A sixth century monk thought to have been born in the year of the Battle of Mount Badon. His work De Excidio Britanniae, "Concerning the Ruin of Britain" describes the Saxon invasion. Gildas is not a historian and some of his facts are wrong which makes the reader very weary of what they are reading.

Gildas does, however, include the oldest known version of the Vortigern story and calls Vortigern a superbus tyrannus. The arrival of the Saxons is described in a more dramatic sense than a historical one.

Gildas goes on to mention the battle of Mount Badon although, again, he is short on description. He doesn’t mention where the battle was and, more worryingly, does not mention Arthur. As Fletcher (1966) describes:

"although Gildas covers the whole period of the Arthurian story, he does not even mention the one figure which later became of overshadowing importance. That he does not ascribe to Arthur everything of the fame and characteristics which are afterward associated with him, need occasion no surprise; but the entire omission of his name raises a more vital question: Had Arthur actually no historical existence?" (Page 7)

Is he, after all, a mere literary concoction, as many would have us believe?

Again and again we find ourselves believing that Arthur was indeed a real man, king or otherwise, and then this belief is challenged by a lack of evidence. We must remember that Gildas is renowned for systematically omitting names so, again, there is a spark of possibility. It is ironic to realise that it is this very lack of evidence which has given rise to the Arthur myth.

Fletcher (1966) also sums up the whole of the relevant passages of Gildas effectively:

"He tells of the calling in of the Germans by a tyrant whom he does not name, very briefly indicated the general course of events during the entire period, and supplies the figure of Ambrosius Aurelanius and the fact of the victory at Mount Badon." (Page 8)

The whole of Gildas’ account related to the Arthur story merely by accident because the events described would later be focal points in the Arthur story.