The Pendragon's Hall

One thing that makes the Pendragon uneasy about the disregard legends are usually paid by historians is the assumption that any kind of supernatural occurrence negates the possibility of it being the truth. I disagree. Phillips, cited on Moses yesterday, believes that the Ark of the Covenant was made of radioactive materials that managed to create storms and kill large numbers of people when manipulated by the stones set in Aaron's breastpiece. An intriguing possibility, but it seems to me that to accept it outright would mean denying the intervention of God. It seems a tad too convenient that a sea opened and closed on the Egyptians just when the Israelites needed it to; if that's true, I think any rational human being could be forgiven for thinking there was a God intervening on his behalf. I also begin to wonder about some of the sensational stuff in the King Arthur legends. Geoffrey Ashe, whom I referenced a couple days ago, deserves respect for suggesting that some of the "fantastic" creatures appearing in the Arthurian saga might well be remembrances of actual creatures. He suggests that the giant, speckled cat which Cai (or Kay) is said to have slain may have been an escaped leopard from a private collection of a Roman official. Certainly Bodmin Moor, nearby where this combat is said to have taken place, has its share of stories of monster cats stalking the moors. Need it be false? Arthur is said to have driven a dragon from a lake in Scotland--is it so inconceivable some such creature actually existed? Granted, these are not demon-creatures, but something can be a physical creature and still a symbol for something more deadly. Arthur stands for the fight of light against darkness--the light of the Gospel (for Arthur was almost certainly a Christian) against the darkness of the pagan barbarians. God works in strange ways and the Pendragon is not convinced that He has stopped intervening from time to time in this world. I see no reason to doubt it. We do no doubt the miracles of Exodus--why do we draw the line at the Middle Ages?