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biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (?6th-c)
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| biography:
| Semi-legendary king of the Britons. He may originally have been a Romano-British war leader in W England called Arturus; but he is represented as having united the British tribes against the invading Saxons, and as having been the champion of Christendom as well. He is said to have fought against the invaders in a series of momentous battles, starting with a victory at ‘Mount Baden’ (?516) and ending with defeat and death at ‘Camlan’ (537), after which he was buried at Glastonbury. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes no mention of him, however; he first appears in Welsh chronicles long after the event. The story of Arthur blossomed into a huge literature, interwoven with legends of the Holy Grail and courtly ideas of the Round Table of knights at Camelot, in such writers as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, and Layamon. Sir Thomas Malory's English version, Morte d'Arthur, was the final mediaeval compilation from which most later retellings are derived. |
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