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Introduction to a paper by J.E.Russell. The paper can be downloaded as the complete Word file, or as a pdf in five parts. King Arthur must be the widest known romantic hero of pre-mediaeval legend. The Bulletin of the Arthurian Society lists hundreds of books, papers, etc, involving the King and his Knights, drawn up over many years. His fame for chivalry has surfaced all over Europe : Arthurian imagery is associated with The Green Knight, Parceval, Tristam and Isolda, The Faerie Queen, The Red Dragon, and many other fictional characters : even with the Order of the Garter. He acquired an early aura similar to that of the later Robin Hood. However, Hume the Scottish philosopher who wrote a history of England in the 1750s began to suggest that there was an historical Arthur separate from the English/Welsh legends. Most of the pre-Norman writers of history whose work included reference to Arthur had come from Scotland, including Aneirin, Jocelinus, Adamnan and Nennius.
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In the 1860s, W.F.Skene, the doyen of Scottish Celtic historians, together with J.S.S.Glennie, noted that the preponderance of Arthurian sites were in Scotland, and concluded that there was indeed an historical Arthur, ‘of the North’, quite different from that of legend. Together they placed the historical Arthur’s battles recorded by Nennius around the Antonine Wall, fighting Highlanders who were driving south in the ebb and flow of people following the end of the Roman occupation of Scotland, spreading mayhem in Galloway. Glennie was first into print with his article in Macmillan’s Magazine, A Journey through Arthurian Scotland in 1867, followed by Skene a year later in The Ancient Books of Wales, and Glennie again in 1869 with his book Arthurian Localities. This has divided interest firmly between fictional legends of England and real history of Scotland, with recent interest in the historical Arthur supported in books by Carroll, Moffat and others, a pamphlet by Pate, ClannArthur, and in The Scots Magazine. Some Arthurian writers have lamented the lack of archaeological evidence for Arthur: but this we have clear for all to see in the form of ancient site names, and in particular the several Arthur’s Seats and Arthurstones in Scotland. |
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This paper sets out to draw together such evidence as can be found, especially from pre-Norman historical documents untainted by legends, site names, and dendro-ecology, and to analyse in a logical rather than an romantic manner, to produce the historical Arthur’s origin, battles and death. This paper locates fifty seven Arthurian sites in Scotland and suggests sites for twenty three battles fought by the historical Arthur in Scotland. Because of the millennium and a half which separate us from Arthur and perhaps distortion of evidence, the conclusions of this paper must necessarily be based upon probability rather than certain proof. Its readers are invited to read the whole paper, and mull over in their minds whether the conclusions seems probable, likely, or unlikely : it seems improbable that anyone can say with certainty whether they are right or not, and in detail the order of Arthur’s battles may upon further evidence be found to be different. But in coming to their conclusion, readers should try to ignore legend and fable from southern Britain. Arthur of Galloway Arthur of Galloway (pdf) |
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