What I remember from watching the History Channel...

History apparently has a candidate, Artorius, a fifth or sixth century Christian Roman or Roman-educated Briton, who defeated the pagan Saxons at Badon Hill. This preserved Celtic Britain for another century or two, until the Saxons and the Danes finally prevailed and the original islanders were pushed back into their strongholds in Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.

Most of this information is legendary, we think there was an Artorius, but it's not clear if he was a king, local warlord, or simply a battlefield commander. We don't even know if the Battle of Badon Hill actually happened (it may have been a campaign, or even a war) but if it did happen, there are several places scattered all over Britain today that claim to be the site.

The legend of King Arthur as we know it wasn't written down until Geoffrey of Monmouth did so in the 13th century, well after the Norman occupation of 1066) a full 700 years after the events it supposedly describes, and his version has been retold many times since for the NEXT 700 years. I recommend John Boorman's "Excalibur" (1981) as the best of the film versions, it is loosely based on Mallory's "Morte D'Artur" of the 1500s, considered the "definitive" literary version. It also shows us a very young and hot Hellen Mirren in a brass brassiere, definitely worth the price of a rental, dudes.

Boorman does the best job of preserving the mythic elements, and not trying to tell the story as history. One them he develops very well is the transition of a pagan Britain to a Christian one, the final legacy of the retreating Long Noses. The consensus today is that there probably was an Arthur and he was a respected leader of the Britons, but that he was adopted centuries later as a legendary hero to rally the now thoroughly settled Saxons (Arthur's original enemies!) against the Norman invaders.

I think the only archaeological evidence is a survivng letter fragment written by a Roman to his family on the Continent, in which Artorius' name is mentioned in passing. But again, the value of the story is mostly as myth, which sometimes tells us even more than history.

In Boorman's film, the magician Merlin is a man straddling the worlds of pagan and Christian Britain, with a foot in both, and he tries to guide the new nation and its king as best he can into an uncertain future. After the victory at Badon, Merlin (magnificently played by Nicole Williamson) delivers this speech to Arthur's troops as they stand, by the light of torches, on the windswept hilltop.

"Be silent. Be still. That's it. And look upon this moment.

Savor it. Rejoice with great gladness. Great gladness. Remember it, always...for you are joined by it. You are one, under the stars.

Remember it well then, this night...this great victory...so that in the years ahead you can say: 'I was there that night, with Arthur, the King.' For it is the doom of men that they forget."

Great stuff. Yeah, there's a lot more to this story than just another costumer...It's kind of a "Roots" for white folks.