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The real legend of King Arthur (ad-free) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-09-08 05:10:00
Imported:
2026-09
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Helen Geake and Martyn Williams explore Tintagel Castle with Professor Ken Dark, Director of the Tintagel Hinterland Project and author of Tyrants and Traders: Tintagel, Arthur and The Lost Kings.

You'll learn more about this remarkable location, its place in history and its links to the legend of King Arthur, who's rumoured to have been conceived within its walls.

This brand new book is available right now in the Time Team shop. Worldwide shipping is available.

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Comments

Simply Nancy

I think it's telling that the Legendary King Arthur is such a pious king compared to the kings Gildas complained about. Makes me wonder if he, at some point, wrote another book, or inspired one, describing the perfect Christian King.

Melissa Lawrence

Regarding Perishable vs Metal worked trade routes… the Rhine routes would have passed through many different lands and probable tax and bandit points…. And time… Where as sea routes and salty air reacting differently to metals; and heavy ballast materials like pottery might have driven a differentiation in routes. Has any research like this been done?

Melissa Lawrence

Time to read a book… but before i do. The Roman Empire had many epidemics which hit populations and economic life hard. Each time there are changes in Archeological records - but eventually populations spring back with a new flourish of creativity. This could probably be modeled somewhat at a macroscopic / regional level over decades. If this economical part of that model would then be applied to the dissolving roman empire in English & Irish islands would it predict the more Roman / Law based approach of the western vs eastern lands?

Kerry Hennigan

Loved this discussion, and I will definitely be buying Ken's book. Thank you for having him on.

Pauline

If a metal detectorist finds a modern gold ring in the cave on the beach to the right it was probably my husband’s who lost his there back in 1972 some 17 months after we got married!

Pauline

How much historical memory of pre-Roman tribal units and possibly their kings have been found in the first generations after the Romans left? Might such memories have affected how the post Roman groupings of people developed?

Kathy Calmejane

Arthur means bear, right? I'm wondering how many bears there were in Britain and Ireland back then? When did they die out if there was ever a local population, or were they an imported idea from the continent?

Peter Blay

After reading many books and archaeological data, I agree there a was a Arthur character that especially in Wales was named after. In 500 to six hundreds there were leaders who had warrants. In the North of Britania there were many incursions of the picts and Scottish which would have needed a Arthur type person to control

Peter Blay

I have a theory that when the Roman Catholic Church became established they viewed the Celtic church bordering on heretical. Plus the Catholic Church liked to portray Britania as a barbaric wilderness after the removal of Roman troops. The Catholic Church portrait itself as Civilising the Country and turning pages into Catholics. I wonder if there are texts of the so called dark ages that are hidden in the library of thecVatican

Mark & Jill Jefson

Thank you for this interview with Professor Dark. It is very informative.

steve

Personally, I think Arthur is like Robinhood, A composite character part myth part legend and part invention. He was probably garnered from some notable war leaders of the time. Doubtless Britain had contacts with the greater world, and had for many centuries previously. We never even heard of 'Arthur" until Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his book. The idea that Britain collapsed after Rome left is pure fantasy. After all many people ie natives, were administrators and so on. There were people vested in keeping up the "Roman way". Point raise by Helen, that Rome and the Roman world, did not infect the south west like it did in the east. Second, villas were being built in the 5th century. It is very difficult to know exactly what transpired post Roman "rule". Given people the title of King is erroneous in my view. They were leaders. Kingship is a more modern construction. I doubt Christianity had really taken hold in Britain until the 6th Century , when Irish monks did a lot of work.

Dorothy Africa

I am glad to hear some support for the idea that there was a historical figure behind Arthur though we can all agree that this shadowy origin is overshadowed completely in the popular mind by the literary legacy of later writers.

Linda D

On a tangent. I was shocked when Ancestry.com returned a finding of 2% Cornwall ancestry to my dad, whose parents were from the Siracusa, Sicily region (great ancient copper mines) and whose other ancestors came from throughout the Mediterranean region related to Sicilian trade and conquest, etc. Tin from Tintagel has been found in bronze age shipwrecks throughout the Mediterranean. Is anyone working on DNA studies that might also trace European migration and settlement routes with Cornwall from at least the bronze age? It would be fascinating to place that alongside the archeological, historical, and linguistic records. Would love references. Thanks for any insights. .

Jacky Smith

Actually there *are* apparently older stories that talk about Arthur - for example in the "Mabinogion". They are first found in documents that are quite a bit later than Geoffrey's magnum opus, but the style & context suggest that the underlying stories were much older and had been preserved in the bardic tradition. Sioned David has done an excellent new translation.

Judith Shoaf

King Arthur is a meme. He sells books, and even lectures--I remember going to hear Guy Halsall and being perhaps the only person in the room who was surprised that his lecture about the world of King Arthur had nothing at all to say about King Arthur. Finding a "real" Arthur is euhemeristic, not so much because there is no evidence for an Arthur who won the Battle of Badon (which of course there isn't) as because everything we value about Arthur is fictional. It's like trying to find a "real" Captain Nemo or a "real" Spiderman--or identifying Thor as a son of Priam, as Snorri Sturluson did.

Olivia McGerty

Absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much!