Another audio book on loan from my British friend with whom I’ve worked out a little audio book exchange recently. This book is obviously designed for British audiences, but I still found it pretty interesting.
The premise of the book is two fold: to explore the essence of what makes someone a “hero”, to separate the fact from legend, and to tie the ancient stories into current landmarks and geography. (I guess that actually adds up to three-fold, now that I think about it.)
As an American, it is hard to imagine what it is like to live in a land in which every corner is crammed full of ancient history. The geographical part of the book is obviously designed for British audiences.
As are the selected heroes themselves. The five heroes explored in the book are Boudica, Macbeth, King Harold, William Wallace, and Robin Hood.
Now, despite considering myself a history buff, I had never heard of Boudica or King Harold before. Presumably a British schoolboy would be better versed in these heroes. For that matter, were it not for the Hollywood movie, I don’t think I would have heard of William Wallace either.
And while I’m being hard on myself, I don’t think I would have ever known about Macbeth were it not for the Shakespeare play. And Robin Hood is a fictional character. So essentially I’m batting zero for 5.
Out of all the heroes in British history (King Arthur, Saint George, Oliver Cromwell, etc) the selection of these 5 heroes represent some interesting choices. Macbeth is more of an anti-hero. Once the legend is separated from the fact, he comes out a little bit better than in Shakespeare’s play, but still not someone I’d want to live next door to.
The book tries to make a case that Robin Hood was actually based on a historical person, but I thought it was a pretty weak case.
And final thought: the real William Wallace comes out a lot different than the Hollywood movie.
Link of the Day
Antiwar Activists Arrested at House Appropriations Committee Hearing
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