Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/139

Arthur 10. At the river Tribruit (Treuroit), 11. At the mountain Agnet, which is also called cat Bregion (or Breguoin. Here, again, ‘cat’ is simply wood. The wood of Breguoin or Bregion). A marginal gloss says that this was in Somersetshire. 12. The twelfth was the hardest fight of all, in which Arthur penetrated to the hill Badon. In this contest 960 (940 other MSS.) fell by his hand alone, no one but the Lord giving him aid.

The battle of Mons Badonicus is the only one of these mentioned by Gildas (Hist. c. 26), though he nowhere connects Arthur with the victory. In the ‘Annales Cambriæ’ it is again mentioned, and, whatever may be thought about the other eleven battles, there can be little doubt that this one is historical. Historians are not agreed with what place this Mons Badonicus is to be identified. In a gloss to Gildas it is said to be upon the Severn, and by Geoffrey of Monmouth and all who follow him it has been identified with Bath. This theory is almost irreconcilable with other ascertained facts of the Saxon conquests in the south, which show that they could not possibly have penetrated so far at this date. Carte suggested Baydon Hill, on the road between Silchester and Chichester; Dr. Guest suggests Badbury in Dorsetshire. Roger of Wendover assigned 520 as the date of this battle, which would thus be one year after that in which, according to the Saxon chronicle, Cerdic and Cynric assumed the kingship among the West Saxons. Other writers give 516 as the date. Arthur by his later biographers is always placed as the opponent of Cerdic (Cheldric: Geoffrey).

These are really all the facts of Arthur's life for which we have any distinct historical authority. We shall speak presently of new attempts to identify the sites of Arthur's twelve battles. The first difficulty must be to reconcile the account of Nennius with the complete silence of Gildas upon the deeds of Arthur. And it must be acknowledged at once that there is much to be said for the view which would make Arthur a purely mythical personage, possibly an ancient divinity among the Britons. The large number of places connected with the name of Arthur and scattered over all the most Celtic portions of the country tells in favour of this theory. Such localities are to be found in Wales, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and in Scotland, as well as in Brittany. Even Nennius's account, though on the whole strongly marked with signs of sobriety and trustworthiness, is not quite above suspicion. In especial the number twelve for the number of Arthur's victories, taken in connection with the twelve knights of the round table, the twelve paladins of Charlemagne, is rather suspiciously appropriate. None of these objections can be considered conclusive. The likeliest theory in support of Arthur's historical character is that he was in the eyes of his contemporaries in a far less conspicuous position than that to which he was afterwards raised by the vox populi of myth and ballad. In this respect his case would be only parallel to that of two other famous epic heroes, whom we are by no means bound to look upon as purely mythical creations. Could we have had accounts written by the contemporaries of Achilles, there is every reason to believe that in their eyes he would have appeared only as a petty chieftain in command of an insignificant band of auxiliaries. Something the same is actually the impression given us by the only contemporary mention of Roland, the popular hero of the ‘Chansons de Geste.’ Later generations would invent for Achilles his divine descent and for Roland his kinship with Charlemagne, just as for Arthur they invented the half-miraculous descent from Uther and Igerna, and the kinship to Ambrosius Aurelianus.

Gildas is our witness that after the battle of Badon Hill a long peace was established between the Saxons and the Britons, and in the ‘Polychronicon’ we read the additional statement that Arthur ‘made peace with Cerdic and gave him Hampshire and Somersetshire, which was called Wessex’ (Polychr. cap. 6). Dr. Guest, acting upon this hint, has tried with great ingenuity and considerable success to define the limits of the tw kingdoms, and thus to show the actual region over which Arthur's power extended (Or. Celt. ii.).

Nennius has nothing further to tell us of Arthur except the fact of his death at the battle of Camlan; and the ‘Annales Cambriæ’ tell us just as much, but no more. It is in the period following the battle of Badon Hill that the later biographers introduce the most extravagant portions of the Arthurian legend, the conquests of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Gaul, Spain, and finally of the armies of the (long defunct) Roman Republic itself. What we learn from Gildas is more to the point, namely, that the Britons, after enjoying peaceably for some time the benefits of this ‘unhoped-for succour,’ did presently again break out into civil war, which raged as fiercely as if there were no external foe at their gates.

This last picture is at all events not inconsistent with what all the biographers represent as the final act in the Arthurian drama. By these accounts the king, just