Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:41 pm Post subject: Constans (spoiler)
Is this the man who Arthur declares to be the next king when he's dying at Camlann? All I remember is he makes someone who's related to him and has a name beginning with "Const-" the heir...
Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:03 am Post subject: Re: Constans (spoiler)
Paulus wrote:
Is this the man who Arthur declares to be the next king when he's dying at Camlann? All I remember is he makes someone who's related to him and has a name beginning with "Const-" the heir...
Constans is the name of Uther's and Ambrosius' eldest brother in some of the sources. I couldn't think of anything else Uther might want a bastard named, and it doesn't seem to me that Uther is very imaginative, so I went with it.
Ah yes, now I remember - Constans was a monk when he was pulled out to be king after his dad Constantine died, right? And then Vortigern poisoned him? I remember because Constantine was the name of a Roman general in Britain who rebelled, and he had a son named Constans, and Geoffrey merged them into his Kings of the Britons list with Uther and Ambrosius.
Ah yes, now I remember - Constans was a monk when he was pulled out to be king after his dad Constantine died, right? And then Vortigern poisoned him?
Yes, I think that's the version of events from the French Vulgate.
Paulus wrote:
I remember because Constantine was the name of a Roman general in Britain who rebelled, and he had a son named Constans, and Geoffrey merged them into his Kings of the Britons list with Uther and Ambrosius.
I read that Constantine the emperor who made the Empire Christian had a son named Constans also, and that Geoffrey may have been thinking of that too.
Yeah, Geoffrey did a lot of merging. His Merlin is a conflation of two folk characters who'd lived a hundred years apart. _________________ Paul Gadzikowski, paul@arthurkingoftimeandspace.com
I read that Constantine the emperor who made the Empire Christian had a son named Constans also, and that Geoffrey may have been thinking of that too.
As I recall, he did; he had four sucessors and one of them was a half-nephew that he adopted, and I think that might've been Constans. At any rate, Emperor Constatine also makes an appearance in Geoffrey, as (of course) a King of the Britons.
As a side-note, the usurpur Constantine was nominated by the soldiers to be emperor for the one reason that he shared the same name with the emperor.
Paul Gadzikowski wrote:
Yeah, Geoffrey did a lot of merging. His Merlin is a conflation of two folk characters who'd lived a hundred years apart.
Myrddin Wylt who went insane after the Battle of Aferdydd, and Myrddin...Ambrosius, was it? I know there was some story (about the dragons I think?) that was originally attested to Ambrosius Aurelianus, which later got attributed to Merlin. I'm currently reading Arthur's Britain by Prof. Leslie Alcott, and he briefly touched that...
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
