The earliest full stories concerning King Arthur and his exploits appear to be the little known Welsh tales of "Culhwch and Olwen" and the "Dream of Rhonabwy". Though dating from before the 11th century, these two stories became a late attachment to a collection of Welsh mythological tales taken from the 14th century White Book of Rhydderch and Red Book of Hergest. Together, they are known as the "Mabinogion": an introduction for aspiring poets.

Though the stories have a mythological slant, a certain amount of bardic poetic license is to be expected. Their background, however, is clearly an unfamiliar Dark Age society that gives us some idea of what the realArthur was probably like.

The much-maligned Geoffrey of Monmouth, Archdeacon of Monmouth and later Bishop of St. Asaphs, first popularized King Arthur's story, around 1136, in his "History of the Kings of Britain". Though he was writing some six hundred years after Arthur's death, there is no reason to suppose that Geoffrey's history was "made up...from an inordinate love of lying" as both contemporary and modern historians almost universally insist. Geoffrey claimed he had taken most of his information from an earlier British source (he referred to it as "a certain, very ancient book written in the British language"; ed.), unknown to us today.

The early portion of his history clearly relates the mythology of the Celtic peoples and the stories of their gods, whom his source had turned into early Kings: Bladud, Leir, Belenus, Brennius and so on. Later in his account, however, he turns to real history. From the time of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55 bc, which both Geoffrey and the great man (ie. Caesar), himself, relate at great length, we can no longer be sure that the Archdeacon is reciting mere legend. Much of his information has corroborative historical sources like this. Who is to say that everything he tells us, from then on, is not pure fact? Furthermore, Geoffrey was the only source to hail the existence of King Tenvantius of Britain, until modern archaeologists began finding Iron Age coins bearing his name: "Tasciovantus". What other gems of Geoffrey's history have been dismissed by today's historians?

- by David Nash Ford

Photos of Clive Owen as King Arthur

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