ABSTRACT
Arthur, 'the real or fabulous king of Britain' (DNB, 1885), is an elusive character, mystery enveloping even the natures and places of his birth and death. The dark period between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., when Arthur is held to have lived at some point, was itself a time of shifting social structures and alliances. As the institutions made by Roman rule in Britain were declining, the Welsh and English kingdoms were being formed. It is in the west and, to a lesser extent, in the north that continuing oral traditions for the Dark Ages are most evident. Yet Arthur's context, if any, is of a body of vanished stories belonging to a geographical area which was invaded at an early stage. What this relates to is the destruction of knowledge. As Gildas was composing On the Ruin of Britain in the mid-sixth century, 'knowledge of the outside world and knowledge of the past had been wiped out of men's minds' (Thompson, 114-15). Gildas attacks a corrupt British society, focusing on the west. Arthur is not referred to by name, although the battle of Mount Badon, legendary by the eighth century as Arthur's victory, is mentioned. Richard Barber in King Arthur: Hero and Legend (1986) designates Arthur a 'hero without deeds' (11). Paradoxically, it is the combination of famous hero and mysterious context which renders the Arthurian legend so compelling and malleable for writers.
