Correct, Caledfwlch and the Druids speak Middle-Welsh as opposed to Brythonic. There a million things wrong with this show and it is saved by the performance of a few actors(Morrissey is not amongst them.
I have seen episode 1, and actually quite enjoyed it apart from the accents!
I actually thought it was Modern Welsh that the Druids were speaking, as opposed to an older variant, mostly because I pretty much understood most of it, (im not fluent anymore, I come from Welsh speaking family but my adventures living and working abroad in the EU, having to pick up Dutch and French, and then spending several years in Yorkshire have damaged my fluency badly
)
I am not sure Britannia should be judged on it's historical authenticity anyway, as it seems to clearly not be a historical adventure, but a fairly Low Fantasy take on the real history.
Of course the Druids could do and predict many things based on their huge knowledge of nature, herbs, poisons, and especially sleight of hand and so on, but the Camera appears to be showing the "magic" or much of it as low key as it is, to be real - unless we are supposed to be viewing the proceedings through unwitting/unknowing eyes like everyone on screen not a Druid.
Yet, the Outlaw has clearly received visions and seen the Invasion coming, fair enough, he actually said "The Sun wont rise" but I took it for metaphor
- that last day before the Legions arrive is the last true day that the Sun rose over the Island of the Mighty as a place who's population, the Britons were a proud and free people, yes, one day the Legions will withdraw as the Eagle falls all over the known world, but the descendents of the Britons, themselves a shadow of what they once were, their feared & dangerous Druids pretty much long wiped out, will then almost immediately find themselves fighting an unending, unwinable war against the invading Irish and Germanic Tribes, for a couple of centuries, and then, eventually even their very name, will be stolen from them by that Germanic enemy, who over 1000 years after than will start calling themselves "British/Brits". Isn't their a quote about how people can survive most things being taken from them, but not taking their name?
Of course, that's probably reading a bit deep into what is a Sky 1 series!!
The accents thing does feel a bit like attempting to culturally appropriate Welsh, Cornish & Breton History and the Culture those peoples descended from by English writers. Many of the viewers wont have a huge interest in history, most of them will know little about the Island of Britain's history before 1066, if they even know stuff going that far, and hearing the accents I could well imagine them assuming that oh, the's are English people, or at least our ancestors being shown getting oppressed by those Roman buggers.
A friend of mine who is English is actually concerned, that whilst so far in the episodes he has seen there has been no sub text, it could be seized on by Brexit types as an example for their cause! I think he is worrying needlessly, it wouldn't take more than mere moments to prick that balloon! - it's just the theme of Britons being invaded and brutally/viciously treated and repressed by Europeans that concerns him.
And why is it, that whenever, even in something at least mostly set in the real history of our world, involving a culture dominated by a caste who wield, or at least claim to wield magic, and have the Ears of the Gods, that caste, regardless of any evidence to the contrary, or any evidence backing the look up, always have messed up bodies, eyes all blacked out like Demons in films, and a massive fetish for scarification, and I forget the name for it - it's a thing again, amongst hipster types, except they use rubber, or whatever fake breast implants are made of pieces, rather than presumably, wood or bone, but inserting stuff under the skin, to raise it, create shapes etc.
I suspect the way Bernard Cornwall describes how Merlin and Nimue look is far more likely to be what even the 1st century Druids & Witches looked like.
My final complaints both involve the Geographic region that in 2017 we call the French Republic.
The Outlaw Druid and a Warrior with the Canti are clearly supposed to be Gauls (Well, I think the Warrior is actually referred to as being brought over from Gaul) they speak in French accents, admittedly those accents are being kept very mild, and it actually took me a whilst to realise that was the accent of the Outlaw Druid, I actually thought he was West Country English for a while. The French Accent of course, is caused by Speaking French, or Frankish as it's ancestor was, a Romance language that evolved amongst the Germanic Tribe known as Franks, the invaders of Gaul, and other former parts of the Empire in what I suppose could be called the Barbarian Age, a few hundred years after this is set, a language in 1st Century AD AFAIK, NOT being spoken in Gaul.
And of course, one of the Canti gives a riposte to another about making friends with the Gauls to effect communication with the Bretons.....
People who's ancestors are currently sitting back in the Land of their Fathers, the Island of the Mighty, wondering who the hell those scary dark chaps in all the armour and big shields with the discipline and scary looking massive wooden weapons kicking their doors down are. NOT across the Germanic Sea in Armorica founding Brittany....
Despite all that, I did enjoy it, it wasn't half as bad as some of my friends were saying. I am certainly watching the rest, many tonight!!
