Grade: 7th through adult

 

Summary: 

Was there a real King Arthur?

Where did he live?

Where did he die?

Where did he fight the battles that made him famous?

These are the main questions that are explored in a literary journey through the old British chronicles and the medieval romances and an actual journey to the many sites in England, Wales, and Scotland which have legendary and perhaps real associations with the hero.

 

Most authorities agree that there was a leader who flourished in the 6th century, after the Romans had left the Britons to fend for themselves, and who defeated the Saxon invaders, to hold off their ultimate conquest for a half a century.

 

This was the Dark Age and few records survive; facts which lingered on in memory were elaborated by the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, then overlaid with the conventions of courtly romances during the Middle Ages and revived again the the 19th and 20th centuries in opera, idylls of the king, and satire.