Leading archaeologist Francis Pryor retells the story of King Arthur, legendary king of the Britons, tracing it back to its Bronze Age origins.The legend of King Arthur and Camelot is one of the most enduring in Britain's history, spanning centuries and surviving invasions by Angles, Vikings and Normans. In his latest book Francis Pryor – one of Britain’s most celebrated archaeologists and author of the acclaimed ‘Britain B.C.’ and ‘Seahenge’ – traces the story of Arthur back to its ancient origins. Putting forth the compelling idea that most of the key elements of the Arthurian legends are deeply rooted in Bronze and Iron Ages (the sword Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake, the Sword in the Stone and so on), Pryor argues that the legends' survival mirrors a flourishing, indigenous culture that endured through the Roman occupation of Britain, and the subsequent invasions of the so-called Dark Ages.As in ‘Britain B.C.’, Pryor roots his story in the very landscape, from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, to South Cadbury Castle in Somerset and Tintagel in Cornwall. He traces the story back to the 5th-century King Arthur and beyond, all the time testing his ideas with archaeological evidence, and showing how the story was manipulated through the ages for various historical and literary purposes, by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Malory, among others.Delving into history, literary sources – ancient, medieval and romantic – and archaeological research, Francis Pryor creates an original, lively and illuminating account of this most British of legends.
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Francis Pryor. Britain AD: A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons
BRITAIN A.D
FRANCIS PRYOR
Copyright
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE Origin Myths: Britons, Celts and Anglo-Saxons
CHAPTER TWO The Origins and Legacy of Arthur
CHAPTER THREE Ancient Britons
CHAPTER FOUR My Roman Britain
CHAPTER FIVE Late- and Post-Roman Britain: The Situation in the South and East
CHAPTER SIX The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Origins of England
CHAPTER SEVEN Arthurian Britain: The Situation in the West and South-West
CHAPTER EIGHT The Making of the English Landscape
CHAPTER NINE Continuity and Change
Conclusion. So Where Does that Leave Us?
Seesaw*
If you enjoyed Britain A.D., check out these other great Francis Pryor titles
PLATES
TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
NOTES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Author
Other Books By
About the Publisher
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A Quest for Arthur, England and the Anglo-Saxons
‘Controversial, deceptively clever and a damn good read’
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Post-Galfridian writers on Arthur take the romance forward wholly in the realms of fiction. Arthur was hugely popular in Anglo-Norman circles in France, where his exploits were further elaborated in verse by Chrétien de Troyes, a prolific author of Arthurian romance. Between 1160 and 1190 his works included Lancelot ou Le Chevalier de la charette, Yvain ou le Chevalier au lion, and the unfinished Percival ou Le conte del graal. Chrétien may have used Breton verbal sources in the composition of his works, which were important because they lifted Arthur and his court out of a narrowly British context.
It was Chrétien who introduced the quest for the Holy Grail, but at this stage in the development of the story the Grail was still just the mystical chalice that had been used by Christ in the Last Supper. It had yet to acquire its connection with the Holy Blood, a fascinating process to which I will return later. Effectively, Chrétien made Arthur a figure of heroic romance who transcended nationality. Derek Pearsall notes: ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth gave shape and substance to the story of Arthur, but it was Chrétien who invented Arthurian romance and gave to it a high-toned sensibility, psychological acuteness, wit, irony and delicacy that were never surpassed.’29
