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Young World
Peep into the past
R. KRITHIKA
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What is the truth behind warrior queen Boudica William Wallace, Macbeth, Robin Hood and King Harold?
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Those who believe that Macbeth is the ultimate villain have a shock in store. The Bard's arch villain was actually a good king. Says who, you may ask? Well, it's Tony Robinson, who presents Channel 4's television series on archaeology "Time Team". In his book In Search of British Heroes, Robinson is on a quest to discover the truth behind five British heroes — Boudica (the warrior queen better known as the Latinised Boudicea), William Wallace (lately immortalised on the silver screen as "Braveheart"), Macbeth, Robin Hood and King Harold.
And at the end of his research and travels, Robinson collates material from archaeology, literature and other historical works to show what may have actually happened. The only ones to hold shocks for readers are the chapters on Macbeth and Robin Hood. One was a minor hero of sorts, not the wicked man who killed a good king. Actually Robinson is of the view that the king in question deserved to be killed. And as for Robin Hood, there are so many claimants to that particular title; it's a minor mystery how this story assumed the form it finally did.
Robinson may be on the lookout for British heroes, but this is no tome of hero worship. Instead he takes the reader into a journey on the past and through the ages to show how modifications occurred in the originals and finally the scene of action in modern U.K. His language is irreverent (sample these: on the source for "Braveheart" Wallace, " ...is about as impartial as Denis Law commenting on an England-Scotland game". Or this one on Robin Hood: "It may come as a surprise that Robin spoke more like Geoffrey Boycott than Errol Flynn...") but it brings the past alive. And in case you're not in a mood to sit in an armchair and let your mind's eye create its own images, he gives precise details of where to go and how you actually get there, down to the country roads and lanes that you have to trudge through. Some of the places that made history are today buried under fields, factories and schools. For example, the temple complex from Boudica's time is now a Nissan garage.
The chapter on King Harold recreates a time when Britain was under attack by not just another tribe from the Continent, but also by a whole new way of life. Harold was the last great Anglo-Saxon king but is best known for the stray arrow that felled him during the Battle of Hastings. Robinson surveys Harold's achievements critically and concludes, "Without that arrow, he might have gone down in history as another Elizabeth I or Winston Churchill".
In the final analysis, this is the kind of book that stirs and keeps alive an interest in the events of the past.
In Search of British Heroes, Tony Robinson, Channel Four Books, £18.99.
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