Who was King Arthur and where did he come from and what era did he exist in ?

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Question:

i'm tired, exhausted having read hundreds of books and literature on this and even visiting special places devoted to him!.

i now wish to know from King Arthur enthusiasts or historian smart asses, their accounts on this and what they believe to be the answer to my question!. thanks!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

He is a legendery king who is supposed to have ruled Britain in the 6th century AD, during the period of chaos that followed the decline of the roman empire in the west!. Britain was being invaded by Saxons, and Arthur is popularly supposed to have led a succesful resistance against them!.

However, there is no historical evidence for his existence at all!. There wasn't much writing going on in that unsettled period, but the only British historian writing at the time, Gildas, doesn't mention Arthur at all, which suggests that he either didn't exist, or if he did was a much less significant figure than stories about him suggest!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

As a historian smartass I'm curious as to how you can read hundreds of books and not know, since all but Geoffrey Ashe agree: he was probably a dux bellorum (Lat!.: war lord) and a composite of some other military heroes who received a lot of embellishing, embroidery, and flat-out fabrication in the High Middle Ages!. The historical figure upon whom he was based, if one existed, most likely was powerful ca!. 500-525 AD, though some disagree (most notably Geoffrey Ashe, who put's historical Arthur's existence a century earlier and equates him with the figure known in Latin chronicles as Riothamus)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

King Arthur is a Proto-English mythical monarch of possible 1/2 roman decent!. Reputed to be the 'first king of all England'!. the Myths are probably based on the time period directly after the Roman Empire abandoned England!. No historical basis has ever been found for these myths!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

He was a myth, a legend!. As to where he came from, it depends on who is telling the story!. He supposedly came from Britain for the English, Ireland for the Irish, Wales for the Welsh, etc!. etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Her full name is Arturia Pendragon, and she inspired the legends of King Arthur!. Arturia is the daughter of British King Uther Pendragon and Igraine, a former Duchess of Cornwall!. At her nativity, Uther realizes his subjects will never accept a female as a legitimate ruler, and decides to not publicly announce Arturia's birth or gender!. She is entrusted by Merlin to a loyal knight, Sir Ector, who raises her as a surrogate son!. When Arturia is fifteen, King Uther dies, and with no known eligible heir to the throne, Britain enters a period of turmoil following the growing threat of invasion by the Saxons!. Merlin soon approaches her, explaining that the British people will recognize her as a destined ruler if she withdraws Caliburn, a ceremonial sword embedded in a large slab of stone!. However, pulling this sword is symbolic of accepting the hardships of a monarch, and Arturia will be responsible for preserving the welfare of her people!. Without hesitation, and despite her gender, she draws Caliburn and shoulders Britain's mantle of leadership!.

Arturia rules Britain from her stronghold in Camelot, and earns the reputation of a just, yet distant king!. Under the guidance of Merlin and with the aid of her Knights of the Round Table, she guides Britain into an era of prosperity and tranquillity!. Caliburn is destroyed, but Arturia soon acquires her holy sword, Excalibur, and Avalon, Excalibur's blessed sheath, from Vivian!. While Avalon is in her possession, Arturia never ages and is immortal in battle!.

Throughout her reign, Arturia is plagued by feelings of guilt and inferiority; she sacrifices her emotions for the good of Britain, yet many of her subjects become critical of her lack of humanity!. Excalibur's scabbard is stolen while she repels an assault along her country's borders; when Arturia returns inland, she discovers Britain is being torn asunder by civil unrest!. Despite her valiant efforts to placate the dissent, Arturia is mortally wounded by a traitorous knight, a homunculus born of her blood named Mordred, during the Battle of Camlann!. Her dying body is escorted to a holy isle by Morgan le Fay and Sir Bedivere!. Arturia orders a grieving Bedivere to dispose of Excalibur by throwing it back to Vivian; in her absence, she reflects on her personal failures, regretting her life as king!. Before her last breath, she appeals to the world; in exchange for services as a Heroic Spirit, she asks to be given an opportunity to relive her life, where someone more suitable and effective would lead Britain in her stead!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you've done that much reading and study, it sounds like you'll probably know as much or more than most of the people who may answer here!

Most of the evidence seems to suggest that Arthur was probably a Celtic war leader who lived in Britain and fought against the Saxon invaders in the first early centuries after Christ!. The era is usually identified as sometime between 300 and 500 A!.D!. Over the years he has grown into a mythic figure, and other stories of quests and heros have attached themselves to his myth!. His story has an archetypal quality to it, and like most living myths or archetypies, his legend continues to fascinate and obsess people centuries after he is said to have lived!. He may have originated from a Romanized Celtic family, or as an heir to a couple of royal lines who was therefore able to draw the Celtic tribes together to resist the Saxons!. Hope you get some interesting answers!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

As far as can be determined, King Arthur is a legendary character, meaning he never really existed!. Nor did his kingdom, Camelot!. So the answer is, King Arthur is a mythical character (who may have been based on a combination of several historical kings) who lived 'once upon a time' in a mythical kingdom!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The consensus among historians of the period is that Arthur was a Romanized British (Celtic) general (not a king) who led the resistance to the Anglo-Saxon invasions* in the 5th and 6th centuries A!. D!. The earliest mention of him by name is just a passing reference in a late 6th/early 7th century North Britsh poem, the Gododdin, although Gildas' De Excidio Britanniae, written around 540, mentions a leader called Ambrosius Aurelianus and tantalizingly hints at another leader a generation later but doesn't name him!. Many scholars think that this unnamed hero was Arthur!. The legend grew with retellings, at first in Latin and Welsh, that eventually made Arthur a king!. Each reteller of the legend tended to add details to it--the Round Table, Guinevere, Lancelot, the Holy Grail, etc!. But the tiny germ of historic fact on which the legend was built was probably a Roman-British leader who rallied his fellow-countrymen to resist the invasions that took place after the Roman army was withdrawn from the island it had occupied for almost 400 years!.

* If you've read a great deal on the subject, you probably don't need to be told this, but just in case:

The part of the island of Britain that's now England, along with part of Wales, was conquered by Rome in the mid-1st century A!. D!. and remained a Roman province until about A!. D!. 410, when the increasing barbarian attacks on the continental part of the Roman Empire led the Emperor to withdraw the army from Britain to defend parts of the Empire closer to Rome!. When the British (the Celtic ancestors of today's Welsh, Bretons, and Cornish) appealed to Rome for help against the raids then staged by the Picts in the North and the Scots in Ireland, they were told that they should consider themselves independent!. Not long thereafter, the Anglo-Saxon raids began and grew into an all-out invasion that ultimately led to the establishment of England ("Angle-land")!. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, they began arriving in A!. D!. 449!.

If Rosemary Sutcliffes's Sword at Sunset isn't among the many books you've already read, I strongly recommend it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com