I redrew some Merlin characters to be more historically and culturally accurate! The text is their original names in a later Latin script, yoinked from a display in the Corinium Museum, Cirencester. (Sneaky edit to add: Y'all are incredibly welcome to use this in any way you want, I would love to see more of my home's culture being represented more accurately in media!!)
Unlabelled version under the cut!!
I've been reading a bunch of post-roman Britain history lately (specifically Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise by Robin Fleming) and I've been HEAVILY thinking about how BBC Merlin would translate. This is so cool to see!
Also to consider: the role of religion, and the sliding scale of Christianity and Paganism. The dominant religion of western Britain (ie where Camelot is) is Roman Christianity, with a decent folk religion of pre-roman polytheism tempered with Roman practices and names. In the East, you get a general abandonment of all things Roman (including Christianity), and the dominant religion is Anglo-Saxon paganism, brought from the continent to the east and north.
How does that translate to magic, and "the old religion"? Is Merlin, a western villager, a practicing polytheist who has to adapt to monotheistic Camelot? Does he feel more kinship with the invaders from the east and their "dark arts", or with the travelling bishops who may have taught him to read Latin? Does he toss a coin into a spring for Sulis, Minerva, or Christ?
!!! Exactly this !!!
The rivers, in the West of Britain, have names after goddesses; the one that runs through my hometown, and sorta officially splits Wales from England, is known in Latin as Sabrina, but in Welsh as Habren. Both Merlin and Arthur might toss a coin into the river to give thanks for a safe passage, but who do they specifically thank? Sabrina is Habren, but she also isn't.
Sulis is a very interesting example, because she's all three at once; Sulis Minerva, Sulis, Minerva. The patchwork of religion was crazy! The 'identity' of Britain was such a mess, and there was No English, No Scottish, No Welsh. Hell, even the Irish weren't exactly the same! Those identities just didn't exist. It's crazy to think about, a nation so torn between these identities (the Troubles were a particularly violent recent clash) just,,, not having those particular divisions and instead having completely different ones. I hoped to reflect that in my original post :3
Some artefacts and museum displays from the Corinium museum, an amazing little museum for this specific flavour of study, that y'all may find interesting under the cut: