By Crasterfarian
When the Roman Empire withdrew its legions from Britain in the early 5th century, it left behind not just monumental buildings and roads, but many trained soldiers, separated and fractured tribes and a gaping power vacuum.
Amidst the chaos, one place stood as a beacon of stability:
Banna, the Roman fort now known as Birdoswald on Hadrian’s Wall.
But what if Banna wasn’t just a backwater relic of empire, slowly corroding back into the Northumbrian countryside?
What if it became the cradle of a legend?
The Last Commander
In the wake of Rome’s collapse, imagine a Romano-British Roman cavalry officer, once part of the elite Ala I Tungrorum, staying behind at Banna.
It is the only home he has ever known, being born locally and entering the Roman calvalry as soon as he could ride a horse, his family living with him in the camp commander’s residence.
Trained, disciplined and hardened by years of frontier service, he refuses to fade with the Empire. He is married to a local woman and has his children to care for, along with others in the fort.
Instead of fleeing his home, he gathers others, loyal locals, deserters, remnants of Roman units, and turns Birdoswald into a stronghold.
He builds a timber hall on top of the stone granaries of the fort. He rides a powerful destrier, perhaps once bred in Gaul. He wields a long cavalry spatha, unlike anything seen among the tribes.
This man is no longer a cavalry officer.
He becomes a protector, a king, even if only in deed.
Maybe we can also see this man leading other mounted cavalrymen, training them up himself from the locals or other deserters of the Roman Ala, then commanding them into battle against their foes…
United, together defending their families.
Maybe you can also see these other men being given land and title for their derring-do against the onslaught of the invader. Or perhaps…
Maybe becoming knights at his command…
Maybe that destrier was called Llamrei…
Maybe that sword was called Excalibur…
Maybe that man was known as Arthur…
The Wall and the War
From Banna, he leads his mounted warriors to resist the growing threat from Saxon raiders, Pictish incursions and tribal unrest.
His tactics are swift, mobile and devastating — cavalry charges in terrain where few expect them, with the practiced skill of hardened warriors.
These men are not knights as we would know them now, but early sworn men, oath givers. Knees were taken, united by bloodshed in mortal danger — a band of brothers.
He is whispered of in nearby forts along the old stone Line of Rome:
Camboglanna (Castlesteads)was also known as Avalana, perhaps evolving over time into Avalon.
The populations of Uxelodunum (Stanwix), Aesica (Great Chesters) and Vercovicium (Housesteads) would hear his name and fear his wrath should they step out of line.
All of these places will have become homes to tribal warlords in the late 5th century as the country plasticised, reformed and emerged into the power vacuum left by the legions.
A time for the survival of not just the fittest, but the strongest, smartest and the most well-trained.
It will have been a time of upheaval, a time of fear and jeopardy for travellers and isolated farmers. But he came as a man who led a band of protectors, saving people from robbers and brigands.
The Rise of the Legend
Over generations, his story is told around the hearths and feasting tables of the whole country, warped by time, embellished and embroidered with myth.
He becomes more than man.
He becomes Arthur.
Arthur who led the last charge.
Arthur who defended the Wall.
Arthur, whose kingdom was born of ruins and chaos, but whose memory became a beacon for hope in the darkness.
Why Banna?
- Archaeology confirms a post-Roman timber hall. No other site on the Wall has such sustained occupation.
- Cavalry traditions lingered there longer than almost anywhere else.
- Folklore and place names along the Wall echo Arthurian legend.
- It lies at the frontier of the Old North (Yr Hen Ogledd) — the lands of early Welsh and Brittonic memory.
- There are standing stones and wells all along the Wall front that are named after Arthur.
Yes, this is a fantasy story from an overrly fertile mind, but legends start somewhere so why not here?
Perhaps Arthur was not a king of all Britain but a commander from Banna.
That’s not only plausible, but poetic.
Visit the Wall. Stand at Birdoswald. Look across the Irthing Valley and imagine the thunder of hooves.
The Roman walls may crumble, but legends ride on.
With love from the Crasterfarian xx
