🚀 go-pugleaf

Sorry about this but if I use 'rd' I get mail error 11 or some such
idiocy.
> 	1) Arthur was part Briton and part Roman and took command of
> 	a unit of heavy cavalry stationed in Northwestern England
> 	after his father died.

North west England is a silly place to put a garrison of heavy, or
even light, cavalry. There was nothing overly desirable there and no
major roads to the rest of the country. Places such as York, Lincoln
and Colchester are on the East side of the pennines and connected by
the great north road.

> 	2) The garrison was probably centered at Colchester.  Chester
> 	translates into "camp" and there are many chesters in western
> 	England.

Please name more than two. Although perhaps I should allow all of
the ...caster  and ...cester place names. My quibble is that these
are Roman camps and should be of little relevance to Arthur fighting
invasions from the East.

> 	3) The Heavy Cavalry (or Knight of the Round Table) were the
> 	only ones of their kind in England.  They were Sarmatians,
> 	who came from the western shores of the Black Sea, where
> 	modern day Romainia is. They have large horses, a full suit
> 	of chainmail, helmet, breastplate, sheild and lance.  The
> 	best armed troops of the day.


Why are the Knights of the Round Table definitely Sarmatians? Trade
still existed and I can believe in an equivalence troop being formed
but I need something more before I can accept the definite
statement.

> 	4) The Sarmatians were stationed in England in the standard
> 	practice of many Empires.  Troops were stationed in areas
> 	far removed from their homeland so they would not have to
> 	fight their own kind.

Please prove this statement. We are discussing the time frame of a
period after the removal of the legions.

> 	5) Arther and his cavalry were attempting to maintain some
> 	form of order in the years after the Romans had withdrawn.
> 	This puts the time frame in the late 400's, early 500's.
Given.
> 	Britons were no longer Celts, but they weren't Saxons yet.
Britons were not, are not and will never be Saxons. On the other hand
I have no idea what a proper name for the inhabitants of England at
that time should be.
> 	Into this power vaccum the Saxons and Danes came, seizing
> 	eastern England.
Wait a moment. The Danes did not start to arrive for another 100
years or so. However there were problems with the Angles. There
were possibly problems with the Irish too, particularly the tribes
that the romans had called scotti.
>  Arthur fought them from Western England
> 	using his "chesters".  When he suffered a serious reverse,
> 	he spent a long time hiding out in the marshes of southwestern
> 	England, which is why is he is so well remembered there.
I disagree. I think he is remembered there because the land that he
defended in the west did not get overrun so soon after his death.
Kent, Sussex and East Anglia fell or was given to the Angles. The
Saxons pushed through these areas to the central counties. The
North fell shortly thereafter to the danes. The only places left
were Wales and Mercia and these are the places that remember Arthur.

> 	6)Conclusion:  Because of his Roman education and his 
> 	excellent cavalry, Arthur could beat any of the roving
> 	bands and independent nobles that stood in his way.  Whether
> 	he could stand up to the organized armies of the invaders
> 	depended on how much support he got from the Britons.
What organised armies?

As I see it, his cavalry was a success in his lifetime and fell apart
from a lack of leadership after his death.

> 				- Christopher Salander
> 
> 	(descended from the Crosbys of Lancastershire, England,
				            ^^^^
I was born as raised in Crosby, Lancashire. The Crosbys must have
left an awful long time ago if they think that the county around
Lancaster is called Lancastershire.

p.s. Can anyone translate 'Nigel made me' into Gaelic. I want to
carve to onto a Celtic harp that I have just about finished
building.
-- 
--
{ihnp4|vax135|allegra}!lznv!nrh
	Nigel		The Mad Englishman or
			The Madly Maundering Mumbler in the Wildernesses

Everything you have read here is a figment of your imagination.
Noone else in the universe currently subscribes to these opinions.

"Its the rope, you know. You can't get it, you know."

     The following quotation is from the Old English translation
[attributed to King Alfred, but probably done by Mercian
translators under his influence] of the Venerable Bede's
[:-) The Venemous Bede's] Ecclesiastical History of the English
People.  [Original langauge, Latin.]  Alas, I do not speak      
Old English, so treat my translation warily.  Eth and Thorn are
represented as th, and ash (the ae digraph) as ae.

     Waes in tha tid heora heretoga and latteow Ambrosius, haten
     othre noman Aurelianus.  Waes god mon and gemetfaest,
     Romanisces cynnes mon.

     There was in that time a captain and leader Ambrosius,
     by another name called Aurelianus.  He was a good man and 
     moderate, a man of the Roman race.

     My Old English professor, the learned John Halverson of
U.C. Santa Cruz, claimed that this was the only surviving 
reference to Arthur in Old English literature.  The passage
goes on to cite his achievements at the battle of Mt. Badon
(Beadonescan dune), but my translation above is sufficiently
offensive to dissuade me from attempting the whole paragraph.
I don't have a copy of the entire Ecclesiastical History;
my source is page 240 of Moore, Knott, and Hulbert's
The Elements of Old English.

     I hope Old English ("Anglo-Saxon") is permissible in 
discussions of things Celtic.


                               
                               David M. MacMillan

P.S.  A curious topic might be the misspellings of Gaelic
names.  Within the past few years, an entirely new variant
has arisen:  MacMillian.  For some reason, I find this
particularly irritating.