Snoozecast Presents: Tales of King Arthur

Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Arthur Drives the Saxons from His Realm” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919. The Saxons were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large former country in what is now Germany. In the late Roman Empire, the name was used to refer to Germanic coastal raiders, and as a name similar to the later "Viking". In contrast, the British "Saxons", today referred to in English as Anglo-Saxons, became a single nation bringing together migrant Germanic peoples and assimilated Celtic Britons populations. The term "Anglo-Saxon", combining the names of the Angles and the Saxons, came into use by the eighth century to distinguish the Germanic inhabitants of Britain from continental Saxons. — read by V — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “The Crowning of Arthur and the Sword Excalibur” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919. If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are in some versions said to be different, though in other incarnations they are either the same or at least share their name. Several similar swords and other weapons also appear in this and other legends. Historically, a sword identified as Excalibur (or rather, Caliburn, at the time) was supposedly discovered during the purported exhumation of Arthur's grave at Glastonbury Abbey in the year 1191. That same year, either this or another sword claimed as Excalibur was given as a gift of goodwill by the English king Richard I of England to his ally the King of Sicily. — read by V — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Merlin Fortells the Birth of Arthur” comes from a book edited by Rupert S. Holland and published in 1919. If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. Merlin is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a wizard. He became one of the most important figures in the imagination and literature of the Middle Ages. Most notable among his superpowers being that of prophecy and shapeshifting, Merlin engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. — read by V — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, we’ll read another story from our King Arthur series. This one, “Pelleas and Ettarde” comes from a book written by Mary MacGregor.  If you’d like to listen to this whole anthology easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. — read by 'V' — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight, we’ll read another story from the King Arthur series written by Maude Radford Warren titled “How Sir Lancelot Saved the Queen If you’d like to listen to this whole series easily in order, go to snoozecast.com/series. King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. — read by 'V' — Sign up for Snoozecast+ to get expanded, ad-free access by going to snoozecast.com/plus! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices