Historicity of King Arthur

The historical basis for King Arthur is a source of considerable debate among historians. Due to the paucity of British records from the period 450–550 AD, historian Thomas Charles-Edwards noted that "at this stage of the enquiry, one can only say that there may well have been a historical Arthur [but ...] the historian can as yet say nothing of value about him". Historian David Dumville summed up his position:

"I think we can dispose of him [Arthur] quite briefly. He owes his place in our history books to a 'no smoke without fire' school of thought ... The fact of the matter is that there is no historical evidence about Arthur; we must reject him from our histories and, above all, from the titles of our books."

Some have suggested that Arthur was a mythological or folklore figure, that other mythological figures also may have become historicised: one suggestion is that Hengist and Horsa were originally Kentish totemic horse-gods, ascribed a historical role by Bede. This fictional Arthur, however, has early traces no more than a historical one.

Arthur appears in a historical context as a British soldier (miles in the original Latin) fighting alongside British kings against the invading Saxons in a Latin text of the 9th century, more than three centuries after his supposed floruit in 5th-6th century Sub-Roman Britain. The legendary king of the Britons of the Matter of Britain develops from the 12th century after Geoffrey of Monmouth's influential Historia Regum Britanniae.

The etymology of the Welsh name Arthur is uncertain, though most scholars favour either a derivation from the Roman gens name Artorius (ultimately of Messapic or Etruscan origin), or a native Brittonic compound based on the root *arto- 'bear' (which became arth in Medieval and Modern Welsh). Similar 'bear' names appear throughout the Celtic-speaking world. Gildas does not give the name Arthur, but he does mention a British king Cuneglas who had been "charioteer to the bear". Those that favor a mythological origin for Arthur point out that a Gaulish bear goddess, Artio, is attested, but as yet no certain examples of Celtic male bear gods have been detected.

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