
The Ruin of Britain - microwavecamera
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/06/gildas.html
======
elvinyung
Matter of Britain/Arthurian mythos nerd here.

It's amazing how much of the Arthurian mythologies have been derived from
varius vague allusions in this book. Probably lots of people know about the
theory of Ambrosius Aurelianus as a possible candidate for historical King
Arthur because of his role in the battle at Mount Badon, but what's even more
interesting is that in the book Gildas refers to a leader only by their
sobriquet of "the bear", which was rendered as _ursus_ in Latin, but in
Brythonic, it would've been _arth_.

Also another fun fact, Gildas never refers to Dumnonia by name, instead calls
it "Damnonia" presumably to reflect his condemnation.

~~~
simonh
The article touches on how later Anglo Saxons identified with Gildas,
especially in their own resistance to Danish invasion. I think that's largely
why the myth of Arthur became so entrenched. It resonated with later English
readers, with the trials of Arthur paralleling the struggle of Alfred against
the Danes.

I can't help suspect that Arthurian scholars and fans that want to place
Camelot in south-central England are drawn by the ghost of the kingdom of
Wessex.

~~~
elvinyung
I once read that King Arthur is one of the crowning (pun probably intended)
counterexamples of "history is written by the victors": if the Anglo-Saxons
really did write the history of the Sub-Roman Britain period, we would have
heard more about the Völkerwanderung and less about Arthur and Badon. But
maybe what you said is more correct, that history was adapted by the victors
(who then became the losers).

~~~
lkrubner
There are times when the victors win by allowing the losers to write 90% of
the story. Thus, the Catholic saints. Many of the saints were previously pagan
gods, and the Catholic Church decided that, rather than fight about it, it was
easiest to just accept the old gods as saints, which made victory much easier.

[http://biblelight.net/verita.htm](http://biblelight.net/verita.htm)

[http://www.articleseen.com/Article_pagan-gods-and-
goddesses-...](http://www.articleseen.com/Article_pagan-gods-and-goddesses-
worshipped-as-christian-saints_85176.aspx)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_saints_and...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_saints_and_feasts)

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kitd
_‘There was a historian in the time of the Britons, Gildas, who wrote about
their misdeeds, how they exasperated God with their sins so much that He
finally allowed the English army to conquer their land … Let us take warning
from this: it is true what I say, we know of worse deeds among the English
than we have heard of among the Britons.’_

Note the use of "English" to equal Anglo-Saxons, and "Britons", the original
inhabitants, at a time when they were arch-enemies.

------
worik
I thought this would be about Brexit.

The Ruin of Britain 2.0

~~~
LilBytes
Arguable Britain's been ruined several times over in the last century.

Ruin being a word up for perspective and opinion, in my lifetime as well as my
parents we've had two upheavals since the 70's and Brexit (again a matter of
perspective) will bring about The Ruin of Britain 4.0. A shameful time to a
Briton in the UK.

\- An ex-Pat

~~~
worik
Ok. Point taken.

The Ruin of Britain - The Next Chapter

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selimthegrim
Five kings criticized but only four mentioned? “Three centuries years
later...”? Is this person a Guardian intern in their free time?

~~~
NeedMoreTea
Erm, I count five?

"Constantine, king of Dumnonia (the area around modern Cornwall and Devon);
Aurelius Caninus; grey-haired Vortipor of the Demetae (in what is now
Pembrokeshire); Cuneglas, who probably ruled the area around the Dinarth Rhos
peninsula; and Maelgwn of Gwynedd"

Constantine; Aurelius Caninus; Vortipor; Cuneglas and Maelgwn of Gwynedd.

~~~
selimthegrim
Oh ok, I read that semicolon as a comma for some reason and thought Vortipor
was a title of Caninus

