381: King Arthur with Dorsey Armstrong

00:00:02:01 – 00:00:23:08
Dan LeFebvre
Hello and welcome to based on a True Story. The podcast that compares your favorite Hollywood movies with history. The new Year is upon us, and this is my first time talking to you in 2026, so I thought it would be appropriate to go back into the vault for a classic episode about the topic that got me interested in history to begin with, The Legend of King Arthur.

00:00:23:11 – 00:00:40:22
Dan LeFebvre
Now, I’ll share a little bit more about how that tale got me interested in history, as well as an update for 2026 at the end of the episode, if you want to hear about that. But let’s jump into today’s movie. And there are a lot of King Arthur movies out there, but one of them marketed itself as being a more historically accurate adaptation of the story.

00:00:40:24 – 00:00:59:26
Dan LeFebvre
So that’s why today we’re going to be learning about the 2004 movie starring Clive Owen and Keira Knightley. And let’s start by refreshing our memory of the movie with a quick synopsis. As the movie starts, we quickly learn why this is a little different than other King Arthur movies because Clive Owen’s version of Arthur isn’t a king at the legendary Camelot.

00:01:00:00 – 00:01:28:11
Dan LeFebvre
Instead, he is a Roman trained commander leading a band of some marching warriors stationed in Britain near the end of Rome’s occupation. Their years of service are supposed to be over, and they’re eager to finally earn their freedom papers and go home. The twist comes when Rome orders them on one last mission ride north of Hadrian’s Wall into dangerous territory to rescue a Roman family before a ruthless Saxon army sweeps down and destroys everything in its path.

00:01:28:14 – 00:01:54:20
Dan LeFebvre
That decision pulls Arthur and his men straight into the collision between Rome’s empire, invading Saxons and the native Britons caught in the middle. Arthur’s soldiers in the movie are many names that we’re familiar with from the legends Lancelot, Gwyn, Galahad, Bors and Tristan. They reluctantly accept the mission, knowing that it might be a suicide run. And in the movie, we see them battling brutal weather, ambushes and the constant pressure of the advancing Saxon forces.

00:01:54:22 – 00:02:16:29
Dan LeFebvre
Along the way, they encounter two other familiar characters from the legend Guinevere and Merlin. In this version of the story, Guinevere is a world warrior rather than the courtly queen that we might expect, and Merlin appears to be more of a tribal leader than a wizard. As alliances shift, Arthur is forced to choose between his duty to Rome and his growing sense that Rome has abandoned Britain.

00:02:17:02 – 00:02:38:18
Dan LeFebvre
The story builds to a large scale showdown when Arthur and his soldiers decide to make a stand alongside the Britons instead of retreating with the Romans. The Saxons launch a fierce assault, and the battle claims the lives of some of Arthur’s closest companions, but the defenders ultimately repel the invaders. And in the aftermath, Arthur marries Gwen and steps into the role of King.

00:02:38:24 – 00:03:04:09
Dan LeFebvre
Not by divine sword or mystical prophecy, but by leading the people who chose to stand and fight with him. So you can start to get a sense of how 2004 is King Arthur is trying to be a more realistic version of the Arthurian legend, but how well does it do from a historical perspective? Today’s episode is with Dorsey Armstrong, a medieval literature professor at Purdue University who specializes in Arthurian legend.

00:03:04:12 – 00:03:35:15
Dan LeFebvre
And you might recognize her name from her great Courses lectures, like one of my personal favorites called King Arthur History and Legend. She’s also the editor of the official quarterly journal of the International Arthurian Society called Arthurian. Before we start uncovering the true story behind King Arthur, though, let’s set up our game for today’s episode. Now, if you’re new to the show since based on a true story, it’s all about separating fact from fiction in the movies, you’ll get to practice your skills at separating fact from fiction in this podcast episode with a game of two truths and a lie.

00:03:35:18 – 00:04:02:23
Dan LeFebvre
So I’m about to give you three things that we’ll talk about in this episode. Two of those are true. And one of them, well, one of them is just an all out lie. Are you ready? Okay, here they are. Number one, the famous Round Table appears in early fifth century Arthurian stories. Number two. Merlin was not associated with Arthur until the 12th century.

00:04:02:25 – 00:04:22:10
Dan LeFebvre
Number three. No Romans lived in villas north of Hadrian’s Wall. Got them. Okay, now, as you’re listening to our story today, see if you can figure out which one of those is a lie. And if you’re watching the video version of this, you can see I’m holding up an envelope. This has the answer inside, and we’ll open this at the end of the episode to see if you got it right.

00:04:22:13 – 00:04:35:29
Dan LeFebvre
Okay. Now it’s time to connect with Dorsey Armstrong. All about the historical accuracy of 2004 King Arthur.

00:04:36:01 – 00:04:54:09
Dan LeFebvre
As longtime listeners of based on a true story. No, I always like to kick things off with an overall historical letter grade just to get a sense of how accurate a movie is from a ballpark perspective. So with that in mind, today we are looking at the 2004 King Arthur movie. What letter grade does it get.

00:04:54:11 – 00:05:08:09
Dorsey Armstrong
As far as a letter grade for its historical accuracy? I think that you would have to break it into sections, and some parts would get an A, and many parts would get an F.

00:05:08:12 – 00:05:10:17
Dan LeFebvre
That’s quite a gap.

00:05:10:19 – 00:05:39:14
Dorsey Armstrong
So yes, it it’s there are moments that, are so carefully, scrupulously paying attention to what would have been going on in the fifth century and what we know about early chronicle accounts of who King Arthur was, that pay attention to details and then others. There are other moments where they’ve just thrown everything out the window and they’ve, you know, done something kind of crazy with the story.

00:05:39:14 – 00:06:15:02
Dorsey Armstrong
And so but I will say this, what is great about this film, the further away I get from it in time, the more I like it, because despite what it gets wrong, it gets the idea of Arthur right. So even if it’s not an accurate historical representation of King Arthur, the character who is noble, good, beloved by his men, willing to sacrifice himself, all of those are the elements that we find in the Arthurian legend that have made it so popular.

00:06:15:04 – 00:06:32:17
Dan LeFebvre
It sounds like the movie is more about capturing the essence of the character instead of specific historical events, which we see a lot in movies. So that gap makes a lot of sense. But as a movie, it still has to pull details from somewhere for us to watch. So let’s start digging into those exactly the same way the movie does.

00:06:32:21 – 00:07:01:03
Dan LeFebvre
I’m going to quote the movie. This is a direct quote from the movie quote. Historians agree that the classical 15th century tale of King Arthur and his knights rose from a real hero who lived a thousand years earlier, in a period often called the Dark Ages. Recently discovered archeological evidence sheds light on his true identity and, quote, so the movie specifically says historians agree instead of some historians or even most historians.

00:07:01:06 – 00:07:14:06
Dan LeFebvre
And that to me implies that the movie is suggesting this is just accepted fact. So having the chance to talk to a historian about this movie, I have to ask, do you agree with the movie’s opening statement?

00:07:14:08 – 00:07:47:14
Dorsey Armstrong
Again, it’s like my grade that I gave the movie parts of it. Get, any parts of it get enough. So yes, absolutely. The 15th century hero that we know probably has his origins in a real person, possibly persons who lived during the fifth century. And I will say as much as medievalist, hate the phrase dark ages if there ever was a Dark Age, fifth century Britain after the Romans have withdrawn, is it?

00:07:47:15 – 00:08:23:06
Dorsey Armstrong
It really does count as a dark age. So that part is true. The idea that recent archeological discoveries have located the Arthurian legend, in the north. That’s a little less plausible. I will say that every time a fifth century or thereabouts. Archeological discoveries made, no matter where it is in the British Isles, people attempt to connect it to King Arthur or the Arthur type figure on which he was based.

00:08:23:08 – 00:08:34:18
Dorsey Armstrong
But generally speaking, as far as the legend goes, most of Arthur’s exploits and tales and stories and legends are focused much more towards the South in the southwest.

00:08:34:20 – 00:08:56:08
Dan LeFebvre
Something that stood out to me in that opening statement was the mention of recently discovered archeological evidence. Of course, we have to keep in mind that the movie came out in 2004, so was there some sort of discovery around the 2004 time frame that sort of broke open? Who the real King Arthur was that the movie’s referring to?

00:08:56:11 – 00:09:25:07
Dorsey Armstrong
I what I believe happened in the years before that. Is that up near Hadrian’s Wall, there had been some archeological discoveries, that indicated that a local leader had remained in power and had consolidated a base of power there. After the Romans had withdrawn. But you can say the same about other parts of Britain as well. There are there are several people, understandably, who tried to step into that vacuum of power.

00:09:25:09 – 00:09:36:03
Dorsey Armstrong
And we don’t know much about them, which is why almost every one of them could be considered a candidate for the historical Arthur or, as I like to call him, an Arthur type figure.

00:09:36:06 – 00:09:59:29
Dan LeFebvre
Going back to the movie, we also get an explanation for another of the famous characters from the Arthurian legend, Lancelot. And according to the movie, in 300 A.D., the Romans were expanding their empire to the east. And that’s where the Samaritans live. The Romans defeated them, but they were so impressed with the bravery of the cavalry that they let them live in exchange for each generation of Somalian boys joining the Roman military as knights for 15 years.

00:10:00:01 – 00:10:18:12
Dan LeFebvre
And then fast forward to the year 452 A.D. then we see a young Lancelot being taken from his home to join the Roman military, and he is stationed under Arthur in Britain to defend what you just mentioned, Hadrian’s Wall. The movie describes that as being a 73 mile wall that’s separating the native fighters in the north, where Roman controlled Britain to the south.

00:10:18:14 – 00:10:35:13
Dan LeFebvre
And then, of course, the movie fast forwards 15 years after that to 467 A.D. and that’s kind of the timeline for the rest of the movie. So that’s how the movie sets up everything that we see in the movie itself. How well does the movie establish the timeline prior to the events that we see in the movie?

00:10:35:15 – 00:11:01:04
Dorsey Armstrong
So that’s an interesting question, because on the one hand, yes, wherever the Romans went, they did tend to try and co-opt or bring into the empire, or I’ll just say it, exploit, people who had skills that they thought were valuable and especially useful in fighting. And it is true that at one point very early on that included the formations to the east.

00:11:01:06 – 00:11:29:11
Dorsey Armstrong
But what’s really interesting about this film is that the summation theory, as far as King Arthur goes, is a theory, put forward by Linda melker and C Scott Littleton. And they wrote a book called From Scythian to Camelot. And in that book, they posit that there was no historical Arthur figure, that what happened is the summations are conscripted into the Roman army, which which we know happened.

00:11:29:13 – 00:12:01:27
Dorsey Armstrong
They ended up in Britain so that also did happen. But then their theory is that they’re there in the second century, serving under a Roman leader named Lucius Sartorius. Cassius, and that it is a mix of summation mythology with the reputation and the idealized figure of this leader that, centuries later, would get mushed together to create Arthur and many of the legends, that are associated with him.

00:12:02:03 – 00:12:23:21
Dorsey Armstrong
So it’s interesting that the movie says this is true, whereas the book argues that what a study of the summation question proves is that there was no Arthur and that he wasn’t a real person who lived in the fifth century. And so it puts those two things together in sort of uncomfortable juxtaposition. It makes for a good film.

00:12:23:23 – 00:12:42:01
Dorsey Armstrong
Absolutely. So part is partially true that there were summations, they were incorporated into the Empire. They did make it all the way to Britain, most likely. And they did serve in the second century under someone named Lucius. Our Tory is Cassius, where we get that Arthur name and his middle name.

00:12:42:03 – 00:12:48:15
Dan LeFebvre
That sounds like a perfect example of the contrast between the A and the F letter grade that you gave the overall movie.

00:12:48:18 – 00:13:10:00
Dorsey Armstrong
So I will say this again. The further away I get from the original screen of that film, the more I like it and the more I like what it does in how it encapsulates the essence of why Arthur has become such an important figure for, 1500 years.

00:13:10:03 – 00:13:34:22
Dan LeFebvre
One of the characters from the Arthurian legend that we see in the movie is Merlin. He is not the stereotypical wizard character from a lot of the other Arthurian legend, but in this movie, Merlin is set up as being a world leader. The first interaction that he has with Arthur’s soldiers is actually a fight against them. Although there is a line of dialog they call my year, I think it was Lancelot describing Merlin as a quote unquote dark magician.

00:13:34:24 – 00:13:40:15
Dan LeFebvre
Can you fill in a little more historical context around what we know about Merlin?

00:13:40:17 – 00:14:10:14
Dorsey Armstrong
So this is a really interesting question, because the Merlin character does not get associated with the Arthurian legend, until the 12th century, when a guy called Geoffrey of Monmouth, takes what he knows about one or possibly two figures upon which he bases his Merlin and decides to put it together with the Arthurian legend. Now, we do think that there are possibly two historical figures upon which this Merlin figure is based.

00:14:10:16 – 00:14:34:25
Dorsey Armstrong
One is Merlin Caledonia’s, who was a warrior who went mad and lived in the woods, and the other, is Merlin Ambrosius, who in some of the texts, fought by Arthur’s side early on and had skills maybe not necessarily of magic, but he was a great builder, a great engineer. And so what he did kind of looked like magic.

00:14:34:25 – 00:15:09:20
Dorsey Armstrong
And it appears that Geoffrey of Monmouth, riding around 1136 or so, puts what he knows of this Welsh bard slash warrior wandering through the forest and creates a merlin character, and then moves that Merlin character into the Arthurian legend. So before the 12th century, Merlin is not a wizard who’s in any way associated, with King Arthur and his story, which bums my students out so much every time I tell them that because they really want to believe that at least these two figures are true.

00:15:09:20 – 00:15:19:11
Dorsey Armstrong
And I say, you know what? They’re both probably fifth or sixth century. So they’re they both exist at the right time, but we don’t see them together until the 12th.

00:15:19:14 – 00:15:30:19
Dan LeFebvre
I suppose when it comes to a movie called King Arthur, people are going to expect to see Merlin in a movie about King Arthur. So maybe that’s why the filmmakers decided to add a merlin character.

00:15:30:21 – 00:15:51:25
Dorsey Armstrong
What I would say is that anyone who’s trying to make an historical King Arthur movie is going to run into the huge problem of audience expectations. If you hear Arthur, you’re going to expect that there better be a merlin, there better be a Lancelot. And as far as we know, Lancelot seems to appear fully formed in the 12th century.

00:15:51:27 – 00:16:18:04
Dorsey Armstrong
He’s not there in the original fifth century. If you’re going to have an historical Arthur film set in the fifth century, you can have an Arthur, you can have a Guinevere, you can have a bit of ear, a K, and an early version of Sir Gawain. Walk me. But that’s it. You can’t have a Lancelot. You can’t have a Bors.

00:16:18:04 – 00:16:39:11
Dorsey Armstrong
You can’t have a Galahad. You can’t have Merlin. So you can imagine that if you’re trying to tell the historical story of Arthur in the fifth century and people come to see this film, if there’s not a Lancelot, I think people are going to be very upset. So I sympathize with all movie makers who are trying to wrestle with that question, because it’s a hard one.

00:16:39:13 – 00:16:56:29
Dorsey Armstrong
Because for hundreds of years now, we have come to associate figures like Merlin and Lancelot with King Arthur. To such an extent that they’re really inextricable from each other right now. And you would disappoint your audience if you didn’t have them in the movie.

00:16:57:01 – 00:17:11:03
Dan LeFebvre
One of the concepts I gathered as I watched the movie was that Merlin’s people, the worlds, are a nomadic people who are fighting against the Roman occupation of Britain. Can you share a little more historical context around the words from the movie?

00:17:11:05 – 00:17:44:06
Dorsey Armstrong
So the worlds are based on, a real people, called the pick’s Picts, and their name comes from Picardy, which means painted because they did paint themselves blue before they went into battle. And the dye that they used is called woad. And so I think that’s where the movie gets that word. The reason that Hadrian’s Wall is built in the first place is because there are some really scary blue people up beyond it, and the Romans have said, no, thank you.

00:17:44:08 – 00:18:08:18
Dorsey Armstrong
South of here is good. We’re not going to mess with that up there at all. And so another way that the movie stumbles is that if they’re so scary that there’s a wall keeping them out of the South, why is there a Roman senator living in his lovely summer estate north of the wall, in the most dangerous territory in Britain at the time?

00:18:08:21 – 00:18:11:18
Dan LeFebvre
That’s a really good point. I don’t think they really even talk about that in the movie.

00:18:11:22 – 00:18:14:06
Dorsey Armstrong
What is he doing up there?

00:18:14:08 – 00:18:34:08
Dan LeFebvre
Just a summer home, right? Apparently heading back to the movie’s version of events, let’s shift focus from some of the legendary characters that we talked about so far. Instead, focus on an object that the movie shows from the Arthurian legend the Round Table, according to the way the movie shows the Round Table. Of course, we talked about Lancelot.

00:18:34:08 – 00:18:52:16
Dan LeFebvre
You mentioned Gwyn and Galahad and Tristan and all of these other knights from the legends. And there’s this scene in the movie where Bishop Germanus makes a big deal about needing to sit at the head of the table, to which the Knights reply with something like, of course you can sit wherever you want. And then he enters the room and there’s a round table there.

00:18:52:16 – 00:19:00:15
Dan LeFebvre
There is no head of the table, which obviously doesn’t make him happy. Do we know if the round table that we see in the movie was an actual thing?

00:19:00:18 – 00:19:23:26
Dorsey Armstrong
So it is when the legend starts to pick up in the 12th century. But again, as you may have noticed, there’s a theme here. A lot of what we think of as the foundational elements show up in the 12th century. Now, that does not mean that they weren’t present, perhaps in some form in earlier texts or stories that have been lost.

00:19:23:29 – 00:19:49:17
Dorsey Armstrong
It is just that we only have evidence for their existence in the 12th century. What’s interesting is, that this idea comes from somewhere, and that’s pretty early in the legend, this idea that Arthur, it’s a 12th century writer named Wass who says Arthur sat at a table. He was first among equals, but it was a round table, so no one was above anyone else.

00:19:49:19 – 00:20:15:02
Dorsey Armstrong
And that’s a remarkable idea for the 12th century. So I would like to imagine, that there might be some basis, or it might be an ancient memory of when this Arthur type figure gathered with his warband, because that’s what they would have been. They weren’t knights in the fifth century. They would have been his, his warband that they gathered in, a circle to discuss.

00:20:15:02 – 00:20:29:10
Dorsey Armstrong
And so it really it could have an origin there that they’re gathered around a fire or a half. But as far as a physical table, we don’t have any evidence of that. For sure before the 12th century.

00:20:29:12 – 00:20:46:21
Dan LeFebvre
That makes a lot of sense. I mean, thinking of whether or not a physical object would have survived that long. It’s it’s hard to know. But other than the physical object, there’s just a concept of it. I think we’re all familiar with, you know, the concept of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We’re familiar with that in the legend and in this movie.

00:20:46:21 – 00:21:02:15
Dan LeFebvre
The impression that I got for how it presents that scene with the Bishop is basically kind of saying that Arthur sees everyone as equals. Nobody is above anyone else. Do we know if the historical Arthur had that concept of equality?

00:21:02:18 – 00:21:42:02
Dorsey Armstrong
So in the fifth century? That’s a really hard question to answer. If we’re talking about sub Roman Britain and the historical Arthur figure, would have been, as far as we can tell, if he existed. I think someone who was the basis for this figure, who had a name similar to Arthur, did exist. He might not have been all on board with the idea of equality, but whoever this person was based on archeological evidence that shows a Celtic warband led by a leader in the right time and the right place for the historical Arthur, this person must have been an amazing warrior.

00:21:42:04 – 00:22:09:06
Dorsey Armstrong
He must have been charismatic, and he must have just been a really good guy. Given how clear it is that in the wake of Rome pulling out, he was able to rally to his side. Something like a community of over 700 people. It’s estimated, when the average warband at that time. And so say the historians who know such things would have been more like 35 people.

00:22:09:09 – 00:22:35:19
Dorsey Armstrong
So he must have been a great leader, a great warrior, a good ruler, a just person. And I imagine that if you’re going to achieve that measure of success and maintain that level of leadership when the rest of the world is in chaos, that making people feel as if they are valued, even if it’s not actually that they’re being treated as equal with you, would have been important.

00:22:35:21 – 00:22:41:18
Dorsey Armstrong
So I think that there’s a little bit of truth hiding in there.

00:22:41:21 – 00:23:02:00
Dan LeFebvre
Speaking of the bishop, that makes me wonder about another plot point that we see in the movie regarding the Knights and their religion. The movie seems to say that the Knights are following the faith of their forefathers. In other words, they are pagans and not Christians as the Romans are. But they’re still fighting for Rome and the Roman Church, historically speaking.

00:23:02:03 – 00:23:07:17
Dan LeFebvre
Was there a tie between Arthur and the Roman Church like we see in the movie?

00:23:07:19 – 00:23:37:02
Dorsey Armstrong
So probably, most certainly since the Romans had firmly conquered most of what we think of as Britain or England today by the middle of the first century. And they were in power there until 410. So as the Empire went, so went all of the outposts within the Empire. So when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, all Roman citizens would have been expected to do the same.

00:23:37:05 – 00:24:08:04
Dorsey Armstrong
And so by the time we get to Arthur’s lifetime, Rome had been Christianized for well over a century. And so we think that that’s the case, he certainly would have been a Christian as far as the tolerance for other faiths. It’s doubtful it is. It is doubtful, that as a Christian leader, anyone would have been tolerant of what they believed to be blasphemy or anathema.

00:24:08:04 – 00:24:32:28
Dorsey Armstrong
But at the same time, we have to remember that this is the early days of Christianity. So many of its rules, its regulations, its orthodoxy, they don’t exist. Yet. We see a great example of this. What I really liked was the use of, Pelagius. And Pelagius was, for a time he was he was a British monk in the sixth century.

00:24:32:28 – 00:24:59:11
Dorsey Armstrong
So he’s a little later than than Arthur would have been. And he was ousted, from the ranks of the church and declared a heretic because he believed and he preached, what came to be called the Palladian heresy, which was essentially do good works, and you’ll get to go to heaven on the face of it, that seems to make sense.

00:24:59:13 – 00:25:21:17
Dorsey Armstrong
But ultimately, when the church had to decide, they declared this a heresy because in the end, humans cannot earn their way into heaven by doing good. The final decision rests with God. Only God gets to decide who gets in and who doesn’t. So it doesn’t matter what you’ve done yourself during your lifetime, it’s God who makes the final call.

00:25:21:23 – 00:25:49:22
Dorsey Armstrong
But anything that’s a heresy we have to remember only gets called the heresy because a lot of people are believing in it and following it. So for quite some time, people would have believed in the message of Pelagius and, and striven to adhere to it and, and thought, I will do good works to get into heaven. And it’s only when the church decides, no, we can’t have this, this, this is contrary to our doctrine that he becomes a heretic.

00:25:49:22 – 00:26:07:09
Dorsey Armstrong
And so the idea that Arthur is a Palladian Christian is a great idea. I think that makes total sense. And that he is so upset when he discovers that Pelagius had been executed when he returned to Rome. Also makes sense.

00:26:07:12 – 00:26:17:18
Dan LeFebvre
Since you mentioned Pelagius near the end of the movie, I seem to recall that we find out Bishop Germanus is the one who had Plagueis executed. Is there truth to that, then?

00:26:17:21 – 00:26:42:12
Dorsey Armstrong
Yes. Palladio was declared a heretic. Any who believed in the pillage and heresy were, declared heretics. He might be subject to execution or torture and all kinds of nasty ways. And we know that this is a problem, for centuries afterward, because it’s such a popular idea that even in the 14th century, we have the church still trying to root out the Palladian heresy, in all kinds of places.

00:26:42:15 – 00:26:50:27
Dorsey Armstrong
Because who wouldn’t want to believe that if one does good, one gets rewarded. So, it’s an ongoing problem.

00:26:51:00 – 00:27:11:08
Dan LeFebvre
Maybe you already answered this question earlier, but we’re at the point in the movie’s timeline where it makes a big deal out of this final order from Rome to Arthur and his knights. And it’s the final order, because the movie’s concept is they will be done with their service to Rome after this mission. And the mission is for them to go north of Hadrian’s Wall to rescue a Roman named Marius.

00:27:11:11 – 00:27:30:01
Dan LeFebvre
As the movie explains it, one of the reasons that this mission is a big deal beyond just rescuing a Roman citizen is that Marius, his son Leto, is supposedly the Pope’s favorite godson. And then to top it off, there’s a timeline to it because there’s an approaching Saxon army, so Arthur and his knights have to rescue Marius, elected and his household before it’s too late.

00:27:30:03 – 00:27:36:13
Dan LeFebvre
Is there any truth to the scenario set up by the movie for Arthur’s final order?

00:27:36:16 – 00:27:43:00
Dorsey Armstrong
This is where I the the history goes off the rails.

00:27:43:02 – 00:27:46:28
Dan LeFebvre
This is the part of the historical let a great house.

00:27:47:00 – 00:28:10:15
Dorsey Armstrong
Yeah, yeah, the f. So first of all, there are no Romans in their luxurious villas north of Hadrian’s Wall. Also, when the Saxons invade, they are not invading up there. They’re invading much further south, in what’s England? So they wouldn’t have been up there to begin with. And so the movie is, is moving people around and creating a conflict.

00:28:10:17 – 00:28:32:00
Dorsey Armstrong
So there’s a family in distress. They just create a scenario which causes them to be in distress, which is the most implausible scenario, that I can think of. And then we have to add an extra, enemy in the form of the Saxons. Who? These were the people that the historical Arthur figure did rally against.

00:28:32:00 – 00:28:56:15
Dorsey Armstrong
Did fight against. Seems to have stopped and pushed back. And their encroachment across southern Britain from the east to the west. But they’re not up north. Threatening romance that that’s not happening at all. So, yes, Arthur versus the Saxons, but the geographic location is absolutely incorrect.

00:28:56:17 – 00:28:59:28
Dan LeFebvre
So not at all the way the movie portrays it.

00:29:00:00 – 00:29:02:15
Dorsey Armstrong
Right. Sorry.

00:29:02:18 – 00:29:21:22
Dan LeFebvre
There’s another element of Arthur’s mission I wanted to touch on, because in the movie, when Arthur finally gets to Marius is a state, we can see that Marius is using his position as a Roman to subjugate the people of the town. He’s telling you he’s a spokesman for God and it’s a sin to defy him. And then Arthur comes in and he tells the people that they are all free from their first breath.

00:29:21:24 – 00:29:43:15
Dan LeFebvre
And he goes on to try to rescue as many of the townspeople as he can, not just Marius, his family. That was the core of his mission. So in my mind, as I was watching this, it kind of goes back to the movie’s portrayal of the round table concept that we talked about earlier. Work. Arthur seems to favor equality because Arthur gets there and he kind of puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak.

00:29:43:15 – 00:29:58:07
Dan LeFebvre
It’s a stark contrast to the way that the Roman Marius is acting. So would it be fair to assume that Arthur was much more honorable as a person than most others were in that time period of history?

00:29:58:09 – 00:30:26:01
Dorsey Armstrong
I mean, I think yes, he as I said before, given the extent of what we think was his following in the number of people who flocked to his side and the length of time, he was able to rule and restore peace for a couple generations. He must have been a very just person at the same time, another area in which this film gets an F is this idea of all men are born free.

00:30:26:03 – 00:31:07:14
Dorsey Armstrong
No, in the Middle Ages, if you went back in time to the Middle Ages and you asked anybody, would you like to be free, or would you like to be beholden to this Lord, or and subject to him? The first question that anyone would ask would probably be how much land comes with either of those options? And generally speaking, everyone would usually have chosen to be not free because this society depended upon a hierarchy in which lords ruled over people.

00:31:07:14 – 00:31:34:21
Dorsey Armstrong
The people served their lords, and in return for that, they got the Lords protection. They were part of a social network. There was a safety net. So, for example, in times of famine, it would be expected that the Lord would find a way to help his people, to keep them from starving in times of warfare, in exchange for working his land, the Lord would take everyone he could into his fortress or stronghold or castle to protect them.

00:31:34:24 – 00:32:02:10
Dorsey Armstrong
If you are free and you are cut loose from this structure, who’s going to help you? You are alone in the world. How do you farm your land? Because much of farming was cooperative back then. So the villagers would come together to plants, to harvest. And so being all on your own. Well, what’s not impossible would not have been considered a desirable situation to be in at all.

00:32:02:12 – 00:32:35:22
Dorsey Armstrong
In fact, we have accounts, from some parts of the Middle Ages in which during a time of famine, people approached a particular lord and made themselves his slaves, on purpose, because in exchange, they would get fed. They would be clothed, they would be housed. And the seemed to have been a temporary arrangement, but they were happy to to give, you know, their lives up into the service of the Lord and be obedient to him as long as it meant protection for them and their family.

00:32:35:24 – 00:33:00:08
Dorsey Armstrong
So the idea that I am a free man, is absolutely incorrect. As far as the Middle Ages would go. But every age, I like to say makes an Arthur that that age needs. So in 2004, that’s that’s what we wanted to hear, that it’s all about freedom. It’s all about individual freedom. And that’s just it’s not the case.

00:33:00:08 – 00:33:02:02
Dorsey Armstrong
It’s historically inaccurate.

00:33:02:04 – 00:33:15:27
Dan LeFebvre
Speaking of freedom, that’s almost like what I mentioned a moment ago. With this being Arthur’s final mission, it’s his final mission because they were going to be given their own freedom afterward. But it sounds like maybe that wasn’t the case.

00:33:15:29 – 00:33:39:08
Dorsey Armstrong
That that would not have been something they wanted. They would not have wanted. First of all, no one gets papers of safe conduct to go through the Roman Empire in the fifth century. That’s not a thing. There are not checkpoints everywhere. There aren’t even enough people who can read to, you know, to tell you what this thing says that you’re carrying, that says you have the right to move throughout the Roman Empire.

00:33:39:10 – 00:34:02:24
Dorsey Armstrong
And so while they may have if we’re going with the summation theory, they may have wanted to go back to their homeland. They would not have wanted to be cut loose, from the Roman bureaucracy. In fact, the sack of Rome, which started around 410, and then the Empire sort of staggered to its final collapse around 476.

00:34:02:27 – 00:34:27:07
Dorsey Armstrong
The people who attacked Rome were, first of all, attacking, not because they wanted to conquer Rome, but because they wanted to get in. They said, yeah, give us some of that. So many of these people, these were, what we think of as the Germanic peoples that lived north of Rome. Many of them had already been fighting for the Romans as mercenaries.

00:34:27:09 – 00:34:55:25
Dorsey Armstrong
And they saw all the benefits that Roman citizens got. And they said, well, we don’t want to just be your hired hands. We would we would like roads and baths and, you know, reliable food and a functioning government. And so I doubt that many people would have wanted to move away from Rome or felt like Rome was somehow oppressive.

00:34:55:27 – 00:35:20:13
Dorsey Armstrong
And that’s one reason why the Arthur type figure, from what we know from many of the texts, is that apparently his parents had been Romans of some rank in Britain. And then after the Empire collapsed and the legions are withdrawn and called back to Rome, it is someone who has claims to Rome who can rise up and rally the people.

00:35:20:13 – 00:35:27:11
Dorsey Armstrong
And that’s what they were looking for, some sort of vestige of what Rome had done for that.

00:35:27:13 – 00:35:48:26
Dan LeFebvre
So I guess maybe the idea of Marius being the one that is oppressive to his people. I mean, I’m sure there were some leaders that were oppressive like that, but it seems like, historically speaking, that dynamic would have been very different because it’s beneficial to the Lords to have their people doing well.

00:35:48:28 – 00:36:15:11
Dorsey Armstrong
You are exactly correct. So I have no doubt that there, and history shows us that there were some terrible lords and that especially in the 14th century, much later, when there’s, a population crisis and, there’s no more land to be worked. And the Lords are trying, in this case, trying to oppress the people, to keep them on their land, to keep them beholden to them.

00:36:15:13 – 00:36:42:07
Dorsey Armstrong
We have the Peasants Revolt in England in 1381. And part of this is because after the black Death, the first wave of the Black Death swept through and killed up to half of the European population. What had been the land crunch suddenly became, a land free for all. And so there was plenty of land for the taking, so people didn’t need to remain on their particular plot of land.

00:36:42:07 – 00:37:00:18
Dorsey Armstrong
They weren’t so bounded by tradition, and history, because the world had changed overnight, practically. But up until that point, yes. For, for most, it would be considered a mutually, a mutually beneficial situation.

00:37:00:20 – 00:37:20:25
Dan LeFebvre
If we go back to the movie, there’s another character from the Arthurian legend that shows up at the village where Marius is at. I’m speaking, of course, about Guinevere. When she’s first shown in the movie, she’s actually a prisoner who must be sacrificed along with any of the, quote unquote, sinners. Again, going back to Marius, basically saying that anyone who defies him is defying God.

00:37:20:28 – 00:37:36:13
Dan LeFebvre
So in the movie, there’s actually two prisoners that Arthur and his men save. One is a little boy, and then Guinevere, who in the movie is a world woman. Is there any historical truth to the way that we see Arthur and Guinevere meeting in the movie?

00:37:36:16 – 00:38:05:27
Dorsey Armstrong
And a lot of that is really, really, lost in the mists of time. But there have been some suggestions that certainly the Arthur Gwenn of Year marriage, would have been, at that point, politically motivated, even if there, there was affection at the same time. And there seems to be, a situation that suggests that he married more than one woman named Guinevere.

00:38:06:00 – 00:38:10:27
Dorsey Armstrong
That was a very popular name. It’s the early version of Jennifer.

00:38:11:00 – 00:38:12:26
Dan LeFebvre
Okay. Okay.

00:38:12:28 – 00:38:42:12
Dorsey Armstrong
So, so. And Gwen avere, in some instances, appears to possibly have come from north of where Arthur was. So closer to Scotland, probably northern Wales. She has a Welsh name. But as far as her being a pagan who lives north of the wall and is a Pict probably not.

00:38:42:14 – 00:39:02:18
Dan LeFebvre
Well, with that in mind, I’m just going to guess that the movie’s connection tying Guinevere to Arthur and Merlin is not correct. Remember, the movie shows Merlin as a world leader, so then Arthur and Guinevere start to kind of fall for each other. And then the movie strong suggests that that is why Arthur starts to ally with Merlin’s people instead of Rome.

00:39:02:24 – 00:39:17:27
Dan LeFebvre
After all, he’s about to be freed by Rome anyway, so might as well ally with Guinevere as people. At least that’s how the movie tells the story. But is there any connection between Guinevere, Arthur, and Merlin in the historical record?

00:39:18:00 – 00:39:41:06
Dorsey Armstrong
No, there is not. But I think we can safely say that, whomever the Arthur type figure married, that would have been a marriage that brought together, peoples, united them, and created, you know, a larger, network of support against the invading Saxons. So I think it would be safe to assume that.

00:39:41:08 – 00:40:07:07
Dan LeFebvre
Well, you mentioned the Saxons. And if we go back to the movie’s version of events, the first confrontation that we see with Arthur and his knights in the advancing Saxon army takes place on an ice covered light. Arthur and his knights decide they’re tired of running, so they’re going to stay behind and hold off the Saxons while all the civilians that they’re rescuing remember they’re going beyond just Marius and his family trying to rescue as many of the townspeople as they could.

00:40:07:09 – 00:40:28:04
Dan LeFebvre
So all these people, they’re going to try to give them a head start and hold off the advancing Saxon army. I call it a head start because the movie says that it’s seven knights against like 200. Well, I guess there’s eight of them because Guinevere joins the fight. But you have eight people against 200 Saxons in this battle, so they don’t really expect to win.

00:40:28:06 – 00:40:42:10
Dan LeFebvre
Except it’s a movie, so they find a way. But the way that this happened in the movie is by breaking the ice. So the Saxons fall into the icy waters. Is there any sort of historical truth to this battle on the like that we see in the movie?

00:40:42:12 – 00:41:05:20
Dorsey Armstrong
No. And in fact, that fight scene owes a lot to an earlier medieval film called Alexander Nevsky, which had a very similar scene. And I actually wasn’t aware of that film until after I saw the King Arthur film. And I was commenting to someone about how much I enjoyed that fight scene and how clever it was.

00:41:05:20 – 00:41:29:16
Dorsey Armstrong
And, people who know medieval film better than I do said, oh, no, that that’s lifted straight from Alexander Nevsky. That fight scene. And so then I went and checked and. Yes, indeed, it’s still a great scene. But no, there’s no historical basis for that, except for, in the sense that another movie did it before this one.

00:41:29:19 – 00:41:49:00
Dan LeFebvre
Earlier in our chat, we were talking about the kind of person that Arthur was, and we see this again in action during the lake battle, there’s a scene where Arthur is willing to sacrifice himself for one of his injured men. Arthur rushes out and breaks the ice under the Saxons, and then, as he’s exposed to enemy fire, he pulls the injured knight away from the icy waters.

00:41:49:02 – 00:41:54:24
Dan LeFebvre
Do we know if he would have sacrificed himself for his men like we see happening in the movie?

00:41:54:27 – 00:42:04:00
Dorsey Armstrong
We can only surmise. But again, my guess would be anyone who was able to,

00:42:04:03 – 00:42:29:24
Dorsey Armstrong
Arouse so much loyalty, from his people. Must have been someone who made clear that he was willing to fight and die alongside his men. And that is another thing the movie does get right is that in the Middle Ages, kings and leaders are not like modern day generals who are back looking at maps and plotting strategy.

00:42:29:27 – 00:42:36:08
Dorsey Armstrong
You’re right, they’re at the front lines with your men. Otherwise they wouldn’t have considered you, a leader worth following.

00:42:36:10 – 00:43:03:12
Dan LeFebvre
At the very end of the movie, Arthur is freed from his commitment to Rome. Guinevere convinces Arthur that her people are his people, so Arthur decides to stay and fight the main force of Saxons. After initially leaving with the Romans and the rest of the knights come back and decide to stay and fight with Arthur. So that’s how we end up having this big battle at the end between Arthur’s knights alongside Guinevere and Merlin’s woad army against the full Saxon army.

00:43:03:14 – 00:43:18:13
Dan LeFebvre
What’s interesting about this battle is that the movie actually mentioned it by name. It’s called the Battle of Baden Hill, and since it mentions it by name, I have to ask, was that a real battle and how well did the movie do showing what happened?

00:43:18:16 – 00:43:48:00
Dorsey Armstrong
The Battle of Baden Hill comes from a ninth century chronicle in. And we do believe it was a real fight. But at the same time, it wouldn’t have been at Hadrian’s Wall. People have been trying to find Baden for a while. And we think it’s in the south of, of Britain, somewhere in the south. And this supposedly was one of the key battles in which Arthur, the leader, pushed the Saxons back.

00:43:48:02 – 00:44:14:12
Dorsey Armstrong
But also the same text tells us that there were 12 battles. And he’s victorious at this one. In the final battle, which is at Hamlin. And no one can find Camelot. Exactly. There have been lots of theories, people trying to pinpoint it. That is where he is finally killed and defeated at the end. But, as far as the Arthurian legend goes, the Battle of Mount Baden.

00:44:14:12 – 00:44:34:04
Dorsey Armstrong
Yes, was attested very, very early on in the chronicles. Now, where it was exactly not so clear, but but it does show up. So naming that final battle after the battle in the Chronicles makes sense.

00:44:34:06 – 00:44:49:14
Dan LeFebvre
If we’re to believe the movie’s version of this battle, we see Arthur’s men die. Namely, Tristan and Lancelot are the main characters who die in that battle in the movie. And then that leaves Arthur with just four knights along with the World Army. Do we know what happened with his men?

00:44:49:16 – 00:45:16:17
Dorsey Armstrong
No. I mean, we know almost nothing about him from contemporary documents. That would be, you know, from the fifth century or, you know, even a century or two later. That’s as close as we can get. So, we can assume, though, that when Arthur passes away, certainly along the way, some of his men would have also been killed.

00:45:16:19 – 00:45:39:17
Dorsey Armstrong
But again, remember, they’re not knights. They’re warriors. He wouldn’t even have been called king. Probably. And tell maybe the end of his reign. If then. But earlier on, he would have been called either by a Roman title, like a Duke’s Balaram, a war leader. Or you might have been called, comas count. And not early on.

00:45:39:17 – 00:45:52:13
Dorsey Armstrong
Would he have been called King Arthur. And so one thing the movie does get right is that if he’s going to be called King, it wouldn’t happen until very, very late in his life if it ever happened at all.

00:45:52:15 – 00:46:19:17
Dan LeFebvre
That’s a great catch on my using the term knights. I’m so used to the legend of King Arthur and his knights, I just refer to them as his knights, even if they’re not actually that. But switching gears a little bit to another piece of the Arthurian legend from the movie, it’s about this point in the timeline that we see the legendary sword in the Stone, and in the movie, it’s shown in a flashback to Arthur’s childhood, when his mom is killed by Merlin’s people attacking their village, which is initially why the movie explains why Arthur didn’t like the world.

00:46:19:24 – 00:46:38:00
Dan LeFebvre
But in the flashback, Arthur pulls the sword from the stone so he can go and kill Merlin to have revenge for his mother’s death. And then the movie. Merlin says that it was Arthur’s love for his mother that allowed Arthur to pull the sword from the stone. In other words, it was not the hatred for Merlin, but it was love.

00:46:38:03 – 00:46:42:28
Dan LeFebvre
How well do you think the movie does telling the story of the sword in the Stone?

00:46:43:00 – 00:47:06:08
Dorsey Armstrong
So if we if we go to the 15th century and Sir Thomas Malory, which is my main area of study, what we learn then, and that’s sort of where the, the stamp is put on this part of the legend is that there is a sword in the stone, and it appears by magic, and Merlin helps to set it up and the stones in an anvil that says, who?

00:47:06:09 – 00:47:39:00
Dorsey Armstrong
Whosoever shall pull up the sword from the stone is right, wise, born king of all England. But that’s not Excalibur. Excalibur is a sword of Arthur’s very, very early on as well, especially in early Welsh legends. But it comes from the lady of the lake, so it comes out of the water. So she emerges from the water with the sword for him, and he is considered worthy of the sword, because she deems it so.

00:47:39:07 – 00:48:06:24
Dorsey Armstrong
So there are two swords, and later on they get conflated into one that Excalibur is the sword in the stone, but the idea of a sword being pulled out of a stone. I’ve seen a documentary on Arthur. I’ve seen several, actually historical Arthur. And one theory is that in early metalworking, you would use a stone mold and you would pour the metal into it to make, a sword.

00:48:07:01 – 00:48:35:25
Dorsey Armstrong
And that perhaps the legend comes from it being stuck in the stone mold and someone of great strength pulling it out, intact. So that could be the origin of the legend. But the magical sword Excalibur, it’s called Caliban. Or in Welsh or Caleb Burness, which means, cut steel. And, that shows up early on. There’s no mention of it being pulled out of a stone.

00:48:35:25 – 00:49:06:21
Dorsey Armstrong
If anything, it is gifted to Arthur by this mysterious faerie woman who has otherworldly power. And so that is how Arthur is sort of threading this needle between the real and the supernatural. And he has this sort of ordination, that he is meant to rule because he’s favored by people in the, in the fairy world. And he’s also, lauded and praised and held up to be a leader by real human beings.

00:49:06:24 – 00:49:13:04
Dan LeFebvre
So it sounds like, once again, the movie is mixing together a lot of different things to tell this story.

00:49:13:06 – 00:49:36:23
Dorsey Armstrong
Well, what I would say is that if you were doing an Arthur movie, you better have a sword in the stone or the audience is terrible. And so I thought that making it the marker on the grave, made a lot of sense that he is still withdrawing it from, you know, something that could be considered partially stone from the earth.

00:49:36:26 – 00:49:46:27
Dorsey Armstrong
And so that made that made a lot of sense to me to try and figure out how to represent this motif, the theme that is so important in the Arthurian legend.

00:49:46:29 – 00:50:08:15
Dan LeFebvre
At the very end of the movie, there’s a wedding ceremony that we see. Merlin is officiating the marriage of Arthur and Guinevere, uniting the people, and everyone is happy. It’s kind of a happily ever after. And in the movie, that’s when he is proclaimed to be King Arthur. Is there any truth to this single marriage ceremony proclaiming the leader?

00:50:08:18 – 00:50:13:23
Dorsey Armstrong
No. That is. And in fact, that wasn’t even supposed to be the original end of the movie.

00:50:13:26 – 00:50:15:21
Dan LeFebvre
Oh really? How was it supposed to end?

00:50:15:24 – 00:50:46:19
Dorsey Armstrong
That is an alternate ending. Originally, the movie ended with the death of his dies, and it ended on a much more down note. Which I think would be much more true to the legend. And I guess in test screenings the audience said, well, this is not how we want this to end. And so, they did what movie makers have done in order to bump up the happy factor for their audience and close with a wedding.

00:50:46:19 – 00:51:00:18
Dorsey Armstrong
And better yet, let’s have it out a fake Stonehenge, right? So all of that, all of that is, is made up. I understand why it’s there, but it is a it’s a bit over the top.

00:51:00:20 – 00:51:21:16
Dan LeFebvre
It sounds like kind of what we were talking about throughout our chat today, how a King Arthur movie has to have Merlin in it and has to have the sword in the stone. It has to have the round Table. Well, it’s King Arthur and he hasn’t been a king throughout the whole movie. So the movie audiences expect there to be an explanation why it’s King Arthur instead of just Arthur.

00:51:21:18 – 00:51:45:12
Dorsey Armstrong
And I don’t think you have any choice if you’re going to make a successful Arthurian movie, unless you choose to just go completely dark and historical, and it wouldn’t be a happy movie, I don’t think, and I don’t know that anyone would want to go see it. It’d be more like an art film, rather than any sort of popular blockbuster film.

00:51:45:15 – 00:52:06:22
Dan LeFebvre
Speaking of things that audiences expect, I’ll do a variation of what the movie did for my own audience, because even though we talked about the 2004 movie today, there’s been so many stories about King Arthur throughout history in all sorts of mediums, movies and TV, of course, but obviously plenty of books and writings long before movies and TV even existed.

00:52:06:25 – 00:52:17:23
Dan LeFebvre
What’s something that most people might think they know about the theory and legend, but when they learn the true story, it’ll surprise him.

00:52:17:25 – 00:52:40:11
Dorsey Armstrong
Well, I can tell you, what I tell my students every time I teach Arthurian literature. And what’s fascinating is I ask them to tell me on the first day of class, and many of them have not encountered the Arthurian legend in any sort of systematic way. So they haven’t read the early texts. They’d maybe have seen a film or read a story.

00:52:40:18 – 00:53:01:00
Dorsey Armstrong
And so I asked them to tell me everything they know about the legend. And I write it all up on the board. And so they’re telling me, Merlin, and he’s married to Gwen Vivier, and Guinevere commits adultery with Lancelot, and Arthur has knights, and they sit at a round table and they go on quests, including for the Holy Grail.

00:53:01:03 – 00:53:26:27
Dorsey Armstrong
And he lives in a big stone castle called Camelot. And then I have to tell them it’s the fifth century and Rome has left. So unless they’re occupying Roman structures, no big stone castles that smoky little huts. Although it’s possible that, you know, Roman buildings that were left behind could have been reused, reoccupied. That’s possible. We’re not sure where Camelot was.

00:53:27:00 – 00:53:49:24
Dorsey Armstrong
As I’ve said earlier, there’s no Merlin. There is a a vere, but there’s also no Lancelot. The idea of the Round table comes much later. The sword in the stone comes much later. Although he does have a sword with a name like Excalibur from very early on. And the Holy Grail shows up in the 12th and 13th centuries.

00:53:49:26 – 00:54:09:27
Dorsey Armstrong
And that’s another, it’s actually a French writer who says this is a great idea. Arthur’s knights need to go on a quest. What’s the best thing, like a quest for the Holy Grail? And so that wasn’t part of the original legend either. And so I usually have a student yell from the back of the room. Stop it!

00:54:09:27 – 00:54:39:17
Dorsey Armstrong
You’re ruining it. But then by the end of the semester, I think that they have learned to have a deeper appreciation for how and why the legend accreted, to it. All of these elements. Because I say the Arthurian legend is like a magnet. And as time goes by, is there a hero over here who’s fantastic? For example, sir Tristan Tristan had a long history as, a legendary figure all his own.

00:54:39:19 – 00:55:00:19
Dorsey Armstrong
But at some point late in the Middle Ages, someone said, you know what would be great? Let’s make him a knight of the Round Table. And then all of his adventures are connected to Arthur. And so he’s brought in. Same with the Holy Grail. It becomes a quest for the Knights. So you’re three legends like a giant magnet that attracts to it all the cool stuff.

00:55:00:21 – 00:55:20:12
Dan LeFebvre
And it makes some great stories along the way. Well, thank you so much for coming on to chat about King Arthur. I’m such a huge fan of your work. It’s an honor to get to talk to you. One of my favorites is King Arthur History and Legend. I picked that up from one of the audiobook services, so I’ll be sure to include a link to that one in particular in the show notes for my audience to learn even more about the true story.

00:55:20:14 – 00:55:26:15
Dan LeFebvre
But before I let you go, can you share a bit more about that one, as well as where they can find more of your work?

00:55:26:18 – 00:55:53:00
Dorsey Armstrong
So, the King Arthur, history or legend is a series of lectures I did for the Teaching Company, which is now part of Wondrium. And you can get those lectures. There’s 24 lectures. It’s about the evolution of the Arthurian legend from its origins to the modern period. It’s available on DVD. You can also download it online or you can purchase the book that goes along with the lectures.

00:55:53:00 – 00:56:24:12
Dorsey Armstrong
It gives some detail and bibliography. So that’s the easiest way to access that. My other books tend to be, more for a scholarly academic audience. They have lots of footnotes, if you like footnotes. Great. But one thing that I have done is I translated Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur into modern English, because every time I taught that text, I was not happy with the translations that were available to me, that I was sharing with my students.

00:56:24:12 – 00:56:54:02
Dorsey Armstrong
And I finally decided, well, I’ll just do my own. And it’s Malory’s text more than any other at the end of the 15th century, that gives us the shape of the legend that sort of codifies it, puts the template down for everything that comes after. And so that’s now available in a modern English translation. And, my goal was to make it as accessible as possible so that people could enjoy the, this huge book.

00:56:54:04 – 00:57:19:03
Dorsey Armstrong
It’s a massive work that took years for Malory to write, and in fact, it took me longer to translate it, I realized, than it took him to write it, which is a moment that when I hit that point, I realized, oh, well, I’m a little bummed out right now, but, I’m really proud of it. And I think that it conveys, the sense of the time and the culture while still maintaining, accessible language that anyone can read.

00:57:19:06 – 00:57:21:22
Dan LeFebvre
Thank you again so much for your time.

00:57:21:25 – 00:57:28:18
Dorsey Armstrong
Is my pleasure. I’m always happy to talk about King Arthur. Invite me back any time. Next time a movie comes out, invite me back.

00:57:28:20 – 00:57:33:09
Dan LeFebvre
We’ll have to make that happen.

00:57:33:11 – 00:57:43:22
Dorsey Armstrong
It was a pleasure chatting with you.

00:57:43:24 – 00:58:01:24
Dan LeFebvre
This episode of based On a True Story was produced by me, Dan Lapham. If you want to learn more about the legends of King Arthur and the true story behind them, I cannot recommend Doctor Armstrong’s work enough. I have links to that in the show notes so you can check it out. And actually, that leads me right into my own history that I was talking about at the beginning of this episode.

00:58:01:24 – 00:58:27:12
Dan LeFebvre
So the interview that you just heard with Doctor Armstrong was originally published in January of 2023 on based on a true story, and it’s obviously been remastered. I actually rerecorded my entire site to update both the audio and video quality for today’s version, but the origin of how this episode came to be started long before that. When I was in middle school, my mom used to take my siblings and me to the local library to help with researching for our homework.

00:58:27:14 – 00:58:44:24
Dan LeFebvre
One day we were at the library. I can’t remember the specific homework assignment that I had, but I remember going through my usual routine. I would look up the book and at the computer, well, whatever the topic was that I needed, and then I would write down the Dewey Decimal number so I could find the book in the aisle that it’s in.

00:58:44:26 – 00:59:02:19
Dan LeFebvre
Well, this particular day, as I was looking for the number, I happened to see a book about Camelot and the legends of King Arthur. You know the old adage, don’t judge a book by its cover, but obviously something about this book stood out to me. So I grabbed it. And then I continued to find the book that I actually needed for my homework.

00:59:02:21 – 00:59:16:28
Dan LeFebvre
Well, I ended up spending more time reading that book on King Arthur than whatever the book was for my homework assignment. Obviously, I can’t even remember what the book was for my homework assignment, but I do remember being fascinated by the legend of King Arthur, and that was the first day that I was.

00:59:16:28 – 00:59:17:14
Dorsey Armstrong
Actually.

00:59:17:14 – 00:59:36:27
Dan LeFebvre
Interested in something historical. I mean, I had done other homework assignments that required me to read history. It wasn’t my first time reading anything in history, but it was the first time that I remember doing it just for the fun of it. And over the years, that fascination grew into a love of medieval history. Overall, I used to spend countless hours as a child.

00:59:36:27 – 00:59:56:27
Dan LeFebvre
I would sketch out castle designs or mapping fictional land and coming up with various countries. Before long, that love of medieval history blossomed into a love for other historical time periods ancient Egypt, World War Two, Classical Greece and the Roman Empire, and so on and so on. So that’s why the legend of King Arthur has always held a special place for me.

00:59:56:27 – 01:00:17:12
Dan LeFebvre
It was the spark that started my love of stories from history at a young age. And this actually ties into today’s episode even more, because many years before I started, based on a true story, I picked up a few of Doctor Armstrong’s great courses over on audible, and I absolutely love them. I love learning about King Arthur and the real history behind the legend of King Arthur.

01:00:17:14 – 01:00:39:05
Dan LeFebvre
So after I started based on a true story, Doctor Armstrong was on my short list of people that would love to talk to, and it was an absolute honor to get to pick her brain about one of my favorite historical subjects. And I hope you had as much fun learning from her as I did. I’ll add a link to some of my favorite work from Doctor Armstrong in the show notes, so you can learn even more about the historical King Arthur.

01:00:39:08 – 01:00:55:02
Dan LeFebvre
And of course, as always, all of those links will be on the show. His home on the web over at. Based on a True Story podcast.com/381. Okay, now it’s time for the answer to our two truth and a lot game from the beginning of the episode, and it’s a quick refresher. Here are the two truths and one lie again.

01:00:55:05 – 01:01:21:12
Dan LeFebvre
Number one, the famous Round Table appears in early fifth century Arthurian stories. Number two Merlin was not associated with Arthur until the 12th century. Number three no Romans lived in villas north of Hadrian’s Wall. Did you figure out which one is a lie? I’ve got the answer in the envelope here. Let’s open it up. And the lie is number one.

01:01:21:15 – 01:01:39:07
Dan LeFebvre
As we learned from Doctor Armstrong, the legend of the Round Table actually starts around the 12th century, along the same time as Merlin enters the picture. At least as far as we know. As always, when you’re talking about history and legends that are that old, there’s a very good chance that there are some things that have been lost to time, or we just don’t have documentation of yet.

01:01:39:09 – 01:02:01:09
Dan LeFebvre
But that wraps up our look at the historical accuracy of the King Arthur movie before I let you go, though, since this is the first episode of 2026, I thought I would throw out an update on what my release schedule will be for the new year, and well, there isn’t one. If you are a long time listener based on a true story, you’ll know that there has not been a defined release schedule for many years now.

01:02:01:12 – 01:02:28:21
Dan LeFebvre
When I first started the podcast, I used to release every other week. That was back in 2016 when I first started the show, and then I went to a weekly release schedule, and then I think it was in 2019 that I officially announced the schedule would be when I get an episode completed, that’s when it gets released. And since then, I have had times where I’ve been fortunate enough to work on the podcast full time to crank out 1 or 2 episodes a week, and then other times it’s been 1 or 2 episodes a month.

01:02:28:24 – 01:02:47:25
Dan LeFebvre
But in 2026, I am sticking with the release schedule of as soon as I get an episode completed, that’s when it will be released. The biggest change this year from last year that I’ve gotten a new day job this year, so I can’t work on, based on a true story, full time anymore. But the podcast is not going anywhere, and I’ll keep releasing episodes as soon as I get to complete it.

01:02:47:28 – 01:03:04:24
Dan LeFebvre
Actually, I’ve already got some fun episode planned for 2026, so I’m excited for what this year will bring. And as always, you can reach out to me at Dan at based on a True Story podcast.com if you have any questions or comments. Thanks again for your continued support. Listening to based on a true story. Now chat with you again really soon.