Starz's Camelot and Le Morte D'Arthur

[ficticons.livejournal.com]

I started reading Le Morte D'Arthur for the first time recently - something I've wanted to do for a while - and I think I've discovered something interesting.

The Starz show Camelot (now on Channel 4 in the UK, by the way!) includes two characters called Ulfius and Brastias as part of Arthur's first group of knights. I thought they were original creations, like I think Leontes (another of that first group) is, but when I opened my copy of the Morte, there they were! Well, just Ulfius at first, but Brastias is in there too.

Camelot also features Igraine as a regular character, and I didn't realize that her being alive after Uther's death and Arthur's rise to the throne could be so...well, canonical. I guess the stories where she isn't alive can be seen as the odd ones out, huh?

Anyway, all this to say that I got rather excited about this 'discovery' and wrote an essay comparing the Morte's Ulfius and Brastias to Camelot's, and looking a little bit at the treatment of Igraine's storyline, at my journal. There are some (mostly slight, but one possibly large) spoilers for Camelot in it but I've warned for them (by making the spoilers white text, FYI). It's called Thoughts about the influence of 'Le Morte D'Arthur' on Starz's 'Camelot' and I'd love to see what you think about it.