|
It was French writer and poet Chretien de Troyes who invented Camelot in the 12th century, and he probably invented Lancelot as well. According to him, Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon, king of Britain. Kept in obscurity during childhood, he was suddenly presented to the people as their king. He proved a wise and valiant ruler. He gathered a great company of knights in his court. Problems of precedence were avoided by the use of a round table at gatherings. With his queen, Guinevere, he maintained a magnificent court at Caerleon-upon-Usk (perhaps the legendary Camelot) on the southern border of Wales, where the Britons maintained their hold longer than anywhere else. His wars and victories extended to the continent of Europe, where he successfully defied the forces of the Roman Empire until he was called home because of the acts of his nephew Mordred, who had rebelled and seized his kingdom. In the final battle of Camlan, in southwestern England, the king and the traitor both fell, pierced by each other's spears. Arthur was mysteriously carried away to the mythical island of Avalon to be healed of his "grievous wound". King Arthur is the central figure at the heart of Arthurian legend. The son of Uther Pendragon and Ygraine of Cornwall, he is the hero of many Celtic stories. In early Latin chronicles he appears as a military leader. In later stories he is a king and emperor. But the debate about his actual existence has gone on for centuries. The Tudors were insistent that he did, because they traced their line back to him and used that connection as a justification for their being the ruling family. But there was no Merlin in Arthur's life, or a round table. He was almost certainly not a king. Most proper historians flinch when Arthur's name is mentioned, just as astronomers shudder when they are asked about horoscopes. Yet Arthur goes on, generation after generation, spinning dreams of love, betrayal, nobility and adventure. There have been countless books and films about him. So, who was the real King Arthur? These days it is generally assumed that there was an actual person behind the legends, though not a king with a band of knights dressed in shining armour. If such a person did exist it must have been someone who gained fame as a warrior fighting the invaders of the late fifth and early sixth centuries. In AD 500 the island of Britain was a desperate and war torn place. The Romans had left, and raiders and invaders took advantage of their absence. Slavers landed from Ireland and savage tribesmen marched out of Scotland, but, worst of all were the English. They were not called that then, of course. They were the Sais: the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and pirates from across the North Sea who were originally invited into Britain to protect the natives against other marauding forces. But the English liked this island and so they stayed, and they stole the land. The Welsh name for England is Lloegr, which means "the lost Lands", and this was the era when the land indeed seemed lost. The last vestiges of Roman civilization disappeared, the old kingdoms of Britain were eradicated, and whole tribes lost their ancestral territories and fled to Brittany, Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. Yet, in the middle of this long and bloody invasion, the natives (let us call them the Welsh) won a great battle over the English. It happened around AD 515 and it was at a place called Mount Badon. No one knows where Mount Badon is, and no one knows the name of the Welsh general who won the battle, but it is possible, or even probable, that it was a man who later became known as Arthur, and that his great victory of Mount Badon was won near Bath on what is now Little Solsbury Hill. When folk looked back on the time after Mount Badon it was like a golden age. That, it seems, is the genesis of Camelot; a lost golden age over which there ruled a magnificent warrior whom we call Arthur. And after his death, when the English had taken the land and called it England, the Welsh women, many of whom had been forcibly married to their invaders, told their children tales of the great lost lord and of the good times in which he flourished. The stories grew until they lost touch with their Dark Ages reality and became legends about the towers of Camelot and about the most enchanting king who ever ruled in Lloegr. That is Arthur, a man who still enchants us and holds the implicit promise of another golden age to come. He is our Once and Future King, and long may he go on baffling the historians. BILL HUTCHINGS |
|
page last updated 27 AUGUST 2002 |
