On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.Hardwick, Charles
History
On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.
Hardwick, Charles
Battles -- England; Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Lancashire (England) -- History
the twelfth century, such as those discovered in the coffins of Prior
Aylmer (who died A.D. 1137), and of Archbishop Theobald (who died A.D.
1161), and in the cemetery of Bouteilles, near Dieppe, present. The
pyramids appear to have resembled the Bewcastle and Ruthwell monuments;
their age is determined by the names of King Centwine and Bishop
Hedde,[3] inscribed on the smaller one; to have been the close of the
seventh, or the beginning of the eighth century; and as the skeleton of
a man and a woman were found in coffins hollowed out of the trunks of
oak trees, it is probable that they were those of Wulfred and Eanfled,
whose names occur in the inscription on the larger one."
Welsh traditions and writers ignore the Glastonbury legend, and regard,
in some way or other, Arthur as a being exempt from ordinary mortality.
The Rev. R. W. Morgan, in his "Cambrian History," says,--"His farewell
words to his knights--'I go hence in God's time, and in God's time I
shall return,' created an invincible belief that God had removed him,
like Enoch and Elijah, to Paradise without passing through the gate of
death; and that he would at a certain period return, re-ascend the
British throne, and subdue the whole world to Christ. The effects of
this persuasion were as extraordinary as the persuasion itself,
sustaining his countrymen under all reverses, and ultimately enabling
them to realise its spirit by placing their own line of the Tudors on
the throne. As late as A.D. 1492, it pervaded both England and Wales.
'Of the death of Arthur, men yet have doubt,' writes Wynkyn de Worde, in
his chronicle, 'and shall have for evermore, for as men say none wot
whether he be alive or dead.' The aphanismus or disappearance of Arthur
is a cardinal event in British history. The pretended discovery of his
body and that of his queen Ginevra, at Glastonbury, was justly
ridiculed by the Kymri as a Norman invention. Arthur has left his name
to above six hundred localities in Britain."
Mr. Haigh, whilst maintaining the substantial historical veracity of
Arthur's invasion of France, nevertheless adds: "When we consider how
miserably the history of the Britons has been corrupted, in the several
editions through which it has passed, we cannot expect otherwise than
that the Brut should have suffered through the blunders of scribes, and
the occasional introduction of marginal notes, and even of extraneous
matter into the text, in the course of six centuries. Such an
interpolation, I believe, is the story of an adventure with a giant,
with which Arthur is said to have occupied his leisure, whilst waiting
for his allies at Barbefleur; and I think the reference to another
giant-story (not in the Brut), with which it concludes, marks it as
such. But I am convinced that the story of the Gallic campaign is a part
of the original Brut, and is substantially true."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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