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Description:
King Arthur's story of swordplay and chivalry is so popular, everyone from Disney to Monty Python has taken a stab at it.
Transcript
- 00:03
Even if you've never read Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur you
- 00:07
probably already know a thing or two about King Arthur like one his name is [King Arthur stood inside a castle]
- 00:10
Arthur - two he's a king look at that you're practically an expert the King Arthur was
- 00:15
kicking around way before Malory set pen to paper way back in the 9th century a
- 00:20
monk historian named Nennius gave the name Arthur to a sixth century Roman [Nennius giving the name Arthur to a British General]
Full Transcript
- 00:25
British general who waged some successful battles against invading
- 00:29
Saxons. However this story of Arthur didn't make a huge splash much like a
- 00:34
lot of other products of monk culture shaving off the back part of your head [Monk with shaved head happy with his haircut]
- 00:38
and spending years in silence. This changed in the 1100's though the
- 00:42
French Norman's who had just invaded England traced their ancestry back to [Explosion and Normans appear]
- 00:45
Arthur and used that as an excuse for their reign in England which we suppose
- 00:51
is a more convincing argument than because we said so.. Though from that point on [Boy told to clean up his bedroom]
- 00:54
tales of Arthur and his knights were popular at Royal Courts because when the
- 00:59
Kings pick in the entertainment well you don't argue even if they're really [People cheering at the King Arthur]
- 01:02
into Nickelback.. well these tales of King Arthur were told and retold creating
- 01:06
newer different versions eventually seeing the addition of characters like [Young girls whispering]
- 01:09
Lancelot Gawain and Percival we hope one of those versions included a rousing
- 01:14
tap-dance number. So basically Malory had tons of material [People in a tap dancing class]
- 01:18
to pick and choose from when he was writing his version which clocks in at
- 01:22
an impressive 800 pages and no unfortunately there is no tap break [Girl trapped on a couch by book of Le Morte d'Arthur]
- 01:27
even without tap the resulting book ticks a lot of boxes it's got all sorts
- 01:30
of stories big fan a sword play in battles [Men fighting with swords]
- 01:33
well Malory's got you covered she's also got a lot of romance generally off the
- 01:37
battlefield, where it's a bit safer and if that weren't quite enough it even has [Two people kissing as arrow passes by]
- 01:41
big philosophical questions to contemplate like what it means to be a
- 01:45
great man should we emulate Lancelot the undisputed battlefield champion or is [Lancelot holding a sword on the battlefield]
- 01:50
the model man his son, Galahad who rejects earthly love and glory in favor
- 01:54
of all things spiritual well unfortunately for those of you who are [Galahad thinking about frolicing in a meadow]
- 01:58
in a rush to solve your philosophical problems we can't just turn to the back
- 02:02
of the books to find the answer so now that we know a bit more about King Arthur and
- 02:06
Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, well let's open it up and dig in and hey if you're still [Boy with his head on an open book]
- 02:11
feeling unsatisfied 800 pages later you can
- 02:14
always write a fanfiction tap dancing or something tells us when it's liable to
- 02:18
rock at YouTube [Lancelot and Percival in a tap dancing class]
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