Ready my knights for battle. They will ride with their king once more. I have lived through others for far too long. Lancelot carried my honor, and Guenevere, my guilt. Mordred bears my sins. My knights have fought my causes. Now, my brother, I shall be… king.
So hello—how was the weekend….I did some socializing and a bit of shopping on Sat….too hot here to get out a lot and my usual Sun manning the museum, which is fun and if it’s slow (it was busy for one hr. and then slow the rest) I can read–which I did.
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One day, a King will come, and the Sword will rise… again.
Getting through DROUGHTLANDER 3 BY:
Following Sam as one of 3 hunks that are polo’s new ambassadors: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/piaget-introduces-polo-s-collection-911709
And organizing a boycott of the Emmys which completely snubbed Outlander while giving Game of Thrones 23 nominations. http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/14/emmy-nominations-snubs
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I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.
- Idylls of the King (1856–1885) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur
TODAY I THOUGHT I WOULD SPEAK OF LEGEND
TODAY I THOUGHT I WOULD SPEAK OF A KING
THAT LIVES ON DESPITE WHAT MAN MIGHT SAY OR DO
THAT LIVES IN OUR MINDS AND DREAMS
IRREGARDLESS IF HE EVER LIVED ON THIS EARTH
Linda–Blogger supreme
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Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. But the home we seek resides not in some distant land. It’s in us! And in our actions on this day! If this be our destiny, then so be it. But let history remember that as free men, we chose to make it so.
- King Arthur (1995), written by David Franzoni
I am Sarren; I am of the old people, the ancient ones. Through my blood runs the blood of the Celt, the Pict and the peoples who left the stones scattered around this haunted, enchanted isle like a great child’s toys. And through my blood runs the magic of the land and the blood of other more mythical and mysterious dwellers and wanders who are as much a part of this place.
That is the opening of my book which I really am working on…and in it I use Arthur as a way to insure that the ancient isle beloved to man, and fae (fairy for those who aren’t in the language thing) is protected, now in the future. It is told by a child–at least part way thru the first book and it is pure fiction…fantasy and has magic abd wizards: Merlin being only one of the men and women who are or can do magic.
But so many people argue about his very existence—to my book it doesn’t matter…for fiction needs no solid proof—fiction is my mind and my Arthur and though he and the people that inhabit my novel’s world do not have to be proven, but are admittedly creatures of my mind (and if you knew me well that might scare you) and so need no proof.
But this is not my story, it is theirs. My long time friend and childhood companion Morgana and her Sibling Arthur. It is the story of their line: brave but flawed Uther, the beautiful high priestess Igraine and of course the mysterious dabbler Merlin. OR AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT SARREN SAYS in the (my) novel).
As for me….Yes I believe he was a real person….I have studied history for years—it is one of my passions (and I have more than a few)and I have seen that things that are legend generally have a spark or more of truth in them.
For instance Tintagel—It was said that Arthur was conceived (and possibly born) on the island–that use to be an outcropping of land that was separated by a storm in what I believe was the 17th century. Then the modern scientists and historians came around and showed that the ruins that were here were medieval and not 5th – 6 th century—the time period most accepted for Arthur. But then came the fire….It burned away undergrowth, down into the roots and suddenly those same nay-sayers were saying that yes there was a considerable building here in the proper time period for Arthur–what appears to be a dweling and a wealthy one at that for it had imported dishes—something that until recently they had thought stopped being imported when the Romans left the area in 410 AD. Hey they’ve even started speculating that maybe those Dark Ages (a title you don’t hear much anymore) might not have been so dark after all.
Or as Sarren so ably says: For long years I have listened to the tales of them and those that clustered around their bright flames and the stories have become more complex and more outrageous. I have been disturbed that they have not always been treated fairly or honestly. How the legends were tinged with each successive generation and that how even Christianity who shunned them for so long has now added their grail…to further strain the telling.
Was he a king–no, rather a warlord who could use his father’s reputation and loyalties to help boost him to power but who like the Celts of this period he would have had to have the support of his people to take the reigns of protecting the land. In fact I do not believe there were any kings in the land then..the closest I would come is someone similar to the Clan Chiefs in Scotland…with one chief–the strongest, the one with the greatest warriors that would defend the lands of all and would collect tribute for this protection and quite possibly claim men from the chiefs when severe danger (like the Saxons invading) required men to stand with his own men—and no not knights….that was a less Dark (age) and more medieval invention.
No one wore armour—maybe some early chain mail combined with a lot of heavy leather. There was no jousting, or ladies in waiting to give out favors…nor any of that bunk that passed for honor and love in 13th & 14th c. France where a lot of the defining stories came from. And yes there was heavy influence in France of the British–first Britany was almost completely settled from immigrants from England. And then we had the Normans who brought a very Norse ancestor-related form of French (the English Court spoke French for many year after the invasion, but this is nothing new for while Celtic speak —still seen in Wales and Ireland and to a lesser extend in Scotland–was the native speech the English that became the official language came from the Anglo-Saxon invaders which history indicates were the very peoples Arthur spent so much time fighting) of cross countries culture that further confused and re-configured culture for years on end as the Normans ruled in England but preferred to be buried in France.
I like Sarren: I desire to tell it as I am one of the last that knows its truths. I can do no less than write it down for them. I think that current mankind needs to better understand that glorious age of quests, and magic, when monsters in human and inhuman forms roamed the land. It was a wild time betwixt and between…a time when one conqueror had left and a lesser civilized but no less deadly vied to take their place. Magicians roamed the land, Druids returned from distant fortresses where they had hidden. It was a rebirth of the Celts. It was only later that we understood that it was the twilight of those peoples and though they would still survive they would never again reach the pentacle of this last great saga of the land now collectively called England.
I will give you my ideas—many of which I have included in the book, but as I explained before the book does not have to be logical, though despite the fact that it’s a novel I do want to present an Arthur who is more like my idea of him and his. But this week in the Blog I will give you some of my studies and some times just my ideas based on those studies as to things like where he was from, where his adventures occurred and address things like the tomb found in Glastonbury and the insistence of some authors and historians on placing him in places like Scotland–even Ireland over the years.
I will try to make them interesting so as to not bore anyone and give you some bits from my book to see if you might like that–if I ever get it finished….and so on.
To Quote our girl: And so I tell their story, so that when I am gone there will be a true account, an account from what the magi called the catalyst, the child that was born to facilitate the last great age of the Celtic people, the last great age of magic and legend. An age when people still believed in the impossible, when legends and fairies roamed the lands..When danger and wonder were abroad and a man named Arthur set the throne and became the legend and the land.
In the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.
- Le Morte d’Arthur, (c. 1470) by Thomas Malory, Book I, Ch. 23
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My name is Sarren: I am the child of what the Romans called Britannia. My roots reach deep into its earth and I have seen and known the man, the magi and the sorceress and I have loved them all and so I am the one who must tell this tale.
You’ll forgive me if I do the deed for Sarren this time around I hope.
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Just because you can’t understand something, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong!
- The Sword in the Stone (1963), written by Bill Peet, based on the novel by T. H. White
