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Legends of the
British Isles
The history of the British Isles is long and distinguished,
and naturally over the centuries folk-heroes and legendary figures have
arisen and the tales are still passed on today. This is just a small
selection of the most well-known:
By definition, legends are stories which have their
roots in fact, as opposed to myths which are purely fictional. Some
of these roots are more tenuous than others
and some of these legends are stories attributed to historical characters
who most certainly DID exist.
Robin Hood
I make no apologies for starting with this most well-loved of British
heroes. The story of Robin Hood, the hero of the working man, who robbed
the rich and gave to the poor, is believed to date from the twelfth
century: some Mediaeval chroniclers and ballad-writers even give his
life exact dates, 1170 - 1247. At the time the Saxon (English) peasants
were ruled by Norman (French) overlords, recent invaders who had come
to England with William the Conqueror, and were very much the underdogs.
It is hardly surprising that they would adopt a champion willing to
stand up for them against their oppressors.
Robin Hood was originally described as coming from
Locksley (which is in Yorkshire) and is therefore sometimes known as
Robin of Locksley, or from Barnsdale (also in Yorkshire), so at first
it might seem strange that he lived in Sherwood Forest and his arch-enemy
was the sheriff of Nottingham. This is more understandable when you
realise that in the 12th and 13th centuries, and even later, Sherwood
Forest, now confined to Nottinghamshire, stretched north well into Yorkshire
- the patch of ancient woodland on Beverley Westwood, in Yorkshire's
East Riding, is believed to be one of the last remnants of the original
Sherwood Forest - and that the Sheriff of Nottingham's jurisdiction
stretched beyond the modern county boundaries.
The basic legend has Robin returning from the Third
Crusade to find himself dispossessed and made an outlaw by King John,
who was "standing in" for his brother Richard the Lionheart
(who was away fighting the Crusades.) Robin (either "of Locksley"
or in some versions, Earl of Huntingdon) doesn't take this kindly and
teams up with a band of outlaws - his "Merrie Men" - and an
itinerant Friar (a priest without a parish.) Their chief opponent is
the Sheriff of Nottingham, who to be fair is only doing his job in trying
to uphold the law and bring the band of outlaws (by definition, living
outside the law) to justice. Nevertheless they aren't BAD outlaws but
merely doing their bit for the community by robbing the rich and giving
to the poor, thus redistributing the wealth of the country more fairly.....
The band of outlaws, said to be 140-strong in some
of the ballads, has a regular cast of central characters : Little John,
Will Scarlett, Allan a-Dale, Much the Miller's son, and of course Friar
Tuck, and these feature in most of the well-known legends. Robin and
his men have many near-misses and Robin is on occasion even captured
by the Sheriff but always gets away in the end. Robin also marries the
fair Marian Fitzwalter and together they continue the fight, supported
as always by the "Merrie Men."
In some versions of the legend, King Richard returns
and restores Robin to his rightful inheritance, but he misses his life
in the forest and returns. Eventually he grows old and weak, and before
he dies he shoots an arrow into the air and asks to be buried where
it falls - traditionally in Kirklees, again in Yorkshire.
For lots more information on the legends of Robin Hood,
try this website: "Robin
Hood - Bold Outlaw of Barnsdale and Sherwood."
King Arthur
Arthur is another
legendary figure who most true Brits believe in or would like to be
true. He is most probably an amalgamation of several tribal chieftains
of the period (5th century AD) - although he is usually referred to
as Arthur of the Britons, at that time Britain was divided into a number
of kingdoms and Arthur was a common name among the Celtic royalty. (See
this
page listing many historical royal / high born Arthurs of the period.)
After
the departure of the Romans there was constant struggling for supremacy
amongst the tribes and small kingdoms, and England as we know it did
not yet exist. They also had to contend with raids and invasions from
across the North Sea, and the Arthur of legend is seen as leading
his men to defend his country from the invaders. His stories also
involve scenes of mediaeval chivalry more typical of the period of
the Crusades, but why spoil a good story with the truth?
Like Robin Hood (another freedom
fighter,) Arthur is the subject of countless stories and legends,
many of which (like the Robin Hood legends) have been adapted into
films and TV programmes. The definitive version of the King Arthur
legend is Malory's Morte d'Arthur, published in 1485 and originally
titled "The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the
Round Table." It is this book which gives us the stories of Sir
Galahad and Sir Gawaine, Sir Lancelot and Arthur's Queen Guinevere,
and the Round Table and the sword in the stone.
King Arthur is such a popular figure in history /
legend that a web search turns up over a million references on the
internet - try Britannia
History as a starting point!
TOP
King Alfred
King Alfred was undoubtedly a genuine historical character, who was
born in Wantage in 849 AD and ruled Wessex, the largest kingdom of the
time and forerunner of a united England, from 871-899.
He defended Anglo-Saxon England from Viking raids, created the first
English navy, formulated a code of laws, and began the emergence from
the Dark Ages by encouraging the arts, education and scholarship. He
is remembered as Alfred the Great, the only British monarch ever to
earn this title.
Nevertheless, if the legend is
to be believed, his culinary skills left a lot to be desired! The story
is that he travelled around disguised as a wandering harpist, gathering
information from behind enemy lines. Whilst hiding in a swineherd's
hut he fell asleep and burnt the swineherd's wife's cakes that he had
been trusted to watch, so earning the reputation as the king who burnt
the cakes.
King John
King John was the younger brother of King Richard I ("The Lionheart")
and attempted to seize power in 1191 whilst his brother was away fighting
in the Crusades; he eventually came to the throne in his own right
in 1199. He was not a popular king and fell out with both the Pope
and his own barons, and was compelled to sign the Magna Carta outlining
the rights and responsibilities of the crown and its principal subjects.
With the country on the brink of civil war, John fled to regroup his
supporters, taking all his treasure, including the crown jewels, with
him. According to legend, he lost the crown jewels and much of his
treasure whilst attempting to cross The Wash, a wide but shallow arm
of the North Sea, at low tide, probably in quicksands. The phrase
"King John lost the Crown Jewels in the wash" provokes a
bizarre mental image and is the subject of many schoolboy howlers!
He died shortly afterwards, in 1216, reputedly after over-indulging
in peaches and cider, leaving his nine-year-old son as king.
Robert the Bruce
Another genuine historical character,
Robert lived from 1274 to 1329 and was king of Scotland from 1306.
He was a contemporary of William Wallace (of "Braveheart"
fame) and has a whole internet domain - www.robert-the-bruce.com
- in his honour. Although most of his exploits are a matter of historical
record, there is one persistent legend attached to him, and that
is the story of Robert the Bruce and the spider. Bruce was another
freedom fighter in Scotland's war for independence from English
domination. During a period when things were not going so well,
Bruce was on the run and took refuge in a cave. Whilst hiding there,
he saw a spider struggling to climb up its web only to fall back
down again. Six times the spider climbed up it only to fall back,
but on the seventh attempt it succeeded and climbed right to the
top. Seeing the spider fail repeatedly but still continue to try,
until it eventually succeeded, according to the legend the defeated
monarch was inspired to start again on his quest to free Scotland.
Saint George and the Dragon
As one of the four patron Saints of the British Isles (the others
are St. Andrew, St. David and St. Patrick), Saint George merits a
page of his own on this website - click here
to open it in a new window; simply close the new page down by clicking
on the X in the top right-hand corner when you have finished with
it.
The Glastonbury Thorn
The Glastonbury Thorn (Crataegus monogyna biflora) is a type
of Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna praecox)- a shrubby tree common
throughout the British Isles - but differs from it in that it flowers
twice a year, at Easter and at Christmas.
THE Glastonbury Thorn - the one at Glastonbury, Somerset - is said to
have been planted by Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb in which
Jesus Christ was buried, when he came to Britain early in the 1st century
AD. His staff rooted after he stuck it in the ground and grew into a
tree. The original bush grew on the side of Wearyall Hill, just to the
south of the town, but it was declared an object of superstition by
the Puritans and was cut down. In 1800 John Clark placed a tablet which
marked the precise spot. A cutting from the desecrated thorn was, however,
planted secretly in the Abbey grounds, rooted and grew, and this is
now the "Glastonbury Thorn," a direct descendent - a clone, even - of
the the original.
Glastonbury is also closely associated with Arthurian legend, and is
one of the sites where he is reputed to be buried.
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