MarkA
You say that you accept the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth as a historical document, yet you want us to believe that the books of Samuel, and at least the early parts of Kings and Chronicles are all just fairy tales?! Now if you tell me that Noah didn't exist, or even Samson, then I won't disagree, but whoever the author was of the aforementioned books, it is simply not credible to claim that it was all just made up. We have archaelogical proof of such kings as Jehu and Hezekiah, why is it so impossible to go back just 2-3 more centuries to David's time. Or maybe Jehu just showed up one day.
Frankly, you remind me of the naysayers, the diehard isolationists who refused to the bitter end to accept any pre-Columbian European settlement in America. Oh,they said, the sagas are all just fairytales, none of it really happened. Right, and the holocaust never happened either. Then came L'anse Aux Meadows in 1961, and the isolationists had to stuff a sock in it. Now we know that the sagas, while maybe somewhat embellished, are BASED ON HISTORICAL FACTS. And if we accept the story of Freydis beating her breasts with a sword while the Skraelings were chasing her as at least something like the truth, why not, for instance, Absolom's failed palace coup, and his long hair getting caught in tree branches? Oh, I forgot, no archaelogical evidence! Maybe when I'm dead and gone, I won't leave any behind either, then some day, someone will claim I never existed.
You say that you accept the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth as a historical document, yet you want us to believe that the books of Samuel, and at least the early parts of Kings and Chronicles are all just fairy tales?! Now if you tell me that Noah didn't exist, or even Samson, then I won't disagree, but whoever the author was of the aforementioned books, it is simply not credible to claim that it was all just made up. We have archaelogical proof of such kings as Jehu and Hezekiah, why is it so impossible to go back just 2-3 more centuries to David's time. Or maybe Jehu just showed up one day.
Frankly, you remind me of the naysayers, the diehard isolationists who refused to the bitter end to accept any pre-Columbian European settlement in America. Oh,they said, the sagas are all just fairytales, none of it really happened. Right, and the holocaust never happened either. Then came L'anse Aux Meadows in 1961, and the isolationists had to stuff a sock in it. Now we know that the sagas, while maybe somewhat embellished, are BASED ON HISTORICAL FACTS. And if we accept the story of Freydis beating her breasts with a sword while the Skraelings were chasing her as at least something like the truth, why not, for instance, Absolom's failed palace coup, and his long hair getting caught in tree branches? Oh, I forgot, no archaelogical evidence! Maybe when I'm dead and gone, I won't leave any behind either, then some day, someone will claim I never existed.