,
I do know him, but because I'm into oddball fantasy tropes. I just got the significance of that whole part of Stargate 1 when Merlin showed up. (Yes, also related to the King Arthur legion, but there was a vanquish-the-dragon quest SG1 team had to figure out.) And I know a good save-the-princess-from-sacrifice-to-the-monster trope when I see one. (King Kong was a switch-the-roles take-off, where the monster was just misunderstood.) He's also like Katniss protecting her little sister.
I do know the tale, except it's sort of like King Arthur. It had a beginning and has been fortified, mystified, turned on its head, swapped around, and turned inside out over the centuries. Cool! I don't feel as dumb as I did admitting that I didn't know anymore.
Ends up I knew about as much as most people. He probably really did exist, lived before the Dark Ages, and so much of his story is lost all we're kind of sure about is he was probably a Christian. Slightly more obscure than the patron saint of my ancestors -- St. Patrick. (Italian dude most noted for telling the Irish about the trinity using clover. Hey, you call it shamrocks. Looks like clover to me. lol)
One of the big advantages I think Americans have over Europeans is our history. You guys have to go back to the era of hunters-gatherers for your history, and so much of it is obscure. We go from Leif Erickson, to Chris Columbus, and then skip a couple of centuries to go straight to a couple of groups of Europeans thought it was a good idea to go to a new continent to find all that gold, only to find all those trees. (And something vague about who was already living here. I mean, I don't even know the name of the nations that helped out the guys at Plymouth Rock or Jamestown, because they were given an umbrella name that doesn't even fit -- Indians.) And then from there to some nutty King in England who actually thought we'd pay that much taxes for tea. (I recently found out that king really was nuts somehow.) Most of the history we learn in school has to do with starting at 1776. When does your history start and how much are you supposed to learn? Because you have a whole lot more history than we do.
BTW, thanks. You just educated a Yankee.
I really loved history at school, not the King/Queen stuff that was boring.
I mean the fire of London stuff, plague, then there was the off with
everyone's head period. I also did the history of medicine at school, fascinating.
There is actually a museum I have been to see which is about the history of medicine.
It is attached to a hospital of all places.
They have mock ups of medieval surgery, chopping off limbs with no anaesthetic, that
sort of thing. Plus old wives remedies. Like if you have a sore throat, tying a toad or a
frog under your chin or putting one in your mouth. Hence the quote have you got a frog in
your throat!
They thought bad smells caused illness so the cure was sniff something that smelt nice.
Hence people swooning about with hankies sniffing them.
They also have a display of various ancient surgical instruments. Very scary I tell ya. Lol
The other thing which stands out is learning about peat bog man. A dead body found
in a bog perfectly preserved and even had seeds from his last meal in his stomache.
You can actually look up peat bog men on the internet but I don't know which peat bog
men we looked at.
I was a bit of a gruesome child. Lol more frogs and snails and puppy dogs tails.
That is an old poem
What are little girls made of, sugar and spice and all things nice.
What are little boys made of, frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.
