HKA-001627Literary Tradition
Arthur as Battle Leader in the Historia Brittonum
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Archive record
The Historia Brittonum, generally associated with the early ninth century, presents Arthur as a martial leader rather than the fully developed king of later romance. It assigns him a sequence of victories and connects him with the battle of Mount Badon.
The text was written centuries after the period in which a historical Arthur would have lived. It is evidence for an early medieval Arthurian tradition, not a contemporary biography of a fifth- or sixth-century commander.
Source trail: Historia Brittonum; modern Arthurian scholarship including N. J. Higham.
Related Journal record: Legend of King Arthur.
Catalogue reference HKA-001627
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