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The Derivation of the Date of the Badon Entry in the Annates Cambriae from Bede and Gildas* Howard Wiseman 1. Introduction The earliest record of Arthur that places him in a precise (to within a or two) chronological context is that found in the Annates Cambriae (AC), the annals of Wales. The first year of these annals corresponds to A.D. 447, and, in the oldest extant versions, the last entries are for the 950s. Thus the annals were almost certainly compiled as a single document at least as early as the mid tenth century. T w o entries mention Arthur. This article is concerned with the first, which records his victory at the battle of Badon. It is entered under year 72, which corresponds to A.D. 518, and reads: * I would like to acknowledge correspondence with Thomas Green of Exeter College, Oxford, and the use of the library of the University of Queensland. 1 The exact starting date of the annals is a matter of some disagreement. In this work I am following the school that says year 1 of the annals is A.D. 447. See for example L. Alcock, Arthur's Britain (London: Penguin, 1971), pp. 39, 49 Another school favours a starting date of A.D. 445. See for example J. Morris (editor and translator), British History and the Welsh Annals (London: Phillim 1980). This difference of two years has no substantial impact on any of the arguments I will present, so I have not burdened the reader with repeated caveats regarding the conversion of AC years to Anno Domini years. 2 Morris (ed.), British History and the Welsh Annals. 2 Howard Wiseman The battle of Badon [Bellum Badonis), in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were victorious. Although earlier documents mention the victory of Badon, the AC are the first to give these details, and the first to give it a precise date. This article is devoted to the obvious question: h o w was the date of this entry derived? In answering this question, a crucial issue is when the entries were first written. The currently accepted position is that argued by Dumville, drawing on the w o r k of Hughes, that the Arthurian entries were m a d e in the late eighth century at the earliest, the mid tenth century at the latest. A late date of composition is supported by the fact that the year of another entry from the first half of the sixth century, the death of Maelgwyn, must have been calculated after 911, according to Dumville. Adopting this accepted position, the question under consideration can be refined as follows. H o w would a Welsh scholar, probably of the tenth century (but maybe of the ninth or late eighth), have determined the date for the Badon entry? In this article I will argue that it was calculated using the eighth century historical works of Bede and the (probably) sixth-century writings of the British cleric, Gildas. Before turning to Gildas and Bede, it is worth pointing out that there are no other sources for the 518 date extant. There are a few fleeting poetic references to Arthur that m a y predate the AC, but they shed no light on his perceived historical context. This leaves only the Historia Brittonum, dated to c. 829. It contains a comparative wealth of Arthurian material including a reference to the 'battle of Badon Hill' (bellum in monte 3 This quotation of, and subsequent references to, the AC use the versi (ed.), British History and the Welsh Annals. 4 D.N. Dumville, 'Sub-Roman Britain: history and legend' History N S 62 (London, 1977), 345-354 (p.176). 5 K.W. Hughes, "The Annates Cambriae and Related Texts', Proceedings ofthe Br Academy, 59 (1973), 233-58. 6 P. Sims-Williams, "The Early Welsh Poems', The Arthur of the Welsh, edited by Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman and B.F. Roberts (Cardiff: University of Wales Press 1991), pp. 33-72. 7 D.N. Dumville, 'Some aspects of the chronology of the Historia Brittonum' Bulletin ofthe...

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