We like kings, sleuths and outlaws who never existed. It spares us the hard work of ferreting out facts, family trees and in some cases whole nations. We can contrive, imagine and fabricate (or enjoy other people’s fabricating) to our hearts’ content.
Sherlock Holmes is the nearest and most convenient legend. He never existed yet we know where he lived, what he did, his drug-habit, his brother, his enemy Moriarty. In fact we know more about Sherlock than we know about some of our cousins, uncles and aunts.
Robin Hood attracted the attention of Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and others. There was every reason to invent or decorate a rebel upholding the English against the Normans. Ely had its own version of a resistance hero who attracted legends – Hereward the Wake.
Legendary or not? We can’t be sure about Prester John. He was held to be ruler of a kingdom in the Middle East or Abyssinia in the 11th and 12th centuries and inspired John Buchan to write a novel of that name. Just as it was appropriate for the Middle East to bring into being the first Christian state (Armenia), so it was appropriate for Marco Polo and others to find signs of Christian history in that part of the world. It was said that Pope Alexander III had written letters to Prester John but had received no reply.
Minor legendary figures abound in Christian history. They attract unlikely stories. And we have to remember Blake’s speculation: ‘And did those feet …?’ Christians in Kerala, India firmly believe it was Thomas the apostle who took the Gospel to their country 2,000 years ago. Unlikely? Something better than that, my neighbours will tell me.
FIRE IN ALEXANDRIA
It is no surprise to come across traces of Christian activities that have never reached the record books or the historians’ archive or have been accidentally destroyed or lost. The great fire of Alexandria consumed most of one of the world’s greatest libraries in 48 BCE, though it had been in decline for some time. Ancient copies of the Bible are rare and may have different readings, causing scholars to investigate their sources in the greatest detail.
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