"'Cultivated fields,' observed Whitcomb. His voice was hushed in the stillness. 'The Jutes and Saxons were mainly yeomen, you know, who came here looking for land. Imagine the Britons were pretty well cleared out of this area some years ago.'" (Time Patrol, p. 30)
Two observations here:
Cultivated fields are a far cry from the first century European wilderness that Everard will experience much later in his career. That wilderness was inhabited by these invaders of Britain.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes displaced the Britons to the South East and North West and bestowed the name "England" so how did the term "British" later come to signify the dominant culture in this island? When James VI of Scotland became James I of England, thus uniting the two kingdoms, he claimed to be restoring a lost Arthurian British unity as described in Geoffrey of Monmouth's work of historical fiction, The History Of The Kings Of Britain, which recounts the Britons' Trojan ancestry and consequent kinship with the Romans and lists not only Arthur but also Lear and Old King Cole as Kings of Britain.
Poul and Karen Anderson tackled a similar legendary history in The King Of Ys.
No comments:
Post a Comment