Re: OT: NB as Xy

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
> the other side of the story, the
> Arthurian "legends", which essentially tell the tale of the
> Romanized local elites who tried to sustain certain notions of
> culture after Rome withdrew, who opposed these "barbarians",
That sounds like my father's account of the origins of Romania:
the veterani of Legio XIII Gemina, Daciae Trianae, settled in the
Danubian provinces, retreated with their families to the
Transylvanian alps after the active-duty legions were withdrawn
and rolled rocks down on Avar and Hun, Turk and Slav, and
preserved an island of Western, Roman civilization in a sea of
Slavic and Asiatic "Barbarians."
 > and
> who became increasingly demoralized. It's a tale that ends
> badly, but that controlled the British folkloric imagination for
> a thousand years, so powerful was its message about principles,
> justice, duty, faithfulness.

"Say, have you thought what manner of man it is
Of whom men say, 'He could strike giants down?'
Or what strong memories over time's abyss
Bore up the pomp of Camelot and the crown?
And why one banner all the background fills
Beyond the pageants of so many spears,
And by what witchery in the western hills
A throne stands empty for a thousand years?"

G. K. Chesterton, "The Myth of Arthur," which is addressed to
"...learned men who never learned to learn" and concludes:

"Take comfort; rest--there needs not this ado.
You shall not be a myth, I promise you."

Euge, Robert.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx