arthur and Merlin still makes the cut, possibly because Merlin can easily make a case of A Wizard Did It (since he's one of the most famous wizards), and Arthur's tales imply him of gaining immortality thanks to Avalon. The third to enter the roster was Morgan le Fay, due to implications that she was part fairy thus more eligible than other mortal candidates. Lancelot becomes the fourth to enter despite not really an immortal himself, mostly due to being Touched By Vorlorns due to him being raised by the Lady of the Lake.
  • Sonic and the Black Knight involves Sonic the Hedgehog as a Fish out of Water, summoned to the legends of Arthur; for he must save the kingdom from Arthur himself, who is now Brainwashed and Crazy and ruling the land tyrannically as the eponymous Black Knight using monsters from the Underworld with a new getup akin to Sauron and a very unique sword. Oh, and Merlin has a granddaughter in Merlina (though given Merlin's habits in legend, it's not so hard to imagine). And other Sonic characters serve as the likeness for Arthurian characters: Knuckles is Gawain, Shadow is Lancelot, and Blaze is... Percival? Tails being a blacksmith and Amy being the Lady of the Lake makes more sense, though. And for the final nail? King Arthur is actually a construct created by Merlin to rule the kingdom before going Drunk with Power, there was never a "true" King Arthur before Sonic arrived. Merlina herself is also the Big Bad, having known how their world and the "legend" of King Arthur ends and wants to use the immortality-granting scabbard to turn the kingdom into an eternal one, no matter the cost. And as stated by Caliburn himself, who is also Excalibur, Sonic is the true King Arthur and savior of Camelot.
  • Soul Sacrifice: A number of (renamed) characters from the Arthurian mythos, Avalon and Camelot, and the Holy Grail appear. Excalibur is even one of the Black Rites.
  • Tomb Raider: Legend makes Excalibur, in reality, a really, really ancient artifact that predates Arthurian legend and is mentioned in various other myths and legends. "Every culture's got one." The Insufferable Genius Scrappy Alister constantly states how unlikely the legend is to be true, while Lara remains optimistic and Zip just thinks Excalibur is a cool sword and constantly confuses it with the sword in the stone. When he realises this is irritating Alister greatly, he continues to do this deliberately. Lara approves. In the end, it turns out that Excalibur is real, as is King Arthur and Avalon, and Lara gets to use the sword as a weapon on the final boss. Sent up by the real location of the Sword being hidden beneath a fake, theme-park-ride version of Arthurian myth.
  • In Vampyr (2018), King Arthur is revered by the Guard of Priwen (which is named after his famous shield), who has devised a serum from his blood which grants them with superior strength and speed in order to fight against vampires more efficiently. It's later revealed that Arthur was a ''vampire'' turned by Merlin, who is some kind of vampire deity instead of a wizard. In fact, Arthur was one of the protagonist's predecessors as protector of Britain against the Red Queen Morrigan's wrath, but he failed and his premature death led to the land suffering for years to come.

    Visual Novels 
  • Fate Series:
    • Set in the wider Nasuverse, the series has utilized a unique re-sculpturing of Arthur from the idea of using the first sentence of the page quote from Excalibur, "I was not born to live a man's life", as a literal statement: their King Arthur is actually a woman named Artoria note  though male-oriented society of the time (and, indeed, at her own insistence) dictated that she be remembered as a man. Her identity as Arthur was originally a major twist, but she's become the face of the franchise so it's not much of a surprise anymore.
    • In the original entry, Fate/stay night, revolving around mages summoning heroic spirits from history and myths to help them fight for the Holy Grail, the king is summoned into the Holy Grail War under the Saber class. It is worth noting that this Historical Gender Flip of the character has been broadly utilized to address several social issues from the past and present, to combat future social injustice, such as the pros and cons of feminine leaders, the abuse of women throughout history, the possibility of an inaccurate historic record leading to a focus upon the consequences of such an inaccuracy, and what, from an ethical stand point, ought be any ruler's number one priority if they have only themselves to answer.
    • "Avalon" is not only the name of an afterlife where Arthur intends to go after death, but is also used to refer to the scabbard of Excalibur, able to be magically placed in a host to grant them a Healing Factor. It was used by Kiritsugu and Irisviel to summon Artoria and then placed inside of Irisviel, then was later placed in Shirou by Kiritsugu to help him heal from his injuries caused by the Great Fuyuki Fire, which later causes Shirou to accidentally summon Artoria as his Servant in the subsequent Holy Grail War.
    • Bedivere has a brief appearance in the normal end of the Fate route of Fate/stay night, carrying a mortally wounded Artoria to safety after the Battle of Camlann and returning Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake as per Artoria's orders, allowing Artoria to pass peacefully.
    • The prequel Fate/Zero also has Lancelot as Berserker, bearing the appropriate grudge against Artoria/Saber.
    • The Alternate Universe Fate/EXTRA also has Gawain as an enemy-exclusive Saber (your Saber is a gender-flipped Nero).
    • Mordred also gets a brief mention in Fate/stay night and a cameo in the 2006 anime adaptation, and is also a Historical Gender Flip; in the Nasuverse, she was a homunculus created from Artoria's DNA by Morgan. She later becomes the Saber of Red in Fate/Apocrypha. The series portrays her as a violent warrior with a chip on her shoulder towards her father and the Round Table and serious issues about being called a girl, but deep down still wanting Artoria's love and being a decent person underneath her rough manner, making this one of the more sympathetic portrayals of the arch-traitor.
    • Kay appears in the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] audio drama, Curtain Call ~ LET US DRIVE TOGETHER, which takes place after the anime. Shirou, who has been frequently visiting Artoria's grave in Glastonbury Abbey, is visited by the spirit of Kay, who tells him that Artoria would've liked him to move on.
    • The Garden of Avalon novel, also included with the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] blu-ray DVD release, also has chapters taking place from the perspectives of Lancelot (about his affair with Guinevere), Kay (about his and Arthur's childhood), Gawain (waxing on about how great Arthur is and the fight against Vortigern), and Merlin (musing on his mentorship of Arthur, which opens and ends the story with his imprisonment in Avalon).
    • In Fate/Prototype, a 12-minute OVA that gives us a look at what Nasu originally planned for Fate/stay night, King Arthur is still the main character's Saber-class Servant, but he's not a Historical Gender Flip. He's also much younger despite the modern portrayals of Arthur mostly portraying him as a middle-late aged old king. Mordred is also mentioned as being a yandere (father-son variant) for his father.
    • The Lord El-Melloi II Case Files series covers what happened to one of Arthur's weapons, the spear Rhongomyniad, in the modern era. It's been in the hands of Arthur's distant relatives as part of a centuries-long conspiracy to revive the king's spirit in a suitable host body, namely El-Melloi II's apprentice, Gray.
    • Fate/Grand Order:
      • This game features Galahad, fused with Mash into the Demi-Servant Shielder, and Merlin, who has been spying on the player through his familiar, Fou. All the above examples are also available as summonable Servants.
      • The Sixth Singularity, Camelot, introduces Bedivere (has been around since Stay Night, but played a really minor role) as a Saber who has a magical silver arm that's actually a transmuted Excalibur and Tristan as an Archer who wields a "bow" that is also a harp that upon strumming the strings fires sound waves. The chapter also shows Agravain and mentions Gareth, and from the other Knights' comments and confirmed later Gareth has a Gender Flip and is a Lancer who eventually becomes playable too, wielding a magical gun-lance. Gawain also mentions Percival, Kay, Gaheris, Bors and King Pellinore were all summoned before the Singularity started, but rebelled against the Lion King (a version of Artoria who never died and instead became a goddess through Excalibur never being thrown into the lake and using the holy spear Rhongomyniad) and were killed by the other Knights for it.
      • The Sixth Lostbelt, Avalon le Fae, is ruled by an Alternate History version of Morgan le Fay who has her own Knights of the Round Table in the form of three "Faerie Knights" named after Gawain, Tristan, and Lancelot respectively. An Alternate Self of Percival also appears wielding the Lance of Longinus, and Chaldea must help another alternate version of Artoria, this one a mage rather than a knight, fulfill her destiny as the prophecized "Child of Salvation. Also, Vortigern appears in the Ambigiuous Situation of being a Composite Character with the Fairy King Oberon. It also drops several reveals about Morgan such as the fact that in the Nasuverse not only is she Arthur's full sister rather than simply half-sister, but she had three separate Split Personality, one of which was The Lady of the Lake Vivian/Nimue. Also, Proper Human History Morgan le Fay was originally summoned by one of the Crypters, but sacrificed herself performing Mental Time Travel to help out her Lostbelt self.
  • Guinevere: A story starring the future Queen Guinevere.note 

     Web Animation 
  • Unbiased History Arthur and Mordred briefly appear during the Fall of Rome. Arthur attempts to aid the Western Roman Empire but is betrayed by Mordred on the way.

    Webcomics 
  • Arthur, King of Time and Space presents different perspectives on Arthurian legend as seen from different times and places — the basic Heroic Fantasy England, A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away..., Present Day America, and so on.
  • In J. Flores's King Arthur and the Round Table Knights a reborn Arthur stumbles across the sword in the stone and has to recruit the reincarnated knights of the Round Table in order to battle foes from all across time and space itself.
  • Dead Duck: One story arc had the title character come to reap Arthur and his knights, but run into trouble with the Fairie Queens who are guarding their gravesite.
  • The Dreamland Chronicles

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Brocéliande, a fan web-series based on Kaamelott and set in the eponymous mythical forest.
  • REX, a web series by Severe Chill Studios, depicts Arthurian characters living in the present day.

    Western Animation 
  • Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table is a humorous Australian series from The '60s, with quirky design and animation influenced by UPA. Arthur is a very small man, only half the height of Guinevere who is always implied to be the brains of the pair. Lancelot is rather vain and has a speech impediment caused by a gap in his teeth. The Court Jester is the resident Deadpan Snarker ("What do you take me for — a fool?"), while Merlin is always coming up with new potions, not all of them entirely successful. Morgana le Fay is allied to the Black Knight, but their efforts to overthrow Camelot are always defeated, usually by a combination of their incompetence and bad luck. A handful of episodes made it onto DVD in Britain in 2001.
  • An episode of The Fairly OddParents! had Timmy traveling to the Middle Ages and meeting King Arthur and Merlin. Merlin is a con man trying to make Arthur king, and after Arthur helps Timmy slay a dragon he kicks him to the curb.
  • Gargoyles is a series in which All Myths Are True — including King Arthur, who gets woken up to assist the heroes when the Archmage attacks Avalon. (In this setting, Avalon is the home of The Fair Folk, and Arthur gets to sleep there because Merlin's father, Oberon, owed his son a favor.) A proposed spinoff, Pendragon, would've followed him in his search for Merlin and then the Holy Grail (as well as addressing the fact that he woke up before Britain needed him).
  • The DC Comics version of Morgane Le Fey was a recurring enemy in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, who was frequently seen with her bratty son Mordred. In their final appearance, she helps the Justice League defeat Mordred, who has cast a spell to banish all adults in the world to another dimension so he could rule the world. Eventually they trick Mordred into breaking the spell that keeps him ageless, and ends up with Age Without Youth.
  • King Arthur & the Knights of Justice had a modern professional American football team transported back in time to fill the roles of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, who were magically frozen.
  • King Arthur's Disasters a humorous, anachronistic, British cartoon about a moronic King Arthur's failed attempts to woo the spoilt Princess Guinevere.
  • The Legend of Prince Valiant, based on the Prince Valiant newspaper comic.
  • On Legend of the Three Caballeros, the Caballeros go to Camelot to get trained by King Arthur... who is now a motivational speaker selling self-help books.
  • Looney Tunes: In "Knighty Knight Bugs", Bugs Bunny is King Arthur's jester, who Got Volunteered into retrieving the Singing Sword from the Black Knight (Yosemite Sam).
  • Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Ridersnote  (Robert Mandell's other series) was largely inspired by the myths. Including (but not limited to) Gwenevere's name (based on "Guinevere" from the original), Merlin as their spiritual advisor, Merlin's talking owl companion Archimedes (called Archie for short) after T.H. White and Disney, and the series setting: the kingdom of Avalon (whose capital city is called "New Camelot").
  • The Smurfs (1981) Season 9 episode "Smurfs of the Round Table" is set in Camelot, England with Morgan le Fey as the episode's main nemesis.
  • The Tales of Arcadia trilogy is slightly adapted from this legend, with many familiar characters and context changes.
  • Thunder Cats had an episode where Mumm-Ra disguised himself as Arthur to fool the Lady of the Lake into giving him Excalibur, the greatest sword that ever existed, so he could finally defeat Lion-O and the Sword of Omens. It almost worked, but then he made the mistake of revealing his identity, prompting Merlin to show up and kick his ass.

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