It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast

we are focusing on that famous medieval figure King Arthur but we're looking at King Arthur

from the ancient perspective. We're looking at five key figures from ancient Britain

who contributed to the creation of the mythical figure, Geoffrey of Monmouth's King Arthur.

Now to talk through these five figures I was delighted to get on the show my good old friend

Dr. Miles Russell from the University of Bournemouth. Miles is an encyclopedia when it comes to

Roman Britain and when it comes to the creation of King Arthur. So that further ado, here's Miles.

Miles it's fantastic to have you on the podcast. Thank you good to be here.

Now yeah this is an absolutely incredible topic. We're looking at King Arthur but also his

ancient links shall we say because Miles the question of who was the real King Arthur. It's kind of

like what happens to the knife Legion. It's one of those great mystery questions of history.

It is. I mean Arthur is such an incredible character. He's a world character really,

and he's famous everywhere. And I think his story is one that just keeps getting reinvented for

every generation. He's one of those characters from the past where it's now very difficult to

disentangle the historical truth from the mythology and the fantasy that's built on it.

But because the story's been enlarged and enlarged in large over time, every generation makes the

offer that they want. So in the last few decades it's been TV series, it's been films, it's been

computer games, it's just building on that mythology. So it's probably of all characters in the past.

King Arthur is probably one of the famous really, he's world renowned.

Absolutely world renowned. And you're an archaeologist of ancient history. And although we sometimes

think of Arthur as this medieval figure, he has these incredible links shall we say when you look

at the research to ancient Britain. Absolutely yes, yes. I mean it's I guess you know King Arthur is

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