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Tales of Merlin and King Arthur Resurface After 750 Years, Hidden in a Bookbinding
Gizmodo ^ | March 30, 2025 | Margherita Bassi

Posted on 03/31/2025 6:39:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin

In 2019, scholars at Cambridge University Library discovered an extremely rare 750-year-old text on the legends of King Arthur hiding in plain sight. A fragment of the fragile manuscript had been repurposed in the binding of a 16th-century property record, making it almost impossible to study the medieval text without dismantling and certainly damaging the record’s cover. Almost impossible—but not completely.

An interdisciplinary team of scholars from the University of Cambridge used various advanced imaging techniques to create a virtual copy of the binding, allowing them to digitally unfold the rare text without having to damage it or the property record. This ground-breaking approach also preserves the artifact as an example of 16th-century archival binding practice, which is “a piece of history in its own right,” Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, a French Specialist in Collections and Academic Liaison at Cambridge University Library who was involved in the project, explained in a university statement.

Written in the first half of the 13th century, it recounts the Arthurian legends in a monumental five-part epic prose. The fragment found at Cambridge University Library is from the Suite Vulgate du Merlin, a part of the Vulgate Cycle that recounts events that take place after King Arthur’s coronation. One passage from the fragment tells of the Christian victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Cambénic involving the knight Gauvin (also Gawain) with his Excalibur sword. Another recounts when a disguised Merlin appears at King Arthur’s court during the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: battleofcambenic; book; britain; caliburn; cambridge; epigraphyandlanguage; excalibur; gauvin; gawain; gizmodo; godsgravesglyphs; irenefabrytehranchi; kingarthur; margheritabassi; merlin; middleages; saxons; suitevulgatedumerlin; vulgatecycle
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To: Ezekiel

“I found the Isle of Avalon in the Torah.”

I remember reading that the Isle of Avalon, or the lake, was located at the same piece of land where that large yearly music fest is held in Britain. It is supposed to be a mystical place.


21 posted on 03/31/2025 8:24:17 PM PDT by odawg
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To: one guy in new jersey

It is sad, tragic really, isn’t it— how the English spent approximately millennium as a devoutly Catholic country ... and then the last 500 years in various levels of apostasy.


22 posted on 03/31/2025 8:36:04 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: left that other site
Oh too funny!

I have been OBSESSED with the Arthurian Legend/s since I was a tiny child. I've read and own many books about it, two of the oldest versions, reimagining the subject, you name it, I've probably read it, as long as it has been available.

I've seen EVERY single movie, documentary on T.V. and YouTube.

And yes, I've read the books written in Medieval times; both Brit and French ones. LOL

Quite the coinky dink...re your new read; dear friend! :-)

23 posted on 03/31/2025 8:39:04 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: irishjuggler
Only to YOU Catholic purists!

And now look at what has happened to YOUR church.

24 posted on 03/31/2025 8:42:55 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons

“And now look at what has happened to YOUR church.”

Hey, we’re aware of our problems, especially over the last 50 years.

But, seriously, is it your opinion that Christianity, in any form, has thrived in Britain in recent centuries compared to its first millennium? The C of E has been an obvious train wreck for a very long time


25 posted on 03/31/2025 8:56:54 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: irishjuggler
All religions who use the Old or the Old and New Testament ( Jews and Christians ), have been sliding for decades now.

No, not every singe church or synagogue, but as a collective; some worse than others. And more recently, fallen father away from their original stated beliefs.

Sure, there have been times, long ago and not quite as THAT long ago, where both have strayed/fallen on hard time, but not really to the extent of WHERE they are today.

Okay, nit so much the Amish nor Mennonites, but even the younger generations, born into those groups, have fallen away somewhat.

But this is too damned far off this thread's topic to go any further into this, so just let it drop.

If you still want to debate this topic with me, though I really DO advise you against doing so, as you'll be sorry...I give long, in depth FACTUAL history lessons on topics I know a great deal about, then contact me via FRmail.

26 posted on 03/31/2025 9:07:56 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons

Coram te procido in spiritu humilitatis...


27 posted on 03/31/2025 9:29:37 PM PDT by irishjuggler
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To: irishjuggler

Poenitet et peccare non amplius.


28 posted on 03/31/2025 9:35:55 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: Candor7
For good reason, Norma Lorre Goodrich's work is rejected as unsound by scholars in the field. The most credible and now well-accepted take on the Arthurian story is that it was a fictionalized account of the fading of Roman rule in Britain due to aggression from and conflicts with invaders and local tribal chiefs.

Those who experienced the transition found it a brutal and disorderly collapse of civilization. They looked back on Britain's last Roman military leader -- Arthur, by name or battle symbol -- as a golden figure of order and justice with at least some Christian beliefs. When conditions settled centuries later, poets and traveling singers fashioned folk memories and thin written accounts into popular entertainment that appealed to the ideals of the new era.

The result is as if all that we knew in a post-apocalypse America of the Civil War was incomplete copies of Gone with the Wind and scattered chapters and pages of military history. If that were the dominant story in popular entertainment across America, there would be dozens of competing variants and sites described as Tara and Twelve Oaks and as great battlefields, with many local notables claiming descent from and naming their kids for Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and so on, along with others named for Civil War generals and politicians.

As for the story of Arthur and his court, many decades of careful archaeology in Britain have identified places of ancient forts and battles and the residences and burial sites of various chieftains. Often, locals attributed them to the Arthurian romance. Yet artifacts and reliable modern dating methods refute all such claims as implausible -- including backwaters where locals were the most insistent.

What remains now as history is Arthur as likely a Roman type military leader who was, for the era, one of the good guys. Beyond that, the Arthur and Camelot and Holy Grail stories are bunk, much of it imported from across the English Channel.

As for the supposed Celtic Church and women priests, as systematic theology and Church administration developed, local variants of Christianity were reformed or suppressed in order to standardize Christian belief and practice and eliminate heresies.

Were there women priests in a claimed Celtic Church? Not as an approved Christian practice, with little in the way of real evidence for a Celtic Church. In the event, the British and Irish accepted the papacy as legitimate and authoritative -- at least until centuries later, when King Henry VIII wanted a divorce and a new wife for the sake of a male heir.

When claims of women priests and a Celtic Church are stitched together with a bad take on the legend of Arthur, my B.S. meter pegs in the red zone.

29 posted on 04/01/2025 1:12:33 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Rockingham

I disagree.

Goodrich’s work are impeccable scholarship.

Have you read them?

Read all 4 and pay attention to the footnotes.

The so called generally accepted scholars are dead wrong.

And the Grail Church existed until Rome stamped it out.BUt the remnants of the ancient church , originating in Celtic/Roman Britain are still with us.

https://mysteriesexplored.com/trehorenteuc/


30 posted on 04/01/2025 4:25:51 AM PDT by Candor7 (Ask not for whom the Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>)
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To: odawg

Wasn’t Avalon visited by St. Paul in his (mythic?) visit to England?


31 posted on 04/01/2025 4:34:37 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: nopardons

It’s a pretty beat up and well-worn paperback...but all the pages are in there.

I’m looking forward to it. ❤️


32 posted on 04/01/2025 4:43:55 AM PDT by left that other site (Ask Not What The Left is Doing. Ask What They Are Accusing YOU of Doing.)
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To: irishjuggler

The Irish shockingly being now hot on England’s heels in that regard...😕


33 posted on 04/01/2025 5:59:09 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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To: one guy in new jersey

Progressives’ Multiculturalism + Countries Without Borders = Russia, communist Red China, and available real estate


34 posted on 04/01/2025 6:03:38 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: odawg; SunkenCiv; Red Badger; Phinneous; null and void; rlmorel; monkeyshine; EBH; ...
It is supposed to be a mystical place.

When it comes to Arthurian legends, there is no shortage of theory, conjecture, and fake news.

Fair warning: here's an epic adventure (not sold in stores), for anyone who might actually be interested in the search for the rightful king (David & Son). Which is to say, wherever the truth leads, versus comparing opinions and going with the one that presents the most convincing or established argument:

Avalon (/ˈævəlɒn/)[note 1] is an island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 Historia Regum Britanniae as a place of magic where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was made and later where Arthur was taken to recover from being gravely wounded at the Battle of Camlann.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon

"Isle of Avalon"

אי אבלון

appears 5 times in the Tanakh, as the heads of the letters of a phrase. All in Deuteronomy, beginning with chapter 6, in the second verse of the Shema (שמע*, the Jewish statement of faith).

A great place to start. This idyllic place is located within the instructions for Whom to love, and how:

Deu 6
4. Hear [שמע], O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
5. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might:

את יהוה אלהים בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך

See also: Deu 10:12; 13:4; 30:6, 10. (The last verse's "Isle of Avalon" phrase begins with אל, not את.)

***

אבלון

Excalibur is also known as the sword in the stone.

stone:

אבן

In the stone that literally came out of Avalon are the letters lamed-vav [לו], "to him". It's also the numeral 36 (sorry about the scrambled coding; it's what happens when pasting certain letter number combinations and mixed text directions):

The Tzadikim Nistarim (Hebrew: צַדִיקִים נִסתָּרים, "hidden righteous ones") or Lamed Vav Tzadikim (Hebrew: ל"ו צַדִיקִים,x"36 righteous ones"), often abbreviated to Lamed Vav(niks),[a] refers to 36 righteous people, a notion rooted within the mystical dimensions of Judaism.
>>>

Mystical Hasidic Judaism as well as other segments of Judaism believe that there exist thirty-six righteous people whose role in life is to justify the purpose of humanity in the eyes of God. Jewish tradition holds that their identities are unknown to each other and that, if one of them comes to a realization of their true purpose, they would never admit it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadikim_Nistarim#Their_purpose

Concerning the lamed-vav and the identification of the rightful king (the one who extracts the sword from the stone), here's the verse where David [דוד] is literally missing:

1 Samuel 20:18 Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

The translations to English are awkward here. It's more literally that "you will be noticed [as missing] because your seat (dwelling place) will be noticed [for being empty].

And that IS what happens in the text. The KJV and several other translations put "David" in the verse, but the Hebrew only says "to him" [lamed-vav לו].

Yet the KJV did not change the appearance of the text (e.g. use italics) for "David", as is usual to signify a word not in the source manuscripts.

(For those aware of and/or interested in the double pei code of Redemption, notice that the verse contains a double use of the "pakad" verb.)

The phrase translated "to David" is actually "to him" [לו], as if he's in there (no formatting change), but he's not there. It's just "him", the letter vav (the masc. sing. suffix).

I found this particular issue a long while back because on the search page for David (the Hebrew Strong's entry), it says:

The KJV translates Strong's H1732 in the following manner: David (1,076x)

But also that

Strong's Number H1732 matches the Hebrew דָּוִד (dāviḏ),
which occurs 1,075 times in 910 verses in the WLC Hebrew.

(The same Strong's number also includes the Davids spelled as דויד.)

The question that arose was, "Where is David no. 1076?" And also, is he located twice in one of those 910 verses, or is the missing David located in an additional verse, a verse 911?

A: the missing David [who is there but not there] is located in the verse (20:18) where he's going to be noticed for not actually being there, in spite of the claim.

David is also the most famous statue in the world. You can visit him in Florence. Don't miss out. The religious worlds explain that David was a rather flawed man, yet God saw that David was the one. God looked inside, to choose the man after His own heart.

David is the stone the sculptors literally rejected for being too flawed to work with.

He even has his own page at the museum:

Data sheet

Author: Michelangelo Buonarroti
Date: 1501 - 1504
Collection: SCULPTURE
Technique: Marble
Dimensions: h. 517 cm
Inventory: Inv. Scult. n. 1076

https://www.galleriaaccademiafirenze.it/en/artworks/david-michelangelo/

I realize that it's a cynical shrug kind of world out there, so to it I say:

Amalek-Shmamalek!

Hebrew:

*!עמלק שמעמלק

How about an apple for the teacher?!

Is the missing David located in a verse 911?

Well as a matter of fact,

Amo 9:11
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

Amazing what can be found in a place called Huntsville. What a spectacular view from the highway is that. It's all in there. If people knew what they were looking at as they drove by, it would cause accidents.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is situated on the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Visitors are welcomed at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Marshall's official Visitor Center. U.S. Space & Rocket Center visitors can learn more about Marshall's legacy and ongoing work.

Visiting Marshall


35 posted on 04/01/2025 7:00:50 AM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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To: BenLurkin
Was the manuscript illustrated by Howard Pyle? If not, it sucks.


36 posted on 04/01/2025 7:08:15 AM PDT by Flag_This (They're lying.)
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To: Ezekiel

Fascinating! Thanks for the ping.


37 posted on 04/01/2025 7:37:34 AM PDT by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: Ezekiel

“It is a silly place.”

Just for levity!


38 posted on 04/01/2025 7:50:37 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims...but accomplices." George Orwell)
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To: Ezekiel

“When it comes to Arthurian legends, there is no shortage of theory, conjecture, and fake news.”

So it is really nice to have you set everyone straight, if anyone has a clue what you are saying.


39 posted on 04/01/2025 8:27:37 AM PDT by odawg
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To: rlmorel

40 posted on 04/01/2025 8:32:00 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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