On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 12:09 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 1:49 PM, Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote: > > Remember, much of what is attributed to King Arthur is actually stolen > from > > Karl Der Grosse/Charlemagne. > > Do you have any attribution for that, Steve? I haven't come across > that before. The book that I'd consider canon is Malory's La Morte > D'Arthur and that was written in the late Middle Ages. Arthur's > historical context is the period after the fall of Rome and before the > Anglo-Saxon invasions. There are no contemporary records so all > literary works are fiction. Literature and plays written after the > introduction of the concept of chivalry make it a vital part of the > story. I don't doubt a retelling of the Charlemagne story with > chivalry could have influenced Malory, like I said, I just have never > seen it. > What do you mean by considering Malory canon? La Morte D'Arthur may be the source of the most widely known stories of Arthur's Knights, but of course, as you imply above, they were neither the first (by a long shot) nor the last. For those who see some historical nuggets in the Arthur legend they are probably not best searched for in Malory. In the context of this thread, I don't think a modern version that deviates from Malory can really be considered to be any more "wrong" or "inaccurate" than Malory is in his many deviations from even earlier sources and versions of the tales. I wonder if what Steve means above is that the original Arthur stories were re-worked and elaborated in the medieval period under the influence of the chivalry stories inspired by Charles the Great. I have had a few teachers who liked to get their crank on complaining that the Arthur of the popular imagination was nothing like the "real" Arthur (quotes in the original rants), with the implication that a lot of the romances of the round table were Charlemagne derivatives (if not actually stolen). -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
