King Arthur Was Never a King (The Forgotten Warrior of 12 Battles) Part 2

King Arthur was never a king in the earliest sources. In Part 2 of our 7-part history lecture series, we uncover the real early Arthur: a dux bellorum (war leader), a hero of twelve battles, a hunter of giant boars and a sailor who raided the Welsh Otherworld. Long before Camelot and Lancelot, Welsh and Latin writers described a very different Arthur. We examine the Historia Brittonum and its famous list of twelve battles, the impossible claim of 960 men killed in a single charge at Mount Badon, the fairy-tale court of Culhwch and Olwen, and the strange poem Preiddeu Annwfn, which may hold the earliest roots of the Holy Grail. IN THIS LECTURE YOU WILL LEARN: - What the Latin term dux bellorum means and why it matters - The full list of Arthur's twelve battles and why nobody can locate most of them - Why Mount Badon has never been found - How Culhwch and Olwen shows Arthur as a Welsh hero of giants, magic and monsters - Who Cei and Bedwyr were before they became Sir Kay and Sir Bedivere - How a pagan cauldron in the poem Preiddeu Annwfn may be a root of the Grail legend - Why the Welsh believed Arthur would return If you enjoyed this lecture, LIKE the video, SHARE it with a history lover, and SUBSCRIBE with notifications on so you do not miss Part 3, where we meet the man who gave Arthur his crown. UP NEXT: Part 3 - The Man Who Invented King Arthur: History's Greatest Fake? BOOK SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: - Nennius, British History and the Welsh Annals, ed. and trans. John Morris (Phillimore, 1980) - The Mabinogion, trans. Sioned Davies (Oxford World's Classics, 2007), including Culhwch and Olwen - Thomas Green, Concepts of Arthur (Tempus, 2007) - Leslie Alcock, Arthur's Britain: History and Archaeology AD 367-634 (Penguin, 1971) - Nick Higham, King Arthur: Myth-Making and History (Routledge, 2002) - Richard Barber, The Figure of Arthur (Longman, 1972) #KingArthur #WelshHistory #MedievalHistory