Professor Rob Collins

Peridur, or as we would more commonly know him, Percival, is a prince from York.

He's one of the princes of York.

And so we talked about York as a power center.

Well, that's where Percival is from, Peridur.

We have a whole bunch of names that kind of pop up in the Arthurian legend, but where we can place them is actually in the Roman frontier zone in the 6th century.

That's incredible.

And our earliest reference to Arthur is from Ikedothin, from that poem.

And it's a simple simile.

They're talking about a warrior named Gwarðr who slays foes from the wall or on the wall like Arthur.

And so people pick up on the like Arthur bit is the earliest likely reference to Arthur as a mighty warrior.

What they're missing out is the slaying foes from the wall.

So I'm going to drop a breadcrumb for you.

Is actually the importance here, not just Arthur, but the association of Arthur and a wall, maybe the wall, Hadrian's wall.

So is there a tantalizing hint in our early medieval literature that, you know, actually...

all this nonsense about Arthur being from Wales or Cornwall.

No, he's from Hadrian's Wall.