[blam]

"The lady of the Lake part of the legend is Druidic. Watery sites were considered sacred, as in wishing wells."

I happen to believe something catastrophic happened in the mid-500's AD, a date many believe was the period of King Arthur. The tree rings, worldwide, indicate a serious temporary climate change at exactly that period. I think a comet or comet fragment plunged into the Celtic Sea in 540AD. All these legends have grown out of an effort to explain that event. Swords, snakes, dragons and angels have always been associated with comets in myths. All tree ring events dating back to 3000BC have an acid layer (volcanoes) in the ice cores, the 540AD event does not have an acid layer. (comet?) This catastrophy (serious cooling) probably plunged Europe into the Dark Ages.

[SurferDoc]

Interesting, blam, I had not read that before anywhere. Are there any sources you can give me to read more about it?

[chantal7]

I have heard that between 900 AD and the 1700's-1800's Europe was in a mini ice age. It probably could have started as early as mid 500 AD. I didn't pay much attention to the exact starting date...I was more surprised by the ending date being so close to our times.

Krakatoa erupted some time in there too. The whole world supposedly had no sun for about 3 days and there was snow in the summers due to the particles blocking out the heat of the sun, making the average earth temperature much cooler for a while.

[rightofrush]

. The tree rings, worldwide, indicate a serious temporary climate change at exactly that period. I think a comet or comet fragment plunged into the Celtic Sea in 540AD.

This could account for the "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" line that occurs in Celtic folk tales.