King Arthur was Ossetian

Ossetia's connection to Scotland
BBC News - Nov 1, 2008

Hundreds of years ago, Ossetians roamed all over Western Europe, from the Caucasus to Scotland. As Tim Whewell reveals, the folk memories of these wanderings have lingered down the centuries, so that it can be hard to tell where myth ends and history begins.

Of course, I do not know. But my hosts do. In Ossetian, London means "standing water".

Belfast, in Ossetian, could be "broken spade".

Orleans in France is "stopping place", because the Ossetians stopped there. And England's greatest national hero, King Arthur, was Ossetian too, apparently. His name means "solar fire".

Bear scientist proclaims Arthur a Bear

What's up with the bears?
Telegraph.co.uk - Nov 10, 2008

Are bears simply at the peak of their 15 minutes of fame? Or is there something much more momentous afoot? Or, should I say, a-paw?

I am a bear scientist. My speciality is the spectacled or Andean bear, the only species that lives in South America. Paddington's clan.

I study crop raiding, livestock predation and other ways that bears interact with people. I am also fascinated by how bears loom so large in our imaginations.

While I always spend quite a lot of time thinking about the 'what is up with the bear thing' question, my speculations have recently been thrown into overdrive.

And here's what I've some up with: I think that the long-awaited reawakening of the Great Bear is now upon us and that it represents our Great Furry Hope for the future.

My theory starts with King Arthur. I know it's unorthodox, but hear me out. Now, nothing is known for sure about Arthur, the legendary hero of the British Isles, but I personally believe he was covered, head to toe, in dark fur.

The Celtic version of the ancient metacosmic bear god, he was worshipped throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known to the Romans as Arctaios, and to the Gauls as Artorius. And Arthurian legend tells us that in the hour of Britain's greatest need he will emerge from his cave, enacting the bear's seemingly miraculous emergence from the den at the end of hibernation. I think that global warming and the extinction crisis count as a pretty darned sticky situation.

No, I'm not a whacked-out druid. I really am a serious scientist. Late last year I participated in the big annual meeting of the International Association of Bear Research and Management, held this year in Monterrey, Mexico.

In the public talk I gave at the conference, I made the case that this was the big moment for bears. I spoke about the charisma of our study animals, and our opportunity and responsibility to use this charisma for their conservation.