Titles and positions: dux bellorum, comes Brittanniarum, warlord, cyng, king, high king, amherawdyr, ameraudur, tyrranus, emperor, "the once and future king" (rex quondam, rex-que futurus), Pendragon/pendragwn

Practically nothing is known about the character of this man; no one knows what he looked like, who he was really married to, even what his name really was. If you have chosen to believe that Arthur was my Romano-Celtic leader, you may infer all sorts of details. The culture of post-Roman Britain is somewhat known to us. We can, at this point, decide that Arthur was raised in the Romanized south of Britain, with the memories of Rome's civilized ways passed down from his doubtless Christian family.

That's not, perhaps, the most interesting theory. I think my second favorite theory is the one espoused by Norma Lorre Goodrich, who suggests Arthur was a Scottish naval leader who defeated Saxon pirates and turned the Isle of Man into Camelot. This theory appeals to me for two reasons: Goodrich has amassed quite a pile of evidence (that I'm dying to see), and it's diametrically opposed (ridiculously so) to my tame little favorite. If you're going to entertain theories, you should enjoy the full spectrum.

There have been many theories over the years. Below I will attempt to detail the historical sources and some of the other interesting theories.

• first mentioned in Gododdin (6th c.)
• Nennius (9th c.) links his name to a series of battles, not as a king, but as a warrior who came to the aid of various British rulers
• Geoffrey of Monmouth (12th c.) in Historia Regum Brittaniae says Arthur was the son of Uther, and defeated barbarians in 12 battles, eventually conquering a wide empire and warring with the Romans, up to the point of Mordred's betrayal
• Malory (15th c.) wrote the long and complicated story of Arthur that set the standard