Major Oak

[Merthyr Imp 729]

So is it Charles l or Charles ll who's supposed to have hidden in the Major Oak? I'm getting confused.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Yeah but who wrote the bible? As far as I'm aware nothing is known of the young Jesus whatsoever, other than what artists imagined what the nativity would have looked like over a thousand years later.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

So is it Charles l or Charles ll who's supposed to have hidden in the Major Oak? I'm getting confused.

It could only have been Charles 1st.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

There's a lot of similarities between the Bible and the Robin Hood legend. Both are a collection of folk tales and myths which have accumulated and been modified over time. Impossible to know what might have been true within them.

[darkazana 1,736]

The Bible that we have today was written by King James, taken from other versions around at the time. Most of the stories are handed down from campfire tales and legends from ancient times and ancient religions and all cobbled together.

[carni 10,094]

Initially the future King Charles II set out to cross the River Severn into Wales, but found his way blocked by Cromwell's patrols. He sought refuge instead at Boscobel, hiding first in a tree which is now known as The Royal Oak and then spending the night in a priest-hole in the house's attic. He travelled on in disguise via other safe houses before escaping to France

[darkazana 1,736]

I am reading The White Goddess, by Robert Graves at the moment. It is all about this sort of thing and how all the ancient religions and beliefs have become muddled and obscured throughout the ages. It's hard work reading it but absolutely fascinating too.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Is that Robert Graves the poet? I find his stuff hard going.

[carni 10,094]

I wish I could get interested in books, but I can't seem to find any that hold me. History and the things we are discussing at the moment, just baffle me! I just Google anything I want to know. Brilliant. I have never been interested in History, whether true or legend until now, perhaps because I can discover things at the touch of a button. The problem is remembering what I have learnt. What were we talking about!

[darkazana 1,736]

Yes it is Robert Graves the poet. The book is about what influenced poets through the ages, who the "Muse" was, mainly the Triple or White Goddess. It is a very hard book to read, and I have been reading it for 3 months now and am about a third of the way through, but because I have quite a bit of background knowledge regarding myths, legends and other religions it is interesting to see how he fits it all together, especially as he was an out and out atheist. Interesting it ties in quite nicely with this post as a lot of it is about the Ogham Alphabet, a druidic alphabet built around trees, with the Oak, or Duir, being a major part of this alphabet.

I aim to read King Jesus next which is his interpretation of the Bible stories, and hints at who Jesus' true father probably was. As I said, fascinating stuff.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

I love the Bible stories, and always have. I'm not madly religious but it really is the 'Greatest story ever told'. Wasn't Graves also gay?

[darkazana 1,736]

Don't know, never met him personally, though he was married but then in those days that could have been a cover.

There's quite a bit about him on Wikipaedia, doesn't mention his sexuality apart from his 2 wives and 8 children.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Yes I've just been reading. It appears he may have been bisexual after his experiences at Charterhouse. Interesting chap.

[FLY2 10,108]

Yes, a cover, as with Eltom John who married some wench who in turn received a good pay off.

I wouldn't trust half these folk in show biz and the "Arts World " . A good days work would kill them.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

King Charles made it to Nottingham and raised his standard on Standard Hill so got further than Southwell.

Considering it was a fairly important event in the history of this country, it's almost ignored here. It's not only Robin Hood that gets underplayed; the only reference to Charles raising his standard around here is this pathetic stone in the middle of the road at Standard Hill. I'll bet almost no-one knew this was even there.

[Limey 242]

The "King James" bible was not written by King James - it is a translation performed for King James by 47 "scholars" he selected and instructed on how he wanted the translation to be!

[loppylugs 8,429]

Ya just beat me to it, Eric. Still considered by many scholars to be a fine and very accurate translation of the original texts.

[darkazana 1,736]

Basfordred, maybe you should read "Goodbye To All That" Graves' autobiography about life in the trenches during the first world war! I think he has earned his accolades.

[DJBrenton 738]

Ya just beat me to it, Eric. Still considered by many scholars to be a fine and very accurate translation of the original texts.

I'm not sure what you mean by original texts or accurate. The orginal Hebrew, for example, didn't use vowels so you had an enormous potential for error in translation. I believe that the word 'adam' meant 'mankind' as a plural but the story was mistranslated. Similarly the earliest versions had Mary as a 'maid' meaning unmarried but this was somehow translated such that she became a virgin. Other innacuracies were confusion between 'thousand' and 'captain which were the same words without vowels so armies became huge through translation error.

[darkazana 1,736]

All of this from a post about the Major Oak, talk about "from little acorns grow" ............

[LizzieM 9,510]

Yes we do go off at tangents ......... good innit?!!!

[loppylugs 8,429]

We could get into an endless debate about texts which would probably waste a lot of electrons and not be particularly convincing. I am neither a Greek or Hebrew scholar, though I can read enough Greek to plod thought the NT text which underlies the KJV. I believe that there were two families of texts, the Alexandrian which underlies the modern translations and the Antiochan which is the basis of the KJV. Modern scholars and KJV only folks get into some powerful arguments about the acceptability or otherwise of these texts. Regardless of where one stands all seem to be in pretty close agreement on what we would consider the major doctrines of Christianity. Probably hijacked the thread enough now. . How did we get from the major oak to here? :-). Sorry can't use proper emoticons I'm on my IPad.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Come on fellahs!! We all know that every big city in GB is full of Robbin' hoodies.

As for the Bible. Well the old testament is to do with the Jewish faith. Lovely stories and there must be some truth in it somewhere. Especially when it tells you in Ezekiel about angels taking off with fire coming out of their wings. Trouble with the New Testament is there is so much left out possibly because the Romans wouldn't have it otherwise.

Whatever is true or made up, whatever you believe in or don't, these stories, whether it is Robin Hood or Jesus and his disciples, the stories are good and some good things to live by.

[LizzieM 9,510]

Loppylugs # 72 I'm impressed with what you learnt at Chandos Street

[Fynger 841]

Yes we do go off at tangents ......... good innit?!!!

Not always