In Search of King Arthur: Looking at Evidence |
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WRITTEN RECORDS AND ARTHUR |
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If Arthur really lived, he was a Briton warrior chief fighting against Saxon invaders. Gildas was a British Christian monk who wrote in 550AD about the wars with the Saxons. He says that in 500AD a leader called "Ambrosius Aurelianas" won some battles ending with a great victory over the Saxon invader at Badon Hill (Possibly the hill fort called Badbury Rings near Wimborne in Dorset). "Sometimes the Britons won and sometimes the enemy won. This went on up to the Siege of Mount Badon, where the Britons slaughtered the Saxon murderers". A welsh poem, "Y Gododdin", written about 600AD praises a hero who glutted black ravens with the bodies of his enemies "though he was not Arthur". |
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All the other writings about Arthur come much later. A collection of stories about Arthur was put together around 1100AD - a gap of six hundred years. The stories were probably first put together at St. David's monastery in Wales around 950AD, but we do not know where any of them came from. They say that in 518AD: |
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St. David's Cathedral |
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It also says that in the year 539AD:
It lists twelve victories, ending with Badoa, where "960 men fell in one day from one charge by Arthur, and no one overthrew them but Arthur alone". Most of the King Arthur legend that we know was made up long after his death. Guinivere, Merlin, Avalon, Camelot, round table and holy grail were all invented by storytellers from Norman to Victorian times. |
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