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King Arthur was a northerner, says former weekly editor

A former weekly editor has penned a new book claiming to reveal the truth about the ‘real King Arthur.’

The semi-mythical monarch is usually regarded as having come from Wales or Cornwall – but according to journalist Simon Keegan, he was actually a northerner.

Simon, a former editor of the Salford Advertiser who now works for Mirror Online, has spent years researching Arthur and says he can prove he was from the Lancashire-Yorkshire area.

He has set out his conclusions in a book entitled Pennine Dragon: The Real King Arthur of the North, which has already become a best-seller in three categories on Amazon.

penninedragon

Publication of the book has been timed to coincide with the 1500th anniversary of Arthur’s ‘Waterloo’ – the Battle of Badon in which he defeated the Saxons and halted their invasion for a generation.

Said Simon: “Although the original manuscripts don’t survive, the works of northern bards are perhaps the oldest mentions of Arthur. These men actually lived around the time of Arthur and would place him in the north.

“Nowadays we think of the British ‘Celts’ as being confined to Scotland, Wales and Cornwall but in Arthur’s time the whole country was ‘Celtic’ or British. The invasion of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes had not fully taken hold.

“Arthur was fighting the enemy on the front line – the northern frontier and the east coast. He would have been wasted if he were based in Cornwall. He had to be further north and further east to keep the invasions at bay.”

The book identifies Arthur with a historical ruler called Arthwys ap Mar whose father was King in the York area and whose kingdom stretched from Hadrian’s Wall down to Lancashire.

Arthwys ap Mar’s life spanned the years around 470-540AD – the period after the Romans withdrew and before the Saxon invasion was complete.

Simon joined MEN Media, now part of Trinity Mirror, as a sub on the Stockport Express in 2006 before becoming editor of the Advertiser in 2009.

He joined the new Mirror Online office in Manchester in 2013.

* Pennine Dragon is published by New Haven Publishing, priced £12.99. It is available on Amazon by clicking here.

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  • June 17, 2016 at 3:05 pm
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    Good job. Continuing attempts to link the mysterious Arthur with Tintagel in Cornwall are beyond ridiculous.

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