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King Arthur is an important figure in the Mythology of Great Britain , where he appears as the ideal of kingship in both war and peace. He is the central character in the cycle of Legend s known as the '' Matter Of Britain ''. There is disagreement about whether Arthur, or a model for him, ever actually existed. In the earliest mentions and in Welsh texts, he is never given the title "King." Early texts refer to him as a ''dux bellorum'' ("war leader"), and medieval Welsh texts often call him ''ameraudur'' (" Emperor "; the word is borrowed from the Latin ''imperator'', which could also mean "war leader"). (died 1519), in Innsbruck ]] THE ARTHUR OF HISTORY Main article: Historical Basis For King Arthur The historicity of the Arthur of legend has long been debated by scholars. One school of thought is that Arthur was a Romano-British leader who lived sometime in the late 5th Century to early 6th Century and fought against the invading Saxons . Recent archealogical studies show that during his suposed lifetime, there was a generation stop to the Saxons . His power base was probably in the Celtic areas of Wales , Cornwall , or the west of modern England . However, controversy over the centre of his power and the extent and kind of power he wielded continues to this day. Some members of this school, most notably Geoffrey Ashe and Leon Fleuriot , have argued for identifying Arthur with a certain Riothamus , "King of the Brettones," who was active during the reign of the Roman Emperor Anthemius . Unfortunately, Riothamus is a shadowy figure of whom we know little, and scholars are not certain whether the "Brettones" he led were Britons or Bretons . Other members of this school have argued for identifying Arthur with Ambrosius Aurelianus , a Romano-British war leader who won important battles against the Saxons but whose traditional dates of activity are somewhat earlier than Arthur's. Thus, some have argued that Arthur may have been one of Ambrosius' lieutenants, and may have succeeded him as overall leader. Other writers suggest that King Arthur should be identified as one Lucius Artorius Castus , a Roman '' Dux '' of the 2nd Century , who led a force of Sarmatian auxillaries based at Hadrian’s Wall, and whose military exploits in Britain may have been remembered for centuries afterwards. This is linked to a theory by C. Scott Littleton and Linda Malcor suggesting that Arthur himself was a Sarmatian. These “Sarmatian connection” theories were the basis of the film '' King Arthur ''. Some see certain connections between Sarmatian legends and customs (such as placing swords in tombstones) and details in the Arthurian legend (such as the Sword In The Stone ). However, the obscurity surrounding Castus makes this identification unlikely, as there seems to be little reason for him to have become a major legendary figure. More importantly, Castus and his forces lived hundreds of years before the traditional dates of Arthur's battles, and would have been at best an influence on the growing myth rather than a source. Also, the elements of the Arthurian legends do not all date to the same era. Some details, like the Sword in the Stone itself, may well have been added later in French romances. The origin of the name Arthur is itself a matter of debate, and is connected to the debates concerning his historicity. Some, like the above, see it as derived from the Latin '' Artorius '' “plowman”. However, the 5th to 6th century Welsh ''art'' (''arth'' is a later form) means “ Bear ”. Indeed, Gildas calls Arthur “the Bear” in his writings. Thus, theories for the Welsh origin of the name Arthur have been proposed. One has ''art'' + ''ur'', “man of the bear” or “bear-man”, thus giving us ''Artur''. Also, the Latin form of ''Arthur'' appears as ''Arturus'' in the earliest writings, never ''Artorius''. Toby C. Griffen links the name Arthur to Arcturus , the brightest star in the constellation Boötes , and the third brightest in the night sky. The word ''Arcturus'' is in Classical Latin , and would have been ''Arturus'' in the Late Latin of the 5th – 6th century. Griffen and others believe that Arthur might not be derived from a Latin original such as ''Artorius'', as proponents of the above theories suspect, but could have been a '' Nom De Guerre '' used by or an Epithet bestowed upon the leader who fought against the Saxons. Griffen goes on to state that the star Arturus was associated with the Great Bear. Its position in the sky, near Ursa Major , led people to call it the “guardian of the bear”, and it was regarded as the leader of the other stars in Boötes . In Welsh, the conveniently similar ''Artur'' (or possibly ''Arturos'') meant “bear-man”. If the man we call Arthur used Arturus (and Artur as his nom de guerre(s), its meaning(s) would have been easily understood by both the Romano-British and native British alike; a stout bear-like defender against the invaders. (See [http://www.geocities.com/~dubricius/csana94.pdf ) Graham Phillips and Martin Keatman argue for their variant of the nom de guerre theory in their book, ''King Arthur: The True Story''. For them, the name has two components. The first would be the Welsh ''art'' meaning bear, and the second a repetition in Latin, ''ursus'', making the original name "Artursus". They maintain that he would have been one of the Votadini of Gwynedd , possibly Owain Ddantgwyn , King of Rhôs . However,their theory has not gained widespread acceptance. In any case, the name Artur and its variants was used by at least four leaders who lived after the traditional dates of Arthur’s battles, suggesting to Griffen and others that it was not used as a personal name until “the” Arthur himself did so. Another theory proposes that the real Arthur was Artur Mac Aidan, a war leader of the Celts against their pagan invaders—effectively holding them off for about one hundred more years. This is the solution proposed by Michael Wood . However, Mac Aidan is merely one of the aforementioned four leaders who were probably named after the original Arthur. In modern times, Mac Aidan's name is spelled ''Artuir''. John Darrah and Arthur Cummins propose a Arthur who lived in the Bronze Age , circa 2300 BC. They argue that pulling a sword from a stone and an anvil is a metaphor for making a sword from ore and hammering it into shape on an anvil. This is disputed by those who say that the Sword in the Stone is an embellishment in the first place. However, the Arthur of legend may simply be a composite of these and more figures; at least, tales of the real Arthur's exploits may have been confused and merged with that of other war leaders of his time or later. The late historian John Morris made the alleged reign of Arthur at the turn of the and Cunedda , Hengest and Coel . Another school of thought believes that Arthur had no historical existence, explaining that he originally was a half-forgotten Celtic deity that devolved into a personage (citing sometimes a supposed change of the sea-god Lir into King Lear ) or a possibly fictive person like Beowulf . Supporters of this theory often link it to the Welsh etymology of Arthur's name as derived from "bear", proposing bear gods named Artos or Artio as the precedent for myth, but these deities are known to have been worshipped by the continental Celts, not the Britons. EARLIEST TRADITIONS OF ARTHUR Arthur first appears in '' ("The Treasures of Annwn "), mentions "the valour of Arthur" and states "we went with Arthur in his splendid labours"; and the poem ''Journey to Deganwy '', which contains the passage "as at the battle of Badon with Arthur, chief giver of feasts, with his tall blades red from the battle which all men remember." Another early reference to Arthur is in the '' Historia Britonum '', attributed to the Welsh monk Nennius , who is said to have written this compilation of early Welsh history around the year 830 . In this work, Arthur is referred to as a "leader of battles" rather than as a king. Two separate sources within this compilation list twelve battles that he fought, culminating in the Battle Of Mons Badonicus , where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. According to the 10th century '' Annales Cambriae '', Arthur was killed at the Battle Of Camlann in AD 537 . Arthur makes appearances in a number of well known ''vitae'' ("Lives") of 6th century Saint s, most of them written at the monastery of Llancarfan in the 12th century. For example, in the ''Life of Saint Illtud '', from internal evidence apparently written around 1140, Arthur is said to be a cousin of that churchman. Many of these appearances portray Arthur as a fierce warrior, and not necessarily as morally impeccable as in later romances. According to the ''Life of Saint Gildas '' (died ca. 570 AD), written in the 11th Century by Caradoc Of Llancarfan , Arthur killed Gildas' brother Hueil , a Pirate on the Isle Of Man . In around 1100, Lifris Of Llancarfan writes in his ''Life of Saint Cadoc '' that Arthur was bettered by Cadoc. Cadoc gave protection to a man who killed three of Arthur's soldiers, and Arthur was awarded a herd of cattle from Cadoc as '' Wergeld '' for his men. Cadoc delivered them as demanded, but when Arthur took possession of the animals, they were transformed into bundles of ferns. Such episodes serve to portray a holy man besting a worldly leader. Similar incidents are described in the late medieval biographies of Carannog, Padern, Goeznovius, and Efflam. Arthur also appears in the Welsh tale '' Culhwch And Olwen '', a narrative that is usually associated with the '' Mabinogion ''. In that work, Culhwch visits Arthur's court to seek his help in winning the hand of Olwen . Arthur, who is described as his kinsman, agrees to the request and fulfils the demands of Olwen's giant father Ysbaddaden , which includes his hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth described at length by the author. This may be related to legends where Arthur is depicted as the leader of the . Loomis alludes to a Scottish mention in the 16th Century , and that many of these beliefs were still current in the 19th Century at Cadbury Castle, and in several parts of France. Later parts of the ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein'', or '' Welsh Triads '', mention Arthur and locate his court in Celliwig in Cornwall . Celliwig was identified by older Cornish Antiquaries with Callington , but Rachel Bromwich , the latest editor of the ''Welsh Triads'', matched it to Kelly Rounds , a Hill Fort in the Cornish parish of Egloshayle . THE ARTHURIAN ROMANCE The first major popularization of Arthurian legend was Geoffrey Of Monmouth 's fictional '' Historia Regum Britanniae '', a Medieval equivalent of a bestseller that helped draw the attention of other writers, such as Robert Wace and Layamon , who then expanded on the tales of Arthur. The date of the ''Historia'' is given as 1133 by a small proportion of experts; however, the date is more normally given as 1138 , as the following quote indicates: :Geoffrey stayed at Oxford at least until 1151 and during this period wrote his two extant works, ''Historia regum Britanniae'' ( 1136 – 1138 ; "History of the Kings of Britain") and ''Vita Merlini'' (ca. 1148 ; "The Life of Merlin"). One theory as to why Arthurian legend bloomed in this period proposes that the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066 stimulated a renewed interest in British history; Edward Gibbon describes this in '' The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire '': :During a period of five hundred years the tradition of his exploits was preserved, and rudely embellished, by the obscure bards of Wales and Armorica (otherwise known as Brittany), who were odious to the Saxons, and unknown to the rest of mankind. The pride and curiosity of the Norman conquerors prompted them to inquire into the ancient history of Britain; they listened with fond credulity to the tale of Arthur, and eagerly applauded the merit of a prince who had triumphed over the Saxons, their common enemies. 38, Footnote 138 Thus, according to Gibbon, the once obscure 500-year-old Welsh legend became more widely known (through the works of the Anglo-Norman poet Wace and others), creating a unified cultural icon under which the Norman rulers and the native Welsh could rally against their common enemy: the Saxons. One influencing factor may have been that William The Conqueror was one-quarter Breton , and the Bretons had kept alive the legends of King Arthur brought with them when they fled Britain during the Saxon invasions five centuries earlier. Geoffrey of Monmouth was also of Breton stock. The Bretons and other British émigrés had supported William the Conqueror at the Battle Of Hastings , providing a large proportion of the knights in the battle. Since the ethnic British nobility fought against the Saxons at Hastings it was inevitable that their mythology would experience a resurgence when the crown was won. While many scholars believe that Geoffrey of Monmouth is the source for medieval interest in Arthur, at least one scholar, Roger S. Loomis, has argued that many of the tales surrounding Arthur were independently adapted from Breton Oral Tradition s, spread through the royal and noble courts of Europe by professional storytellers known as '' Jongleur s''. The French medieval writer Chrétien De Troyes recounted tales from the Matter of Britain during the mid 12th century, as did Marie De France in her narrative Lais . In any case, the later stories told by these two writers and by many others appear to be independent of what Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote. In these Arthurian romances, which gained popularity in the 12th century, Arthur gathered the Knights Of The Round Table ( Lancelot , Gawain , Galahad , and others). At his court, most often held at Camelot in the later prose romances, could sometimes be found the wizard Merlin . Arthur's knights engaged in fabulous quests, the quest for the Holy Grail being perhaps the best known. Other stories from the Celt ic world came to be associated with Arthur, such as the tale of Tristan and Isolde . In the late prose romances the love affair between Arthur's champion, Sir Lancelot, and the Queen, Guinevere , becomes the central reason for the collapse of the Arthurian realm. ]] In the romances, Arthur is killed in his last battle, the Battle Of Camlann , in which he fought against the forces of Mordred . The '' Prose Lancelot '' and the later prose cyclic romances state that Mordred was also a knight of the Round Table and the child of an Incestuous union between Arthur and his sister Morgause . In almost all accounts Arthur is said to have been mortally wounded, but to have been taken after the battle to Avalon , where his wounds were healed or his body buried in a chapel. Some texts refer to a return of Arthur in the future. The Arthurian mythos spread far across the European continent. An image of Arthur and his knights attacking a castle was carved into an Archivolt over the north doorway of Modena Cathedral in Italy sometime between 1099 and 1120. The surprising fact that these Italian images seem to have been carved more than a decade before the appearance of Geoffrey's "Historia" indicates how limited is our knowledge of the spread of Arthurian legend in the early Middle Ages . Also in Italy, a Mosaic pavement in the cathedral of Otranto , near Bari , was made in 1165 with the unexplained depiction of ''Arturus Rex'' bearing a Sceptre and riding a Goat . 15th century merchants set up an Arthurian hall in his honour in Gdańsk , Poland . Other medieval retellings of the Arthurian cycle include the works of Gottfried Von Strassburg and Wolfram Von Eschenbach , the Anonymous '' Sir Gawain And The Green Knight '', Thomas Malory 's '' Le Morte D'Arthur '' and Stricker 's '' Daniel Von Blumenthal ''. In 1191, monks of Glastonbury Abbey announced that they had found the burial site of Arthur and Guinevere. Their grave was shown to many people, and the reputed remains were moved to a new tomb in 1278. The tomb was destroyed during the Reformation , and the bones lost. The antiquary John Leland reports that he saw the cross found with the remains, and transcribed its inscription as Hic iacet sepvltvs inclytvs rex artvrivs in insvla avalonia If Leland accurately reproduced the script of this inscription, then it can be dated to the 10th Century . At least one scholar has suggested that the cross was added when Arthur's remains were transferred to the abbey. Almost all are skeptical of the discovery, as Glastonbury monks were notorious forgers. ARTHUR'S SWORDS Main entry: Excalibur In Robert De Boron 's ''Merlin'', Arthur obtained the throne by pulling a sword from a stone and anvil. In this account, this act could not be performed except by "the true king," meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon . This sword was presumably the famous Excalibur and the identity is made explicit in the later so-called '' Vulgate Merlin Continuation ''. However, in what is sometimes called the '' Post-Vulgate Merlin '', Excalibur was taken from a hand rising from a lake and given to Arthur by the Lady Of The Lake sometime after he began to reign. According to many sources, Arthur broke the sword pulled from the stone whilst fighting King Pellinore , and thus Merlin took him to retrieve Excalibur from the lake (as cited in many novels including Howard Pyle 's ''King Arthur and His Knights'', ''King Arthur and the Legend of Camelot'', and indeed most modern Arthurian literature). In this Post-Vulgate version, the sword's blade could slice through anything and its sheath made the wearer invincible. Some stories say that Arthur did indeed pull the sword from the stone (Excalibur), giving him the right to be king, but accidentally killed a fellow knight with it and cast it away. Merlin told him to undertake a quest to find another blade, and it was then that Arthur received his sword from the hand in the water, and named it Excalibur, after his original sword. The first appearance of the sword named '' Caliburn '' is in Geoffrey of Monmouth, who asserted that in battle against Arthur "nought might armour avail, but that Caliburn would carve their souls from out them with their blood." ( {Link without Title} ). ARTHUR IN VARIOUS MEDIA Literature
''See also:'' List Of Books About King Arthur Plays
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''See also:'' List Of Movies Based On Arthurian Legend . Television "]]
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