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Around the time of King Arthur, Britain was suffering after the Romans had pulled out
of Britain in 407 A.D. the Britons had lived under the umbrella of the Roman Empire for
over four centuries. In the southeast of the country there were many Empire citizens with
a mixture of Roman and Romano- British blood. There were also the influences of the
cultures used by the Romans as auxiliary soldiers and those that traded within the
Empire. The Romano-British were soft from Roman wine and luxury, their population
was low and they had many enemies. The Roman Empire was not universally popular in
Arthur's time. Sure it was respected for its organization and military power. It was a giant
trading block with a huge army at its disposal. But now it was beginning to crumble.
Internal rot had set in and its neighbours were beginning to get restless. In the end
pressure from outside barbarians would break the Empire borders and seize control of the
Western Empire.
It is probable that Britain retained many of the Roman ways even after the Empire did
not protect them. There were many factions loyal to Rome and the system of roads,
Villas and fortifications were used but not really maintained. There were also factions
sympathetic to Celtic Nationalism especially in Wales and North Britain. Perhaps there
were many powerful families all with political agendas and differing loyalties to Rome or
an independent Britain. Whatever there was, the legends describe a story. A story in
which a boy called Arthur united them all.
The Britons desperately needed this. They were being attacked on all sides. Irish pirates
raided Wales and established colonies. The Scots and Picts were raiding in the north.
Angles and Saxons plundered the east. So Arthur the general of a Romano-British force
must fight enemies from Ireland, Scotland and the continent. Brythonic Celts fight
against the scourge of Goidelic Celts, yet it is only the Saxon that we normally associate
as Arthur's enemies.
A united effort by Anglo-Saxons, Picts and Irish Scotti should come as no surprise to
anyone familiar with the historical record. The Romans had previously complained of a
barbarian conspiracy against the influence of Rome. It was because of repeated attacks
using guerrilla hit and run tactics that Hadrian's Wall was built. The Irish Gaelic, Pictish
and Anglo-Saxon heathens had put their differences aside to fight a common enemy:
Roman colonial expansion. They must have had some success because Britain was
deemed to be too difficult to warrant continued garrisoning by Roman troops. It is more
likely that Arthur's court was heavily influenced by Roman civilization. This would have
included the growing Christian faith. Arthur may have marked some sort of transition
period between Celtic paganism and Christianity. Certainly kingship rites still had pagan
elements in their symbolism. His queen Gwenhyfar retires to become a nun at the end of
the Arthurian cycle. Thus the sovereignty of Britain as symbolised by Arthur's marriage
to the land and the Queen, has become part of the Christian church. In contrast the
Anglo-Saxons were purely Heathen. They struck fear in the British because to them the
Saxons were barbarians. They had dark religious practices and could not be trusted. If we
go back further in time the tribal distinctions blur. Roman historians mapped Europe
naming all those to the southwest of the Rhine as Celts, and all those on the other side as
Germanii. They did not take into account the fact that some of tribes like the Belgae
considered themselves to have Germanic and Celtic influences on their culture.
The ancient Germans and Celts had many things in common so culturally it might be
more correct to group them all together as Northwest Europeans rather than separate
them politically. Seen in this context the Arthurian legends read more like a battle
between heathen Europeans and the remnants of Christian, Romanised Europeans. If this
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