Dr. Miles Russell

And yet when people are trying to dramatise the Trojan Wars today, they downplay the death and killing side and they try to bring in romance and try to make this person likeable because ultimately we want to see an element of our heroes that we empathise with, that we like. Otherwise, what's the point? So you can see a lot of more modern interpretations of Achilles.

And yet when people are trying to dramatise the Trojan Wars today, they downplay the death and killing side and they try to bring in romance and try to make this person likeable because ultimately we want to see an element of our heroes that we empathise with, that we like. Otherwise, what's the point? So you can see a lot of more modern interpretations of Achilles.

And yeah, he's quite a nice chap. He's got compassion. It doesn't appear in the original sources. Basically, he is a murderous sociopath. And that is the same with Alexander. I mean, there's nothing about his story. He's not going eastwards in a missionary zeal to bring his brand of civilization and to benefit society. He's conquering and killing and destroying another civilization. But later on,

And yeah, he's quite a nice chap. He's got compassion. It doesn't appear in the original sources. Basically, he is a murderous sociopath. And that is the same with Alexander. I mean, there's nothing about his story. He's not going eastwards in a missionary zeal to bring his brand of civilization and to benefit society. He's conquering and killing and destroying another civilization. But later on,

And yeah, he's quite a nice chap. He's got compassion. It doesn't appear in the original sources. Basically, he is a murderous sociopath. And that is the same with Alexander. I mean, there's nothing about his story. He's not going eastwards in a missionary zeal to bring his brand of civilization and to benefit society. He's conquering and killing and destroying another civilization. But later on,

The romances are added and they're trying to make him ultimately a more likable person. And that is exactly what's happening with Arthur, because he is a deeply unlikable person when you read his accounts in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

The romances are added and they're trying to make him ultimately a more likable person. And that is exactly what's happening with Arthur, because he is a deeply unlikable person when you read his accounts in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

The romances are added and they're trying to make him ultimately a more likable person. And that is exactly what's happening with Arthur, because he is a deeply unlikable person when you read his accounts in Geoffrey of Monmouth.

Exactly. I mean, the interesting thing looking through Geoffrey Monmouth, which you do read it from cover to cover, which I've done many times, it's not something I'd automatically recommend to people because it's not like reading a novel and it's played with names and dates and events. But you see that certain themes do get repeated.

Exactly. I mean, the interesting thing looking through Geoffrey Monmouth, which you do read it from cover to cover, which I've done many times, it's not something I'd automatically recommend to people because it's not like reading a novel and it's played with names and dates and events. But you see that certain themes do get repeated.

Exactly. I mean, the interesting thing looking through Geoffrey Monmouth, which you do read it from cover to cover, which I've done many times, it's not something I'd automatically recommend to people because it's not like reading a novel and it's played with names and dates and events. But you see that certain themes do get repeated.

And this is one of the reasons I think that Geoffrey's history, his skill is he's weaving together a series of stories and trying to put them in a chronology that makes sense to him. So we often see stories repeated. like the invasion of Julius Caesar in 54 BC in Britain as a documented event, it appears twice in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account from different perspectives.

And this is one of the reasons I think that Geoffrey's history, his skill is he's weaving together a series of stories and trying to put them in a chronology that makes sense to him. So we often see stories repeated. like the invasion of Julius Caesar in 54 BC in Britain as a documented event, it appears twice in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account from different perspectives.

And this is one of the reasons I think that Geoffrey's history, his skill is he's weaving together a series of stories and trying to put them in a chronology that makes sense to him. So we often see stories repeated. like the invasion of Julius Caesar in 54 BC in Britain as a documented event, it appears twice in Geoffrey of Monmouth's account from different perspectives.

And it's almost as if he doesn't realise it's the same event and therefore he separates it out and we get three invasions of Caesar rather than the two that we know about. And 54 BC is repeated. And he does this with individuals. We see someone whose story is very similar to somebody else and their name form is slightly different. It's garbled and it's evidently it's the same person.

And it's almost as if he doesn't realise it's the same event and therefore he separates it out and we get three invasions of Caesar rather than the two that we know about. And 54 BC is repeated. And he does this with individuals. We see someone whose story is very similar to somebody else and their name form is slightly different. It's garbled and it's evidently it's the same person.

And it's almost as if he doesn't realise it's the same event and therefore he separates it out and we get three invasions of Caesar rather than the two that we know about. And 54 BC is repeated. And he does this with individuals. We see someone whose story is very similar to somebody else and their name form is slightly different. It's garbled and it's evidently it's the same person.

But Geoffrey's presented with two rather different accounts. And rather than pushing them together, he treats them as two separate individuals. So when we look at Arthur, you can disentangle. There's at least five individuals which come together. So Arthur is a composite in Geoffrey of Monmouth. His story has already happened to other people.

But Geoffrey's presented with two rather different accounts. And rather than pushing them together, he treats them as two separate individuals. So when we look at Arthur, you can disentangle. There's at least five individuals which come together. So Arthur is a composite in Geoffrey of Monmouth. His story has already happened to other people.

But Geoffrey's presented with two rather different accounts. And rather than pushing them together, he treats them as two separate individuals. So when we look at Arthur, you can disentangle. There's at least five individuals which come together. So Arthur is a composite in Geoffrey of Monmouth. His story has already happened to other people.