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King Arthur: Fact or Fiction?

Legends about the mythical ruler of England, King Arthur, have been going around for nearly 1,500 years. At every step they have been embellished, with each generation of Arthurian literature becoming more and more complex & subtle, growing steadily away from how it began. While no one named "Arthur" has been documented to have been a king of England, there is very likely some historical figure behind this legend.

Arthurian Literature, the First Generations

The first mention of any historical figure which might be related to Arthur, is found in a chronicle left by St. Gildas, a 6th-century British monk, called De excidio Britanniae ("On the Ruin of Britain"). In Gildas's work, Arthur is not named per se, however, there is an Arthur-like figure, named Aurelius Ambrosius.

Gildas's chronicle discusses the history of Britain in the wake of the departure of the Roman legions in 410 AD. King Vortigern (Gwrtheyrn or Gurthrigern) had trouble with the incursions of Picts to the north. In an effort to retain his tenuous control over the Britons, & stop the Pictish raids, he invited some Saxons in, to help. Once the Picts were defeated, the Saxon mercenaries settled in to stay, & not only that, they were joined by yet more Saxons. The Saxons set themselves up as masters, setting the unwise British king Vortigern aside.

The British rallied under a man named Aurelius Ambrosius, who apparently was a Roman officer (possibly a son of a Roman/British marriage) left behind after the Empire withdrew from Britain. This new High King of Britain led the Briton warriors & the few Romans who stayed behind with him against the invaders. After over four decades of constant war, he finally defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon (or Bath Hill). This battle, Gildas tells us, took place the same year he was born.

Later chroniclers, such as the monks Nennius & the venerable Bede, told a similar tale, but named the hero "Arthur" — possibly a Latinized version of an archaic Celtic term meaning "High King." Another chronicle, Annales Cambriae ("The Annals of Wales"), also mentions Arthur. The Anlgo-Saxon Chronicle also has a passage mentioning the Saxons' campaign against Vortigern. All of these appear to have used Gildas's tale as their source, even if they assigned a new name to the hero. In any event, the tale is rather short. My encapsulation, above, is only just a little more brief than what Gildas says about this figure. There are no real details.

Geoffrey of Monmouth & Historia Regum Brittaniae

This is pretty much how the story stayed, for some 500 years. In the early 12th century, the Welsh scholar Geoffrey of Monmouth compiled a long work, Historia regum Brittaniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), which — in addition to adding many more details about the life & career of Arthur — tells how the Britons arrived in their land (they were refugee Trojans, led by Brutus or Bryttys, a son of King Priam of Troy), as well as the history of all the kings of Britain, to his time. The story of King Arthur is about in the middle of this long narrative. He introduced a number of facets into the story of Arthur, such as betrayal by his own men, & the addition of a mentor, Merlin (or Myrrddin). He also described Arthur (& in fact, most of the characters in his narrative) in terms of his own day — portraying them as kings, knights, etc. of the 12th century.

Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that he got his story from a Welsh book, but this source has never been found, or alluded to anywhere else. Scholars now guess that there never was any such source. In any event, Geoffrey of Monmouth became the foundation for later Arthurian storytelling.

A little while after Monmouth's narrative became well-known, another writer, Gerald of Wales, told the story of how King Arthur's tomb & remains had been uncovered, in a brief passage in De instructione principis ("On the Instruction of a Prince"). This shows how seriously the story of King Arthur was treated, by this time.

Early Arthurian Romances

Historia regum Brittaniae was the primary source for a long, Middle English epic poem about Arthur, called the Alliterative Morte Arthur (alliterative poetry was a particular literary artform in the Anglo-Saxon & Middle Engish languages, which fell into disuse by the 15th century). This epic added yet another dimension to the Arthur saga, telling the stories of some of his knights, & adding the story of Arthur's conquest of the Roman Empire, in the middle of his reign. Another epic version of the story, in more traditional metered poetry, known as the Stanzaic Morte Arthur, was composed about the same time.

Geoffrey of Monmouth's work, & the Alliterative Morte Arthur, were both well-known in literary circles for some time, throughout western Europe. In France, the young "courtly love" movement latched onto the story of Arthur, building upon him as the mythic "perfect king," & they wrote stories embodying the courtly love ideal, with him at their core. Writers such as Chrétien de Troyes & Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote romances using Arthur & his knights as characters.

At this point, Arthurian literature blossomed into a literary industry. Dozens of stories based on the reign of Arthur were written & passed about, and they became quite fashionable in courts from Germany to Ireland. Many of these romances are still known, however, there likely were many which have since been lost. This went on for quite some time, well into the Renaissance.

Sir Thomas Malory, William Caxton, & Le Morte d'Arthur

A knight named Thomas Malory, a Lancastrian partisan who was imprisoned during the reign of the Yorkist King Edward IV late in the 15th century, compiled all the Arthurian tales known to him — to occupy his time during his imprisonment — & boiled them down into what he considered to be a consistent, single, coherent chronicle. Once he was released from prison, he took his work to the printer William Caxton, a German living in England, who had worked with Gutenberg on his original printing press. Apparently, Caxton became enamoured of this manuscript, & he printed it. Caxton added a preface explaining that he had been looking for some tale, written in English, fit to be printed (printing was new, then, & not everything was "fit" to be published that way). He considered Malory's work, composed of 21 "books," the most seemly candidate. Caxton said he had to edit the text as he typeset it.

For a long time, many speculated that no such person as Malory existed & that Caxton had actually authored the text. Being a German, the supposition went, he feared that Englishmen might not take a work of his own seriously, so he "invented" an Englishman as the author of his work. But a few decades ago, a manuscript, which may have been Malory's original text, was discovered, & published in the '60's by Eugéne Vinaver. Caxton named this tome Le Morte d'Arthur, the name Malory had assigned to the last of its 21 books.

In any event, while Malory remains a shadowy figure (the reasons for his imprisonment are unclear — while he might have been a victim of politics, as he claimed, it's just as likely that he actually was a criminal), Caxton very clearly championed this work, & was widely spread across Europe. It included some of the Arthurian "courtly love" romances, almost verbatim, & quickly eclipsed them. Le Morte d'Arthur is considered a pivotal work of English literature.

Modern Arthurian Literature

Arthurian romances continued to be written after the 15th century, however, this literary form fell out of fashion & most of the later romances (both Arthurian & non-Arthurian) didn't have the vigor that was the hallmark of 13th & 14th century romances.

While Arthurian literature remained popular, nothing much new about Arthur was written between the 15th & 19th centuries. It was in the Victorian era that a resurgence of Arthurian literature occurred. Suddenly, Arthur was, once more, a frequent character in various works.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote Idylls of the King, a long lyrical retelling of the life & death of King Arthur, in the 19th century. It was published in final form in 1859, but in all likelihood, Tennyson had composed it long before then. Other artists exploited the Arthurian legend for material: Wagner wrote the operas Parsifal and Tristan & Isolde; Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court; Algernon Charles Swinburne & T. S. Eliot composed poems dealing with Arthur; and Sydney Lanier wrote A Boy's King Arthur (a retelling of Malory) — and so on.

King Arthur continued to be inspiration for 20th century works, including an unfinished novel by John Steinbeck (The Acts of King Arthur, finally published in 1976), a series of novels by T.H. White (most of them gathered into a single tome, The Once & Future King), and more recently, Arthur figures in novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Stephen R. Lawhead, & several others. Finally, Arthur has been featured in many movies, perhaps the most famous being Excalibur, written & directed by John Boorman.

The Historical Arthur

The true "King Arthur" is, quite likely, a figure much like the "Aurelius Ambrosius" mentioned by Gildas, in his chronicle. In the last 20 years, a historical name has come to light — a man named Riothamus. He was a Romanized Briton who, apparently, assumed leadership of Britain after the Roman legions departed. Moreover, it appears he was asked by the Romans to help them fight the Goths and the Huns, in Gaul. Continental records of Riothamus, or someone like him, mesh quite well with Gildas's account.

It appears this as close to the "real" King Arthur as we will get.

Arthurian Resources

Go back to Dennis's Medieval Resources Page.