ACTIVIDADES SOBRE EL MITO DEL REY ARTURO Y LA LENGUA INGLESA (Francisco M. Gaviero Galisteo)

ACTIVIDADES SOBRE EL MITO DEL REY ARTURO

 (2º ESO – Primer Trimestre)

 

Estas actividades tienen como objetivo que el alumno tenga un primer contacto con la leyenda artúrica y descubra su relación con la lengua inglesa.

 

SESIÓN 1

 

Empezaremos con un breve debate acerca de la figura del Rey Arturo para que aflore todo lo que ya conocen sobre este mito:

 

What do you know about King Arthur?

Was he a real person?

Are there films about him?

Who wrote the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?

 

Seguiremos con una actividad práctica para mostrarles cómo una leyenda o un mito puede sufrir un cambio constante, cada vez que se transmite. Para ello usaremos el conocido juego del teléfono pero utilizando la lengua inglesa.

 

Sitting in a circle, the first student tells a sentence to the student sitting to his or her left. The next student repeats it to the following student but with a slight change of his or her choice. The following student does the same and so on. The last student tells it in a loud voice. The first student who told the anecdote will point out the differences.

 

A continuación le haremos reflexionar sobre las conclusiones del juego:

 

How much did the story change?

What were the parts of the story that changed most?

 

Para finalizar, los estudiantes realizarán una actividad escuchando una canción de una de las versiones más disparatadas de la leyenda artúrica: Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975). El video con el extracto de la canción se puede encontrar en htttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4tWBILtrSU.

 

Round Table Camelotx2 knightsx2 eat life

GIRLS:
Camelot
The town that never sleeps
It's Camelot!
ALL KNIGHTS:
We're knights of the ____________
We dance when e're we're able
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impecc-able
We dine well here in ____________
We ___________ ham and jam and spam alot

We're ____________ of the round talbe
Our shows are for-mid-able
But many times, we're given ryhmes
That are quite unsing-able
We're opera mad in _____________
We sing from the diaphragm a lot

(dance sequence)

PRINCIPAL KNIGHTS:
We're _____________ of the table
Although we live a fable
We're not just bums
With royal mums
We've brains that are quite a-ble
We've a busy __________ in Camelot.

 

SESIÓN 2 y 3

 

Visionado de la película King Arthur (2004).

 

Actividad a realizar durante la película:

 

While watching the film, answer these questions:

1. Who are these characters?

- Arthur – Artorius Castus

- Lancelot

- Galahad

- Tristan 

- Bors

- Dagonet

- Guinevere

- Merlin

2. Write briefly about the first action which appears in the film
3. Describe how one of the characters is dressed
4. Select five words that you heard during the first part.
5. Which period of time is the film?
6. Write the names of the director and the main actors.

 

SESIÓN 4

 

Durante esta cuarta sesión y usando sus portátiles, los alumnos llevarán a cabo una webquest. De forma autónoma, los alumnos averiguarán información acerca del mito por medio del uso de las TIC, que después compartirán con el resto de alumnos.

 

 

 

 

WEBQUEST

 

Questions
1.) Who was Arthur’s father?

2.) How did Arthur become the king of England?
3.) Why is Merlin important to the King Arthur legend?
3.) According to legend, how did King Arthur acquire the Excalibur sword? (Hint: it is NOT the same as the "sword in the stone").

4.) Where was Arthur’s base?
5.) Who was Guinevere?  Give three important details about her.
6.) Describe King Arthur's Round Table. What was its purpose?
7.) What was the Holy Grail? How was it important in the King Arthur legend?
8.) Describe Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad. What is their relationship to one another and to King Arthur?

9.) Who did Arthur and his knights fight against?

10.) What happened after Arthur died?

 

Websites and Links:
Use the following links to answer the above questions. Explore each site to find the answers to your questions. Read the information that you find thoroughly.

History of Caerleon:
http://www.caerleon.net/history/arthur/index.htm
Arthurian Legend:
http://www.arthurian-legend.com/
Legend of Excalibur:
http://www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/excalibur.html
Round Table:
http://library.thinkquest.org/6148/round.htm
The Quest for the Holy Grail:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/mythical/grail.html

 

READER

 

Para el primer trimestre los alumnos deben leer el libro King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table de Penguin Readers, adaptado para alumnos de 2º ESO.

Después de haberlo escuchado en clase y leido en casa, en grupos de 3 o 4 deberán representar una pequeña obra de teatro escrita en inglés por ellos mismos. Para ello a cada grupo se le asignará un capítulo, en el que deberán basar su obra. Pueden utilizar los recursos que consideren necesarios (disfraces, objetos, escenario, etc.) para llevar a cabo la representación. Los capítulos son los siguientes:

 

Chapter 1: With the help of Merlin’s magic, King Uther marries the beautiful Igraine on condition that Uther gives him their firstborn. When Arthur is born, Merlin hides him. On Uther’s death, civil war breaks out. One day young Arthur travels to London, with his step father, Sir Ector, and Arthur pulls a sword out of a stone. The stone has words on it: ONLY THE KING CAN TAKE THE SWORD FROM THE STONE, so Arthur becomes the next king.

Chapter 2: Arthur quickly gathers around him the bravest and best knights in the kingdom and marries Guinevere, the most beautiful woman in Britain. Merlin makes a round table for the knights at Camelot, the most important city in Britain.

Chapter 3: Arthur comes across Queen Annoure’s castle on a journey. Annoure wants him to marry her. As Arthur escapes, she orders Sir Pellinore to kill him. Unaware that he is fighting Arthur, Pellinore wounds him lightly but then realises who he is. Since Arthur’s sword breaks in the fight, Merlin takes Arthur to the Lady of the Lake, who hands Arthur a magic sword called Excalibur.

Chapter 4: Morgan le Fay hates Arthur and tricks him and one of his knights into a fight in which neither knows the other’s identity. This time Arthur is severely wounded and goes to a nunnery to be healed. Morgan follows him, steals his magic scabbard and throws it into a lake.

Chapter 5: Lady Vivien wants to be the greatest magician in the world and tricks Merlin into getting into a cave he cannot get out of. Legend says Merlin is still trapped in this cave.

Chapter 6: When Sir Meligrance kidnaps Guinevere, Sir Lancelot rescues her. Meligrance is forgiven by Guinevere but he locks Lancelot into a room and tells Arthur that Guinevere has run away with him because she loves him. When Lancelot escapes, he kills Meligrance for being a

liar.

Chapter 7: Tristram gets poisoned in his fight against the King of Ireland’s son and travels to Ireland to get cured. Without knowing Tristram is his son’s murderer, the king asks him to teach his daughter, Isolt, to play the harp. Tristram and Isolt fall in love but Isolt has to marry King

Mark, Tristram’s uncle, and Tristram becomes a Knight of the Round Table. When Sir Tristram learns Isolt has been kidnapped, he fights Sir Palamides, her captor, and takes her to King Mark who suspects Tristram and Isolt are in love and kills Tristram. Isolt dies of sadness and King Mark is killed by one of Arthur’s knights.

Chapter 8: An old man sits Galahad, Sir Lancelot’s son, at the only vacant place on the Round Table, reserved for the best knight. Once dubbed a knight, Galahad takes a long journey in search of the Grail which, according to an apparition, is in the country. As many knights accompany him, the brotherhood of the Round Table is practically dissolved. They finally find the Grail on a ship at sea which takes them to a city. In the city, the old man makes Galahad king and foretells the latter’s imminent death. When the other knights return, Arthur can sense the end of the Round Table is near.

Chapter 9: In Arthur’s absence, Sir Mordred attempts to kidnap Guinevere. Arthur returns and one of Mordred’s men kills Sir Gawain, Arthur’s knight. In Arthur’s sleep, the dead Gawain advises him to wait for Sir Lancelot’s help. The fight against Mordred’s men starts by accident.

As many knights die, an enraged Arthur kills Mordred and gets a deadly wound. Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to throw Excalibur into the lake. When Bedivere finally does so, the Lady of the Lake takes it. Arthur’s last wish is to be taken to the lake. A boat with five ladies in black is waiting for him. Before leaving, Arthur promises to return whenever his country needs him and asks  Bedivere to tell his story.

 

 Francisco Manuel Gaviero Galisteo