King Arthur & Excalibur

The earliest reference to Arthur is in a Welsh poem dating from around AD 594. It consists of a series of elegies & one references Arthur which suggests he was already a famous figure at the time this poem was written. He appears again in 'History of the Britons' written in AD 830 then in the 12 Century in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'History of the Kings of Britain'.

And while most of these documents are dismissed by scholars today as fiction, why should a character like Arthur be treated this way? He's been around since before 594 and continues today. Such longevity usually means there is some truth to the legends whether scholars want to believe or not.