Tag: Warlords

King Arthur’s Real Round Table Revealed

King Arthurs Round Table wasnt just the romantic meeting place of Arthurs warriors but a massive building on the edge of a huge Roman city. What’s more, it was a powerful symbol of Roman authority that survived for some 600 years after the Romans left Britain. (Skip to the Video)

Thats the bold conclusion made by archaeologists in a new documentary that shows how the monumental Roman structure was transformed from an amphitheatre into a fortified stronghold.

King Arthurs Round Table Revealed explores this and other mysteries surrounding by the iconic British hero King Arthur.

The documentary is an exploration of what archaeology today is revealing about King Arthurs world. It follows life in Dark Age Britain after the fall of Rome resulted in chaos, anarchy and inter-ethnic strife. It all led to the rise or warlords including King Arthur, who led the resistance against the Saxon insurgency.

The refortification of Roman sites, the vital strategic importance of the road system and the use of Christianity as a rallying point against the pagan Saxons are all studied. There are some excellent reconstructions of Arthurian warfare by Comitatus and Regia Anglorum; scientific analysis of one of the skeletons from a Dark Age mass grave outside Chester; and high quality replicas showing the distinctive military fittings which characterised the armies of the British warlords.

Chester King Arthur’s Stronghold

The programme uses Dark Age texts to track down traces of Arthur on the ground, while at the same time taking in archaeological evidence relating to key sites such as Hadrians Wall, Silchester and, crucially, Chester. Here, finds in the huge amphitheatre confirm the identity of Chester with the City of the Legion, site of two of the first Christian martyrdoms in Britain and one of King Arthurs famous 12 battles.

Christopher Gidlow, author ofRevealing King Arthur, is one of the programme’s consultants. He describes the documentary as convincing and powerfully told.

You wont have seen a programme like this, he says. The scholarship is cutting edge and the list of contributors is a whos who of the most respected archaeologists working in the field. The part which sees the forensic scientist Malin Holst examine the body of a slain Saxon warrior is incredible. Tony Wilmott of English Heritage conveys a real sense of the awe he and his team felt confronted with the evidence of the Christian martyr from the Chester Amphitheatre. There is also some great CGI and the reconstructions of the Romanised British army fighting the invaders are the best Ive seen. King Arthurs Round Table Revealed will have you thinking this has got to be right.

One of the programme’s other contributors, Stuart Laycock himself an expert on post-Roman rule in Britain has described Gidlow as the most credible proponent of a historical Arthur.

I take this as meaning that I keep up to date with modern scholarship and that I dont have a blinkered attachment to proving that King Arthur shared my postcode or that some other shadowy Dark Age character is hiding behind the Arthur mask, says Gidlow.

HD Video: Legend of King Arthur’s Round Table based on Roman Amphitheatre

You can read an extract from Gidlow’s Revealing King Arthur on the Tintagel Stone in Cornwall here on HK.And also trace his Top 10 Archaeological Clues to the Real King Arthur.

(Click here for a transcription)

King Arthurs Round Table Revealed (video trailer) will air in the UK on the HISTORY channel (Sky Channel 529 and Sky Channel 545) from Monday, July 19 to Sunday, July 25, 8pm-11pm.

Woo’s Wish: East/West Unison

The worlds third largest economy may command respect for its military might and new superpower status.But director John Woo wants to use the universal stories of ancient China to build a more culturally respected worldview of the great nation.

His new film Red Cliff (read the review here) is one hes been trying to make for almost two decades to that end.The story of Red Cliff took place a thousand and eight hundred years ago in China, says the godfather of action-films. It was a battle bearing significant historical importance. Through the widely told tales of the battle, we learned of the great intelligence and bravery of the ancient people of China, who, though gravely outnumbered, managed to defeat their enemies.

With all this talk of Battles, and the Chinese cultural heritage of martial arts, one might expect Red Cliff to be nothing but a close-quarters fighting fest. But Woo’s ambitions for the film are much higher. He claims, My goal is for this film to rise above cultural and historical barriers, so that the Western audience feels as if they are watching an Asian Troy, while the Eastern audience can discover new perspectives on a familiar story.

Woo took a brave step in his dedication to historical accuracy. For me, the most attractive aspects of Romance of the Three Kingdoms [the novel many believe the film to be based on] are not the supernatural characters idealized by the novel, but true Heroism that the characters show.The world has many kinds of heroes, he continues but I like heroes that are real and human.

A Philosophical Woo

In 2008,China demonstrated their desire to forge closer links with the West through their hosting of the Olympic Games.It’s a sentiment shared by Woo, who says, I genuinely believe that human emotion is universal and not bound by culture. The same values of virtue, morality and friendship are praised in the West just as they are in the East. Though these feelings are expressed in different ways, deep inside, we all essentially share the same emotions. With this in mind, I disregarded a great deal of the details in the book when I made Red Cliff. We have a large production crew assembled from all over the world: China, America, Japan and Korea. During the course of our collaboration, talented people from both East and West were able to learn from working together.

While Woos comments are admirable, one cant help feel hes stretching his ambitions a little too far.For one, making a film that is supposedly closely linked to the history books about a culture existing 1,800 years ago, and then attempting to apply universal beliefs to the other side of the world is a little off-kilter.Secondly, if Woo really wanted a connection to be made with the West, why did we end up with the paltry 2hr 30mins version when the four-hour long Asian two-part release contained all the nuances and ancient subplots?

Maybe he wanted to do too much in making a realisticancient world film that was also accessible to the masses, provingChina can do Hollywood’ after all. In the words of Mr Woo, While audiences in the East love many great movies from the West, Western audiences also appreciate our splendid culture of the East. Therefore, I genuinely hope that when you watch Red Cliff, you do not look at it as a Chinese film or a Hollywood film, but as a global film.

Image by Markus Vandriel