Arthurian Literature Timeline
This Timeline is a work in progress. You might also find the Arthurian Bibliography and Arthurian Resources pages of interest.
| Date | Historical Event | Text | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3000 BC. | Circular mounds built at Stonehenge | ||
| 2500 BC | Central stones set up at Stonehenge, then rearranged c. 200–300 years later | ||
| c. 450–525 | Anglo-Saxon Conquest | The Anglo-Saxon Conquest was not, exactly, what most people think of as a conquest. Successive waves of peoples speaking Germanic languages emigrate, raid, and settle in Celtic-speaking Britain. | |
| c. 600 | Y Goddodin (W) Earliest Reference to Arthur | ||
| c. 800 | Nennius, Historia Brittonum | History of the Britons (L) | Nennius is the earliest source regarding King Vortigern, the “fatherless” Ambrosius, the fortress at Dinas Emrys, and the dragons beneath which prevented the successful construction of the fortress. Arthur is identified not as a king but as dux bellorum (war leader) who united the kings of Britain against the Saxons. | |
| c. 950 | Annals of Wales (L) | ||
| 1066 | Norman Conquest | William the Conquer of Normandy invades England, and brings Norman culture and Norman French with him. | |
| c. 1136 | Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae | History of the Kings of the Britons (L) | ||
| 1139 | Outbreak of English Civil War between Stephen and Matilda | ||
| 1154–89 | Reign of Henry II | ||
| 1155 | Wace, Roman de Brut (F) | Wace’s Roman de Brut is derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of the Britons, though Wace’s work is in French, and poetry. Wace introduced the first mention of the Round Table. | |
| c. 1160–80 | Romances of Chretien de Troyes (F) | Chretien is responsible for introducing the concept of the Holy Grail (though not clarifying what it looks like), for Lancelot, and for the Lancelot-Guinevere-Arthur love triangle. | |
| c. 1190 | Arthur’s grave found | Monks at Glastonbury Abbey claim to have found the body of a gigantic man, wounded several times in the head and buried with the bones of his wife. A lock of gold hair and a lead cross were also described as lying within an oak coffin. There are multiple versions of the discovery and the inscription on the cross. | |
| c. 1205 Composition; c. 1250 BL Cotton Caligula A | Laȝamon’s Brut (E) | Laȝamon, a cleric in Worcestershire, specifically acknowledges his debt to Wace, and via Wace, to Geoffrey of Monmouth. He also used Bede, and oral traditions; Welsh influences. Laȝamon is less interested in British history than his predecessors; his primary interest is Arthur. | |
| 1215–35 | Arthurian vulgate prose romances (F) | These are a bit like Arthurian fan fiction; they are convuluted, lengthy and numerous. | |
| 1327–77 | Reign of Edward III | ||
| 1337 | Outbreak of Hundred Years’ War | ||
| c. 1380 | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (E) | ||
| 1400 | Death of Chaucer | ||
| 1454–85 | Wars of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster | ||
| c. 1469–70 | Malory completes Morte Darthur in prison | ||
| 1485 | Henry VII crowned as first Tudor king after defeating Richard at the Battle of Bosworth | Caxton prints Malory’s Morte Darthur | |