MovieChat Forums > The Sword in the Stone (1964) Discussion > King of England

King of England

posted 6 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

The inscription read, "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise King born of England."

If Arthur existed, he wouldn't have been king of England, the land of the Angles and Saxons. Of course, even Mallory's work refers to "England" several times, as the name was current in his day. However, Arthur was more of a Brythonic/Celtic ruler in opposition to the Saxons, who were making inroads onto the island of Britain. It would have made more sense to use the name "Britain" throughout this movie instead of "England."

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Bump.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Yeah, you are right.

But as it is a cartoon, they didn’t go for historical accuracy. Also target audience wouldn’t even notice it or care about it as they are kids. Actually I never noticed when I was a kid, and even now when grown up (I watched it about a year ago) never thought about it, until now when I read your post.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Good points.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

And they'd be speaking Saxon or some version of Olde English!

But since this was all translated into modern English, I'm willing to allow the translation of "King of whatever lands are held by our barbarian tribes at the moment" into "King of England".

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

That's reasonable.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Disney should do an animated sequel showing an older Arthur in the Battle of Badon Hill. I wonder who the bad guys would be, if the country is already England.