The Last Kingdom

[bunn]

Well, OK, hurray Saxons, hurray Vikings. But why does it all have to be so *muddy* ?    Here we are at the tragic end as Northumbria's Golden Age finally ends in fire, can we not have some leftover bling? Or at least some nice embroidery?  Silk hangings? The odd fancy woodcarving, or some nice trim around a tunic at least?    Even the box of

Comments

[ladyofastolat]

A huge revolution happened in history some time in the last few decades. Back in the 1950s, Yore was shiny, bright and technicolour, with vivid clothes and clean floors and lit with glaring light. Sometimes the happy, brightly-clad inhabitants even burst into song. At some point (perhaps the 70s or 80s) darkness suddenly fell upon Yore - all Yore before c. 1500, anyway - and it became a place of drab clothing, mannerless people going "raarrr!" and mud everywhere, and it's all lit with one flickering rushlight, so you can hardly see the mud-splatted, sack-wearing kings and emperors, anyway. Which is probably just as well, because at the same time, they suddenly forgot their table manners.

It's all quite annoying. I've seen loads of documentaries in which various TV historians try to show us that pre-Renaissance people were far more "advanced" that the stereotype, and dazzle us with the Bling of Yore. But whenever the same TV channels do dramas set in those periods, it's all drab colours and mud and gloom.

[bunn]

It really does feel like before about 1500 EVERYONE was Dennis the Peasant. (Apart from in BBC Merlin, which admittedly is set very much in fantasyland, but at least admits to the existence of baths in Yore).

I think there was more bling in Arthur of the Britons than in the Last Kingdom, although admittedly that was very 70's bling.

This is supposed to be going up against Game of Thrones. Has nobody *looked* at Game of Thrones...?

[philmophlegm]

"I think there was more bling in Arthur of the Britons than in the Last Kingdom, although admittedly that was very 70's bling."

What you're saying is "If only the Last Kingdom Saxons had worn more sheepskin..."*

* For those readers not familiar with 'Arthur of the Britons' the key visual way to distinguish Britons from Saxons is that the Saxons all (without fail) wear lots of sheepskin.

[ladyofastolat]

Was it a Briton or a Saxon who was sitting on Bagpuss? I can't remember who it was, but I remember that when we all agreed that, yes, this character had quite definitely killed and skinned Bagpuss, and was using his skin as a saddle.