Stefan Westkemper

The historical Arthur. Nennius' sources and their implications for the historical reliability of his account of Arthur Stefan Westkemper

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics), course: The Arthurian Legend, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to give an account of the historical reliability of Nennius' Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) as it is one of the earliest sources in which a person called Arthur is mentioned. Therefore, this paper will, firstly, give a brief account of the Historia Brittonum. Its structure, content, and, most importantly in terms of historical accuracy, its origin and development will be reviewed and classified, not only in the context of the emergence of the Arthurian legend but also in terms of real historical events. Secondly, an overview of Nennius' sources will be provided and, in a further step, successively analysed in more detail. These sources include accounts of a Welsh monk named Gildas, the Venerable Bede, and others. Finally, after having reviewed and discussed the sources' historical reliability, everything will be put into context and the question as to how accurate Nennius really was will be answered. However, before reading this paper it has to be pointed out that scholars still argue about the correct dates, sources, and, surprisingly enough, about the content of Nennius' Historia Brittonum as well as its interpretation.