THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR
KING Arthur evolved over the centuries. A war leader – not a king – named Arthur is named in early writings as the hero of the Battle of Mount Badon. Later scholarship put forward other candidates for the origins of the legend, including post-Roman cavalry commanders and tribal kings. By the time Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Historia Regum Brittanniae around 1136, the legend had grown into the beginnings of the ‘modern’ King Arthur story.
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work was partly based on the Historia Brittonum, tracing the lineage of King Arthur and various real figures back to a Trojan/ Roman hero named Brutus by way of all manner of imaginary personages. Not surprisingly, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Arthur tale (like later versions) is riddled with anachronisms and concepts borrowed from Welsh mythology.
The legend of King Arthur retains its popularity, but despite periodic attempts to reconstruct the ‘real King Arthur story’ it remains little more than a fiction spun out of fragmentary historical records, which were themselves of dubious veracity.
Source ~ ‘The Dark Ages From The Sack of Rome to Hastings’ By Martin J. Dougherty