Camlann

by Brian Edward Rise

 
The location of Arthur’s final battle with Merdraut (Mordred). It is not mentioned in the Historia Brittonum but rather appears first in the Annales Cambriae (10th century). The entry for a year that may be 539 reads, “the strife of Camlann in which Arthur and Merdraut fell.” No mention of villainy or opposition between the two is made. In the triads, Camlann is one of the “Three Futile Battles,” the result of a tragic, bloody feud. Merdraut is the attacker here in what appears to be more a conflict of equals rather than that of king versus usurper. That theme is a later addition by Geoffrey and he may have been trying to combine the Welsh tradition with an alternate story of Arthur’s betrayal and very different end. In the romances, the treason is kept but the location is moved from Camlann to near Salisbury.