Nothing wrong with a modern telling of an ancient story reflecting today's ethnic mix. As a lover of history I know that the history multiculturalism goes back far further than some folks realize.
There is evidence of the presence of people from Romanised North Africa in Roman Britain. Archaeological inscriptions suggest that most of these residents were involved with the military, the was a African legion at Hadrian's Wall. However, some were in the upper echelons of society. Analysis of a skull found in a Roman grave in Yorkshire indicated that it belonged to a mixed-race female. Her sarcophagus was made of stone and also contained a jet bracelet and an ivory bangle, indicating great wealth for the time.
In 2007, scientists found the rare paternal haplogroup A1 in several living British men with Yorkshire surnames. This clade is today almost exclusively found among males in West Africa, where it is also rare. The lineage is thus thought to have been brought to Britain either through soldiers that were enlisted during Roman Britain, or via the slave trade. Some of the individuals that arrived through the slave route attained a very high social rank and married into the general population.
Evidence for all things in the Early Middle Ages is always hard to find, but contact is there, including at least two Muslim Explorers in the 9th century.
Historical records indicate the presence of a small Black population in Britain dating back at least as far as the 12th century. In 2013, a skeleton was discovered in Fairford, Gloucestershire, which forensic anthropology revealed to be that of a sub-Saharan African woman who died between the years 896 and 1025. After that the were enough jews in England that the were laws and persecution against them in the 12th century England. In the 13th century the was a jewish banker living in my small town.
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Edohiguma
8 years ago
As lover of history you should know that skin color does not equal culture. Culture is the most important defining factor, not skin color and DNA.
While blacks may have been present in England very early they were certainly not part of the multi-culti idiocy, where everything non-white must be tolerated (and even celebrated and embraced as "enrichment") and everything white is evil by default, that is taking place right now.
They would have to be heavily assimilated into Roman and later English culture to make a living and acquire status. That was the only way.
That's how it works: assimilation and adaption to the given leading culture. How it doesn't work can be observed in reality right now. The religion of boundless tolerance of today is nothing but failure.
Speaking of black smith girl... I'm utterly amused by how she has no arm muscles worth mentioning. She's a smith FFS, that means she would have some pretty well developed arm muscles, because she'd work with her hands and wielding a hammer like that requires strength. But she has the flabby arms of a girl who doesn't even know what to do with a hammer. Apparently finding a non-white actress with a body shaped decently enough to convincingly look like a black smith is really hard.
Hell, put Gina Carano into this role. She can't act worth a damn, but at least she'd look the part.
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zoebuggie
8 years ago
Lets put dubious talk about today's society aside.
Beowulf himself is equally wholly unconvincing as the super top notch warrior of English literature. And what the hell have they done with Heriot, it looked like the secret insides of a Mayan temple. Good grief the program is bad.
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tjejen
8 years ago
multi-culti idiocy, where everything non-white must be tolerated (and even celebrated and embraced as "enrichment") and everything white is evil by default, that is taking place right now.
Haha, racist twats are hilarious. So unimaginative in their delirium.
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xxhelterskelterxx
8 years ago
It's probably not a coincidence that all your can muster is slurs and pejoratives. You've been conditioned from birth to believe something is right without ever having been told why.
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Wingman_S
8 years ago
"In 2007, scientists found the rare paternal haplogroup A1 in several living British men with Yorkshire surnames. This clade is today almost exclusively found among males in West Africa, where it is also rare. The lineage is thus thought to have been brought to Britain either through soldiers that were enlisted during Roman Britain, or via the slave trade."
That seems like a slightly blinkered interpretation of the information, it could also have been a guy from Yorkshire having his way with a bunch of African women in West Africa, and also doing the same back in Yorkshire.
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zoebuggie
8 years ago
As the haplogroup goes back in Africa more than 250,000 years before humanity is thought to have left Africa, during which time Yorkshire was under ice ...it may have been unlikely for it to have been a randy yorkshire man :)
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zoebuggie
8 years ago
Was going way off topic.
Whatever.... This program as a whole is so whoppingly incrediably bad on many levels and as the original poster on this thread said an insult to the epic source material.
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Wingman_S
8 years ago
Yeah like any of that stuff is going to stop a randy Yorkshire man, wait should that be Yorkshireman? I could Google it but I suspect it would just hit me with a bunch of pictures of bunnet wearing old blokes.
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Squeeth2
8 years ago
Africans got here 500 years before the English, it's a fact, not a hypothesis with evidence.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
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NotoriousRio
8 years ago
Africans got here 500 years before the English, it's a fact, not a hypothesis with evidence.
Such a misleading
fact.A small number from North Africa serving the Roman Empire, a number so small it was insignificant to the population of EUROPEAN BRITONS.
How did they get here before the English? The people who became the English were already here.
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