King Arthur Research Paper

The development of the legend of king Arthur spans more than one thousand years. The legend covered from the briefest mentions of a valiant warrior that fended off the Anglo-Saxon invasions of the island, to the elaborate in-depth legend of a man destined to rule England with his Knights of the Round Table. The development of this legend is a fascinating insight to how history was written, and more interestingly not written, and who ended up writing the version that stood the test of time. History is often written by the victor and not the defeated. The legend started from the controversial battle of Mount Badon and when it happened, and multiple authors described in great brevity the existence of a heroic figure. The tale developed to the

Also a historical writer of British history, Nennius gathers all information available to him from the Roman times of the invasion by Julius Caesar, to his own time. Nennius recollects his biased accounts of history. Although he did start with the biblical tales of Adam and Eve and Noah’s flood, Nennius is one of the first major writers in the story of Arthur. His writings also include the name Arthur, as kept through history to this day. Near the ending of his work approximately in the third part of his piece around chapter 50 he stated, “Then it was, that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military force of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was twelve times chosen their commander, and was as often conqueror”. This statement by Nennius confirms that Arthur was the official name of the mysterious commander of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxon invasions that Gildas and Bede had mentioned earlier. Interestingly Nennius also refers to what Bede had suggested about the occurrence of multiple battles of Arthur. A total of twelve battles happened in this attempt to stop the invasion, all leading up to that last glorious battle at Mount Badon that started this whole legend. This battle by Gildas and Bede’s account was the biggest victory by the Britons. Nennius goes

First the story by Gildas and Bede had the presence of a mysterious figure at the battle of Mount Badon. Then Nennius told of the development of multiple battles. Later developments told of King Arthur through Joseph of Arimathea and the Court of Avalon. Then Geoffrey of Monmouth put all the previous tales together almost getting to the current version of the legend. Finally, the writings of Sir Thomas Malory added to the legend that make it into what we know today, being the mythical tale of King Arthur. From the briefest mention of a Roman survivor, to this grandiose tale, the major change of this tale is