King Arthur first appears in Welsh literature.

In a surviving early Welsh poem, the Gododdin, (c. 594) the poet Aneirin (c. 535 - 600) writes of one of his subjects that 'he fed black ravens on the ramparts, although he was not Arthur'.

But this poem as it currently exists is full of interpolations, and it not possible to decide if this passage is an interpolation from a later period.

Possibly of an earlier date are the poems attributed to Taliesin: "The Chair of the Sovereign" which refers to "Arthur the Blessed"  or Preiddeu Annwn or The Treasures of Heaven which mentions "the valour of Arthur" and states "we went with Arthur in his splendid labours", and the poem Journey to Deganwy which contains the passage "as at the battle of Badon with King Arthur, chief giver of feasts, with his tall blades red from the battle which all men remember".

Another early reference to King Arthur is in the Historia Britonum, attributed to the Welsh monk Nennius, who is said to have written this compilation of early Welsh history around the year AD 830. In this work King Arthur is referred to as a 'leader of battles' rather than as a king.

Two separate sources within this compilation list twelve battles that he fought, culminating in the battle of Mons Badonicus or Mount Badon, which was fought in, or within a few years after, 491. According to the Annales Cambriae, King Arthur was killed at the Battle of Camlann in 537.

King Arthur also appears in the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen, a narrative that is usually associated with the Mabinogion. In that work, Culhwch visits King Arthur's court to seek his help in winning the hand of Olwen. King Arthur, who is described as his kinsman, agrees to the request, and fulfils the demands of Olwen's giant father Ysbadden, which includes his hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwth, described at length by the author.

In some of the Welsh biographies of their best-known saints (also called Vitae or the "Life" of a specific saint), King Arthur makes a number of appearances.

In the Life of Saint Illtud, he is said to be a cousin of that churchman.

Many of these appearances portray King Arthur as a fierce warrior, and not necessarily as morally impeccable as in later Arthurian Romances.

According to the Life of Saint Gildas, written in the 11th-century by Caradoc of Llancarfan, King Arthur killed Gildas's brother Hueil, a pirate on the Isle of Man.

Lifris writes in his Life of Saint Cadoc that King Arthur was bettered by Cadoc. Saint Cadoc gave protection to a man who killed three of King Arthur's soldiers. Arthur was awarded a herd of cattle from Cadoc as wergeld for his men. Saint Cadoc delivered them as demanded; but when King Arthur took possession of the animals, they were transformed into bundles of ferns.

The original purpose of this story might have been to promote popular acceptance of the new Christian faith by demonstrating that Saint Cadoc, the Christian leader, had holy powers to overcome a temporal ruler, like King Arthur. Similar incidents are described in the late medieval biographies of Carannog, Padern, and Goeznovius.

This may be related to legends where King Arthur is depicted as the leader of the Wild Hunt, a folk motif that is also recorded in Brittany, France and Germany.

Later parts of the Trioedd Ynys Prydein, or Welsh Triads, mention King Arthur and locate his court in Celliwig, which is located in Cornwall. Celliwig was identified by older Cornish antiquaries with Callington, but Rachel Bromwich, the latest editor of the Welsh Triads, matched it to Kelly Rounds, a hill fort in the Cornish parish of Egloshayle.
 

King Arthur in Wales

Dinas Bran

Did King Arthur and his Court reside at Castle Dinas Bran, Wales.

Some people think that Castell Dinas Bran may be the original site of, or inspiration for, the mythical Castle Corbenic, or the Grail Castle, situated near Llangollen in North Wales.

Dinas Emrys

The Mabinogion says that Dinas Emrys was the mountain where the Celtic god of Life and Healing, known as Lludd Llaw Ereint or "the Silver-Handed," buried two fighting dragons in the rocks below because his brother, Llefelys, had told him to. Merlin appears, as a boy, to interpret the meaning of this, and of what it means for Vortigern.

The writer Nennius, and later Geoffrey of Monmouth, wrote that, just before the time of King Arthur, King Vortigern fled into Wales to escape the Saxon advance across Britain. King Vortigern chose the high hilltop of Dinas Emrys to build his fortified castle.

King Arthur in Gwent

The image of  King Arthur in medieval Welsh literature is the archetypal ancient British hero king. King Arthur is a tough and energetic warrior fighting wild boars and serpents, witches, dog-headed enemies and other dreaded foes.  King Arthur is sometimes in conflict with the Church; and this points to the energetic debate that must have gone on as Britain became converted to Christianity.  The stories of the Arthurian Romances of the Round Table, damsels in distress, tournaments and of his being a Christian emperor come much later.

King Arthur in Caerleon-on-Usk, Wales.

Caerleon-on-Usk was King Arthur's court according to Geoffrey of Monmouth.

King Arthur's Tomb in Preseli Mountains, Dyfed, Wales.