The Battle of Camlann is best known as the final battle of King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

, where he either died in battle, or was fatally wounded fighting his enemy (and, in some later versions of the tale, his son) Mordred

Mordred

Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...

.

Historicity

The earliest known reference to the Battle of Camlann is the entry in the 10th-century Annales Cambriae

Annales Cambriae

Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...

. The Annales date the battle to the year 537, and mention Mordred (Medraut) but do not specify that he and Arthur fought on opposite sides.

Gueith camlann in qua Arthur et Medraut corruerunt. perished.)

Later accounts of this battle are in Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

's Historia Regum Britanniae

Historia Regum Britanniae

The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...

, the Alliterative Morte Arthure

Alliterative Morte Arthure

The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a 4346-line Middle English alliterative poem, retelling the latter part of the legend of King Arthur. It is preserved in a single copy, in the early fifteenth-century Lincoln Thornton Manuscript.-History:...

, and in the 13th century Welsh

Literature of Wales (Welsh language)

After literature written in the classical languages literature in the Welsh language is the oldest surviving literature in Europe. The Welsh literary tradition stretches from the 6th century to the twenty-first. Its fortunes have fluctuated over the centuries, in line with those of the Welsh...

 tale The Dream of Rhonabwy

The Dream of Rhonabwy

The Dream of Rhonabwy is a Middle Welsh prose tale. Set during the reign of Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys , it is dated to the late 12th or 13th century. It survives in only one manuscript, the Red Book of Hergest, and has been associated with the Mabinogion since its publication by Lady...

.

The location of the battle is unknown, but several candidates exist. One possible site is Queen Camel

Queen Camel

Queen Camel is a village and civil parish, on the River Cam and the A359 road, in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. It is about north of Yeovil. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 926. The parish includes the hamlet of Wales...

 in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 which is close to the hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

 near South Cadbury

South Cadbury

South Cadbury is a village and civil parish in the South Somerset council area of the English county of Somerset. The parish includes the village of Sutton Montis...

 (identified by some, including Geoffrey Ashe

Geoffrey Ashe

Geoffrey Ashe is a British cultural historian, a writer of non-fiction books and novels.-Early life:Born in London, Ashe spent several years in Canada growing up, graduating from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, before continuing at Cambridge.-Work:Many of his historical books are...

, with King Arthur's Camelot

Camelot

Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...

), where the River Cam flows beneath Camel Hill and Annis Hill. The site most consistent with the theory of a northern Arthur is the Roman fort called, in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, Camboglanna

Camboglanna

Camboglanna was a Roman fort. It was the twelfth fort on Hadrian's Wall counting from the east, between Banna to the east and Uxelodunum to the west. It was almost west of Birdoswald, on a high bluff commanding the Cambeck Valley...

. When this theory was first put forward, this was identified as Birdoswald

Birdoswald

Birdoswald is a former farm in the civil parish of Waterhead in the English county of Cumbria . It stands on the site of the Roman fort of Banna.-Middle Ages:...

, but has since been accepted as nearby Castlesteads. Other identifications have been offered, the River Camel

River Camel

The River Camel is a river in Cornwall, UK. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and together with its tributaries drains a considerable part of North Cornwall. The river issues into the Celtic Sea area of the Atlantic Ocean between Stepper Point and Pentire Point having covered a distance of...

 along the border of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, Camelon

Camelon

Camelon is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge...

 near Falkirk

Falkirk

Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....

 and the River Camlan in Eifionydd

Eifionydd

Eifionydd is an area in north-west Wales covering the south-eastern part of the Llŷn Peninsula from Porthmadog to just east of Pwllheli. The Afon Erch forms its western border. It now lies in Gwynedd....

, now part of Gwynedd

Gwynedd

Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...

.

Etymology

The name may be derived from either a Brittonic *Cambo-glanna "Crooked bank (of a river)" (as found in the name of the Roman fort of Camboglanna

Camboglanna

Camboglanna was a Roman fort. It was the twelfth fort on Hadrian's Wall counting from the east, between Banna to the east and Uxelodunum to the west. It was almost west of Birdoswald, on a high bluff commanding the Cambeck Valley...

) or *Cambo-landa "Crooked-enclosure".

Legendary versions

Welsh triads offer clues as to the alleged cause of the Battle of Camlann in Welsh folklore. Triad 51 mirrors (and is most likely derived from) the plot of Geoffrey of Monmouth's

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur...

 Historia Regum Britanniae

Historia Regum Britanniae

The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written c. 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Trojans founding the British nation...

, in which Medrawd (Mordred) rebels against Arthur while the latter is campaigning on the Continent and usurps the throne, instigating the battle of Camlann. Triad 53 lists as one of the "Three Harmful Blows of the Island of Britain" the slap Gwenhwyvach gave to her sister Gwenhwyfar, wife of Arthur, causing the Strife of Camlann. In calling Camlann one of Britain's "Three Futile Battles", Triad 84 mentions it was started because of a dispute between the sisters. Triad 54 describes Medrawd (Mordred) raiding Arthur's court and throwing Gwenhwyfar to the ground and beating her. Other Triads in which Camlann is mentioned include numbers 30 ("Three Faithless War Bands"), 59 ("Three Unfortunate Counsels"), 84 ("Three Futile Battles").

Modern fiction

Sometimes Camlann is identified as Camelot itself in newer retellings of the Arthurian saga, such as Elizabeth Wein's The Winter Prince

The Winter Prince

The Winter Prince is Elizabeth Wein's retelling of the Arthurian story of Mordred , detailing Medraut's complicated, intense relationship with his legitimate half-brother Lleu.-Plot summary:...

.