King Arthur: Historical Roots - Medieval History DOCUMENTARY

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Kings and Generals' historical animated documentary series on medieval history continues with a video on King Arthur, as we try to discuss if he was a real historical figure and present historical roots behind the legendary Celtic king,

Script: Leo Stotne

Production Music courtesy of EpidemicSound

#Documentary #KingArthur #Medieval

[mikemodugno]

The story of a possible King Arthur in Sub-Roman Britain was one of the things that captured my love for history. To this day the Fall of the Roman Empire and "Dark Ages" remain one of my favorite historical periods. Thanks for this fascinating episode.

[jaredhaas]

'Comitting casual acts of genocide in Ireland.' That may be the most UK way to say, 'going on holiday.' I love the subdued humor of this channel.

[hapa]

English: Arthur will return and save us!
King Arthur: I was saving them from you!

[nathanielvashaw]

The Arthurian Legend feels like a mixture of Celtic and Medieval British stories at this point, but is still a fascinating tale.

[LiminalQueenMedia]

Honestly impressed by how well you handled the Welsh names.

[utubrGaming]

Also, I wouldn't be opposed to hearing more literature stuff on Kings and Generals, such as Digenes Akritas, the Song of Roland, or the Alexander Romance.

[Maus_Indahaus]

Some historians claim that there was a Romano-British king or warlord who defeated a Saxon host, killing their leader and taking his sword as a trophy (as was a common thing back then, to take a sword, a horse and sometimes even a wife of a defeated general/king). The confusion comes from a translation of this event, as apparently the word SAXO means stone in Latin, confusing it with SAXON, so the story changed to depict that warlord (Arthur) taking a sword from a stone.

I checked and saxo means rock in Latin, by Google translate

[PakBallandSami]

The 9th-century Historia Brittonum, traditionally attributed to Nennius, records 12 battles fought by Arthur against the Saxons, culminating in a victory at Mons Badonicus. The Arthurian section of this work, however, is from an undetermined source, possibly a poetic text

Early Welsh literature quickly made Arthur into a king of wonders and marvels. The 12th-century prose romance Culhwch and Olwen associated him with other heroes, and this conception of a heroic band with Arthur at its head doubtless led to the idea of Arthur’s court

[zetqhfi]

The Welsh tales made him fight alongside former pagan gods and demigods as well. For me that indicates an older tradition in which Arthur was a part of. I believe the medieval Arthur is based on a more ancient and pagan Celtic hero/demigod.

[evanmangone]

First of all, I loved the video! I was surprised though that they didn’t mention a certain Ambrosius Aurelianus who appears in Gildas’s history. Gildas lived from 500-570AD so he was only a generation or so removed from Arthur. In Gildas, Ambrosius Aurelianus is a Romano-Birton general who apparently had ancestors who had “worn the purple”. Aurelianus won an important battle against the Saxons around 500AD. To me, this seems like our best historical analogue of King Arthur. However, later writers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, will refer to him as King Arthur’s uncle. Given that Geoffrey is writing several centuries later than these events and that Gildas is only writing a generation removed, I think it would make sense to defer to Gildas. It’s also important to recognize that in 500AD many of the Romano-Britons who were in power would’ve still had Latin sounding names and Ambrosius Aurelianus sounds like a freaking Roman Emperor!

I still loved the video, just wish I could’ve learned more about what Gildas had to say and the historicity of Ambrosius Aurelianus.

[LeoWarrior]

Strange monks sitting in monasteries distributing Celtic fanfiction is no basis for an entire nation's national founding myth!

[michaelmutranowski]

Historians after a century of debate: King Arthur was probably an amalgamation of a bunch of different kings and/or warlords from a time period roughly 100 to 200 years after the Roman withdrawal from Britain.
Some random guy in Japan like 20ish years ago: King Arthur was a blonde woman with a magic sword who fathered a daughter(Sir Mordred) with her older sister(Morgan Le Fey) using a penis made of magic(which was created by Merlin).

[TheManFromWaco]

If we’re going into myths and legends, I’d like to learn more about Prester John.

Portuguese explorers: “We’ve found the kingdom of Prester John!
Ethiopians: “There is literally nobody here with that name.”

[rosiehawtrey]

If a Welsh king was playing whack-the-Irish he wasn't doing it for fun since the Irish invaded the Welsh lowlands in 532ce and gave them a good kicking. That event may be the start of the antagonism between North and South Wales which allowed every subsequent attacker to invade - Welsh too busy fighting each other to fight the actual enemy.

[IUsedToBeSoneoneElse]

Not being a historian (neither professional nor amateur), perhaps I'm too easily persuaded, but I remain convinced by _King Arthur, The True Story_ by Graham Phillips & Martin Keatman, an investigation from 1992. In it, they proposed that "Arthur" was the title of a warlord rather than an original name, which is why his identity has always been so elusive. Their thinking is that, after the withdrawal of the Romans, the land was divided between the Romanised or Romano-Britons and the Native (Welsh) speakers. Therefore, any overall war leader ( _Dux Belorum_ ) would have to appeal to and unite both factions. The name chosen was derived from both Brethonic and Latin, "Arth" and "Ursus", in both cases meaning, "Bear". And, just as _Antonius_ in time became _Anthony, _ so too _Arthursus, _ a merging of the Welsh and Latin, would later become _Arthur._

[Xagzan]

If people want to read an Arthurian story that's indeed set in a grounded, historical fiction style, they should check out Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy and Mordred sequel. Her telling is really rooted in the time and place.

[PakBallandSami]

“Yet some men say in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another place; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy cross.”
― Thomas Malory,

[AlextheGreat]

Personally, I think Arthur was actually the last Roman general that stayed in Britannia to fend off the Saxon invaders during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, was Ambrosinius Aurelianus (I probably spelled his name wrong). I’m pretty sure the celts & the Romano-brits that we’re living during those times probably gave him a Celtic name that meant “Arthur” when you translated it.

[TheTLKR]

I think theres also a very obscured knight of the round table member called Sir Robin. Not quite knows about him much, other than one time he bravely run away from a skirmish, and meet his horrible death by fail giving an answer to the bridgekeeper question when attempting to cross the bridge of doom.

[nenenindonu]

National legendary figures are pretty interesting King Arthur for Brits, Bodonchar Munkhag for Mongols, Oghuz Khagan for Turks, Rurik for the Rus', ...