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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.

Language:
English Language

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]

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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