Archaeology & History

King Arthur was Scottish, claims academic

By T.K. Randall
September 6, 2015 ·  26 comments

Was King Arthur really a Scottish general ? Image Credit: Charles Ernest Butler While the story of King Arthur, the knights of the round table and their adventures in Camelot have been familiar themes in movies, books and television shows for years, the historical origins of the legend and the real-life events on which it is based have long remained a topic of academic debate.

Now however Dr Andrew Breeze, a philologist and Celticist from the University of Navarre in Spain, believes he has discovered the truth thanks to a 1,200-year-old chronicle entitled "The History Of The Britons" that was written by the Welsh monk Nennius.

The book details nine locations where Arthur was said to have defeated his enemies in battle and now Dr Breeze believes that he has finally determined where each of these places are.Surprisingly Southern Scotland has turned out to be the site of the largest number of them.

"Arthur thus now steps from legend into history - specifically the history of Scotland," said Breeze.

"He will have been a Briton of southern Scotland, fighting all his battles there; but he was not fighting the English. His enemies were other British peoples, around Edinburgh and Carlisle. "

"He was not of course a king. He will have been a brave general who soon became a legend."

Source: Independent | Comments (26)

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