King Arthur

"Waes-hael! for Lord and Dame! O! merry be their Dole;

Drink-hael! in Jesu's name, And fill the tawny bowl." Ð'- unknown

Chivalry. Knights of the Round Table. Excalibur. The Lady of Avalon. All of these words bring to mind an era of romance and intrigue, birth and death, terrible tragedy and aching love. A glorious era of Britain's history where one man reigned supreme: King Arthur. His very name is shrouded in mystery and doubt. Some say he was to have existed during "Sub-Roman Britain", a label applied by specialists to Britannia in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Others say he is merely folklore, a legend created to teach children about the code of chivalry and how in this day in age it is becoming extinct. This subject is open for much debate among Arthurian professors and people in general. However, after an examination of the myths and stories that follow King Arthur, it seems that he did indeed exist.

In order to begin to understand the implications of a historical Arthur, the period in which he existed must be examined. If the time period it is said from whence Arthur sprang is not understood, then no complete conclusion can be reached. First, the title "Sub-Roman" must be abandoned because it suggests

that the Britain of the fifth and sixth centuries was merely a result of the decay of the Roman Empire. This ignores all the achievements and progress of this era (Penitential, meaning a book or set of church rules concerning the sacrament of penance and monasticism meaning asceticism as a form of religious life; usually conducted in a community under a common rule and characterized by celibacy and poverty and obedience.) And the continuation of its Roman (Mediterranean trade, Latin education) heritage (Snyder 1).

To continue understanding the time in which King Arthur lived, the place he lived must also be examined, along with Arthur's own history. King Arthur was known historically in Britannia as Riothamus, a name signifying "Greatest-King". His army is documented traversing the channel to

fight the Visigoths in the Loire Valley

in 537. Betrayed by his former captain Modiere (Mordred), he later disappeared from history. Riothamus was more than likely exiled to Ireland for the duration of one of the numerous civil wars that overwhelmed Britannia. He later returned in victory to reclaim his birthright, but was 10 years later killed in an attempt to drive out Germanic invaders. (Ashe 1-4,7) This information is all historically documented.

Understanding the culture of the "Sub-Roman" Britons, however, means encountering three often-difficult types of evidence: literary, epigraphic, and archaeological.

The literary evidence is probably the scarcest of the three sources, especially in comparison to the Byzantine Empire and Frankish Gaul. Britain produced only two substantiated writers of this time Ð'- clerics Patrick and Gildas. Though historically well recorded for the late fourth century, this information decreases in the first decade of the fifth century and continues to decline until the seventh century with the arrival of the Northumbrian scholar Bede. (Morris 15-19,22)

What we do have is a substantially penned piece of work by the clergyman Gildas, entitled The Ruin of Britannia. This book begins with a historical prologue, which describes the foreign and domestic wars plaguing Britain since the collapse of the powerful Roman Empire. One specific instance that he mentions is an ongoing feud between two powerful southern

Britain "kingdoms" and how when the heir of one, raped the eldest daughter of the other, a child resulted. This seems to coincide with what we know about the birth of King Arthur and how was born as a result of the political alliance (marriage) of his father's (Uther Pen Dragon) and his mother's (Ygerna) rivaling fiefdoms. (Morris 15-19, 22)

Other evidence supporting the existence of King Arthur is even more scarce then literary, is of course archeological. Cadbury Castle is the well-known and proven site of Camelot. It is a hill-fort next to South Cadbury, down a narrow dirt road. Cadbury is a remote knoll of limestone and sandstone. The summit is around 500 feet above sea level, with a panoramic view of Somerset. It has four lines of bank-and-ditch deference. But towards their south-east curve they come out

into the open, and you can peer down

and see them as they once were all round the knoll, a impressive and forbidding system. They surround a defended area of l 8 acres, mounting to a

long, flat central plateau. A break at the southwest above Sutton Montis, is the original gateway. The first known writer to indentify to Cadbury as Camelot is John Leland in 1042. He says: "At the very south end of the church of

South-Cadbyri standeth Camallate, sometime a famous castle. . .The people can tell nothing there but that they have heard Arthur much resorted to Camalat."

Other evidence supporting the fact that Cadbury Castle is indeed Camelot was the discovery of a cavern beneath and behind the hill. This coincides with our literary evidence by Gildas who speaks of caves "most dull and dreary" that were used as an escape route in the event of an attack. The women and children were often sent there to hide in the event that Camelot was taken over. (Danes 5)

The third type of evidence we have supporting the proven existence of King Arthur is that of epigraphic (an inscription, as on a statue or building) knowledge.