retired_Fit

Indeed. Walked funny as well, dont think he was a real king even

retired_Fit

Yeah, i remember seeing it but i was really "too old" for it. Just remembered he walked really odd and dont remember the point of the show

retired_fabricodalacosta

Retro - someone mentioned Atlantis above. Are there any English links to the legend ? I'm nearly sure the Welsh have something to do with part of it.

Also - isn't the Holy Grail supposed to be guarded somewhere in Scotland by the Knights of Templar ? (excuse my ignorance - just remembering stuff off the top of my head)

retired_princesspouty

A Short Biography of King Rollo:

kwchannell89

da vinci code?

retired_princesspouty

I always thought Atlantis was associated with the Greeks and had nothing to do with the English.

As for the Welsh, in the deepest darkest depths of my memory - a little thought is appearing which makes me wonder if there's a legend about the Welsh (Celts) being the descendents of the doomed people of Atlantis. I think I must have read it somewhere years ago.

retired_shala

The arthur legends all follow the french medieval romance vision of society/chivalry/valour and stuff, so I think it's pretty certain that they were put together around the 12/13th century, to give the impression that England had a chivalric tradition that went back to before the norman conquest. Which if you read pre-1066 anglo-saxon poetry like Beowulf and the battle of Maldon is clearly untrue. Also a lot of the arthurian legends have christian imagery and language kind of stuffed into them unnaturally, so they don't really match up to history at all.

The good thing about them compared to the french romaunt stories is the fact that they're set at a time of upheaval and decline throughout europe, so there's a really interesting tension between the 'modern' 13th century ideology and all the old-skool druidic and magical context in characters like merlin, morgiana and so on. Anglo-saxon poetry's the stuff to read if you want to get an idea of actual pre-norman english life and philosophy, but it tries to distance itself from the druids and nature-worship and things, so the arthur stories are the first bits of english literature that properly acknowledge britain's pantheistic history, even if they do do it in an odd anachronistic way.

So basically the whole idea of them is utterly anachronistic and they're clearly not based on anything more than an old king's name, but that doesn't mean they're not great.
Malory's morte d'arthur stuff is the most comprehensive collection of the original stories, but it's actually a bit boring. Gawain and the Green Knight is the joint-best poem in old or middle english though, along with the dream of the rood. Everyone british should have to read it in school, it's worth learning middle english for.

retired_fabricodalacosta

da vinci code? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope - this goes back way before the book/film, IIRC.

retired_princesspouty

Ah - now that's a whole can of worms you can open there. No-one actually knows what the Holy Grail was. The popular (medieval christian) conception is that it was the cup used by Christ at the last supper but there's so many cross-references with various pagan myths that it's almost certainly not something we will ever be able to work out.

The association of the Templars with the Grail is merely one of many associations. I can't remember if it was The Da Vinci code (or the pseudo history book Holy Blood and The Holy Grail) which popularised the idea that Holy Grail meant Holy Blood (ie the bloodline of christ).

retired_princesspouty

Yes, the Templars were always associated with the Grail. Something that Dan Brown used. He has however brought it back to our attention.

Da Vinci Code may be sh!te but it has got people interested in the Templars and Crusades again... even if some people unwittingly believe some of the myths surrounding the Templars (of which there are many... and most of them were exploited by Brown).