Was Arthur real?

Matter of Britain Topic

Summary: The evidence is two texts written three to four centuries after the supposed events (Historia Brittonum, Annales Cambriae), plus a contested line in Y Gododdin. Gildas, writing closest to the period, describes the victory at Badon without naming a commander. Padel and Green argue the folkloric Arthur came first; older scholarship read the battle-list as residue of a real dux bellorum. There is no contemporary attestation and probably never will be.