Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
|
Sto caricando le informazioni... The Reign of Arthur: From History to Legenddi Christopher Gidlow
   Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
 Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro.  NickBrooke | Apr 18, 2006 |  nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Did King Arthur really exist? The Reign of Arthur takes a fresh look at the early sources describing Arthur's career and compares them to the reality of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. It presents, for the first time, both the most up to date scholarship and a convincing case for the existence of a real sixth-century British general called Arthur. Where others speculate wildly or else avoid the issue, Gidlow, remaining faithful to the sources, deals directly with the central issue of interest to the general reader: does the Arthur that we read of in the ninth-century sources have any link to a real leader of the fifth or sixth century? Was Arthur a powerful king or a Dark Age general co-cordinating the British resistance to Saxon invaders? Detailed analysis of the key Arthurian sources, contemporary testimony and archaeology reveals the reality of fragmented British kingdoms uniting under a single military command to defeat the Saxons. There is plausible and convincing evidence for the existence of their war-leader, and, in this challenging and provocative work, Gidlow concludes that the Dark Age hypothesis of Arthur, War-leader of the Kings of the Britons, not only fits the facts, it is the only way of making sense of them. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)942.014History and Geography Europe England and Wales England Anglo-Saxon B.C. 55 - A.D. 1066Classificazione LCVotoMedia: (3.64)
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1
The second half, "To Legend," examines how later authors (from the Mabinogion through the Welsh Saints' Lives to Geoffrey of Monmouth) added the magical deeds of legendary heroes to this historical Arthur, turning him into a figure first of folklore, then eventually of chivalric romance. Again, by examining the layers of this dubious source material in chronological order, Gidlow adds to our understanding of how Arthur came to be viewed primarily as a figure out of legend.
The author makes a convincing case that Arthur, victor at Mount Badon, could have filled any of a number of roles in post-Roman Britain, and that -- but for the 'taint' of the later, legendary material -- scholars would have no reason to deny his essential historicity.
Gidlow's easy familiarity with the many aspects of Arthuriana -- in history, romance, literature, and 'King Arthur shared my postcode' crank scholarship -- shines through. This book is an easy read, and a rewarding one. Highly recommended. (