MY THEORY ON THE 6TH CENTURY ARTHUR TO DATE (A SUMMARY OF PAST RESEARCH)

Site of the Birdoswald Dark Age Hall

For the sake of brevity... 

My findings (and extrapolations) have allowed me to form the following "reconstruction" of the life of the historical British Arthur of the 6th century:

His father was the Terrible Chief or Uther Pen, otherwise found in the Welsh records as Pen son of Nethawc/Neithon.  Neithon, in turn, was a son of Senyllt Liberalis, a chieftain in the successor kingdom of the ancient Selgovae.  A very successful war leader in his own right, Pen established his ruling center at the Banna Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, modern-day Birdoswald.  He named his son Arthur not only because of the famous Roman Lucius Artorius Castus, but because Banna was in the Irthing Valley, a river-name meaning 'Bear'.  [Arthur was from fairly early on associated with the Welsh word arth, 'bear', and Professor Stefan Zimmer has made a good case for Roman/Latin Artorius being originally from a Celtic name meaning 'Bear-king.'] The inhabitants of the Irthing valley were the Arthwys or 'people of the Bear.' Pen had assumed the draco title and standard of the Dacian garrison and, presumably, its descendants, at Banna.  He was thus the 'chief dragon' or, if we wish to invoke a late Roman military rank, the magister draconum. Arthur became the preeminent war-leader or 'dux erat bellorum' in the North, essentially duplicating the rank and function of the Dux Britanniarum. In this capacity he fought and won a series of battles up and down Dere Street.  His final victory was at the Badon/Bathum of Aquae Arnemetiae at Buxton, Derbyshire, on the very southern boundary of the ancient Brigantian kingdom.  This battle was waged to prevent the penetration of the English through the Pennines.  Arthur died fighting Medrawt/Modred/Moderatus at the Camboglanna fort, modern-day Castlesteads on Hadrian's Wall.  Welsh tradition makes Medrawt the enemy of Arthur, and he is linked in Welsh sources to the emerging power of Rheged, a kingdom centered on Annandale.  It is likely that the death of Arthur created a power-vacuum on the Wall, and Urien and his descendants were ready to fill the void.  I'm conflicted as to whether Arthur's power center should be restricted to the Irthing Valley, or whether he might have commanded from Stanwix/Uxellodunum.  There are some hints that the latter might have been his primary base of operations, and certainly if the tradition about him being buried at Avalon (= Aballava/Avalana/Burgh-By-Sands) is a reflection of historical reality, and I'm right about Drumburgh/Congabata being the prototype of the Grail Castle, then it is likely Stanwix, the Roman fort that had housed the largest cavalry unit in all of Britain and was the Roman command center of at least of the western half of the Wall, should be considered a candidate for his "capital."