King Arthur

[mReEtTaIlRsEkD]

Everyone I know who saw it said it sucked, so I never saw it, but it came on tv last night and I watched it and I was like wtf?
Saxon = The original English people afaik who are all pure breeds and don't interbreed. (Normans blah blah)
Now they got the pure breed part right, but they made them all like Norsemen, and had them invading Britain through Hadrian's wall, which is correct but why the fuck do they look like Vikings.
Now the British people in the movie were all the merlin dudes with Finntroll paint (Keira knightingly with Finntroll paint = Hawt.) Who I thought were supposed to be the Saxons? Unless I'm forgetting something and Saxons are from like some other part of England or Britain I dunno. As far as I know Saxons are pure breed English men.
Now hadrian's wall is correct, Saxons taking back their land from Romans is correct, but why the fuck did they make the Saxons fucking Vikings and why did the Saxons fight the English people if Saxons are fucking pure breed English.
I know my history pretty well (2 ap classes), but I've obviously forgotten alot and this confused the hell outta me, I'm wondering if I'm fucked up or if the movie was made by a blithering idiot.
Someone please clear this shit up.

 

[Dying Freedom]

Saxons were from Germania and fought for the Roman empire.

 

[mReEtTaIlRsEkD]

"The Anglo-Saxons came from various places. Mainly from modern-day Netherlands and Northwestern Germany, and from modern-day Denmark. Also, they came from Celtic Britain (well, there was some intermarriage going on between Celt and Germanic 'invader' so I added Celtic Britain)."
Hrm, that explains somewhat, but they fought for the Roman empire? /shrug
And according to this reference the movie fucked up the pure breed aspect of the Saxon's.

 

[Dying Freedom]

I don't know about the pure breed thing, but at some point the invaded germanic tribes (as well as numerous other peoples in Eurasia and North Africa) fought for the Romans. That would explain why the saxons are fighting the english. I don't know, it's been a while since I saw that movie.

 

[mReEtTaIlRsEkD]

Yarr, ty info.

 

[TheDreamingMind]

Historically the german tribes invaded england after the Roman departure, basically because britain was left vulnerable. This fits somewhat although not completely with the story which is set DURING the departure. The reason they look like vikings is probably because the film makers didnt do enough research.

The business with Merlin and the "finntroll paint" (it's called woad) et all seems to be pointing at the original tribal structure of britain. When the Romans invaded britain 400 odd years earlier they used "divide and conquer" tactics, making alliegences with some tribes, paying others to fight against the tribes they didnt like etc etc. By the time the Roman conquest was complete England was a single unified nation. You wouldnt find any barbaric tribes anywhere unless you were really looking hard in northern scotland, western wales and ireland. Thus when the Romans departed it pretty much remained a unified nation until the germanian invasions. I'd say Merlin's the bigger fake in this case.

The saxons are fighting the english because the english are the indigenous population of the country, the saxons are not. If you go to places like devon and cornwall on the west coast of england, you'll find them pretty devoid of saxon influence, as the conquest never really got that far.

 

[Anvil]

interesting.