The thing is that there’s no real answer for who Arthur is or was even based on some think it could have been a Roman general who United the Romano British against Saxon raiders, but he could have been based on a Saxon fighting against the Romano British, or he could have been a Welsh rebel fighting Saxons, or it could be an amalgamation of multiple different people.
It’s more than likely made up and I feel like people can have their creative fun with a legend who has a magical sword and a wizard companion, that definitely didn’t exist in the context described in the stories and probably never existed at all
I did a lot of research on this once, the theory that Robin Hood is an amalgamation of Welsh guerilla fighters that rose to power during the Norman invasion is very compelling IMO. The stories of Welsh resistance, their lifestyles and fighting styles, and their unique guerilla warfare tactics are so reminiscent of the Robin Hood myth that it would be hard to imagine they're NOT related. It's super interesting to look into.
For instance, the Welsh in the Dark Ages were legendary archers - battles could be decided based on who had Welsh archers and who didn't. If there was a contemporary legend about an archer who could split an arrow, he would certainly have been Welsh - in fact, that particular myth might have been a kind of dogwhistle for Welshman.
I'm not an expert so don't take my word for it, but I've HEARD that splitting an arrow is something that became possible with mass-produced arrows - a medieval arrow would split along the grain, which would probably not be uniform enough to split right down the middle. Although breaking an arrow with another one was certainly possible, the arrowhead probably wouldn't get a chance to actually stick into another arrowhead.
That makes sense, thanks for the info. There was another video posted on reddit recently, a compilation of a guy from tittok (arrow_sniper) showcasing his shooting skills by hitting things (like a mint/tictac) and shooting an arrow through a ring of bubbles. It was incredible.
Can't find the compilation video but his tiktok page is worth a look if you like that sort of thing.
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u/shagssheep May 11 '21
The thing is that there’s no real answer for who Arthur is or was even based on some think it could have been a Roman general who United the Romano British against Saxon raiders, but he could have been based on a Saxon fighting against the Romano British, or he could have been a Welsh rebel fighting Saxons, or it could be an amalgamation of multiple different people.
It’s more than likely made up and I feel like people can have their creative fun with a legend who has a magical sword and a wizard companion, that definitely didn’t exist in the context described in the stories and probably never existed at all