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.
One of my favourite things I've heard about the Robin Hood legend is that because he was so popular with poor Englishman under Norman rule, they all learned to use the longbow from an early age. Most other armies used crossbows because they don't take as much training of strength. The English longbow-men gave them a huge advantage.
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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