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A few years ago, I made a post in the Town forum about where LEGO City is located. Now, I would like to do something similar with the Castle themes. More accurately, show where in History and Literature the Castle Themes take place. Let us begin with the earliest theme: Castle (1978-1983) Possibly the most general theme in the whole Castle series, there are knights, soldiers and nobility. Judging by the clothing worn by the soldiers (all blue with castle-emblemed apron and helmet), it's safe enough to assume 1978 Castle takes place during the late Middle Ages, possibly near the end of the Hundred Years' War. The next themes in the Castle canon all share one thing in common: factions. So, they shall be grouped together. Faction Series (1984-1993, 2010-2014) -Black Falcons (1984-1992) -Lion Knights/Crusaders (1984-1992) -Forestmen (1987-1992) -Black Knights (1988-1994) -Wolfpack Renegades (1992-1993) -Kingdoms (2010-2012) -Castle 2013 (2013-2014) In the Middle Ages, Europe was rife with numbers of independent kingdoms, principalities and fiefdoms, each with their own dialect, currency, measurements, and ruling system. The Holy Roman Empire (modern-day Western-Central Europe) consisted of at least 100 such domains. Naturally, there would be some occasional warring between these domains over land rights, religion (especially in the 1600's), and annexations. Each domain was noted by its coat of arms, carried by soldiers into battle. As for examples of each faction, here are some parallels I've found in historical contexts: Black Falcons: Teutonic Knights Lion Knights/Crusaders: Holy Roman Empire, Knight's Templar Black Knights: Slavic kingdoms Lion Knights (Kingdoms): Kingdom of Léon/Castile Dragon Knights (Kingdoms): Kingdom of Aragon Royal Knights (Castle 2013): Kingdom of France Dragon Knights (Castle 2013): Kingdom of England The Forestmen faction is obviously a play off the legends of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, along with various Germanic folk heroes. The Wolfpack Renegades are more simply rogues that made these warring factions a necessary evil, a bunch of marauding villains pillaging and burning, forcing peasants to swear loyalty to one of the above warring factions. Our next section is a different category of factions that didn't truly belong with the above: Knights Series (2000-2006, 2015- ) -Knights Kingdom (2000) -Knights Kingdom II (2004-2006) -Nexo Knights (2015- ) The basis of these series isn't historical, but rather in literature. During the mid to late Middle Ages, a popular form of literature was the Arthurian Romance, involving knights, with fealty sworn to a King and a code of honor, fighting against all manner of adversaries to prove themselves. The most popular adaptation of the Arthurian Romance is Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, but other versions exist, including Thomas of Britain's Tristan and Iseult, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, and Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet. The two Knights Kingdom series put this in context for a LEGO world, while Nexo Knights makes it into King Arthur with computer chips. And now for the final category: Fantasty (1993-2000, 2007-2009) Dragon Masters (1993-1995) Royal Knights (1995-1996) Fright Knights (1997-1998) Castle 2007 (2007-2009) Never in history were there live skeletons, wizards, trolls, dwarves, dragons, and ghosts mucking about with knights. However, all of the aforementioned did have a place in the stories of the medieval public. Trolls and dwarves were a large part of Germanic and Scandinavian folklore. Ghosts were also prevalent, like the banshee from Ireland or Hamlet's father from William Shakespeare's play of the same name. Dragons go with medieval folklore without even debating it (St. George and the Dragon, Siegfied). Likewise with wizards. Skeletons, though, are most likely a parallel to the danse macabre associated with the large number of deaths during the Black Death that swept Europe by storm. Of course, these skeletons did not have large battleships or towers. That's all I've got at the moment. Have any other ideas? Then feel free to post them below. Always entertaining, always inspiring, always:
