King Arthur, depicted by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1874.
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Prominent characters continue to humanize. King Arthur appears in a Welsh poem, The Gododdin (594 AD). He is prominent in the cycle of legends known as the Matter of Britain, and was said to have been born in the 5th century. Controversy continues about whether Arthur ever actually existed. Hisorically, Arthur seems to be a 6th century chieftain of the Silures (ancient Brits), who died from wounds sustained in the 537 battle of Camlann. As the legend goes, the wizard Merlin uses his magic to influence the birth of Arthur, creating a Super-Human. This Super-Human seizes the throne by pulling a sword from a stone, a feat that cannot be done except by The True King. With the creation of the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur ventures off onto the Quest for the Holy Grail. William Rose Benet, in his The Reader's Encyclopedia, notes: "The original Arthur was a very shadowy warrior," and, "In distinct contrast to Malory (1470) and the older romancers, who say that Arthur's sons were born out of wedlock, Tennyson in his Idylls of the King makes Arthur a man of the highest morals..." Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his 1148 Historia Regum Britanniae provided Britain with a national hero for Henry I by also changing the original character.
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