Feature: Look-in, 2 December 1972
Saturday, 2 December 1972 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arthur_of_the_britonsThe first page of this feature in the children's magazine "Look-in" from the week ending 2 December 1972 sets the stage for the re-telling of the Legend of King Arthur in a much more realistic way than it had ever been told before.
The captions are not entirely accurate. Kai is wholly Saxon by birth, but Celtic by upbringing and loyalties. In the scene shown top left, from "The Challenge", Kai is not trying to overthrow Arthur. The two of them have just had a squabble that got out of hand.
The scene shown top right is interesting, in that the photo from "The Gift of Life" is taken from a different angle to the film used in the episode. Also, Arthur appears to be running with the child, whereas in the episode, he picks it up, the film is cut, and we see a rider approach, then it cuts back to Arthur giving the child to its mother as Kai runs past. Any film of Kai dismounting, and them running with the child, was left out of the final edit.
The top picture in the article below shows Kai and Llud launching spears at the Saxons in "Arthur is Dead." The picture below is captioned 'Goda, played by Hilary Dwyer' but actually shows Eithna, played by Madeleine Hinde.
Text:
As the story opens, we see the Celtic chiefs struggling, one by one, to move a great boulder. Beneath it lies a sword, and great honour awaits the first man to lift that sword above his head. But all the chiefs fail – and then the young warrior called Arthur steps forward. He shows them how to move the boulder by pushing together – but as the surprised men recover from their effort, they realize that Arthur has snatched up the sword and now holds it aloft.
Arthur has established his right to become war-leader of the Celts. At the same time, he has taught his men two important lessons. First, that unity is strength. And second, that victory goes to the man who thinks and plans rather than to the strongest.
Dream of a united Britain
But although Arthur becomes leader of Celtic resistance to the Saxon invaders of Britain, he needs all his wisdom and bravery to keep his place. His men are only too ready to fight among themselves. And of his two lieutenants, only the veteran warrior Llud is completely reliable. The other, Kai, is part-Saxon, a violent and head-strong young man who sometimes sees Arthur’s careful planning as a sign of weakness. But with these men, Arthur strives to bring about his dream of a united Britain.
“Arthur of the Britons” is based on what historians, rather than imaginative writers, can tell us about Arthur. In fact, we know very little. But what we do know is that a man called Arthur once existed, and that his deeds were so great that he was to be remembered for centuries as a mighty leader. From about A.D. 1200 onward, when the stories of Arthur were first written down, the legends of ‘King Arthur’ took on the more colourful form in which we read them today.
It is these legends, no more true than fairy-tales, that HTV’s “Arthur of the Britons” strips away – to show us the real man who lies behind him.
The captions are not entirely accurate. Kai is wholly Saxon by birth, but Celtic by upbringing and loyalties. In the scene shown top left, from "The Challenge", Kai is not trying to overthrow Arthur. The two of them have just had a squabble that got out of hand.
The scene shown top right is interesting, in that the photo from "The Gift of Life" is taken from a different angle to the film used in the episode. Also, Arthur appears to be running with the child, whereas in the episode, he picks it up, the film is cut, and we see a rider approach, then it cuts back to Arthur giving the child to its mother as Kai runs past. Any film of Kai dismounting, and them running with the child, was left out of the final edit.
The top picture in the article below shows Kai and Llud launching spears at the Saxons in "Arthur is Dead." The picture below is captioned 'Goda, played by Hilary Dwyer' but actually shows Eithna, played by Madeleine Hinde.
Text:
As the story opens, we see the Celtic chiefs struggling, one by one, to move a great boulder. Beneath it lies a sword, and great honour awaits the first man to lift that sword above his head. But all the chiefs fail – and then the young warrior called Arthur steps forward. He shows them how to move the boulder by pushing together – but as the surprised men recover from their effort, they realize that Arthur has snatched up the sword and now holds it aloft.
Arthur has established his right to become war-leader of the Celts. At the same time, he has taught his men two important lessons. First, that unity is strength. And second, that victory goes to the man who thinks and plans rather than to the strongest.
Dream of a united Britain
But although Arthur becomes leader of Celtic resistance to the Saxon invaders of Britain, he needs all his wisdom and bravery to keep his place. His men are only too ready to fight among themselves. And of his two lieutenants, only the veteran warrior Llud is completely reliable. The other, Kai, is part-Saxon, a violent and head-strong young man who sometimes sees Arthur’s careful planning as a sign of weakness. But with these men, Arthur strives to bring about his dream of a united Britain.
“Arthur of the Britons” is based on what historians, rather than imaginative writers, can tell us about Arthur. In fact, we know very little. But what we do know is that a man called Arthur once existed, and that his deeds were so great that he was to be remembered for centuries as a mighty leader. From about A.D. 1200 onward, when the stories of Arthur were first written down, the legends of ‘King Arthur’ took on the more colourful form in which we read them today.
It is these legends, no more true than fairy-tales, that HTV’s “Arthur of the Britons” strips away – to show us the real man who lies behind him.