King Arthur's messianic return

Few historical records of Arthur remain, and there are doubts that he ever existed, but he achieved a mythological status by High Middle Ages that gave rise to a growing literature about his life and deeds.

"[1] In the "Miracles of St. Mary of Laon" (De miraculis sanctae Mariae Laudunensis), written by a French cleric and chronicler named Hériman of Tournai in c. 1145, but referring to events that occurred in 1113, mention is made of the Breton and Cornish belief that Arthur still lived.

[2][3] As Constance Bullock-Davies demonstrated, various non-Welsh sources indicate that this belief in Arthur's eventual messianic return was extremely widespread amongst the Britons from the 12th century onwards.

So, Richard I used his status as the inheritor of Arthur's realm to shore up foreign alliances, giving a sword reputed to be Excalibur to Tancred of Sicily.

[13] Similarly, "Round Tables"—jousting and dancing in imitation of Arthur and his knights—occurred at least eight times in England between 1242 and 1345, including one held by Edward I in 1284 to celebrate his conquest of Wales and consequent "reunification" of Arthurian Britain.

[16] Later, in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, Arthur's career was influential once again, now in providing evidence for supposed historical rights and territories in legal cases that pursued the crown's interests.

One of the better-known uses of this motif is by Mike Barr and Brian Bolland, who has Arthur and his knights returning in the year 3000 to save the Earth from an alien invasion in the comic book series Camelot 3000 (1982–85).

[23] In Vinland Saga, a manga on the Viking invasion and rule of England, the character Askeladd, a Norwegian-Welsh half-blood, recounts the tale of his true king and ancestor, Lucius Artorius Castus, and his glorious return from Avalon to save Britannia.