Arthur, a Celtic king born of deceit and adultery, grew to become one of the most famous rulers of Britain. He was a warrior, a knight and a king who killed giants, witches and monsters and led a band of heroes on many daring adventures.
In researching this material I found definitively that Arthur was Welsh, Celtic, or Breton. That he fought the Saxons in the north, in the south, or in Wales, around the year 450, or 500, or 525. That he was and wasn't a king, who was or wasn't named Arthur.
The answer is that there are scholars who believe that the story of King Arthur, and just possibly the real man or men whose lives formed the basis of the story, originated in what is now Scotland. To be fair, many others believe that King Arthur was British, or Welsh, or Roman.
Another view holds that Arthur was real. Though some theories suggest he was a Roman Britain or pre-Roman character, by most theories, and in line with the traditional cycle of legends, he was a Romano-British leader fighting against the invading Anglo-Saxons sometime in the late 5th century to early 6th century.
The real King Arthur may have been a leader of the Britons who fought against the Anglo-Saxons and managed to stop them for a while. The Britons were a Celtic people, like many of the Irish, Scots and Welsh today. They had their own stories of gods, heroes and magic. King Arthur became part of these stories.
The Britons (*Pritanī, Latin: Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Indigenous Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons (among others).
What Arthur and his knights of the round table, and all the other people around then and there, would have been speaking was something we now call Brythonic or Brittonic: a Celtic language. Completely unlike modern English.
The Welsh are the direct descendants of the Romano-Britons of England and Wales, who were pushed back towards the west of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries. Arthur is considered by many to have been a Romano-British leader fighting the Anglo-Saxon invaders.
In contrast, the English Saxons, today referred to in English as Anglo-Saxons, became a single nation bringing together migrant Germanic peoples (Frisians, Jutes, Angles [whence "English"]) and assimilated Celtic Britons populations.
And Bruckheimer asserts Arthur was the leader of the Sarmatians. Among the evidence cited: The Sarmatians were stationed along Hadrian's Wall in the north of Britain and commanded by Lucius Artorius Castus.
The name Arthur is of Celtic origin and means "bear." It is thought to originate from the Celtic elements artos, meaning "bear" combined with viros, meaning "man" or rigos, meaning "king". It could also be related to the Roman family name Artorius.
Camelot, in Arthurian legend, the seat of King Arthur's court. It is variously identified with Caerleon, Monmouthshire, in Wales, and, in England, with the following: Queen Camel, Somerset; the little town of Camelford, Cornwall; Winchester, Hampshire; and Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury, Somerset.
Monmouth himself claimed to have simply translated a very ancient book into Latin, but that source material has never been identified. Furthermore, no proof of Arthur's existence has been uncovered, even at Tintagel. “There is no evidence that anyone called Arthur lived there,” says Russell.
His character was probably an amalgam of Myrddin Wyllt, a bard and wild man of the Caledonian forest in Welsh tradition, Ambrosius Aurelianus, a warrior-prophet who was among the last of the Romans in Britain, and possibly a local pagan god whose cult was associated with the Welsh town of Carmarthon (from Caer Myrddin, ...
Despite his good nature, King Arthur was betrayed by his wife Guinevere and his best knight Lancelot. The distraction of Guinevere and Lancelot's relationship led Mordred, King Arthur's son, to take over the kingdom. In the end, King Arthur was killed by his son in a battle over the kingdom.
Ask British historian Nikolai Tolstoy and he'll tell you without hesitation: “Merlin was indeed an historical figure, living in what are now the Lowlands of Scotland at the end of the sixth century A.D. … he was an authentic prophet, most likely a druid surviving in a pagan enclave of the North.
The Anglo-Saxons came from Denmark, Northern Germany, the Netherlands and Friesland and carried out a more systematic colonisation than the Vikings, who were pirates and performed numerous migrations. Also, the Viking Age probably started earlier than 793 BCE as it has been thought, probably around 400 BCE.
Some laypeople often use the words "Vikings" and "Anglo-Saxons" interchangeably. However, there are significant differences between these two distinct groups of people. Anglo-Saxons inhabited the area known as the modern-day United Kingdom, whereas Vikings primarily came from the Scandinavian countries.
The first people to call themselves English were predominantly descended from northern Europeans, a new study reveals. Over 400 years of mass migration from the northern Netherlands and Germany, as well as southern Scandinavia, provide the genetic basis of many English residents today.
According to myth, Arthur's father was King Uther Pendragon, who ruled before him.
Though debate has gone on for centuries, historians have been unable to confirm that Arthur really existed.
Months later, however, Arthur died of a sudden illness. Henry became next in line for the throne and in 1503 was betrothed to his brother's widow. Henry VIII took the throne in 1509 at age 17, and married Catherine of Aragon six weeks later.
Kyduan was not the only child of Arthur according to Welsh Arthurian tradition – he is also ascribed sons called Amr (Amhar), Gwydre, Llacheu and Duran. (See the Offspring section for further information about Arthur's children.)
Common Brittonic (also called Common Brythonic, British, Old Brythonic, or Old Brittonic) was an ancient language spoken in Britain. It was the language of the Celtic people known as the Britons. By the 6th century it split into several Brittonic languages: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish, and Breton.
The debate over the historicity of the characters in Arthurian legend is ongoing. It is unlikely that there was a single person upon whom the character of Lancelot is based, but it is possible that he was inspired by some real figures.