"It's often what we want to believe happened, than what really happened..."

... you may have the truth on your side, but if your story is dull no-one will want to read it'*.

Seemingly ancient monuments of stone formed in the 1850s, but perhaps even worse are the monuments of perception we all have in our heads which were formed around then too. Ian Hislop's new BBC series Olden Days is a must-see for anyone interested in history, and in particular, to consider how every era re-tells and manipulates the past to suit its present day needs.

In particular I was pleased to see a detailed segment about the remarkably convenient 'discovery' at Glastonbury of the graves of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in 1189. As Hislop says –

By an extraordinary coincidence in their darkest hour of need, one of the monks had a vision. It told him that King Arthur himself was buried nearby...

I've blogged about Glastonbury here before because the 'discovery'  happened at the same era and in remarkably similar circumstances as the 'discovery' of the triple grave of Patrick, Brigid and Columkille at Downpatrick in 1184.

Very interesting that King Alfred translated passages of the Bible into English in the 9th century, over 600 years before William Tyndale and the Reformers.

• On BBC iPlayer here.

* Go to 08:30 for that gem of understanding.