The Arthurian Legend

jefferies

New member
As an Arthurian I'd just like to get thoughts on the actual truth behind the legends. Obviously, the actual events were far from the legend, but what do you think really happened? what do you think the truth is?
 

bob

New member
Well from what i understand the arthur stories orginate out of the Dark ages after the fall of the roman empire in about 400 - 600 ad. In Britain a man named Vortegin hired saxon mercenaries named Hengus and Horsa to defend Britain from invasion by other germanic invaders, unfortunately he failed to pay these mercenaries and they took over parts of the country and encouraged further immigration. This is where Arthur comes in it is thought that he fought the Saxonbs and won 13 great victories guranteeing 50 years of peace, with his name came legend....

There were no knights of the round table
No Merlin
No Avalon


The story of Arthur is very thin historically all we are able to say with certainty is his great victory at Baden Hill and his death at the hands of Mordred, and he wasnt a king he was probably just a minor chieftan
 

jefferies

New member
Yeah, that's about what I had. I did a research paper on this very topic. Although I personally think that there may have been the knights and Merlin. But the knights wouldn't have been the great society and chivilrous knights of the legends. Just the knights that Arthur commanded to defeat the Saxons. Merlin was possibly just an advisor to Arthur, not a magician.
 

hffan2000

New member
i keep an open mind to the question of arthur. i think he most likely existed as celtic chieftain and the legend based on him was a combo of richard the lionhearted, william the conqueror and charlemagne. as for merlin i believe he was an advisor not a wizard.
 

Aaron H

Moderator Emeritus
That reminds me, Jerry Bruckhiemer (sp?) is going to do a King Arthur movie. It takes what we know is real about the Arthurian legend and builds on that...not the fairy tales that we all know about. It shall be interesting to see how he does it, and if it is closer to actual fact than fiction.

As romatic as the Arthur stories are, and as much as I would like to think them to be true, I must doubt their validity in the realm of history since there is no evidence to support such a King or kingdom without there being a much larger "footprint" left on history.
Personally, I find great inspiration in the Arthur stories and use some of those ideas for my own books...but I digress.

I sure would love to see an Indy film touch on the Arthur Legends.
 
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