Searching for Camelot: The Truth Behind the Court of King Arthur

The historic truth behind the legend of King Arthur has long been considered a no-go zone by most historians. To try to investigate whether the stories are based on fact seems destined to fail, baffled by the lack of dark-age documentation and ensnared by later fakery.

Accordingly, most “serious” historians seem happy to dismiss the stories as later medieval fictions, grudgingly allowing in passing that they may be based on earlier traditions but that the search for a reality under them is a waste of time.

But this does not satisfy. The stories are many and detailed, and while some are clearly allegorical there are others which, owing to the frequency of their appearance and in some cases the strangeness of their detail, argue for a basis on fact. Nobody would conjure such things out of thin air.

And so while identifying the truth may indeed be impossible, there is a place to start. And that place is Camelot. Like Merlin or the Battle of Baddon it is one of the core pillars on which the legends rest. If anything is real about Arthur, Camelot is.

So what do we know?