[Conan the Librarian]

Guardian of the Bear actually...just like the Star in Bootes. Just read John Morris' book about the history of Britain in the time of Arthur. His take was Arthur was actually the last of the Romans in Britain (though he may have been a Britain, he was fully Roman 'Artōrius' ). He was the son of Ambrosius Aurelianus. He defeated the Saxons at Badon Hill and kept them down until his death. Indeed Geoffery of Monmouth's stuff is fantasy. Morris goes as far as to say he was the last Roman Emperor in Britain. The main problem is that the time from 400 to 600 AD in Britain was a time of little to no writing or record keeping. There just isn't enough First Hand info to say who Arthur was, or was not. The Romans were gone and the Irish Monasteries hadn't taken root yet. Geoffrey Ashe's book came to almost the same conclusion, but, his Arthur was called Riothamus. All great speculation on a time that we may never know about.

[Conan the Librarian]

(Dang HTML failings!) Guardian of the Bear actually...just like the Star in Bootes. Just read John Morris' book about the history of Britain in the time of Arthur. His take was Arthur was actually the last of the Romans in Britain (though he may have been a Britain, he was fully Roman 'Artōrius' ).

He was the son of Ambrosius Aurelianus. He defeated the Saxons at Badon Hill and kept them down until his death. Indeed Geoffery of Monmouth's stuff is fantasy. Morris goes as far as to say he was the last Roman Emperor in Britain.

The main problem is that the time from 400 to 600 AD in Britain was a time of little to no writing or record keeping. There just isn't enough First Hand info to say who Arthur was, or was not. The Romans were gone and the Irish Monasteries hadn't taken root yet.

Geoffrey Ashe's book came to almost the same conclusion, but, his Arthur was called Riothamus. All great speculation on a time that we may never know about.

[ZULU]

Read all of them. Asch’s Riothamus is interesting as he does give a source that says a British Roman Chieftain led a force into Gaul and was lost in battle there.

This is really a fascinating part of history - Sub Roman Britain.