Annnnd ... another one :)

[sigune]

This time it's Arthur. I hope you like him.

Unfortunately he is not wearing a crown. It hasn't been designed yet ;-).



I guess that traditionally, Arthur is more often depicted as blond, but in my story he has black hair as a visual link with Ygraine, Morgause and Morgana. He is also supposed to have an impish sort of quality. The character that is taking shape in my head is not entirely fixed yet, but I like what he is becoming.

Comments

[sigune.livejournal.com]

It's funny you should say that, because I saw in my predecessor's class notes a few weeks ago that he went with Caesar's assertion that the Celts are typically blond (and the Germanic peoples, you know, even blonder :P). What rubbish.

I'm not sure why Arthur is often blond. Medieval tastes, perhaps?

I'm really glad you like him :).

Actually (celtic coloring)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

To be super-accurate here, the Celts were supposedly tall and fair. But my Dad, who is Swedish-Irish by descent, has your Arthur's coloring exactly. And a very typical coloring in Ireland is: dark hair, fair skin, light eyes. I read that the Celts - the Irish, in particular - were supposed to be redheads, but that was because they brushed their dark hair back with lime (or henna?) so that it would look like their horses' manes!

I guess what people think today is that the Celts were relatively fair, and the pre-celtic people of the British Isles were small and dark. The modern coloring results from an admixture.

In any case, Arthur would likely have been part-Roman, wouldn't he?

Anyway, I like him! And I love his expression.

Re: Actually (celtic coloring)

[sigune.livejournal.com]

According to some ancient authors, the (ancient) Celts did indeed use a hair product based on lime, especially when they went into battle, because it made their hair spiky and, I suppose, their aspect more fierce :). This product would also have made their hair look paler and probably partly accounts for the stories that say they were "all blond" (I didn't find any mention of redheads in the ancient sources myself).

I like to stress the "supposedly" in "the Celts were supposedly tall and fair". It sounds like such an over-simplification to me, and typically the kind of thing you can expect from a Roman arriving in Gaul - the Celts would probably have said that the Romans all looked the same, too. I feel quite sure that the Celts were more of a mixed bunch than the Greek and Roman sources make them out, especially because the people we call Celts seem to have been bound by culture and language more than by anything else.

In any case, in Irish myths and legends, dark hair and blue eyes are considered marks of beauty (Naoise and Diarmuid are examples). That leads me to think such colour would not be associated with foreigners.

I'm not sure how many Romans actually settled in Britain - not a lot, I think, because after the Romans left, Britain quickly reverted to its Celtic habits. In any case, the settlers were a mixed bag too: Sarmatian and Saxon auxiliaries would have counted as "Romans" as well ... and any Briton with Roman citizenship was a Roman too! - Just doing my best to make "part-Roman" extra tricky ;P. I confess I am evil.