Was King Arthur a real guy or is his story a legend?
Are you familiar with the legend of King Arthur? Basically, he was the son of a Breton monarch named Pendragon, who, after hearing Merlin's advice, decided to entrust the boy's upbringing to the wizard to prevent his position as future heir to the throne from being discovered and thus his life could be be put at risk.
Excalibur
Years later, as the wizard had predicted, the death of King Pendragon began a fierce dispute for the throne. Merlin used his magic to stab a sword into a rock and spread the word that only the true heir would be able to pull the weapon out. All those who wished to become the new King of England tried to extract the blade from the stone, but their efforts were in vain.
Then an unknown young man appeared and easily removed the sword from the rock, proving that he was the rightful heir to the throne. This sword, as you may know, was called Excalibur, and the boy, Arthur, established his kingdom at Camelot, married Guinevere, and had a series of knights - from the Round Table - beside him, among them, his great friend Lancelot. .
According to the stories, the King participated in countless battles against the Saxons and, along with his knights, had the important mission of finding the Holy Grail, the holy grail that would have been used by Jesus at the Last Supper. In the end, Arthur would have fallen after fighting the traitor Mordred - and his body would have been buried in Avalon. The whole thing is very cool and impressive, but is there anything real about all this?
Legend or reality?
The incredible stories about King Arthur and his battles have become so widespread and popular that even today scholars debate whether he really existed or not. The accounts place this character's presence between the 5th and 6th centuries, but in fact the only historical record of the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Great Britain does not mention any monarch named Arthur.
His name was only to appear centuries later in the works of Nenius, a Welsh monk who lived in the 9th century and wrote the work Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons). In the manuscripts, Nenius mentions a series of battles in which Arthur would have fought. However, after analyzing the information in the texts about when and where the conflicts would have occurred, historians concluded that it would be impossible for a single man to have participated in all of them.
The fact is that over time other authors took inspiration from the texts of Nenius and began to write about King Arthur - and his exploits and legends began to spread. The character's popularity was firmly established in the 12th century, thanks to the work of another Welsh clergyman, Geoffrey de Monmouth, who wrote the work Historia Regum Britanniae (Story of the Kings of Brittany) and spread most of Arthur's tales.
However, although no one is sure if a King Arthur really existed, some historians do not rule out the possibility altogether. Some scholars believe, for example, that the creation of the legendary character may have been inspired by a number of leaders who lived at the time of the invasions of Britain.
In addition, there are historians who, based on historical evidence, point out that there was a Roman military leader who may have helped the Britons fight the Saxons. However, this guy was no king, but a general who fought his battles in southern Scotland and the county of Northumberland in northern England, and spent much of his life in Strathclyde, one of nine former regions that belonged to the Scottish territory.
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