XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: theswain@sbcglobal.net   
      
   Steve Hayes wrote:   
      
   > I have a couple of other observations, these are tentative hypotheses; you   
   may   
   > have evidence that shows them to be false:   
   >   
   > (1) The Arthurian saga  was written after the Norman conquest of England. I   
   > suggest that it was written in part to legitimse that conquest by showing   
   that   
   > the Anglo-Saxons had themselves conquered Britain from the Romano-British in   
   > order to create England, and that they were therefore no more legitimate than   
   > the Normans who in turn conquered them.   
   >   
      
   No, I don't think so.  a) there were Anglo-Saxons who wanted William, not   
   Harold b)   
   the Anglo-Saxons were well aware that they had been invaders--read the first   
   chapters of Bede c) legitimacy wasn't the question--remember that not too long   
   before the conquest they had been ruled by Cnute and there wasn't a lot of   
   problem   
   with his reign (well, there was some, but some cooperated fully.  d) William   
   did   
   have a claim to the throne....and it is that legitimacy that is in quiestion,   
   not   
   the legitimacy of the invasion itself and e) the Normans also very quickly   
   adopted   
   Anglo-Saxon saints and holy sites and regnal traditions to show continuity   
   with the   
   Anglo-Saxon past, not to obliterate it.  SO I don't think this a path to go   
   down so   
   to speak.   
      
      
   >   
   > (2) The Norman Conquest took place 12 years after the schism. From an   
   Orthodox   
   > point of view, the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Churches were Orthodox. The Norman   
   > Conquest was in a sense therefore the conquest of Orthodoxy.   
   >   
      
   Not really....William appointed his own bishops and only later did he   
   subscribe to   
   the Roman position--and his son still had to assure the pope that they'd tow   
   the   
   line.  The Anglo-Saxon church was quite orthodox and had earlier in the   
   century gone   
   through a major reform, the Benedictine Reform, that was in large part   
   influenced by   
   Abbo of Fleury--Fleury is a monastery in Normandy.   
      
   ljs   
      
   >   
   > It was the Norman Archbishops of Canterbury, like Lanfranc and Anselm, whose   
   > theological innovations widened the rift between East and West.   
   >   
   > --   
   > Steve Hayes   
   > E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
   > Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
   >      http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/books.htm   
      
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