Decoding King Arthur and the Grail

How can a Norse god become the famous King Arthur? Easily. A busy librarian on the desk at the Interpretation Centre at the ancient royal burial mounds of pre-Christian Uppsala in Sweden was unaware that she had just thrown a bombshell into my world, and into British history.

For some years I have been an accidental hobbyist collecting evidence with which to decode the origin of Britain’s mythical King Arthur and his quest for the Holy Grail, a quest which is the defining feature of his court and realm. I stress that I am not suggesting yet another “real” Arthur, nor a “real” Holy Grail; in fact, my decoding puts paid to those who hold such hopes. Here I offer a necessarily condensed version of my main approach and some findings which I am currently writing into a book.

This investigation appeared in a recent Quadrant.
Click here to subscribe

My interest first arose when in Sweden, visiting the ancient burial mound site of Swedish royalty, in Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala)….