Migrated over here after looking for reaction to Merlin via Google Blog Search... the problem is that to this lot 'periodisation' is irrelevant; they are mixing and matching what they like and hoping that their sense of mission will pull them forward, but alas there is little direction.
I winced at the addressing of Uther as 'Highness' too, and would have preferred 'Majesty'; but I read somewhere that this was an innovation of Henry VIII, and until then it was usual for the English king to be addressed as 'Your Grace'. 'My Lord King' might have been more appropriate for a Dark Age feel, but this could be viewed as a dramatisation of misapprehensions anyway...
I read somewhere that this was an innovation of Henry VIII, and until then it was usual for the English king to be addressed as 'Your Grace'
That's correct. Between the fall of Rome and Tudor times, Majesty was reserved for the King of heaven (or those who claimed to be so!) and Your Grace was normal. It was only after the Tudors, and Henry VIII not liking the idea of anyone being a rank above him that "Your Britannic/Catholic/Germanic/whatever Majesty" spread across Europe like wildfire.
Having watched the opening episode... good lord, that achieved the remarkable feat of making the recent BBC Robin Hood look quite good. It was sheer, unmitigated crap.
Today it would be "Your Majesty", for the first time, then "Sir". However, in the Middle Ages you could get away with "My Lord", particularly if you were one of the great Magnates, because that was your relationship to him - he was your liege lord.
Don't remember where it came from, and can't find it on a search so may have got some key word wrong, but the point was "Majesty" being a new-fangled expression not immediately understood.
My quote comes from Henry IV Part I so that it is just after the era when Majesty took over. There is a vague air of familiarity about your quote, but I'm damned if I can place it.
I quite liked it - it's daft and uncomplicated, but it was a fairly decent first episode for something new and I'll be interested to see how it settles in, particularly with the kiddie audience. Certainly made a better first impression than Robin Hood, at least!
The tomatoes and costume choices didn't really bother me, I must admit - the Arthurian stories have been constantly reworked over the centuries and don't really belong to a specific time period or place in history, more a sort of vague Britain-that-never-was, details and fantasy-quotient dependent on the needs of the storyteller. I think it'll take a few episodes to really get a grip on the world, but it's colourful fun and I do like that they've made Arthur out to be a complete twerp. :)
(plus, with the tomatoes, I have a suspicion that if they'd tried pelting him with more period-authentic veg, they'd have landed their actor in hospital!)
I would have thought mud was the obvious thing for pelting. How often did people have veg to spare?
I think it's potentially fun. The costumes don't bother me, they were obviously a deliberate choice to pull in a young audience, but the way of addressing a king was just sloppy. Historical accuracy should have 'your Grace', modern English should be 'your Majesty'. To fail on the modern one is really poor, given that some of that young audience will spot the error.
re: tomatoes - there's a great LJ community called food_in_fiction that loves this sort of thing. I've seen a few films set in the Middle Ages where potatoes are all the poor people eat. Tomatoes... yikes, I'd think the BBC would know better, but that's a silly assumption.
The problem I had was that traditionally, Merlin was supposed to be "substantially" older than Arthur - he was supposed to have taken the baby Arthur to Sir Hector if the legends are to be believed :)
Still, a good romp if you don't let the lack of either historicity or adherence to the legends get to you too much!
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I winced at the addressing of Uther as 'Highness' too, and would have preferred 'Majesty'; but I read somewhere that this was an innovation of Henry VIII, and until then it was usual for the English king to be addressed as 'Your Grace'. 'My Lord King' might have been more appropriate for a Dark Age feel, but this could be viewed as a dramatisation of misapprehensions anyway...
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That's correct. Between the fall of Rome and Tudor times, Majesty was reserved for the King of heaven (or those who claimed to be so!) and Your Grace was normal. It was only after the Tudors, and Henry VIII not liking the idea of anyone being a rank above him that "Your Britannic/Catholic/Germanic/whatever Majesty" spread across Europe like wildfire.
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(If I actually met the Queen, I would address her as Ma'am, obviously.)
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FF
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In fantasy Camelot, probably, "Hey, Uth!"
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"What,none?"
"No, not so much as would serve as a prologue to an egg and butter."
(That's from memory, so there may be an odd word out of place. Yah! for Elizabethan - and in particular Shakespearean - triple decker puns.)
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"Hast thou seen the King's Majesty?"
"His Majesty? What's that, his horse?"
"Tush, I mean His Grace."
Don't remember where it came from, and can't find it on a search so may have got some key word wrong, but the point was "Majesty" being a new-fangled expression not immediately understood.
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The tomatoes and costume choices didn't really bother me, I must admit - the Arthurian stories have been constantly reworked over the centuries and don't really belong to a specific time period or place in history, more a sort of vague Britain-that-never-was, details and fantasy-quotient dependent on the needs of the storyteller. I think it'll take a few episodes to really get a grip on the world, but it's colourful fun and I do like that they've made Arthur out to be a complete twerp. :)
(plus, with the tomatoes, I have a suspicion that if they'd tried pelting him with more period-authentic veg, they'd have landed their actor in hospital!)
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I think it's potentially fun. The costumes don't bother me, they were obviously a deliberate choice to pull in a young audience, but the way of addressing a king was just sloppy. Historical accuracy should have 'your Grace', modern English should be 'your Majesty'. To fail on the modern one is really poor, given that some of that young audience will spot the error.
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Surely it can't be worse than Robin Hood? I saw a couple of episodes and they were shite.
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Still, a good romp if you don't let the lack of either historicity or adherence to the legends get to you too much!
Alastair
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(Or, at least "WTF? Oh gods, not another "re-imagining" for people who think they can "improve" on the classics)
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... she knew how to forge ahead.
Or:
... if you tried it on she'd make a bolt for the door!
(Ok, I'll get my coat ;-) )