A number of people watching "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" when it premieres May 12 will probably think, "Hey, I know King Arthur, and that's not King Arthur!" And they'll be wrong, because nobody really knows King Arthur _ if he existed.
With that in mind, let's look at eight fun facts about King Arthur:
1) Technically, King Arthur isn't English.
The words "English" and "England" are derived from the "Anglo" part of "Anglo-Saxon," referencing the Germanic tribes who conquered most of Britain beginning around the 5th century and culminating in a unified country roughly 500 years later. The late 5th century is when Arthur was supposedly fighting his fights _ and it was the Anglo-Saxons he was fighting.
2) More than likely, the Arthur stories got their start in Wales.
The name Arthur as a warrior or leader arises from Welsh legends and folklore, as do other "Legend of the Sword" characters like Vortigern (Welsh: Gwrtheyrn), Uther (Utyr), Sir Kay (Cei) and Sir Bedivere (Bedwyn). Medieval Wales gave us Mordred (Medraut) and Guinevere (Gwenhwyfar). A number of stories that later find themselves in the Arthurian legend are also Welsh.
Possibly connected and possibly not, a 6th century Welsh monk named Gildas wrote of an unnamed war leader who defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Badon. Then the 9th century monk Nennius made the connection explicit by writing of an Arthur who fought 12 great battles, culminating at Badon. A 12th century compilation of earlier stories called "The Annals of Wales" repeated some of Nennius, and added the Battle of Camlann, where Arthur and Mordred are killed.
Other major Medieval manuscripts don't mention Arthur, or are thought to lift largely from Nennius, and many of these "histories" are quite fanciful anyway. Worse, nobody even knows where "Badon" was, if it existed at all.
3) The historic Arthur (if he existed), would have been a Celt.
A late 5th century warlord battling the Saxons would have been a Romano-Briton. That is to say, he would have been from one of the Celtic tribes that populated Britain and would have been using Roman tactics and weapons to preserve Roman culture. That's because the Romans had ruled "Brittania" for about 400 years, and that was the status quo. (The Romans had gone home in the early 5th century, what with the collapse of the Western Empire and all.)
4) Most of the cool Arthur stories were written in the 12th century _ and not initially in English.
Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chretien de Troyes, who wrote 700 years after the Arthur stories are set, wrote all that stuff about chivalric romance and courtly love and so forth _ because that was the style of the time.
Geoffrey, writing in Latin, gave us a strong foundation for the Arthur stories by adapting legends and myths into a streamlined story that he pretended was actual history. (He titled the work containing his Arthur stories "Historia Regum Britanniae," or "History of the Kings of Britain.")
De Troyes, a Frenchman, invented Lancelot du Lac _ a Frenchman, naturally _ and therefore the world's most famous love triangle. He also added a bunch of Christian themes and the Quest for the Holy Grail, thereby creating or fleshing out the various Knights of the Round Table.
5) Geoffrey might have been French, too.
While Monmouth is in Wales, there's not a lot of evidence that Geoffrey spent much time there. Given that he was literate and a member of the leadership elite, he was probably from one of the Norman families that took charge of the country after William, Duke of Normandy, became king after winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Normandy, of course, is in France.
6) Arthur's men weren't knights in shining armor.
The stories of King Arthur are generally set in the late 5th century. Plate armor didn't come along until the 13th century, and the sophisticated "jousting armor" you see in movies like "Excalibur" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" wasn't in heavy use until the 15th century _ 1,000 years after King Arthur (if he existed). The fellas hanging around the Round Table (if they existed) would have been wearing something like what the Romans used, possibly bronze cuirasses (covering the torso), ringleted mail armor and leather. Lots and lots of leather.
7) The Anglo-Saxons might have been invited to Britain.
Various legends and stories recount how Vortigern _ played by Jude Law in the movie _ was a 5th century warlord having trouble maintaining order after the Romans left. His main problem was raids by pesky Picts and Scots, tribes that had never been under Roman rule. So, legend has it, he invited tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes to act as "foederati" _ part of the Roman practice of subsidizing "barbarian" tribes with land and money in exchange for providing protection.
Naturally, as with Rome itself, the foederati decided to just take over the place instead. Whoops!
Since we don't know if Vortigern actually existed, there's no reason to put much stock in this legend. Further, some stories name the Anglo-Saxon leaders as Hengist and Horsa, which translates to "Stallion" and "Horse" in Old English, placing them in a mythological tradition of "divine twins," so they probably didn't exist either. But it's a cool story.
Geoffrey of Monmouth thought the divine twins were cool enough to include in his Arthur tales. But he decided it would be cooler if Vortigern was seduced by one of Hengist's daughters, and wrote that in his "History" instead.
8) "Pendragon" started out as a title.
In Welsh, it literally means "head dragon," but in a figurative sense, it means "chief leader" or "commander-in-chief" and was used for other characters besides Uther Pendragon.
Not that there aren't dragons in Welsh myth. There's an old story involving two "wyrms" and featuring Aurelius Ambrosius _ occasionally Uther's brother _ scaring the breeches off Vortigern with his dragon knowledge. (Geoffrey re-wrote the story with Merlin as the star.) Also, either Ambrosius or Uther saw a dragon-shaped comet predicting one thing or another (stories vary).
What does this mean for "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword"? Not much, except that it's as valid a take on the guy as any _ if he existed.
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