Sources & reading | Arthurian Folklore.im

Our three labels

History: what historians, archaeologists and heritage bodies say, based on evidence. Literature: what a named medieval or Victorian book or poem says, and when. Tradition: local beliefs and stories about places, recorded by a named collector. Reading notes marked as our own comment are interpretation, not fact.

How we checked

Each labelled sentence on this site was checked against the text of the source it links to, by matching the exact wording in that source. Retellings are our own words; they follow the events in the named text and do not add new events. Quotations are short and come from public-domain texts.

Primary texts (public domain, free online)

Historians, heritage bodies and reference works

When sources disagree

We show both sides rather than picking one silently.

The dates of Badon and Camlann

History Britannica gives the Annales dates as 516 for Badon and 537 for Camlann. Britannica (Students): Arthur ↗

History Museum Wales gives 518 for Badon and 537–9 for Camlann, and says the annals were probably compiled in the mid-900s. Museum Wales: Who was King Arthur? ↗

Did Geoffrey mention a Round Table at Caerleon?

History Cadw’s page says Geoffrey wrote that the amphitheatre was Arthur’s Round Table; People’s Collection Wales says Geoffrey did not mention a Round Table at all (see ‘When sources disagree’). Cadw: Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre ↗

History Geoffrey of Monmouth made Caerleon, in south Wales, the court of King Arthur in his History of 1136. People’s Collection Wales (Museum Wales): King Arthur’s Round Table ↗

History The Round Table first appears in Wace’s French version of Geoffrey’s History, in about 1155. People’s Collection Wales (Museum Wales): King Arthur’s Round Table ↗

The Round Table first appears in Wace (about 1155), according to People’s Collection Wales and Britannica; Geoffrey’s own text, as we read it in the Giles translation, sets Arthur’s crown-wearing at the City of Legions without a Round Table. We follow that reading and flag Cadw’s wording.

Literature He sets Arthur’s great crown-wearing feast at Pentecost in the City of Legions (Caerleon). Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, in Six Old English Chronicles (ed. J. A. Giles), Project Gutenberg ↗

Pictures

All paintings, drawings and photographs are public domain or CC0, from Wikimedia Commons. See picture credits. An old painting shows how an artist imagined a story; it is not a portrait or a reconstruction.

Corrections

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