The Druids and King Arthur: A New View of Early Britain

by Robin Melrose

An exploration into the beliefs and origins of the Druids, this book examines the role the Druids may have played in the story of King Arthur and the founding of Britain. It explains how the Druids originated in eastern Europe around 850 B.C., bringing to early Britain a cult of an underworld deity, a belief in reincarnation, and a keen interest in astronomy. The work concludes that Arthur was originally a Druid cult figure and that the descendants of the Druids may have founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The research draws upon a number of sources, including medieval Welsh tales, the archaeology of Stonehenge's Salisbury Plain, the legends surrounding the founding of Britain, the cult of the Thracian Horseman, the oracle of Dodona, popular Arthurian mythology, and the basic principles of prehistoric astronomy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Arthurian, Religion

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2010

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 2 out of 5]

In some creative writing book or video that I watched/read Where the Red Fern Grows was mentioned as an example of a good book name, even though the scene from which the title is derived is at the very end of the book. While this might be a good strategy for fiction works and a memorable theme, this idea does not translate into non-fiction well. Yes, the very last section of this book was titled The Druids and King Arthur, and while supporting threads were contained in the book, the vast majority of the text was not honed on the theme of King Arthur and/or the Druids.

That being said, Melrose brought up some interesting and thought provoking speculations. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Melrose’s arguments seem flimsy at best. Melrose is an etymologist, and unsurprisingly most of this book was composed of arguments from etymology. Perhaps this is just ignorance on my part, but etymological arguments seem to be very shaky and inconclusive, and better serve as ancillary points rather than main ones.

At the book’s core, Melrose posits that Arthur was a derivation of Arcturus and myths related to the constellation, which were then conflated with Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the King Arthur of legend. The book didn’t cover this conflation in any but the last pages of the last few chapters, leaving me severely disappointed.

All-in-all this book makes brings up some conversation pieces, I wouldn’t quote it as an authority, or use it definitively. Its also not an overly engaging read. Additionally, the fact that the author is clearly inexpert in much of the non-etymological subject matter is revealed by his citations of Wikipedia and popular archeology websites (Nothing is inherently wrong with either, but quoting them indicates a lack of familiarity with the historical/archeological material). In summary it was thought provoking and could serve as a launch point, but it was hardly persuasive.

[Lewis Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a must read for anyone not just interested in the tales of King Arthur, but how King Arthur came to be. Just as the title suggests, this book dives into the history of early Britain as well as early Wales. It explores the culture of the druids, who they were and where they came from, examining historical records and discoveries to piece together clues of the past. The author examines the relationship between the druids of early Britain and the mentions of King Arthur in literature, as well as all the early mentions of a King Arthur from several different cultures, from the Romans to Welsh poets. Just where did King Arthur come from? Detours are taken to explain the depth of Welsh mythology and other pieces of history from the early British Isles, giving the reader a well rounded view of the time of King Arthur.

[Jc · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not the best written treatment of its subject, the origin of the Arthurian legends and their connection to Druidic Britain, this is a very thorough and extremely well-documented attempt to tie together a lot of ideas and a lot of history in very few pages. The problems I believe are two-fold, 1) the author expects the reader to have an awful lot (!) of background information to fill in the space between his ideas, and 2) he is a bit weak on linking some of those ideas to each other (maybe assuming the links were obvious?). With that out of the way, for those of you who have read broadly regarding what is known and what is theorized about Late Neolithic to early Norman-age Britain, as well as the history of the Arthurian legends, the main theses of this book are fascinating. I was certainly able to fill in a lot of gaps in my own knowledge. The author obviously put a heck of a lot of research and thought into this work. If you are interested in the more serious end of Arthurian and Druidic research, or other aspects of the origins of the people of the British Isles, this is a must read. My biggest complaint is that this work should have been twice as long to fill in some of Melrose’s gaps (or at least the gaps in my knowledge). This is without a doubt an important addition to any serious Arthurian library (though if you just like reading the sword and sorcery romantic stuff, this will probably NOT be for you).

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melrose uses archaeological and linguistic evidence to analyze the earliest mentions of Arthur in mythology, religious beliefs and legends of the pre-Anglo-Saxon Britons of southern England, and compares it with other contemporary European and Near East Asian civilizations to compile evidence that the Arthur we know today is a combination of astrological and religious ideas originating in Persia and brought to the British Isles by the Druids when they migrated to what is now England from the Near East. In the middle ages the descendants of these prehistoric civilizations conflated these ideas with the historic accomplishments of British military leader Ambrosius Aurelianus who fought against the invading Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes during the early fifth century, thus keeping alive some of the cultural history of the original inhabitants of the land which by then had been superseded by the Anglo-Saxon and Norman conquests of the island.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as I wanted it to be, and although it made some interesting points regarding the Druids early on, the author's thesis became more and more speculative in trying to connect the Druids and Arthur, ultimately failing to convince.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very academic. Reading this will be like reading someone's thesis paper.