Message #17524

[Bianca]

Is It Arthur's Coffin?



What can be said is that the capital A on the horse on the sarcophagus is very tantalising. There are strong traditions linking Arthur with Dumbarton - its name means fort of the Britons - and it is not far down the river from Govan. If Arthur was based there, and there is strong evidence to suggest this, he would doubtless have been a regular visitor to any early Christian site at Govan.

There is no argument that Govan was a major ecclesiastical site and after Arthur's death, it would be a suitable site for his burial, even though he was a war leader rather than the king of later romances. The internal dimensions of the coffin itself appear to be somewhat restricted for a full-length human corpse but it is feasible that Arthur's body, if it ever lay here, might have been mangled after his death in battle at Camlaan (Camelon near Falkirk).

While it is impossible to prove absolutely that this is the coffin of the legendary Arthur it does seem at least a possibility well worth considering.

As I have stated we underestimate the veracity and relevance of the storytelling tradition - remembering that even today in Scotland, there are storytellers who were given all their material by word of mouth, exactly as such material was passed on a thousand, or two thousand years ago. Without scientifically dating the sarcophagus we cannot be absolutely certain when it was made but as we begin to truly appreciate the extent of Arthurian material in Scotland many ideas are due to be challenged.

Arthur is said to have battled with Picts and Scots and Angles and the place where the Britons were directly up against these different tribal groupings was in Central Scotland. If he was, as the material about him suggests, a Christian warrior fighting against the pagan tribes of Dark Age Scotland, his status as a great hero is hardly surprising.

After all Christianity was triumphant and where better to honour the hero than in a major ecclesiastical site, easily accessible by water and close to the capital of the Strathclyde Britons.


                               






http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.clannarthur.com/jpegs/sarcophagusd2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.clannarthur.com/allpages/govansarcophagus.htm&h=162&w=244&sz=10&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=F-E_h54l5kNTAM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daedan%2Bof%2Bdalriada%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG