The Origin of the Legend of King Arthur

Abstract

We do not know where this was, says Professor Sims-Williams ( 1983: 8) of the site of the battle of 'Badonicus Mons', it may be doubted whether we ever shall, any more than we shall establish whether a man called Arthur fought there. Other recent, heavyweight, academic assessments of the problem of the existence of the legendary King Arthur, as a historically important figure, come up with nothing more solid than may well have (Charles-Edwards 1991: 29, cf. Jackson 1959), or, may very well not have, existed (Padel 1994:1). It is certainly true that if the legend of king Arthur derives from some particular historical individual, some fifth or sixth century warlord, then it looks as if we just do not enough information about the period to prove that fact, let alone know anything about him. After all historical information of this kind is strictly finite, and there must been all manner of fascinating people and events during this period which we do not, and never will, know about. But if the legend has some other kind of origin, the position need not be so hopeless. If, for instance, our figure has his roots in ancient cult-beliefs or mythology, then that is something that is likely to be accessible to us via some other route: that belongs not to the world of isolated, empirical and potentially undiscoverable, historical facts but rather to the universe of infinitely complex but infinitely inter-linked cult belief and tradition. Arthur's links with `Celtic mythology' are well known, and one scarcely needs to go over them again: he is associated with a `journey to the Otherworld' (Haycock 1983/4, Bromwich 1978: 140, Jones G&T: 105, 108) that has close analogues in Celtic tradition (SimsWilliams 1991: 54-7, Jones G&T 21-34, Historic Britonum 13) and more distant ones in, for instance, Greek and Middle Eastern tradition (e.g. Frazer: 324-7, Eliade: 63-7, 157, 290-3), with its ultimate roots in the characteristic cult beliefs of the early agriculturalists of the Neolithic, associated with the cyclical re-birth of vegetation. The Otherworld sometimes takes the form (characteristic for the Celts) of an island,2 and is sometimes where Arthur is waiting to `return',3 a legend that (for Arthur and other figures) almost certainly owes something, ultimately, to the `re-birth' of a vegetation-associated deity as well as to political wishful thinking. Arthur, in this context then, fills a role one would most readily assign to a deity but, of course, the problem is that the `mortal' and the `divine' are so readily confused: deities are euheumerised into mortals while renowned mortals acquire the characteristics of deities. Indeed the `Culture-Hero' might fit into this latter category and this is one of the labels that Arthur has attracted (e.g. Chambers: 205-32). In any case Arthur's appearance in any kind of `divine' role can be seen as merely something consistent with the immense popularity of his legend and the fact that all kinds of folk-tales of mythological origin were attracted to him. It has not been possible to actually explain the origin of the figure, Arthur, himself, in terms of mythology,4 in which he has no obvious antecedent. But if the mythological origin WAS obvious it would, of course, been discovered by now. It may still be that we simply not yet dug deep enough. The historical origin for Arthur has generally been the favoured one for good reason. Firstly the name understood as from Latin `Artorius' is, in the words of Rachel Bromwich ( 1978: 284, following Zimmer 818, note 1), thus to be classed with the group of names of Latin derivation borne by leading Britons in the sub-Roman period (exx. Patricius, Ambrosius Aurelianus, etc.)'. Second, he is consistently, placed in a definite historical context, associated with the above mentioned battle of `Badonicus Mons' and the period of revived British fortunes in the struggle against the Saxons, as described by our unique early source, Gildas (De Excidio 25 in Winterbottom), and datable to the later fifth, or earlier sixth, century. …