Arthur- Celtic HeroHero"The Once and Future King"

Origins and Birth

The story of Arthur's conception comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, composed around 1136. Uther Pendragon desired Igraine, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. The prophet Merlin used his arts to transform Uther into the likeness of Gorlois so that he could lie with Igraine undetected. That same night the real Gorlois was killed in battle. Uther married Igraine, and the child born of this union was Arthur. After Uther's death, Britain fell into disorder until the young Arthur drew a sword from a stone, proving himself the rightful king.

The Twelve Battles

The Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius and composed in the ninth century, lists twelve battles in which Arthur fought as dux bellorum against the Saxons. The climax was Mount Badon, where Arthur carried the image of the Virgin Mary on his shoulders and nine hundred and sixty of the enemy fell by his hand alone in a single charge. The Annales Cambriae records the same battle around 516, adding that Arthur carried the cross of Christ for three days and three nights. The Y Gododdin measures its own hero against Arthur's shadow: he "glutted black ravens on the rampart of the fort, though he was no Arthur."

Culhwch and the Great Boar

The tale of Culhwch ac Olwen, preserved in the Mabinogion, is the earliest surviving Arthurian narrative in Welsh prose. Culhwch, a young nobleman cursed by his stepmother, can marry only Olwen, daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr. The giant sets him impossible tasks as the bride-price, chief among them the hunting of Twrch Trwyth, a monstrous boar that was once a king transformed by God for his wickedness. The beast carried a comb and shears between his ears.

Culhwch goes to Arthur's court to seek help, and Arthur commits his entire war-band to the enterprise. The warriors of Arthur's court are figures of strange ability: Cai could hold his breath for nine days underwater, and his body threw off such heat that his companions kindled fire from his hands in the rain. Bedwyr the one-handed struck with a single spear-thrust that equaled nine.

Arthur and his men pursue Twrch Trwyth and his seven piglets across Ireland and southern Wales in a running battle that devastates entire kingdoms. Warriors die in droves. They corner the boar at the mouth of the Severn, seize the comb and shears, and the beast is driven into the sea. It is never seen again.

The Spoils of Annwn

The early Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwn describes Arthur's raid on the Otherworld. Arthur and his warriors sail in his ship Prydwen to Caer Sidi, a revolving fortress in Annwn, to seize a magical cauldron tended by nine maidens whose breath warmed it. The cauldron would not boil food for a coward. Of three shiploads of men who sailed with Arthur, only seven returned. Each stanza of the poem ends with the same refrain: "except seven, none returned from Caer Sidi."

The imprisoned Gweir languished in chains in Caer Sidi, suffering for the plunder of the Otherworld. Arthur's warriors passed through Caer Pedryvan, the four-cornered stronghold, and Caer Vedwyd, the fortress of the mead-feast. Every fortress was guarded, and at each one, more men fell.

The Fall at Camlann

Arthur's reign ended at the Battle of Camlann, which the Annales Cambriae dates to approximately 537. In Geoffrey's account, Arthur's nephew Mordred (Welsh Medraut) betrayed him while Arthur was campaigning on the continent against the Roman emperor Lucius. Mordred seized the throne and took Gwenhwyfar. Arthur returned with his army, and the two forces met at Camlann in a battle that destroyed the warrior nobility of Britain on both sides. Arthur slew Mordred but was himself grievously wounded.

The Welsh Triads call Camlann one of the Three Futile Battles of the Island of Britain, fought over a cause so trivial it should never have led to war. One late tradition names the cause: a quarrel between Gwenhwyfar and her sister Gwenhwyfach, a slap delivered at court that escalated beyond all reason into the battle that consumed a generation of warriors.

The Journey to Avalon

As Arthur lay dying, he commanded Bedwyr to return Excalibur to the lake from which it had come. A hand rose from the water, caught the sword, and drew it beneath the surface. A barge appeared bearing Morgan and other queens of the Otherworld, who took Arthur aboard and carried him to Avalon, the Isle of Apples, where his wounds might be healed. He is called the Once and Future King. Caves and hollow hills across Wales and England are pointed out as places where Arthur and his knights lie sleeping, armored and ready, waiting for the horn that will summon them back to the world.