International News
See other International News Articles
Title: King Arthur? No, the legendary leader was just a Scottish general who lived most of his life in Strathclyde
Source:
Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... al-lived-life-Strathclyde.html
Published: Sep 3, 2015
Author: Mark Duell
Post Date: 2015-09-03 07:20:17 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1659
Comments: 3
Legend states that he fought his major battles across Britain, sat at the Round Table and handled the sword Excalibur. But a British academic claims King Arthur was a general rather than a monarch in the fifth or sixth century, who fought his battles in southern Scotland and northern England. Basing his findings on a Latin work written in the ninth century by a Welsh monk, Andrew Breeze from the University of Navarre in Spain also believes Arthur lived most of his life in Strathclyde. New thinking: Arthur (left) was a general rather than a monarch in the fifth or sixth century, who fought his battles in southern Scotland and northern England, according to British academic Andrew Breeze (right) Guinevere and Arthur: Keira Knightley starred alongside Clive Owen in a film adaptation of the story in 2004 Battlegrounds: These are the locations Dr Breeze identified in northern England and southern Scotland He told MailOnline: ‘Arthur really existed – he’s as historical as Queen Victoria. He really did fight battles. As soon as we recognise this, all sorts of things about British history start to make sense. ‘We can say straight away he wasn’t anything to do with stopping the Anglo-Saxons - he was fighting other Britons in the North.’ The Celticist said the work by the monk named Nennius, which is titled The History of the Britons, also tells how Arthur fought other northern Britons in the 530s, before being killed at Camlan in 537. The Latin chronicle also states the names of nine places where Arthur battled his enemies – and following much debate among experts for centuries, Dr Breeze believes he has located all of them. Taken away: Guinevere leading a wounded Lancelot in the Rochefoucauld Grail, an illuminated 14th century manuscript which is believed to the oldest and most comprehensive surviving account of the legend of Arthur Circular gathering: Richard Harris as Arthur with the Knights of the Round Table in the 1967 film Camelot Poking fun: The legend of Arthur was also parodied in the 1975 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, starring (from left) Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Jones He added: ‘It lists nine places where he fought battles. Scholars have been puzzling over these for 900 years. We’ve got this notorious list of these very obscure places. Thought to have lived during the late fifth and early sixth centuries, the original King Arthur is believed to have led the fight against the invading Saxons. Tintagel, the castle in which the king is said to have been born, still exists in ruined form in Cornwall, although others have claimed that he was Welsh. Either way, according to medieval romances and the Historia Brittonum, Arthur was a great king who defended Britain from enemies both earthly and supernatural. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain], Arthur is depicted as an emperor who established a kingdom that included Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and parts of Italy, Germany and the Netherlands). Modern historians often equate him with King Alfred the Great, the Dark Ages ruler of Wessex who led the fight against the invading Danes, eventually stopping them in their tracks. ‘What I did, I sat down with the standard books on place names in England and Scotland and I reckoned every single one of them could be identified.’ Among those he has placed in an alternative location is the ‘city of the Legion’ at the east end of the Antonine Wall near Bo'ness - not at Chester or York, as has been previously claimed. He said that of the nine battles, seven were in Scotland, one was at the River Glen in Northumberland, and the ninth was the Battle of Camlan, where Arthur fell, which he says happened near Carlisle. Another famous victory for Arthur was said to be at Badon – which Dr Breeze has located as being in Witshire, although has ruled out the battle having any any link to Arthur. He said that Arthur was referred to by Nennius as ‘Dux Bellorum’ (the leader of battles), adding: ‘We have this tremendous character of legend, and it’s wonderful storytelling, but that’s just medieval legend. ‘But behind that medieval legend, there is a historical figure. He was not a King, but he had a Latin name – because Arthur is from Latin -so he was not a myth, not a kind of legendary god or anything like that. ‘He will have spoken British and Latin and he was obviously a very brave general. The early sources say nothing about him being king - that’s part of the later legend, like the Round Table and Guinevere (his wife).’ The legend of Arthur has influenced dozens of films, including King Arthur in 2004 starring Keira Knightley and Clive Owen, and 1967's Camelot with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave.
THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: cranky, redleghunter (#0)
(Edited)
Strange women lying ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
#2. To: TooConservative (#1)
:)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestLegend states that he fought his major battles across Britain, sat at the Round Table and handled the sword Excalibur.
Replies to Comment # 1.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]