Showing posts with label #myths #legends #kingarthur #Arthurian #HistFic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #myths #legends #kingarthur #Arthurian #HistFic. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Searching for King Arthur — Gildas #Arthurian #Legend #OurAuthorGang


Searching for King Arthur  — Gildas



Gildas was a 6th Century monk who was born in the year of the Battle of Mons Badonicus, or, The Battle of Mount Badon, as we now know it. Mount Badon is, of course, the famous battle where King Arthur halted the Saxon invasion for a time.

Gidas's great work — On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, is no easy read. In fact, it  reads like a damning sermon. He certainly did not mince his words! He target five particular kings - goodness knows what they had done to upset him - and he isn't particularly forgiving of his fellow priests.

"Britain has priests, but they are fools; numerous ministers, but they are shameless; clerics, but they are wily plunderers."

He seems to be more than a little obsessed with the Book of Daniel, and the Book of Revelations. 



However, Gildas's work is considered one of most important sources on the history of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, simply because, for once, it was written by someone who was actually there and although it is not considered a primary sources it is about as close as we are going to get.

However, Gildas gives the word 'vague' a whole new meaning. He gives us very few names and no firm dates. He misses out chunks of history if they do not serve his purpose or his message.

What does Gildas say about Arthur?

Nothing.

The only 5th century person he does talk about is a man called  Ambrosius Aurelianus.


"... a gentleman who, perhaps alone of the Romans, had survived the shock of this notable storm. Certainly his parents, who had worn the purple, were slain by it. His descendants in our day have become greatly inferior to their grandfather's excellence..."



Now this is where it gets a little confusing. Ambrosius appears to be of Roman descent. He organises Briton and leads them in battle against the Saxons. Some historians believe that Ambrosius was Arthur, but I am not convinced with that argument. The Venerable Bede clearly states in his work — An Ecclesiastical History of the English People — that they are two separate people.

So what is going on?

Gildes is very vocal about many things, but not Arthur. He doesn't mention him. At all.

Arthur has always come across as a sort of people's hero. But in monastic writings of the time he is not described as a hero, in fact he is described as the complete opposite. Which leads me to suspect two things. Firstly, he wasn't as good as we all think he was. Or, he had fallen out with the Church. I kind of lean towards the latter. According to the Life of Gidas, Arthur killed Gildas brother. No wonder he omitted him! He wasn't going to make him immortal in his works. Who could blame him?

War is coming...





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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Searching for King Arthur — Nennius #Arthurian #legend #OurAuthorGang



Searching for King Arthur — Nennius.


Looking for King Arthur is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Almost impossible, but for me it is very difficult to resist such a challange. 

One of the earliest written accounts of Arthur was given to us by a 9th-century monk who went by the name of Nennius. Nennius wrote Historia Brittonum — The History of the Britons. It is not an easy read. Structure and organisation were two words Nennius chose to ignore. But it is worth persevering with his work because there are some real gems in there.

Amazon

What I love about the work of Nennius is how he portrays Arthur. Think of a Dark Age version of Iron Man and you might be getting somewhere. However, nowhere in The History of the Britons does Nennius describe Arthur as a King.

"then Arthur fought against them in those days with the Kings of Briton, but he himself was leader of battles."

Has time and folklore turned a general into a King?
Most definately.


So what does Nennius say about Arthur? First and foremost, he describes Arthur as a great warrior and lists the twelve battles which Arthur led. I am not going to describe all the battles here, but I am briefly going to look at the two most interesting.

 Battle number 8

"The eighth battle was in Fort Guinnion in which Arthur carried the image of St Mary, ever virgin, on his shoulder..."

With old text, I think we have to be very careful as to how we translate them. And I believe that the translation here is wrong. I do not think that Arthur carried an image of St Mary on his shoulder. I think he carried the image on his shield, which would make slightly more sense. Ignoring the translation, it does tell us that Arthur was a Christian.


Battle number 12

"The twelfth battle was at Mount Badon, in which nine hundred and sixty men fell in one day from one charge from Arthur, and no one overthrew them except himself alone."


Badon Hill

This is the most famous battle that Arthur fought in. It is generally accepted that this was Arthur's greatest triumph and he did hold back the Saxon invasion. Did Arthur slay 960 men in a single charge without any help? Probably not. Was he a great military man? Almost certainly.


Arthur, whoever he was, had captured the imagination of a nation and in later works, he became the hero that we all know and love.


Take a journey back to Dark Age Briton








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