| The 1372nd meeting of the Connecticut Academy
of Arts and Sciences was held on Wednesday, November 8, 2006
at 5p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club. Some 50 members and their
guests enjoyed cocktails before the evening lecture and some
35 members stayed for dinner after the lecture. President Ernest Kohorn welcomed the group at 5:30p.m. He described the efforts being made to make the Academy financially healthier. Many members have contributed to the Endowment Fund, which is now permanent and no longer "quasi". The University of Connecticut has contributed $5,000, Quinnipiac University $1,500 and Trinity funded the attendance and dinner for several students to the event held at that institution. Southern Connecticut State University donated the auditorium for the concert presented by Peter Hereld in October. This event was most successful and enjoyable. It also raised $5,000 in gifts to the Endowment Fund. Dr. Kohorn said that meetings with members of the legislature to raise funds for intercollegiate seminars for graduate students and junior faculty were continuing and a meeting was scheduled with the Governor. The President then introduced the speaker for the evening, Dr.Robert Evans, deputy Director Emeritus of the Jackson Laboratories in Maine. The title of his talk was "Discovering King Arthur," which had absolutely nothing to do with his professional life heretofore! Dr. Evans began his journey of discovery by describing what had led him to his study of King Arthur. He said that he was interested in his heritage and proud of being a Welshman. However he did not really know what it meant to be a Welshman. The Scots, Irish and the Welsh were all Celts. They had migrated from the Steppes of Russia. In the middle of the 5th. Century the land they occupied, now known as Britain, was under the rule of the Romans. It was then invaded by the Saxons and that conquest took 400 years. After this, the only land occupied by these Celts was Wales and the people were known as the Wela or Strangers. During this dramatic period of conquest, King Arthur is mentioned for the first time in historical records. In the 12th and 13th centuries all the stories about King Arthur were pure fiction. In the 14th century Thomas Malloy wrote "Death of Arthur" but it is not known whether Arthur was a fictitious character or not even though he had been known and written about for a long time. What is considered to be true is that Arthur would not have existed after the 8th Century when history was secure. Arthur would have lived in the Dark Ages, 450-650/700 when events and people were shadowy. In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain. When Rome withdrew its troops from Britain in 410, two high kings came to power. The first of these was Vortigern who made a deal with the Anglo Saxons to help the British repel any attacks by the Picts and the Irish from the north. The deal held until the middle of the 5th century by which time the number of Anglo Saxons had increased alarmingly. They did not want to leave Britain because they liked it so much! So began the invasion of Britain by the Anglo Saxons which lasted for 400 years although the main part of the conquest was completed after 200 years. Vortigern was replaced at his death by another high king, Ambrosius Aurelianus who continued the fight against the Saxons. Although not much is known about this period the Battle of Badon Hill features in many records. The Saxons suffered a devastating defeat and this allowed 40 years of peace to follow. The only name to have been associated with this battle as the leader of the victorious Britains was Arthur. Dr. Evans suggested that it was no wonder that the leader of such a great battle should become a legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth who wrote The History of British Kings in 1136 wrote the first authentic document about this period. In the section about Arthur he tells the story of Uther Pendragon who is able to seduce the wife of Cornwall because Merlin makes Uther look like Cornwall! When Cornwall dies, Uther marries the wife and Arthur is born. The Battle of Badon is highly romanticized and exaggerated in this account but, as Dr. Evans pointed out, this does not make it untrue. After this battle Arthur meets and marries Guinevere. While in Rome, defending the claim that he owed tribute, a missive comes from Britain that Mordred, Arthur's nephew has seized the crown and is living with Guinevere. Thus began a civil war against Mordred and at the Battle of Camlann Mordred was killed and Arthur mortally wounded. There is as yet no mention of Camelot-that has yet to be invented. Both the Norman historian William of Malmesbury who wrote in 1125 and the Welsh monk Nennius, who wrote at the end of the 8th century tell of Arthur's battles with the Anglo Saxons. There are also some Welsh poems of the Dark Ages that mention Arthur without wild exaggeration. These, together with the information from Nennius allow one to conclude that a warrior with the stature of Arthur probably existed during the Dark Age period |