Cultists, Pagans and Druids Sign Up for UK Armed Forces

Like any other 'business', the armed forces had to cut costs so disposed quietly of their middle management, men who had been promoted beyond the gunfodder stage and had reached the end of the line with no empty situations for them to take over. At least, that's how my RAF personnel/finances officer/computer expert BiL put it to me.

He took the hint pretty quickly when he was placed in temporary charge of an almost empty station with nothing to do for almost a year. He was lucky, he was only in his late 30s, so found a job very quickly, but I do feel for those who stayed well into their 40s and were let go.

What a silly article. Does it matter?

Watching parliament at the moment. How many Muslims in the armed forces?

If you'd read the article, you'd know, durhamjen.

A soldiers's religion is his own business. The Celts (men,women and children) were formidable fighters in their day until they drew the short straw against the Romans. Better a witch or warlock than a wimp on the ramparts.

Can't you just tell me, Ana?
Having read what Holly says is enough for me.

What was King Arthur, papaoscar? Was he a pagan?

But durhamjen, surely you expect everyone to read your links...?

My son is thinking of joining the forces. As I believe he is currently registered as a jedi knight, I'm sure he will be fine.

Brilliant, jane. Do they accept vegetarian as a religion?
No, Ana, I know better than to expect everyone to read my links. I put them there for those who are openminded enough to want to read them.

Well, I hope you have now read HollyDaze's link, as it's likely she feels the same way.

King Arthur, DJ. Did he exist at all? Or was he just a figment of later imaginations. I like to think he did exist, but always get him mixed up with King Alfred as personified by that magnificent statue at Winchester. Now if we could get those two together with Hereward the Wake and Robin Hood we could really start cooking. But what about us shout Boudicca and Ivanhoe!

No written reference to Arthur until the 9th century, a good 300 years after he is supposed to have lived. The principal contemporary writer, Gildas, doesn't mention him at all. In the c9 poem Y Gododdin he is a yardstick for military accomplishment; in the c10 Annales Cambriae he is credited with winning the Battle of Mount Badon and with dying in the same battle as Medraut (Mordred) 21 years later. And that's pretty well it.

So not a lot to go on! No clues about his religion - Christianity, Mithraism, Druidism?

Nice to believe he did exist, though. And nobody can say he didn't!

Some people believe Arthur was pagan, and others believe he was Christian. Because there was no written reference does not mean he did not exist. Beowulf was passed down by word of mouth before it was written down. In the first stories about Arthur there was no mention of the Holy Grail. I like to believe he existed, grumppa, and that it's time he reappeared to rescue us from this government.
King Alfred definitely existed, papaoscar. Late 9th Century. He was Christian, because he translated biblical works into English.

Arthur and Alfred were both definitely leaders of their armies.

Arthur could be an amalgam of a number of post Roman chieftains who may or may not have been Christian. Merlin of legend, however, is likely to be based on Druid priests who were likely to have been, at the time, in retreat in the face of the spread of Christianity and the advance of the marauding Saxon tribes from Northern Europe. Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles provide good entertainment with an imaginative approach to the Arthurian legends.

The great thing about Arthur is that we can choose whatever version we like: Malory's, T.H. White's, Rosemary Sutcliff's, Mary Stewart's, etc., or create our own amalgams.

And the earthworks at South Cadbury are very impressive, whoever refortified them after the Romans left.

I agree, grumppa. And who cares if the round table at Winchester is real or not, it's a good story and gets kids interested.
Don't hear Rosemary Sutcliff being mentioned much these days. I am sure my grandson will enjoy her novels as much as his dad did.

The Shield (2011) is a better than I feared film of The Eagle of the Ninth, with Channing Tatum as Marcus Flavius Aquila.

janerowena good luck to your son, and may the force be with him[ as we say to our police officer SIL on a regular basis.]I don't think it matters really what religion soldiers follow, they are not pacifists after all.As Hawkeye says in M.A.S.H. 'put down Druid- Reformed [on the army form] they can only pray in bushes!' If spells actually did work [if only] that could be to the Army's advantage.

papaoscar there is also a magnificent statue of King Alfred in the centre of Wantage [which is where he was born.]

durhamjen I have always regarded the round table at Winchester as being modelled on a giant darts board at which the knights could practise hurling their throwing spears.

I've always been interested in the so-called 'dark ages'. Leslie Alcock's book about his excavations at Cadbury inspired me, as did Geoffrey Ashe's books about the Arthurian era. Two years ago, we had a U3A day school about King Arthur. I think the people who came along looking forward to tales of chivalry, knights and ladies must have been rather disappointed!

Other way round, surely, grumppa. The table came first in evolutionary terms.