The Film "King Arthur" is being released on July 7.Starring: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgård, Stephen Dillane Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
who strives for historical accuracy :)

We strive for accuracy in our Legends, but we take enormous "literary license " with our Films regarding REAL History???

First of all, the History Channel presentation of "The Quest for King Arthur", leaves no doubt that King Arthur was but a Legend, and he was at best an amalgamation of a number of people, but presented as real in "History of Kings of Britain", authored by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the 12 century, 600 years after the fact.

It appears that the greatest basis of the King Arthur character was Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Roman, and the second son of the Emperor Constantine, who when his father was executed and his brother murdered, little Ambrosius, along with his brother, Uther (Pendragon), was bundled up and taken across the Channel to the safety of Brittany. Here Ambrosius grew up, while the evil King Vortigern reigned in Britain, but always Ambrosius planned to return and claim his rightful inheritance.

Some years later. Ambrosius returned to Britain, clashed with Vortigern resulting in  a compromise, and the struggle between the two continued for most of his life. In the late 450s, the British people finally rallied behind Ambrosius (rather than the usually attributed King Arthur) as the commander at the famous battle of Mount Badon, the decisive British victory over the Saxons around 495-500.

Ambrosius is also credited, by Geoffrey, with the building of a monumental stone circle, the "Giant's Ring" (possibly Stonehenge or Avebury) to commemorate the Massacre of the 400+ member Council of the Elders in a Treaty Meeting with the Saxons at the "Night of the Long Knifes".

Well, we Italians already rightfully claim St. Patrick, (the Idol of the Irish) the son of a Roman official in Wales. Now we appear to be able to claim, King Arthur (the Idol of the Brits), along with his sword, Excalibur!!!!
Thanks to Jim Scalzitti

BBC News
June 18, 2004

The story of the "sword in the stone" from the legend of King Arthur, originates in Italy not the Celtic fringes of Britain or France, a new book by an Italian scholar argues.

In The Enigma of San Galgano, Mario Moiraghi cites scientific tests which date a sword embedded in a rock in an abbey in Tuscany to the year 1180, decades before the first literary reference to the sword.

He adds that an inquiry which led to the canonisation of Saint Galgano, the knight believed to have put the sword in the stone, contains a series of facts identical to the legend of Sir Percival, the finder of the Holy Grail.

In a previous book, Mr Moiraghi suggested that other elements of Arthur's legend originated in Persia.

Details such as the presence in the legend of ostriches, lions and mongeese - which never inhabited that part of Europe - suggest that it originated in tales of chivalry brought from the east by merchants, he says.

Hermit

The sword of St Galgano is preserved at a Gothic abbey of the same name at Montesiepi, near the city of Siena.

Only the hilt and a few centimetres of the sword's blade protrude from the rock.

Galgano was said to be a violent and lustful knight who became a hermit after seeing a vision of Jesus, Mary and the Apostles.

According to legend, he miraculously plunged the sword into the rock after being invited to renounce all worldly goods.

The sword was for many years considered a recent fake, but metal dating research at Pavia university two years ago established its authenticity.

Holy Grail

In the Arthurian legend, the future king pulls the sword from the stone to herald his accession to the throne.

Most elements of the legend have generally been thought to be Celtic in origin - from Wales, Cornwall or the French region of Brittany.

However, hard evidence of Arthur's existence as a historical figure in these regions is thin.

Mr Moiraghi says Galgano's life inspired two poetic versions of the Holy Grail story written shortly afterwards.

Chretien de Troyes' Perceval (1190) and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (c. 1220) both tell of a knight who overcomes all obstacles to reach his ideal.

The sword was first mentioned by 13th century French poet Robert de Boron, though in his work it was embedded in an anvil on top of a stone.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Sword legend 'came from Italy'
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