Fic Commentary: Mount Badon

[brown_betty]

Commentary on Mount Badon, my to-date only Merlin fic, as requested by tavella

I've put my commentary in green, and given them the span class "comments," which I hope makes it more accessible. If any readers would like me to make changes for accessibility, please let me know.

Comments

[arinan]

Just started reading, but I wanted to point out that your translation does not include the first line of the Latin, which really has nothing to do with your story. Here's a quick translation. *Latin hat on*

"undecimum factum est bellum in monte, qui dicitur Agned"

"The eleventh battle happened on the mountain which is called Agned."

Now on to read the rest.

[arinan]

Ahahahahah. This was great. SHEEP! Also I appreciate your rather Roman Arthur. It makes me happy and also allows me to fit your story into a historical framework in a way bbc!Merlin simply defies by being ALL OVER THE PLACE. You have anachronisms, but at least they all fall roughly within the same 500 year period.

I loved this! Both the original story and the commentary.

[arinan]

Oh, and your betas were 100% right about the ending.

[brown_betty]

Oh man, and I totally should have noticed, because I do have enough latin to tell what duodecimum vs. undecimum means.

[tavella]

As will become more and more apparent, I'm going with an interpretation of Arthur as Romano-Britain, that is, Brittonic, but carrying the remains of Roman culture on the island.Whee! I love Britanno-Roman Arthurs. Both because to what extent there is any historicity to the Arthurian legend, it's a Britanno-Roman war leader who managed to halt the Saxon advance, culminating at Mount Badon. And also because of something Jo Walton once said while ranting about Gildas: we write science fiction about post-apocalyptic worlds, but sub-Roman Britain *was* one (thus her irritation at Gildas for only giving us the tiniest fragments of information.) And it's true; people whose grandparents and great-grandparents were part of a world-spanning empire, and now they live among the abandoned ruins of cities and the wreckage of technology they no longer can create or understand, technology that in some cases will not be recreated for a thousand years

[ziarenete13x]

I realize this is entirely out of the blue, having nothing to do with brown-betty's entry and being immensely late, but I want to hug your comment and kidnap it to raise my plot-bunny farm.

Er. Sorry for the randomness.

[tavella]

Hee! Feel free to kidnap away, I am always pleased when I spark plot ideas in someone.