Camelot Comet?

Tree rings suggest Arthurian tales of a catastrophe on Earth were true, says
Mike Baillie

WHETHER you believe King Arthur was myth or man, folklore suggests that his
death plunged Britain into a dark age. Now it seems that a unique historical
record contained in tree rings suggests that the passing of this legendary
sixth-century king may have been a bigger disaster than hitherto realised.

In my research I use dendrochronology - the study of tree rings - to hunt
for evidence of environmental downturns, from wet summers to the impact of
volcanic eruptions. These show up as radically reduced growth rings in
ancient Irish, English and European oaks.

Cast your eye over the pattern of oak tree rings in the past 1,500 years and
one set stands out: it starts in AD 536 and goes on until at least AD545.

Interestingly, other workers had already noted references by Mediterranean
writers to a severe "dry fog" or "dust veil" in 536 and had interpreted this
as the result of a volcanic eruption sending dust and acid into the
stratosphere.

This plume of gloom could explain the crop failures and famines which are
also recorded around the world in the late 530s. The tree rings were
certainly very narrow just about everywhere in 536 but, as far as the oak
trees were concerned, 536 was as nothing compared with what happened in
539-541.

What I found fascinating is that two of the traditional dates for Arthur's
death are also 539 and 542. So, I thought, let's have a look at Arthurian
legend to see if there are any clues to the cause of the disaster.

There was no good evidence for a major volcano at 540, so I started to
wonder what the next most likely cause of a environmental catastrophe
associated with an obscured atmosphere might be.

Perhaps there had been a close brush with a comet, with its dust and debris
loading the atmosphere through explosions similar to that which took place
in Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908 which flattened more than 2,000 square
kilometers of forest.

This suggestion has some indirect support. Cometary astrophysicists had
already suggested that the Earth was at "increased risk of bombardment" by
cometary debris between AD 400 and 600, based on the increased records of
severe meteor showers in that period.

Arthurian legend provides more backing for this idea. Arthur is an Apollo
figure - a bright god who fires arrows and brings plague. In this case, the
Justinian plague, possibly as bad as the Black Death, breaks out in AD 542.

But Arthur isn't just a classical god, he's widely believed to be a Celtic
god equivalent to the Irish hero Cuchulainn, a rebirth of the Celtic god
Lugh. The description of Lugh also suggests a link to a comet.

Lugh is famous not least because a story called the "Fate of the Children of
Turenn" describes Lugh as having a face as bright as the setting sun, too
bright to look at.

But the real clue comes with a question asked by the mythological Irish king
Bres. In astonishment, he asks the druids why the sun should be rising in
the west, the direction from which Lugh was approaching, when every other
day he rises in the east.

The answer tells it all. The druids say that it is the "splendour of the
face of Lugh Lamh Fada". Lamh Fada means "of the long arm, or the long
reach". So in mythology Arthur is a rebirth of a bright-faced god, as bright
as the setting sun, who is named for his long arm, and, who comes up in the
west. This sounds like an approaching comet.

Lugh is said to carry a fiery spear and indeed lets fly three throws of this
terrible spear associated with a great mist, darkness and thunderous noise.
Its effects can be gauged by another look at Arthurian legend, which is
closely linked to the Grail legend.

Key to the Grail legend is the concept of a wasteland, where no crops grow
and the land is infertile. It relates to England. Was there a wasteland at
around AD 540?

The trees certainly thought so; while humans were experiencing the depths of
a dark age with crop failures, famines and plague. Even Merlin, Arthur's
magician, fits this interpretation.

In mythology he can be a "red fiery whooshing dragon flying in the sky" and,
of course, he is famous for throwing thunderbolts. Some sources even suggest
he died in, you have it, AD 536.

The AD 540 tree rings undoubtedly suggest an environmental dimension to the
human trauma and plague recorded at that time. Furthermore they suggest that
the Arthurian legends are dated to this period for good reason.

This account also tallies with a description in writings that date from this
time by a Mediterranean historian named Zachariah of Mitylene. A surviving
fragment of his final Book 12 says the following: In addition to all the
evil and fearful things described above and recorded below (mostly lost!),
the earthquakes and famines and wars in diverse placesoe there has also been
fulfilled against us and against this last generation the curse of Moses in
Deuteronomy, when he admonished the people who had just come out of Egypt.

In other words, Zachariah likens the AD 540 disaster, involving cold,
reduced tree growth, inundations, crop failures, famines and plague to the
biblical Exodus, some time in the second millennium BC. And, indeed, the
Curse of Moses in Deuteronomy carries a description of the horrors of the
Exodus plagues plus, critically, an additional reference to Sodom and
Gomorrah.

So Zachariah not only tells us of the horrors around AD 540, he also gives
us a hint that they included "fire from heaven", precisely consistent with
the idea of a close brush with cometary debris.

Was there a comet close to the Earth, with devastating effects around AD
540? Yes, if you believe the writer Roger of Wendover. It was seen from Gaul
(France) and it was "so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire". Roger also
says that in the same year "there dropped real blood from the clouds . . .
and a dreadful mortality ensued".

Given the well recorded Justinian plague of AD 542, Roger was correct on his
dreadful mortality. As to the "real blood", who knows; however, I'd hazard a
guess that he was correct on the vast comet.

Support also comes from the monk Gildas. His main work was the Ruin of
Britain, written about AD 540, in which, among other things, he cites a long
series of extracts from the Old Testament. People have always noted the
"catastrophic" tone of these biblical quotations.

He mentions the Exodus inundation, David's choice of famine or plague, more
plague, Sodom and Gomorrah,the wicked and sinners consumed, tongue of fire,
the land made a wilderness, the stars dimmed, the sun and the moon shadowed,
earthquakes, a day of cloud and fog, a day of misery and destruction and so
on.

Whether man or Celtic god, the death of Arthur has much more context than
anyone, as far as I can see, has previously realised. The tree ring patterns
tell us that it heralded a dark age, when crops failed, people starved and
there was an exodus to find pastures new. Now all we have to do is to find,
and date, an impact crater.

Mike Baillie, a professor at the Palaeoecology Centre School of Archaeology,
Queen's University, Belfast, discusses this story in Exodus to Arthur:
Catastrophic Encounters with Comets. Published by Batsford, the book is
available through Telegraph Books Direct for £19.99 post free in the UK. To
order, call 0541 557222. Please quote reference PA375.