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| .and the power and strength of Britain was destroyed after him |
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Here is the Preface, without the References.The story of Arthur
The
great King Arthur,
defeater of Saxons,
Picts and Scots, conqueror of Britain, Ireland,
Scotland,
Denmark, Gaul and the Orkneys needs no introduction being probably the most
famous ancient Briton of all time, but as we will be comparing his life with
that of certain Irish legends a brief summary of what is known of
his life and their sources would be useful.
Arthur first appears through the mists of time in the
early ninth century work the Historia Brittonum (HB) – the History of the Britons - composed around 829AD.
This work was an accumulation of various sources bundled together and rewritten
to form a whole narrative history. The work incorporates material concerning a
chronology of ancient British events; material on Vortigern,
Ambrosius Aurelianus,
St.Germanus
and St.Patrick,
Arthur’s battles, Northern British events, the mirablilia and Saxon genealogies.
In this work then, Arthur’s
twelve battles are mentioned for the first time, where he is said to have defeated the Anglo
Saxons and won every battle including the famous
battle of Badon hill. We also get a glimpse of the mythology
that has begun to surround him as he became associated with the landscape due
to the similarity of his name to various rock formations. Therefore, he is
associated with a Neolithic tomb in Ercing in Wales and to another stone
associated with a giant mythical dog of his called Cabal.
In the HB Arthur is merely called in Latin a dux bellorum or miles, the former meaning a ‘general or leader of battle’ and the
latter a ‘soldier’ or ‘mounted warrior’. From this, it has been deduced that he
may have been of lower rank than the kings of the Britons he fought for, but this may not be the case.
Medieval scribes in copying ancient manuscripts often changed the title of Rex (king) to that of Dux (General) or Comes (Count) as they didn’t recognise the status of the petty
king. This was due to the time in which they wrote, not understanding that in
the fifth and sixth centuries the whole country would have been full of petty
kings and their kingdoms, with several kings occupying small areas that were
later amalgamated under one sovereignty. The poetic epithet of dux bellorum (leader of battles) itself
was a common enough one in Welsh poetry, suggesting, as many scholars have
done, that the Arthur battle list derived from a Welsh poem of the seventh or
eighth centuries. The HB was appended to over many years, with some more
information on Arthur included, such as glosses to the main work. These made
more of his Christian links and offered some puzzling comments concerning his
wayward youth. The Irish then wrote their own vernacular version of the
HB in the mid eleventh century.
The next we hear of Arthur is in the tenth century poem The Gododdin[.
This poem concerning events of Britons living in what is now southern Scotland around Edinburgh compared one of their heroes
Gwawrddur to Arthur, implying that he was not as great as Arthur even though he
could kill 300 men.
This comparison is based on the battle list in the HB as Arthur was said to be able
to kill 960 men in one assault.
The poem also shows many more borrowings from the HB so can be dated in its
Arthurian form sometime after the HB became widely read. Therefore, for this
part a tenth century date seems appropriate even though the manuscript we have
now only dates from the thirteenth century. The poem refers to a battle that
took place in Scotland in
the late sixth century called Catraeth, which is mentioned in the Irish annals as having taken place in 596AD
against Saxons incursions into far northern Britain. Also in the tenth century, we find Arthur
mentioned in the Welsh Annals as having fought at Badon in the year 516 and having died in 537 in
battle, at the same time as one Medraut (Mordred) but it is possible these are later
interpolations to the annals.
Arthur then reappears next in possibly an early
eleventh century text called Vita
Goeznovius (circa 1016 but could be later) which has taken material from a
continental version of the HB, which detailed his twelve battles against the
Saxons and then mentions for the first time his
conquest of Gaul and his kingship.
In around 1120 a Flemish cleric called
Lambert of St Omer, in a work entitled Liber
Floridus mentions a palace of Arthur situated in Pictland, “built with marvelous art and variety, in which the history of all his
exploits and wars are to be seen in sculpture”. These sculptures are most
likely those at the Pictish capital Forteviot as opposed to the medieval belief that Arthurs
Oven near the river Carron is meant. Soon after this in 1125, William of
Malmesbury in the Gesta Regum Anglorum
mentions Arthur where he says that Arthur was the subject of “fantastic tales told by the Bretons”.
This is then followed by the most famous or infamous work to mention Arthur,
the History of the Kings of Britain
written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in about 1139. This expands on the legends of
Arthur and Geoffrey uses him as a figurehead to appease the British and English
who had recently been conquered by the Normans
with Breton help. He does this by linking Arthur to Breton descent and
envisages the Bretons playing a major role in the conquest of the Saxons as they did in helping the Normans of William
the Conqueror defeat Harold.
Also in this century are other works from
the Welsh such as Culhwch and Olwen and other fairy tales that mention Arthur from a group of works now called the Mabinogian. It was Geoffrey’s work though which was to inspire
the later romance tales of Arthur, including as it does mention of Merlin and Mordred and others that became linked with
Arthurian legend. It is in this work that Arthur was given a father ‘Uther’,
whose deeds are merely a mirror of Arthur’s. It is here we find his wife for
the first time, Guinevere,
his famous sword Caliburnus, later Excalibur, his extended battles against the
Saxons ( in various places Geoffrey assumes they took
place) an expanded version of Arthur’s conquest of Gaul, southern Scotland and Ireland,
his non death as he sails away to Avalon to heal his wounds and much more.
From here on in Geoffrey’s work found its
way to the continent and the French Romance writers picked up the story and
incorporated their own localised legends of Arthur mixed with Greek mythology to create a
chivalric Arthur and his knights, born to uphold late medieval moral values and
take part in the search for the Holy Grail. Other later writers then
incorporated the Round Table to accommodate Arthurs many knights in equal
sitting and the legend of Arthur was complete.
Arthur then, after the death of Uther , as a lad of fifteen, was chosen to lead the
Britons after pulling a sword from a stone, signifying
his right to rule. He moved against the Saxons,
Irish and Picts fighting twelve battles with the help of his
Breton allies culminating in the great battle of Badon where the Saxons were finally defeated and
peace brought to Britain.
He is given Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake
to help in his wars. He was then threatened by the king of Gaul
who called for the Britons to give tribute to the Romans as they had done in the past. This Arthur
refused and set out to conquer Gaul instead, as many Romano British emperors
had done in the past. He was successful in this and then married Guinevere and thought all was well but in a second
campaign to Gaul he left his foster son Mordred in control of Britain. Mordred wanted the crown
for himself so traitorously enrolled the help of the Saxons to usurp power. At
this Arthur returned from his campaigns and fought against Mordred, which
culminated in the great battle of Camlann in 537
where Arthur killed Mordred; but Arthur, mortally wounded, was carried off to
the isle of Avalon. Arthur was now said to sleep in a cave waiting to return to
save the Britons once more in their hour of need. Unfortunately, to stop this
idea that the Britons had for salvation from the Norman conquest, the Norman
King of England decided to orchestrate the finding of ‘Arthurs’
bones buried under Glastonbury Tor, complete with fake inscription. Arthur was
now never to return but this did not stop his legends growing to even greater
heights over the centuries.
The biggest question for those seeking
Arthur now is did he actually exist? From a scholarly
viewpoint the evidence is scant to say the least, his name
a puzzle to etymologists and contemporary evidence for his very existence is
missing. Many have sought to find the original Arthur on whom these legends have
grown but no one has been able to place their person in the right time frame.
Instead we have the Roman - Lucius Artorius Castus from the second century AD who actually fought
against the Britons as a suggestion;
or Riothamus a fifth century British leader who fought in
470AD against the Goths in Gaul and lost ;
or Artuir Mac Aedan an insignificant Arthur of Irish descent who died in the late sixth or early
seventh century, as well as others such as Arthur Ap Pedr, again of the seventh
century.
What no one has been able to do is find
legends concerning an Arthur like person that fits him into his correct
time frame of the late fifth to the mid sixth century; that has him fight the
Saxons,
Irish and Picts and assume power over them all including the
Danes and the Orkneys.
That has him conquer the Gauls twice, has a wife Guinevere,
has him raised by a druid, has special weapons and is not initially a king of
the Britons.
Not only this, but no one has been able to link such a person to an historical
king living in the sixth century whose name could represent the name Arthur.
What this current work sets out to do is present exactly those requirements in
the form of annals and legends hidden for hundreds of years, some still awaiting
translation. This material is brand new to the subject of Arthuriana and has
never been presented before. This work therefore is an introduction to
Arthuriana of this fascinating and rather brutal character of Irish history, pseudo-history
and mythology. I will start first with an introduction to the character and to
the sources in which he appears. I will then discuss his name, family and
background and then move onto his battles. After this the main story of his
life and deeds will then be presented as a narrative work.
