WEBVTT - SYSK Distraction Playlist: Was there a real King Arthur? 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.119 dot com. Hey, you're welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:17.599 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, Jerry Waved. Everybody quiet, Jay, 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:22.239 that's stuff you should know. Yeah, that's us. That is 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:27.680 us still legend. You know. It was impossible for me 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:32.879 to research this without only thinking of two things. Two 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.000 movies Clive own Nope, Uh, I didn't see that one 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.520 was it's good? Was that the one called King Arthur? Okay, 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:42.879 it was a good I thought, so I'll check it 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.120 out because I dig this character. And I've seen a 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:49.880 lot of the movies that that tackle Camelot, but Excalibur 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.160 and uh Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Of course, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.160 I I surely I've seen ex caliber because I had 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.520 showed time when I was a kid. It was a 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.640 big hot movie when you were twelve in the early Yeah. Yeah. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:05.759 And then of course the Holy Grail. I mean, how 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.560 do you not see that it's the Holy Grail of comedies? 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.039 Some say, yeah, I can see that. You should check 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.680 out the Cowler. It actually holds up pretty well, does it. Yeah, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.840 And it's um has its somewhat notable for having a 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.720 couple of early appearances by actors that went on to 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.479 be uh much bigger. Oh yeah, I love movies like that. Yeah, 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.440 Gabriel Byrne is in it and just barely and um 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.240 Liam Neeson and I think both of them, it was, 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.280 were first roles and they're like hardly in the movie. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:39.880 Who was who played King Arthur? Um? Was it anybody 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.479 like I've heard of? Or they had to have been 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.600 big at the time, right, Who was it? Richard Burton? 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:48.920 You know? When I was uh like thirteen, I saw 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.440 Richard Harris do Camelot the Fox Seater in Atlanta. So 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.720 is that, like, is that based on the Arthurian legend? 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.640 What the musical Camelot? You sure? Okay, but I mean 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.560 you know it's a musical, yeah, and it's from the sixties, 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:06.640 so you can never tell, like it could have just 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.760 been named Camelot, That's what I was asking. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.160 it's about the Arthurian legend. But out of all of them, 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.520 I would say, hands down, Monty Python and the Holy 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:22.359 Grail is the best of the Arthurian Legend movie adaptations. Yeah. 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.240 I haven't seen it in years, but it's like one 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.280 of those that I saw so many times I can 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.360 still quote most of it, you know, I mean it 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.959 has it all. It has the killer rabbits, the killer bunnies. Yeah, 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:38.639 it has the coconut carrying swallows. It has the nice 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.880 say knee, It has the Black Knight who merely has 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:49.720 a flesh wound. Has everything. It has singing dancing yeah. Um, 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:54.040 I mean the great Graham Chapman as uh Arthur. Yeah, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:58.040 and um bring out Your Dead Yeah. So many things 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.520 that are in the lexicon all from that movie. Yeah. Uh. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.839 Nigel Terry played Arthur in the Excalibur movie. I don't 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.400 I don't know who he is. He'd probably recognize him. 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.679 Helen Maren was morgana though, oh wow? Um, but yeah, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.960 small roles. Oh. Patrick Stewart was the other guy he played. 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.400 Was he bald? Has he always like? He always been bald? One? 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:20.200 I'm sure he had hair at some point. Oh, I'll 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.639 bet he looked weird with hair. I can't imagine him 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.680 with hair. What if he was born with like a 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.160 full head of hair and that was it. He started 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.480 losing it after that, right for two days, and then 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.080 it all came out all right. So anyway, I started 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.440 to disrupt this early on. But those two movies, I 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.360 just every time I saw it with a pen dragon. 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.080 This is a cool name, that's a great name. I 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.040 couldn't help but just kind of say those lines in 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.720 my head. So I mean you you make a good 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.800 or you raise a good point. Um, there's so many 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.360 Arthur movies out there, Arthur books. Sword in the Stone 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.680 was pretty good too. Um that everybody has a kind 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.120 of a basic idea of um, the King Arthur legend, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.360 the Arthurian myth or romance it's sometimes called to But UM, 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.240 what I think probably a lot of people don't know 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.680 is that it is a syncretized meaning. The Catholics got 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.440 their myths on it and through a bunch of Christianity 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.560 on top of something that was already extant. And in 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.039 this case, um, what was excellent was a group of 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:29.280 myths that arose from the Celts, the Celtic people, which 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.679 is pretty substantial that we have this because the Celts 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.840 never wrote anything down, mainly on account of the fact 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.080 that they didn't have a written language. Their tradition was 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.600 entirely oral, which is why we have very little of 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.520 an understanding of the Celts. Most of our understanding of 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.880 the Celts comes from outside observers like Pliny the Elder. 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.320 Thank God for Pliny, or else we might not even 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:57.960 know the Celts ever existed. Um, but the Arthurian legend 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:04.440 is very clearly based on Celtic mythology. But even more 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:09.000 enticing to me is the idea that it's possibly there. 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:12.920 It's possible that that um Celtic legend, that Celtic mythology 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.840 is rooted somewhat in fact, like Arthur may have been 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.120 a real person. That's sort of the age question. Yeah, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.599 but I mean I find that in astoundingly fascinating. Like 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:26.200 there's places that are part of the Arthurian legend that 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.280 do exist in real life, but whether or not they 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.200 actually were a part of Arthur's life if there wasn't 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.720 real Arthur, I mean, each spot um generates awesome debate, 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.960 you know. So for the anthropologist, the history major in me, 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.920 I just I'm fascinated by the whole thing. So let's 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.680 go over the basic legend of of Arthur, uh killer king, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:58.680 legendary hero saved Britain when Britain needed saving. Yeah, because 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:04.080 the Roman Empire crumbled, um, and the Saxons were all 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.960 over Britain, the Germanic tribes, and he defeated them and 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.800 brought great peace to the land and built a castle 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:18.640 called it Camelot, gathered up nights together around around a 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.880 round table, which we'll get into, and to help bring 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.960 peace to to the land, and and he did, and 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.440 he did so very successfully. In In fact, in two 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:33.400 thousand two, the BBC voted King Arthur as number fifty 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.880 one and the poll of one greatest Britons, even though 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.479 he might not even be a real dude, and the 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.279 Britons are smart folks, and they still voted him that 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.000 they're pretty sharp. Yeah. So, um, those are the broad strokes. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.200 But depending on which version you're reading, it's gonna be different. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.760 Did he pull a sword from a stone? Was it Excalibur? 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:55.520 Did he get it from the lady in the water? 0:06:56.240 --> 0:07:00.080 Was his undoing, uh, Mordred or was it Gwen of 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.040 the Air and Lancelot? Yeah, it depends on which version 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.039 you're reading. And we'll go over those versions, right, and 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.719 we can you can kind of trace these back to 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.000 you know, you can see layer after layer being added. 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.200 So when you look at the Arthurian legend as we 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.880 understand it now, you can kind of peel back layer 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.240 by layer and get to the original stuff, um, which 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:26.080 is pretty old indeed, like they think that, Um, well 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.880 we'll get to that. Let's let's talk about the Arthur's story. Um, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.480 so you've got Arthur. He comes along at a time 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:37.400 when Britain is in its greatest need. There were some 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.640 great kings, possibly relatives of Arthur, like Uther Pendragon, his 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.960 father supposedly would have been one of the rulers. Right, 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.520 what you're smiling because you like that name. All I 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.640 can think of is I am off a son Pendragon. Okay, 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.720 so you just say that anytime you want, man um So, 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:01.200 but he arrives at a time when Britain is being 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.840 overrun by the Saxons. It's being um ruled by the Saxons, 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.360 Like there's no British king on the throne. And there's 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.520 a legend that comes up that there is a sword 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.239 in a stone and only the rightful king, meaning only 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:20.400 the line of Luther pen Dragon. I'm not gonna say again. Uh, 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.000 we'll be able to remove the sword from the stone, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.920 and when that person comes, he will be dubbed the 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:30.840 King of Kings and will restore um, the the rightful 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.880 um lineage to the British throne. Yeah, and uh. In 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.120 some stories, like I said, a young man, a young 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.080 Arthur pulls the sword stored it's a sword on the 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.839 swan and uh, and other legends it does come from 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:48.400 the lady in the lake. He rides out on a 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.440 barge and the hand stretches up with the sword in it. 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.360 All you sees the arm coming from the water and 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:57.080 he gets the sword that a way well, and and 0:08:57.120 --> 0:09:00.280 then I think a third a third way. He holds 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.800 the sword from the stone, proclaiming himself Arthur, and every 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.240 one was like, he's the dude, right, like we got 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.600 one of our own back in power now. And then 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.959 that sword breaks and that's when he gets ex caliber 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:14.760 from the Lady of the lake. It's right, the most 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.680 powerful magic sword in all the land. Uh, it's a 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.559 it's what you call a bitchen swords pitch and sword 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.600 Merlin and some stories comes around, uh, right about this time, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:32.079 and he appears on Arthur's a teen generally Um associated 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:33.760 with the Lady of the lake. There and Avalon, they're 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.560 both from the same neck of the woods. Avalon is 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.720 a magical mystery place even outside of the Arthurian legend. 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.760 As far as the Celts go, it was a it 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:49.440 means apple land, yeah, um, and I guess apples were 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.520 super magical to the Celts. But Avalon itself is um 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.880 almost in other worldly afterlife. He kind of area, even 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.160 though it's a physical place you can go two in Britain. 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:06.520 Still interesting. Uh, it's interesting that the apple is always 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.560 then a uh strange fruit. Yeah, like I know it 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.680 was probably wasn't an apple and eating but it's all in. 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.040 I wonder Southern Baptists called it an apple, yeah, and 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.880 when what it was originally in like air Maic and 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.520 when it was converted to apple, because where's the apple indigenous? 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.800 I don't know, or the or the apple and the 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:36.160 what was the children's was it not snow white? Snow white? Yeah? Yeah, 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.440 with the poison apple? Poison apple again. I saw a 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:41.600 video today that we've been eating apples wrong. Did you 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.240 know that I've seen that I can't bring myself to 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.840 eat an apple like that. There's a there's a middle 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:49.800 spindle a k a. The core that is not to 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:54.160 be consumed that I won't do it. It's just too weird. 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.480 But you can eat the core. There is no core. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.400 There is a core. I make it. Every I create 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:04.440 the core everything I I show it. Just like a 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:09.560 sculptor reveals the sculpture within a slab of stone, So too, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.679 do I reveal the core in an apple. Let me 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.440 ask you this. If you cut the apple up into 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:15.760 the eight pieces and get the seeds out, you can 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.080 just eat. That's the whole apple you have to shave off, 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.920 like the inner part the core. For those of you 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:24.720 who don't know, there's a video of a dude eating 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.600 an apple from the bottom end forward and he just 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:33.760 eats the whole thing because he's a psychopath. Um. Okay, 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.160 sorry to get sidetracked by the history of the apple. Well, no, 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:40.760 I think you do raise a really really interesting point, Chuck. 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.600 I wonder you know when the apple started getting a 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.439 bad rep, when the apple stood in for other fruit. Yeah. 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.319 I think that's an excellent thing to look up. Okay, 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.480 so let me know what you find, all right. So, Arthur, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.120 like I said, he builds Camelot. That's his castle once 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:01.280 he restores peace. Yeah, well, now I know. No, I 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:02.679 think that was he went out and got all the 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.920 knights to help him restore peace. So he built Camelot 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.320 an anticipation of restoring exactly, and recruited nights, uh for 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.720 the round table. And we might as well go ahead 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:16.840 and leak that the round table was supposedly round, because 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.439 we're all equals and there's no head of a round table, 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.600 makes sense, yeah, Um. And it was either fashioned by Merlin, yeah, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:27.800 or it was a gift from Guenevere, who we haven't 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:32.280 gotten to yet, a wedding present from Guenevere's father, even 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.520 though he got it from Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. Yeah, 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.559 and her father was King Leo de Grants who I 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:43.840 think that was Patrick Stewart an excalibur. Um. So the 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.800 nights go out, they defeat all the outsiders there, peace reigns, 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.240 and that it's why Camelot to this day has the 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.760 connotation of and especially with the Kennedy's like this, you know, 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:01.200 peaceful idyllic situation. Right, that's Camelot. Although it was a place, 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.679 you know what I'm saying, it sort of represents more 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.240 than a place, right, it represents the piece that he 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:13.160 brought with these knights. Okay. Um. Then he meets Gwenevere, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.200 falls in love with this little hottie and uh. Then 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:20.880 depending on what story you read, there might have been 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:26.040 an affair with Lancelot or Mordred, who was either his 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:31.400 nephew or depending on what you read, or his son, uh, 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:36.160 which technically he could be both because supposedly he had 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.199 Mordred with his half sister Morgan. Yeah, that makes sense, 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.959 who is translated into Morgan le Fay, who's like this 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:49.040 kind of enchanting temptress, evil woman um who helps Mordred 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.160 Um try to take over Camelot tries to take over 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.600 the throne, and Arthur says, nay to you, we will 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.920 do battle at a place called came Law. That's right, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:06.120 and that's where Mordar is killed and Arthur is um wounded, 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.880 and depending on the version of the story, Arthur's either 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.840 mortally wounded or just kind of wounded, but either way. 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:18.760 He gives his his sword ex Caliber to Bedevere and says, 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:20.480 you need to return this to the lady in the lake. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.160 After kind of waffling because Bedevere is like, I could 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.400 use ex Caliber, uh, he finally gives he throws ex 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.160 Caliber to the lake and this arm comes up and 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:32.880 goes ching and like catches it and then goes back 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.120 down and he's like, there was a Lady of the Lake. Yeah, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.240 that's the ex Caliber movie version. They followed that version 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.000 because I remember distinctly him chunking the sword out there 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.320 in the arm coming up. That's cool. I think I 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:51.400 have some vague mental memory of that as well. Um. 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.520 And then Arthur has taken to Avalon to either die 0:14:54.560 --> 0:15:00.200 and be buried, which is um, or he recouper eight 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.840 and hangs out there to come back to reign over Britain. 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.400 And it's next time of greatest need, which is why 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:10.280 Arthur is frequently referred to. And there was a book 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.320 titled The Once and Future King, because he will return 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.440 again when Britain needs him, which makes him like kind 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.080 of the British Superman. Yeah, before we go any further, 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:22.800 my friend, I think it's a good time for a 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:31.960 message break. Hey, now we're back. So that's the uh, 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.320 that's the basic legend. I mean, like we just basically 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.920 condensed thousands of pages of different books and thousands, well 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.200 not thousands, but hundreds of years of um folklore into 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:46.760 a few minutes. But to get the gist of it, 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.960 Sure you know the story, and if this, if this 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.160 ignited your fancy and you're like, I want to know more. Man, 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:54.480 You've got a you could dedicate the rest of your 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:59.120 life to researching and reading our Thurian legends because there's 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.760 tons of it and and it's all like we said, Um, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.160 it's a literary tradition, but it's rooted in an oral 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.960 tradition among the Celts, the pagan Celts. Um. But this 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.600 literary tradition itself is really really old. They they first 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.160 mention of Arthur is um from I think the fifth century, right, 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.520 the fifth century Welsh poem, six sixth century Welsh poem 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.400 years back then. Um, especially with a man who may 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.320 or may not have existed. But Arthur pops up in 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:35.680 one line in this Welsh poem called the Goddin good Odin. Yeah, 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:40.280 it's a great word, and this poem eulogizes the Welsh warriors, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.800 maybe Britain's oldest poem. Yeah. Because the Celts would have 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.440 started to have become Christianized around this time, hence things 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.880 would have started to have been written down, So this 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.000 poem would have popped up really right around that cusp 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:59.240 between the end of purely Celtic culture. Because the British 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.760 Isles were the last stronghold of the Celts, which swept 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.320 all the way to Asia, like they covered Europe, parts 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.480 of North Africa. The Celts were everywhere, but um, it 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.960 was the Um, the British Isles that were the last 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:17.320 holdouts until about like the fifth, six, seven eighth centuries UM, 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.239 when they became Christianized. All right, so they're Christianized at 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.880 this point. Yeah, by the time this poem came out, 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.399 the very fact that there's a written poem, it shows 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.720 you that made their way in this area, and the 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.159 Celts are all just telling stories, looking their wounds and 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.240 telling stories, still not writing stuff down there like have 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.000 you are you familiar with Missileton? Yeah? Do you know 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:43.960 about knocking on wood? Look at you utilizing all your information? 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.560 Uh so. Uh. Some other references in literature, um, the 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:55.400 Historia Brittonum, History of Britain eight hundred and the Analysis Cambria, 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.080 the Annals of Wales a few hundred years after that. 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.240 They were they were basically history books, the main history 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:07.000 books of Britain and Wales and UM. But they themselves 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.560 were just compilations of of other books and can't be 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:15.240 like factually verified. Yeah, but nevertheless they were used and 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.679 Arthur was mentioned in both um. The Arthur we Know 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:23.040 and love today you can trace back to Jeffrey of Monmouth. 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.720 He was a priest who wrote Historia regum Britagnia, The 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.560 History of British Kings and the eleven hundreds. But he 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:36.280 based his stuff on the history of Britton. Um. But 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.560 it just became really popular, right, So like he kind 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.359 of based it on the other thing. Well, I mean 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.480 most some people even say he plagiarized, but it became 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:48.520 so popular. He was kind of golden, right, and I 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.040 think great. I think also he um. I mean, most 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:55.240 histories are based on previous histories. Um, So that's that 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.520 in and of itself isn't a bad thing. But yeah, 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.359 I don't know what this article is implying, like he 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.480 was that he stole work or he fabricated it. Well, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.480 he was accused of fabricating some of it, so so 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.399 well either way, he gave the world the Arthurian legend. 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.280 That's right, Like Arthur existed before this, like as we've seen. 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.080 But he was the one that said, like, there's a 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.199 great story here and I'm gonna bulk this up, and 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.280 so he started naming places. He started contemporizing things like 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.760 he took um this legend and put it into a 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:33.280 context that the people who lived in his time would 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:37.520 understand and be fascinated by. Yeah, and he introduced Christianity 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.399 for the first time to the story. Um, the French 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.159 got ahold of it. And then they're all about a 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.960 good romance novel, so they sort of introduced the love 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:51.320 elements or not introduced, but uh emphasize the love elements 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.640 a little bit more. Yeah. About fifty years after Geoffrey 0:19:54.640 --> 0:20:01.440 of Monmouth made his history, um, Chrestian Detroit uh came 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.159 up with some stories that added that romantic part and 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.880 a lot like the I think the Grail stuff too. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.960 Oh yeah, Yeah, he was the one who who came 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.480 up with the romance between Lancelot and Glenevere and the 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.120 Grail of search for the Grail, which wasn't a part 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.400 of the story up until the twelfth century, and most 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.000 of the stuff had been like history books and poems. Um. 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.760 Starting with the Vulgate cycle or pros lancelot as when 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.480 you started getting these great prose stories and Christianity is 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.040 woven in even more. And this is between twelve ten 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.640 and twelve thirty, right, just to give you an idea 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:40.120 of where we are. And they don't know if these 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.520 stories were like maybe part of a popular literary trend 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:45.920 at the time where a bunch of people were writing them, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.040 like Chilvary was a big thing to write about, or 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.399 if it was one author writing a series of stuff 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.800 and they were not they're not attributed to any single author, 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.400 but they're they're collected together as a body of work, 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.680 the Vulgate cycle and those ones for because a little 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.040 more on like Lancelot and the chivalrous nights and all 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.840 that we had in the Grail to Uma. Yeah, they 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.280 said that um, Joseph of Arimathea, who was in the Bible, 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.720 he was the one who gave Jesus his tomb after 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:19.480 Jesus was crucified and brought back. And uh he said no, 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:22.919 well he didn't say that, but they they said Joseph 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.920 Mathea brought the Grail to britain Um. But then Galahad, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.720 Sir Lancelot's illegitimate son, was said in the Vulgate cycle 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.320 that he discovered the Grail because he was pure of course, 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:41.240 until he went to the Castle Anthrax. Remember that scene 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.560 and the pure and chased goes to the castle and 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.119 there's all there's all the ladies that are like tempting him. 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:54.880 It's uh, Michael Palin is just like wide eyed. Uh. 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:58.080 And then the big one UM that most of our 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:03.399 modern stories are based on is Thomas Mallory's Le Morte 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:08.160 Darthur The Death of Arthur. And I read this in college. 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:12.320 Oh yeah, and it was tough. It was. It's sort 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.960 of like a bit of a modernized Middle English. It 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:20.600 wasn't quite Chaucer, wasn't that tough um. But it was 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.160 still a tough read. And I remember thinking at the time, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.640 can I just watch Excalibur? And it turns out it could, 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:30.439 because that was that movie was specifically based on the 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.120 Death of Arthur. Yeah. And so as you're you're kind 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.720 of seeing like each um, each new century, each new um, 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:39.560 authors adding their own thing to it. Yeah, he didn't 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.679 actually write it. I should say that he compiled the 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:46.640 stories together. Surely he cleaned him up and well, yeah, 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:49.040 but he didn't he didn't create a new work, because 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.959 he's known as it's known as a compilation. Well, he 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.320 did add some new stories about some other nights, Sir 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:00.760 Gareth and Sir Tristan Um and he he he also 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.280 kind of took the um the focus off of the 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:11.919 Celtic pagan mythology and really focused it onto the Christian mythology. Um. 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.240 And and at this point the idea that this whole 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:20.000 thing is based on Celtic ideals and and myths is 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.800 lost largely to history. I mean, at the very least 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:28.960 it doesn't become nearly as a parent. Um. It was 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:30.880 he the one that added the Lady in the Lake though, 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:34.840 Oh no, that was the Vulgate cycle um, which is 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:36.600 supposing to me because I would think that would be 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:42.520 ancient Celtic mythology, but that wasn't added until the thirteenth century. Yeah. Yeah, 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:45.160 the Lady in the Lake and the idea of Mordred 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.239 is Arthur's son by his sister. You think those two 0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:52.320 would be real old No, no, no, it was a 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:55.640 part of the preoccupation of the weirdos in the thirteenth century. Well, 0:23:55.640 --> 0:23:59.919 I think Mallory did add them. After Gwenevere and Lancelater busted. 0:24:00.440 --> 0:24:03.439 They go their separate ways to become a nun and 0:24:03.480 --> 0:24:08.120 a monk. Oh yeah, respectively. Right. Um, So after Mallory 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.320 you have Alfred Lord Tennyson UM. Who wrote the idols 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:16.840 of the King that creepy looking dude, and uh yeah, 0:24:16.880 --> 0:24:20.560 but scary looking and I love his name too, yeah. Um. 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:22.639 And then th H. White wrote the ones in Future 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:24.879 King and that was the basis of the Sword in 0:24:24.920 --> 0:24:27.840 the Stone. Yeah. Well, Disney Action. That was a good 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:31.760 movie if I remember correctly. And Merlin was kind of 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:36.199 like a cookie. I mean it was weird right in 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:38.640 that story. Yeah. And in the Sword and the Stone. 0:24:38.640 --> 0:24:40.280