I am certain that you are correct, and I respect your opinion.
Unfortunately, after that abominable Clive Owen movie "King Arthur", I think that I have lost my taste for Celtic Fiction. That's a Movie that I've been hoping that Hollywood would make for so long (an historical account of King Arthur -- the Christian-Roman General Arturias and his Christian-Roman knights against the Pagan Anglo-Saxons), that I was almost willing to overlook the legion of historical errors which they incorporated.
The Legend of King Arthur IS, in my opinion, a Story that needs to be told. But the Movie, in question, did NOT "perform as advertised", shall we say.
At least they got the Political feel of Britain right, I guess... a worthless and soggy island at the very end of the world where the hardened Christian Knights of Rome could finish out their last days of slave-service to Rome against the invincible killing-machine of the Pagan German hordes -- THAT much, they got right. THAT is the original germ-seed of the Arthur-Arturias Legend.
"Merlin" himself is a hard historical figure for whom to account; perhaps a Byzantine Priest or alchemist who bore the recipe for "Greek Fire" to the last legions of Christian-Roman Britain? It is impossible to say; for though we know that "Arturias" was a True Christian-Roman General of accomplishment, recorded in History, the enigmatic figure of "Merlin" is much harder to pin down -- and yet, ever-present. Perhaps "your guess is as good as mine".
I do know this much, though -- it was pure Hollywood Anti-Calvinism for the Screenwriter to pretend that General Arturias was a follower of the Free-Will-ArchHeretic Pelagius, when in fact the Augustine-Pelagius Free Will-Predestination controversy had already been settled, in Augustine's favor, at least eighty years before the Action of the Story; and what is more, the fact is that Pelagius was hardly beloved in Roman Britain; all accounts indicate that he fled to Rome to find a greater audience for his Free-Will Theories, BECAUSE the Roman Christians of Britain were so resolutely committed to Absolute Predestination that they did not WANT a Heretic preaching "Free Will" in their domain.
"The All-Father wove the skein of your life a long time ago.
Go and hide in a hole if you wish... but you won't live one instant longer.
Your Fate is fixed.
Fear profits a man... nothing."
~~ Herger the Joyous, The Thirteenth Warrior)
It was absolutely asinine for the Screenwriters to pretend that the Roman General Arturias was a follower of Free-Will Pelagianism eighty years after Pelagianism had been run out of Britain due to the Predestinarian British hatred of the Heretical Doctrine of Free-Will. And of course Pelagius was NOT burned at the Stake; he was merely Excommunicated from the Church; And I rather think that the Commanding General of Roman Britain, General "Arturias", probably would have heard about all this in the EIGHTY YEARS since the Augustine-Pelagius controversy. (Especially given that, as a good British Christian, he probably aligned himself with the argument for Absolute Predestination!)
And at the end of the day, the invincible Martian killing-machines swept away all in their path, thus forcing us to work together.
The rest is History, and I shall leave it to better men than myself to write it.
I have written what I have written, and you all may sort it out as best you can. God knows I could not -- given the time I had. I shall now retire -- and pray God's blessings upon you all.
Good night.
OP
Please ignore my #725, I got carried away with a bit of Sci-Fi writing for a friend of mine, in reference to Kevin J. Anderson's "War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches".
Matter of fact, if the Admin Moderator would be so kind as to delete my #725 entirely, I should be very grateful.
I was writing two essays at once, one genuine and one fanciful, and I managed to combine the two before posting. While my friends and I enjoy early 20th-Century Science Fiction, I did not intend to post fanciful discussions of "invincible Martian killing-machines" on THIS Forum.
Much too H.G. Wells for JimRob's sandbox. I apologize.
Check out post 715 before it gets deleted! Somebody was feeling grooooooovy last night! :-)
(Basically, they transferred their allegiance from Odin to Yahweh, but retained their belief in Absolute Predestination:
Amen, OP! Great and accurate history lesson. The story of King Arthur is completely predestinarian, whether idiot Hollywood gets it or not. Arthur was destined to be king; he didn't will it so.
(Still, I did enjoy "Excaliber.")
Go and hide in a hole if you wish... but you won't live one instant longer. Your Fate is fixed. Fear profits a man... nothing." ~~ Herger the Joyous, The Thirteenth Warrior)"The All-Father wove the skein of your life a long time ago.
Now THAT was a GREAT MOVIE! Michael Crichton at his best.
Herger the Joyous: "Mm-hm. Ride till we find them... and kill them all!"Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan: "Have we anything resembling a plan?"
An Ann Coulter-prequel. 8~)
I had to go back and read about the invincible Martian killing-machines again. Definitely a memorable post. Heh-heh.
In Lawhead’s version, Pelagius is treated well, but that isn’t the point.
The Celtic research is so good, and such an unobtrusive part of the story, that the culture is alive.
The dominant Christianity of the era should have been that from Iona. It would have tracked better with the Eastern Fathers than with Rome.