After some more diligent searching on the Web a couple of days after publishing this King Arthur page, I discovered a humongous amount of material on the subject, which I haven't had the time yet to browse through, and to sift out the cardboard warrior set. There is a LOT of Arthurian matter out there in webspace, and at this point I'm not prepared to delve into it too deeply, which is why I would appreciate some E-MAIL from anybody who is into the historical background of the "Dark Ages" as it applied to post-Roman Britain and can supply me with some shortcuts! The fantasy aspects are out there for me to discover for myself (mainly in books). For me the Internet sources I'm looking for address historical characters like Urien of Rheged, the nascent kingdoms of Northumbria (Deira and Bernicia), Dalriada in Argyle, Strathclyde, the survival of Eboracum, the massacre at Anderida, the final overthrow of Hadrian's Wall, the 'true' facts about the Votadini (Edinburgers), etc. -- in other words, scholarly stuff without stiffness or emphasis on economics, agriculture, societal degeneracy, or whatever.** Rousing historical events, with the heroes fighting for the lost cause against evil politicians and barbarian terrorists -- that's my meat! If that's a bit psycho, well, that's why I confine that interest to the Dark Ages on that kind of thing. Serbian or Palestinian causes in the modern-day world turn me off entirely.

A bit of preaching here, if you don't mind (if you do, then don't read this). The original Pictish and Saxon and whatever raids against Roman Britain (and Civilization as We Know It) were basically piratical, such as always crop up in history when an establishment has become weak and vulnerable. It's not an invasion from outer space -- these people, like all effective predators, as in the inner city, KNOW their victims and their weaknesses. This Romano-British society was ripe for the plucking, so it was plucked (not that any decent person would condone this, however liberal they might be). Later on, the Germanic tribes, being forced out of their Continental lands by Huns and other terrors from the steppes, mostly by a domino effect -- Mongols push Huns into Hungary, Thuringians or whatever they were in Hungary then push out into Germany, Germans flee/push into Holland and Gaul, Frisians and Jutlanders and other English Channel folks invade the flatlands of eastern Britain, already weakened by the failure of Roman power because of other catastrophes in the break-up of the empire, and then indulge in a bit of "Ethnic Cleansing" -- horrible term, but it's what happens when you take over a country (viz. look what the Americans did to the native North American Indians). It is all a constantly repeated and depressing story through all of human existence. [How did you think the 'noble' Celts ever got established in the British Isles? The Celts/Druids didn't build Stonehenge: What happened to the people that did? You can make the usual (cynical) assumption and probably be right.]

So why does King Arthur appeal to the human spirit? Because, dammit, no matter how great the invaders finally become, no matter how good their basic ethnic qualities turn out to be in the long run, what they did initially was to steal the lands and destroy the culture of the previous inhabitants, very barbarically. THIS SORT OF THING CANNOT BE STOPPED -- IT'S HUMAN NATURE. Paradoxically, all people appreciate "the worm turns" stories, defend "family values" and "our god-given hard-earned rights." Tell that to the judge, if you can find one. What attracts our spirit -- and the same spirit lives among corrupt humans in street gangs and the Mafia -- is the noble upholding of the ideals against crushing and ultimately undefeatable odds. It's the resistance that counts, hence DEFENDERS AGAINST THE FALLING OF THE DARK!