GildasAnnales Cambriae - Annals of Wales
This is a table of five hundred and thirty three years with year one as around 447AD. It borrows from Nennius’ Historia Brittonum’. In this site’s opinion it is here that we begin to clearly doubt the historical Arthur with some degree of seriousness. It seems as though one historical document is borrowing from another which borrowed from a poem, each document with mistakes and inconsistencies. Does this not mean that the end results will be less historically true?
In this annal, in year seventy-two, or 518AD, there is an entry:
"The battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders, and the Britons were victors" (Lacy at al 1997: 16)
This can be interpreted in many ways and, at first glance, seems again to have a legendary view of Arthur. His shoulders could be a mistranslation of the Welsh ‘shield’ with the cross being an emblem. There is always room, it seems, for misinterpretation.
Although this document is known to be reliable there are some doubtful entries in it such as a man who is claimed to have lived till he was three hundred fifty years old. There is also the problem of using Nennius’ work, which, in reality, may not be historically reliable as a source.
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Other historical texts:
William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon
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