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| Caerleon, Wales -- a Roman amphitheater |
It’s tough when you travel to another continent for research
and don’t get what you want.
That’s what I thought when my trip to the U.K. this summer
didn’t give me the results I expected. My husband had hired a private tour
guide to drive me around southern Wales, visiting places related to King Arthur
so I could gather information for my MG fantasy series, THE EIGHTH DAY.
The tour guide contacted me by email beforehand, asking specifically
what Arthurian sites I wanted to see, but I had none in mind. So I replied that
I was looking for inspiration. This research would be applied to a future book
in the series, and I was open to ideas.
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| Ogmore-by-the-Sea, Wales -- a 12th century castle |
I thought he was going to take me to 5th century
ruins. Instead, he took me to sites that were obviously dated long before or
after Arthur’s time – an excavated 1st century Roman fort and amphitheater
and the ruins of a 12th century Norman castle. When I asked the
guide what connections these had with Arthur, his answers were vague. Legend said that Arthur moved into the
fort after the Romans were gone. Legend
said that Arthur fought a battle on this plain before Normans built the castle.
But when the guide saw that I was serious enough to hear the
truth, he leveled with me. “There are hundreds of places from Scotland to
southern England and even into Normandy, France that claim an association with
Arthur. Not a single one can be proven. There’s more negative proof
than anything else.” He referred me to a book he’d recently read, The Camelot Inquisition by John F. Wake,
which I promptly downloaded on my Kindle.
Sadly, I came to the same conclusion as my guide. There’s no
credible evidence for a historical King Arthur. In fact there’s a lot of
evidence that weighs against him. Most notably: no historians from his time
period mention him at all.
Disappointment was followed rather quickly by a feeling of
freedom. If Arthur wasn’t real, then I was free to use Arthurian legends
however I wanted. I had already been questioned by a copy-editor about the
historical accuracy of using the name Arthur
Pendragon when Pendragon was
associated only with his father Uther until sometime in the 17th century. That
caused me some worry … but if there was no historical Arthur, then the historical
accuracy of his name isn’t really in question, is it?
If the tour guide had told me in advance he was taking me to
the ruins of a Roman amphitheater with only the shakiest connection to
Arthurian legend, I might have nixed the trip and gone elsewhere. And that
would have been a shame. Because what I thought was nothing was actually full
of the potential of everything – including
the placement of Arthur’s court in a centuries-old Roman fortress with an
amphitheater for his Knights to practice in – if that’s how I choose to write
the story.
I told my guide I wanted inspiration, and he delivered what
I asked for – just not in the way I expected.
