Myth or history

Subject: RE: Myth or history
From: Bert
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 03:25 AM

I didn't say healthy Jim;-)

But compared with the last time I ate out in England, American Fast Food is bloody great. I can remember the one Wimpy burger I ever had, it was about two inches diameter and one eight of an inch thick. It looked and tasted like cardboard.

Also an otherwise civilied thread! You made that word up on purpose for this thread.

Subject: RE: Myth or history
From: GUEST,Allan Connochie
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 04:39 AM

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe most of what we know of William Wallace comes from a ballad by a minstrel called Blind Harry that was written after the fact."

Yes Blind Harry's epic poem about Wallace was written in the 15thC and was written in Scots. Hamilton of Gilbertsfield did an English translation in the 18thC and this was the work Randall Wallace based much of his novel on though he also supposedly interwove some of the emements of story of Christ into it. Right from Harry's version it was a swashbuckling adventure full of imagination, exaggeration and even distortion.

Some of the things that get most criticism for being 'made up' by the film makers were actually taken directly from the poem or adapted from the poem. For instance the blue face of Wallace! But in the poem Wallace is visted in a dream by a fairy (in the later version the Virgin Mary) who crosses his face with a Saltire. The liason with the Princess in the film is much criticised but again this is simply adapted from the poem except in the poem it is the English Queen herself who has the liason with Wallace.

One of the big differences between film/book and poem is how the Irish soldiers are portrayed which I suppose is a sop to Irish Americans. In the film when the Irish serving under Edward of England actually come face to face with the Scots they down weapons and both sides start hugging each other in some kind of Celtic solidarity whilst the English king simply shrugs his soldiers and whispers something like "bloody Irish". However in the poem when Wallace's army catches up with the Irish and Scottish Highlanders serving under Edward he spares all the Highlanders who swear allegiance to him (because they are fellow Scots) but all of the Irish are massacred on the spot for being foreign invaders.

Subject: RE: Myth or history
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 07:03 AM

" civilied" "You made that word up on purpose for this thread."
No I didn't but I wish I had - I must remember it for future reference.
Re fast foord - haven't eaten a burger since the "scabby kangaroo meat on polystyrene bread rolls" libel case.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Myth or history
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 10:10 AM

'At New Orleans, General Packenham built a barricade of barrels full of sugar.' I would be interested in a source for this statement. None of the major sources mention it. Even if sugar barrels were used as impromptu gabions they would contain earth and stones.

Jackson's famed cotton bales in the barricade were only used under the guns. They were a bit inflammable to protect troops.