Someone wrote in [personal profile] inverarity 2011-04-02 11:56 pm (UTC)

Rhemus de excidio

I did not read the foot-notes. I read the text.

You start well. (paraphrase) "In my view, the common opinion about GILDAS' prophetic writings is wrong." An academic work needs a list of proven facts with citations and reasonable guesses and a grand theory that arranges those facts into a pretty pattern and a fudge-factor to explain any facts that don't fit. It is ESSENTIAL to discriminate, between facts and guesses. "In my view" is on page one, you forgot to discriminate in the chapter on Muirchiu versus the Patriarch of Armagh.

Para 2)"De excidio et conquestu", you propose that the "conquestu" was added on later after the Saxons did indeed conquer Britain. WTF??? Para #1 calls him "prophetic". St. Gildas ranted against the corruption of the British kings and called down the wrath of God upon them in the form of Barbarian Invaders.

Is St. Gildas a prophet or not? Make up your mind.

I read Excidio because I love Excalibur and Arthur and Mabinogi. That is a book that needs footnotes.
St. Gildas expected his audience to know the kings he was denouncing. That is, I tried to read it. Even with the foot-notes, I couldn't get the point. Gildas is in a bad mood. Is That It?

So, you've got an radical new theory that St. Gildas has a point. I read page one and got exhausted. Excidio just goes on and on. Your essay about Excidio just goes on and on. This is NOT a criticism of your scholarship, it is a crticism of your writing style.

I have read a million books about Arthur, but I got bored when they re-hash the same old stuff. You hook me with the radical new improved theory that St. Gildas has a point but then you drop the theme just like all the interesting themes in HP.

For the record, I am a graduate in Greek and Hebrew with a minor in Celtic languages.

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