AFP reports that the legend of Britian’s King Arthur will take hold of the city of Rennes next month when it hosts a series of events on the mythical hero once said to have roamed this wild, western French region called Brittany. A major exhibition on the Arthurian tales, which will run for six months, is to open July 15, fully translated into English, the same day the International Arthurian Society begins it’s 22nd annual congress at Rennes university, one of the biggest campuses in France.

The Society brings together experts on the Arthurian tales from across the world, mingling eminent academics and amateurs. Formed in the Breton city of Quimper in 1948, it meets in congress every three years.

Sarah Toulouse, one of the curators of the exhibition “King Arthur: A Legend in the Making” says:

These stories deal with universal themes. The earliest fragments of the tales can be traced back to Wales in the seventh century. But by the 13th-century stories based on the Arthurian legends were being told right across Europe.

As the exhibition shows, Arthur’s mythical kingdom extended across much of what is now France and Britain.

His legendary castle of Camelot is said to be Cadbury castle, an Iron Age hill fort in the southwestern English county of Somerset. One of the world’s most famous prehistoric sites, the stone circle of Stonehenge, is said by some to have been built by Merlin the magician, Arthur’s mysterious adviser.

Glastonbury Tor, also in Somerset, is cited as another of the King’s final resting places while the village of Camelon in Scotland is one of several candidates for the site of the terrible battle of Camlann where Arthur and his evil, illegitimate son Mordred fought to the death.

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