Finding Arthur: The True Origins of the Once and Future King

By Adam Ardrey

The legend of King Arthur has been told and retold for centuries. As the kind who united a nation, his is the story of England itself. But what if Arur wasn't English at all? As writer and Arthurian scholar Adam Ardrey discovered, the reason historians have had little success identifying the historical Arthur may be increcidbly simple: He wasn't an Englishman. He was from Scotland and many of the familiar symbols of Arthurian legend--the Round Table, the Sword in the Stone, and the Lady of the Lake--are based on very real and still accessible places in the Scottish Highlands.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Oct 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781468308433

Reviews for Finding Arthur

[drneutron_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Most folks, in the Western world at least, know something about King Arthur and the stories surrounding him - usually from movies like Disney's The Sword in the Stone and Excalibur. The stories are more complicated than that, though, and Arthur is one of those enduring myths that gets rewritten every so often, even in the Medieval period when our main source material was written. Behind it all, though, historians have been trying to pin down the source of the myths: was there a real Arthur, when and where did he live, and how did he become the mythological character we all know? There are several camps to this debate. Some fit Arthur into the late 5th, early 6th century in southern England in the murky period after the Romans left. Others, observing the Celtic elements in the story see a Welsh Arthur. And many modern scholars see no real historical basis for Arthur, and view him as an amalgam of stories and legends. This is all interesting stuff, but also has a real economic basis - many, many places try to tie into the Arthur myth for obvious economic reasons, all the way back to the monks at Glastonbury in the 11th century looking for religious pilgrims to visit. Into this mix comes amateur historian Adam Ardrey, who in researching his family first finds evidence for a Scottish Merlin, then a Scottish Arthur in Arthur Mac Aedan, son and war leader of a king of Argyll living in the late 6th century. Finding Arthur: The True Origins of the Once and Future King lays out his case for this Scottish Arthur. Ardrey's case is an intriguing one. I'm not an expert in this field, but it's plausible to me that the source of the stories could be Scottish, brought south by Celts pushed out of their lands by the Christianization of Scotland to more friendly Wales and Cornwall. Unfortunately, a couple of things mar the book. First, Ardrey claims proof in a number of instances in the book where what he really means is consistent and plausible scenario. Coming up with a train of deductions based on possible linguistic changes in place names isn't evidence - that's the theory. Evidence is a inscription or a text close to the source period, etc. Overblown claims of evidence are the hallmark of amateur historians. Also, Ardrey is clearly a secularist and a Scottish nationalist. So he uses his text to make the point that the English unjustly suppressed Scotland and the Church is responsible for both the suppression of the Old Ways and the Celtic culture recorded in early source material. These things are true - no dispute from me. Except that he makes the point. And makes it again. And makes it again. And makes it at every opportunity. Ardrey really needed to have an editor soften up the club he used to beat his readers over and over. In spite of its flaws, Finding Arthur presents an interesting concept. Ardrey's not the first to suggest it, but his is the most fleshed out version. If you can get past his somewhat overbearing writing, it's a pretty decent work that adds a great idea to the mix.