By Roger Lancelyn Green

Introduction: (From King Arthur, His Knights, and Their Ladies by Johanna Johnston) Was there ever a real King Arthur? Historians say yes, but not the one of the legends and stories. Back in the sixth century A. D., after the Romans had quit the British Isles because of their own troubles back home in Italy, Britain became a crazy quilt of little kingdoms, each rules by its own despotic king or chieftain.

Then, somewhere in the land, a strong chieftain appeared who managed to weld some of the little kingdoms together, repel the advances of Saxon invaders to the south, and make a larger kingdom called England.

There are some scholars who suggest that this chieftain or king was not a Briton but a Roman, Cassius Arturus. But no one knows for sure.

Whoever he was exactly, he was obviously the sort of leader around whom legends cluster. Through the years, and then through the centuries, people told each other stories about Arthur, giving him credit for all sorts of brave deeds, making him the focal figure of any exciting story of war or magic or romance, and changing the background details to make them contemporary and familiar.

About the beginning of the Middle Ages, in the 12^th century, a man named Geoffrey on Monmouth wrote down what he called the history of Arthur. It was a hodgepodge of all the tales and legends that had grown up over the years around the name of Arthur.

In 1470, Sir Thomas Malory wrote out the whole Arthurian story once again, changing it, rearranging it, and adding bits and pieces from all the versions he had heard. He set the story in the early Middle Ages and he was the one who made Arthur the father of chivalry. (end information from the Johnston book)