Arthurian Tradition and Folklore

Abstract

IT is still a debated question whether the British hero named Arthur was a historic personage or a creature of fancy. Rhys took Arthur's legend to be that of a Culture Hero, though he conceded that there might have been some confusion with a military commander bearing a name derived from the Roman Artorius. Samuel Singer argued that Arthur was a Celtic Odin and his name was derived from the Celtic root art, meaning 'bear'. Lord Raglan proposes that he was a god of war. The historians, however, Oman, Hodgkin, and Stenton,' are inclined to accept him as a successful battle-leader against the Saxons. In either case, it is certain that there is very little history in the vast literature which accumulated about him in the Middle Ages.

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