Mythology is a funny thing.
The stories that get passed down through the generations, and the heroes
and villains that occupy them, almost seem to buck against what we believe to
be “truth”. The facticity of folklore has and will likely be argued for as long
as we ourselves exist, but the effect that those tales can have on the human
consciousness is very much factual. Tales like that of King Arthur, a British
ruler and general whose echoed exploits have formed a hefty amount of British
culture, not to mention providing the creative arts with some of its most
instantly recognisable imagery.
But here's where things get a little trickier when it comes
to tales of legend: Not everyone is going to view the legend through the same
lens. Where some see Arthur as one in a collection of stories about heroes
rising up against a great evil, others see Arthur as an example of nepotism at
its worst. The idea that the land can only be ruled by someone who is destined
to do so, chosen by otherworldly forces due to their lineage, their culture…
their race. And in over the last handful of years, that very idea of only the
chosen people being worthy of leading the populace has lead Great Britain down
some less-than-ideal roads. And with this latest iteration of the story of Excalibur
and its one true wielder, that is brought into the foreground.
