User:Cuchullain/Battle of Camlann

The Battle of Camlann is best known as the final battle of King Arthur, where he either died in battle, or was fatally wounded. As the surviving accounts of this battle are generally little more than legend or myth (and all versions exhibit traces of folklore), some historians doubt the battle even took place.

The earliest known reference to this battle is the entry in the Annales Cambriae for the year 537:
 *  Gueith camlann in qua Arthur et Medraut corruerunt.
 * The Strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) perished".

The Annales date to approximately AD 970. Though Mordred is not specified as opposing Arthur at this early date, he was remembered as a traitor by later writers who embellished the story of Camlann and gave specific reasons for its occurance. The account of the battle recorded in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae influenced the versions in all later romance; according to him, Mordred usurped the throne while Arthur was away at war on the continent. The king returned and slew Mordred at Camlann, which Geoffrey claims was beside the River Camel in Cornwall, but he was mortally wounded in the process. Arthur is taken off to the isle of Avalon

records one of the most important accounts of the battle in the ; his version influenced all later accounts.

The story of the battle evolved substantially in the subsequent centuries;

later writers remembered Mordred as a traitor to his king and give specific reasons

In most tales, the battle was caused by a knight on one side who drew blade against orders to kill a snake. As the unsheathing of cold steel was against the rules of the truce, both armies subsequently charged at each other, beginning the battle in earnest.

Welsh tradition has the battle as the outcome of a feud between Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) with its origins in a quarrel between Arthur's wife Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) and her sister Gwenhwyfach.

Later accounts of this battle are in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, and in the 13th century Welsh tale, "The Dream of Rhonabwy."

A possible site is Queen Camel in Somerset which is close to the hill fort near South Cadbury (identified by some with King Arthur's Camelot), where the River Cam flows beneath Camel Hill and Annis Hill. The sites most consistent with the theory of a northern Arthur are Birdoswald or Castlesteads near Hadrian's Wall (one of which was named, in Latin, "Camboglanna"--there is debate about which). Other identifications have been offered, the River Camel along the border of Cornwall, and the River Camlann in Eifionydd in Wales.