King Arthur - the Movie

[Valandil]

After answering a thread about 'Ancient Cultures' last night, I did yet another search on 'historical king arthur'. I was quite surprised and very excited when I saw there was a movie coming out this summer about King Arthur, which was supposed to be based on actual historical stuff - not the legends which grew and were written down many centuries later.

Looked a little more and got disappointed real fast. Seems they're going on the theory that Arthur was a 2nd century Roman officer named 'Artorius' - a theory with very little support. Further, they seem to be keeping a lot of the other characters who were added later: Lancelot, Guenivere, Galahad, etc. (EDIT: Oh - and his knights are going to be Russians! - Roman cavalry recruited from Sarmatia!!!)

Theories on the historical Arthur abound. The one that makes the most sense to me is that he was originally some kind of field captain under Ambrosius Aurelianus in the late 400's in a sort of hybrid Roman-Britton state (complete with internal strife from the Vortigern family), that he succeeded Aurelianus and crushed the Saxon invasions sufficiently enough to halt their advances for 50-100 years. In this theory, he's a descendant of Cunedda, who migrated with his Votadini tribe from southeastern Scotland to northern Wales at the invite of Aurelianus.

Merddyn (Merlin) appears to have been a warrior displaced in time, transformed into a wizard and placed in Arthur's court. Gawain seems to work with the naming used at the time, Medraut (Mordred) has historical sources, but it's unclear if he was actually an enemy of Arthur or an ally. Most of the rest of the stuff was added much later and can be discarded: Camelot, Round Table, Lancelot, Guenivere, Holy Grail, Chivalry (though Arthur may have led a Roman-style cavalry division). And, Medraut or not - it's still possible that Arthur was betrayed and done in by cousin(s) / nephew(s)...

(EDIT: I was sorely disappointed by First Knight - I hope this one doesn't get that bad, but I sure didn't stay hopeful very long!!!)