The mystical references to Arthur and his adventures are dated in literature in some form for over 1400 years, verifying the enduring appeal of this romantic character. Since the beginnings of the English language there have been legends of great heroes. The first settlements of Britain produced stories rooted in ancient Celtic and Germanic imagination; of the many, Arthur is undoubtedly preeminent.
The earliest known description of Arthur’s noble endeavors was written by Gildas, (ca. 490-540) the author of De excidio et conquestu Britanniae makes reference, albeit vague, to an Arthurian figure; however, the name Arthur is not mentioned in the story (Strayer 564). The full flourish of writings associated with his miraculous feats and victories do not reach a crescendo for several hundred years after Gildas (Strayer 564). During the Middle Ages, however, Arthurian myth was prominent and en vogue and attempts to discover the truth behind the myth have been pursued for generations. Arthur's history, as Geoffrey Ashe reminds us in The Discovery of King Arthur, is "more than just a medley of yarns, more than just a saga in the romanticism of myth. It puts him within a definite period. It names definite places and takes him to definit
. . .
Geoffrey's work was immensely popular and was not criticized during his lifetime Clodfelter 3 (Goodrich 45). He made errors in church history such as placing an Archbishop in Canterbury in Arthur's lifetime and an Archbishop in Caerleon (Brooke 202). He will not be basking in a mighty castle between European excursions with a band of international knights; rather, he will be no more than an unkempt and possibly pagan military leader with little if any armor. Perhaps the best known of all Arthurian legends is that of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Many inaccuracies exist in his description of the period. Geoffrey is clearly a fiction writer, but there is little doubt that he drew from older works both historical and fictional. Once again, however, Gildas makes no mention of Arthur by name (Strayer 564). "Besides Roman historians he draws upon Gildas, Nennius, Bede, and probably the Annales Cambriae, as well as Welsh genealogical and hagiographic matter; yet an investigation into these older documents shed little light upon Arthur (Coglan 212).
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