I’ve been asked many times where the concept of a
Scottish King Arthur arose.
Well this is not a new concept. The Clive Owen
movie “King Arthur” is set north of Hadrian’s wall and most of the action takes
place in the Scottish borderlands. Others have also explored the “Scottish”
Arthur, most notably the historian David F. Carroll in his book “Arturius – A
Quest for Camelot”. Much of my research mirrors his and I would encourage those
seeking further details to read his book.
As a child, I was obsessed with the Arthurian
Legend, and yes – I spent far too many childhood days searching rocks for
hidden swords! Alas I’m not king yet!
From the age of ten, Scotland had become our
vacation destination of choice and before long I fell totally in love with the
rugged beauty of this land, its people, its music and its history. Robert the
Bruce supplanted Arthur as my favorite hero king and it was while researching his history that I stumbled across
Arthur again.
By this time I had come to believe that “King
Arthur” never truly existed, and was more a composite figure whose fame had
grown with hand me down stories. It seemed every location in England wanted to claim
some link to the Arthur legend, and while each offered a tantalizing thread to
the story, Scotland is the only location I’ve found where not just Arthur, but
many of the places, and characters from the legend can be found in the same
geographical region, and historical period.
Only in Scotland can a case can be made for the
existence of:
·
Arthur
·
Camelot
·
The Round Table
·
The battle of Camlann
·
Avalon
·
Morgan
·
Guenevere
·
Merlin
Arthur
So who is this real Arthur of Scotland? Let’s
avoid poems, myths and other unreliable works, and focus on historical record.
To do this we must forget any reference to the word Arthur. The use of the ‘h’ was not common until the 12th
century, which is when Geoffrey of Monmouth penned his “History of the Kings of
Britain”. Most of the legends we have come to accept stem from this somewhat
“fanciful” accounting. To coin a phrase from another childhood hero – Indiana
Jones – “We’re digging in the wrong place!”.
Sixth century writing was predominantly Latin
and the name Arthur, or Artur would have been recorded as Arturius. As soon as
we drop the “h” the pieces of the puzzle start to fit for in 6th century
Scotland we find record of one of the greatest war leaders of the time.
Arturius – son of Aidan MacGabran, King of Dalriada.
Arturius governed the Scottish region of Mannan,
located between the two roman walls – Hadrian’s to the south, and the Antonine
wall to the north. Rome’s influence in this region had been limited to a
frontier outpost. It was a troublesome military district, difficult to control
and with little value to the empire. They abandoned this northern frontier falling
back to the stronger defensive line of Hadrian’s wall. It is highly likely that the people of this
region had trained, fought and served in the battle-hardened legions of Rome,
as portrayed in the Clive Owen movie.
Camelot
At the sound of the word we imagine grand
castles more akin to Disney, or the mighty fortifications of the Norman period
that came hundreds of years AFTER Arthur. Many cities over the years have been
tagged as built on the bones of Camelot - but there has been no historical
record of such a fortress-city. However, in Scotland - there is documented
evidence of a fort known to the Romans as Ad Vallum, but to the Britons of the
time as Camelon - later corrupted to Camelot. This fortress was an impressive
structure and guarded not only the central region of Scotland but also the
strategic crossing point of the River Carron. The small town of Camelon remains
to this day, 1.5 miles west of Falkirk, and yes you guessed it – this fortress
was the base of operations for none other than Prince Arturius – war leader of
the north.
The Round Table
Conditioned by movies, novels and epic poems we all
think of a gigantic round table within the halls of Camelot, around which
Arthur and his knights held council. Of course, no true table has been
discovered, and were a round table to be unearthed it would be incredibly
difficult to prove it was that of legend - unless perhaps it were found at
Camelon! Well, interestingly enough there is, not far from Camelon, beneath the
towering buttresses of Stirling castle, a mound known as the King’s Knot. It is
known for certain that this mound predates Stirling castle, and there is a poem
that actually names this mound the “Round Tabill.” The poem admittedly was
written in 1370 and tells of the flight of King Edward after his crushing defeat
at Bannockburn by King Robert the Bruce. “An
besouth the Castill went they thone, Rychte by the Round Tabill away…”
It is conceivable this place was a neutral
meeting place for “Arturius” and the vassal kings of the North.
In my
novel “To Raise a King” I use this location for Arthur’s Round Table. I could
easily picture Arturius and the kings of the region gathered at the top of the
mound, with various chieftains and generals placed on a lower tier, while their
guards attendants and retinue gathered on the flats around.
Camlann
In legend King Arthur died in the battle of
Camlann, fighting the Picts, who were led by Mordred son of King Lot. Again,
there is no reliable historical record of such a battle in England or Wales,
yet recorded in the Annals of Ulster in the year 582AD a major battle was
fought in Mannan near the river Allan – known as the Crooked Allan. Crooked in
Gaelic translates to “Cam,” and thus the river was known as Camallan. Our
factual Arturius, war leader of the North, is recorded to have died here - fighting
none other than the Picts! This is conclusive stuff, but let’s throw a little
supposition into the mix. In all probability, the Pictish forces would have
been led by the son, or sons, of the Pictish king. At the time of Camallan, this
King was Cannelat. “Canne” is actually a Celtic prefix meaning head or chief.
If one drops the “Canne”, you are left with the name Lat. Could king Lot of
legend, actually be Chief Lat of history?
Avalon
In the legend of Arthur, our heroic king,
mortally wounded, is taken to the island of Avalon by his sister Morgan. Yet again
no historical record exists for a place named Avalon. But - I know I’m getting predictable here - records
show the land immediately adjacent to the battlefield of Camallan was
originally swamp. In fact an island existed here formed by the river Allan to
the east, the river Forth to the south, and the river Teith to the west with
the intervening land comprising water-filled swamps. Being on the banks of the
Allan this land would have been known as Av Allan – which translates to “On
Allan”. Say “Av Allan” to yourself a few times - sounds remarkably like Avalon
right? You can almost picture the loyal soldiers carrying their fallen leader
to a place of safety and this island would surely have been it.
Morgan
One could argue that all the above historical
records are mere coincidence, but it becomes harder to dismiss the facts when
you consider that King Aidan MacGabran - the father of Arturius - also had a
daughter named Mergein, meaning sea birth.
Mergein of course is later corrupted to Morgain, and by the 12th
century had morphed into Morgan.
Guenevere
There is no record of Guenever (Gwenevere) until
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s fanciful history. By the time of its writing (600 years
after the death of Arturius) the language had changed, and spellings had
changed. However, it is interesting to discover that the wife of Arturius –
rumored to have been taken by the Picts - was named Anora. In the time of
Geoffrey of Monmouth it was not uncommon to prefix a name with Guan, later
written as Gwen (literally meaning white, representing fair or pure). Arthur’s
queen would thus have been recorded as Fair Anora, or Guan-anora - phonetically
Gwenanora. It is possible that this was later corrupted into Gwenevere. I admit
this is far from conclusive, but it does add another link all be it tenuous between
our historical Arturius of the North and the legend we’ve come to love.
Merlin
And so finally to Merlin. It’s hard not to get a
little excited when you hear the name Merlin. What you may not know is that a
true figure of history existed with the name Merlin or Myrddin. The Annals of
Wales contains an entry showing that Myrddin was allied with a pagan prince who
was defeated in battle in 573AD at the Battle of Arderydd - just north of
Carlisle. Known as a druid, or bard, he fled the field of battle and lived in
the wooded areas of Celyddon between the two Roman walls - the Antonine and
Hadrians – in the exact vicinity of Camelon! This Merlin came under the
protection of one of the kings of the north - King Ryderrch. Given Arturius was
known to be war leader of these northern kings, then it is extremely likely
that Arturius and Merlin were known to each other.
My novel “To Raise a King” is built around these
characters and locations. Legends claim that Arthur never died, but merely fell
into a magical sleep to awaken in his countries time of need. David Carroll
makes an interesting link to the fact that William Wallace - another larger
than life hero - did in fact rise, from this very same region to serve his
country. I’ve taken a slightly different path but for that you’ll need to read
“To Raise a King” and the forthcoming sequel “To Save a Queen”.
Thank you so much Justin, for such an
informative post! If you would like to check out Justin’s debut novel, To Raise
A King, then scroll down…
When Matt escapes a Scottish boys' home to search for
his parents, he instead finds himself fleeing for his life. Cast back in time
to the brutality of 6th-century Scotland, he is sent on a dangerous quest - a
race to recover the missing fragments of a broken crown and save two worlds
from certain destruction.
Love, betrayal and murder follow Matt as he struggles
against a backdrop of powerful magic and political tension that soon erupts
into open war. Matt's faith in himself, and his trust in his newfound friends
will be put to the ultimate test as he fights to Raise a King.
Links for purchase
About the author
I spend most days delving into the
world of computer code and unraveling programming mysteries for many major
corporations, but my true passion is fictional writing.
My work is always supervised by Oliver (my cat), who’s four-legged contributions can often be found in both my coding and writing (all spelnig errors r stritcly his!).
I was born and raised in England, but now live with my beautiful wife Lisa in Florida (famous for its theme parks, beaches, the occasional hurricane, and a certain mouse).
My hobbies include: reading, movies, history, travel (I want to see mountains again Gandalf – mountains!), and exploring the latest gadgets and gizmos.
I’m rather fond of single malt scotch and it’s not uncommon to find me of an evening, sipping on a fine dram, while pondering how to get a character out of the very awkward situation I recently put them in!
