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In Stargate, the Legends of King Arthur happened, but it is clear that Camelot and the various lands were on other planets got there easily via a Stargate on the planet that Camelot is on. That's fine, but Camelot and all that supposedly happened around 1000 or less years ago while all Stargates on Earth were sealed away. So how did the Arthurian Legends spread on Earth?

The most I can come up with to link Earth with Arthurian legends is the first episode which indicates Earth is Avalon and if we go off the legends that implies that there is a ship of some sort that was used to transport Arthur to Earth when he died, supposedly to be revived at some point? Are there any Producer notes that say what the plans were for this?

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  • As I understood it, all those off-world human colonies (the Camelot world included) were all founded by the Goa'uld as slave labour colonies such as for mining naquadah, by plucking victims from existing human societies. That means the Camelot of legend existed on Earth perhaps in the vicinity of Glasonbury Tor (ep. "Avalon"), and was the source of Camelot world. In other words, the legends were created on Earth and then Camelot was raided/relocated to its off-world location.
    – Anthony X
    Commented Aug 6, 2016 at 14:31

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Your question relies on a false assumption: "while all Stargates on Earth were sealed away."

Though the Antarctic Gate was under ice in the 20th century, there was some indication that it was usable before that.

In fact, Daniel's line of reasoning to find the second Stargate (where O'Neill and Carter were lost) relied on it:

JACKSON: How many Earth-based cultures have we encountered from other worlds from periods both before and after we think the Stargate was buried?

HAMMOND: Several, I think.

JACKSON: Right, and we've probably only scratched the surface. Now, so far we've tried to account for these discrepancies with various theories of parallel or accelerated...

HAMMOND: What's your point, Doctor?

JACKSON: What if there's a second Stargate

And later:

JACKSON: It would have to be in a remote location otherwise it would have been discovered by now. It could have even been buried until recently otherwise the Goa'uld would have continued to use it.

Which suggests that it was buried until recently, but not necessarily that it was buried ALL the time until recently.

In the episode "Demons", there is this conversation:

CARTER : Well, this is the first sign of Christianity we’ve encountered, Sir, in hundreds of missions.

DANIEL : Which means they probably had to have been taken from somewhere in medieval Europe through the Antarctic gate.

This is no longer pure supposition, this is after they know about the existence of the second gate and presumably looked into its history. That Daniel comes up with this theory suggests that, based on the evidence he knows, he doesn't believe the gate was sealed then.

I can't seem to find a source, but I also have a fleeting memory of a scene where one post-Egyptian culture had a history where their god led them through a long journey through a place that got colder and colder, with the suggestion that this was their journey through the Antarctic Gate.

Finally, although there's no explicit evidence, we do know that Goa'uld sometimes do take Stargates WITH them on ships. A Goa'uld that wanted to set up its own empire could have taken a very small, fast ship, large enough only for a single Stargate, to a highly populated planet, then, use the Stargate on that planet to ship slaves to a new world. So any other space-faring race or individual could transplant people in this manner rather than taking a long space journey.

So, with respect to the Arthurian legends, there are several possibilities, including that the legends originated on Earth and some of the population was merely moved off-world, or that Arthur himself recreated the legends multiple times in multiple places, but both might well have used the second Stargate, which at that time did not seem to be sealed.

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  • The problem that I have with that is that the Stargate is burried and it doesn't really make sense for them to be going all the way to the artic from Britania. I've always thought that there had to be another travel method or Stargate or something because everything about the Artic Stargate seems to not indicate activity after 10,000 years ago.
    – Durakken
    Commented Aug 6, 2016 at 23:16
  • I cannot agree, we cannot take a supposition as the truth. (I still do not trust his explanation of how stargate coordinates work.) For all we know Sokar's Christians could have come from one of Merlin's planets. Also an important point to this question how come the legend of Arthur's end differs: on Earth he died, on Camelot lived... Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 17:25
  • There seems to be an absence of evidence on this topic, so supposition, while acknowledging it as such, is likely the best answer you could find. Sure, Sokar taking them from Merlin is a possibility. So is Merlin/others having a ship, or an obselisk-relay (that he's been known to use) or a ring transporter, that took them quickly through the then-active antarctic gate, but that was later removed, destroyed, or simply not found. However, a characters who have more info than we do believes the 2nd gate was in use in medieval ages and that marks it slightly more reliable than random speculation. Commented Aug 7, 2016 at 17:36
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    The SG-1 novel "Moebius Squared" shows that around 3000 BC, at least one descendent of the Ancients still had access to a working Puddle Jumper and traveled from Asia to Egypt in it. So inter-continental travel to and from Antarctica would not be a problem, especially for someone like Merlin who has firsthand knowledge of their operation. Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 5:14
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Consider that according to the show small, single-use Stargates can be constructed with supplies gathered from 20th century earth. Of course, this begs the question where Merlin got all his technology from in the first place. But it should be fine since the show is generally good at handwaving such questions away.

Another thing to consider is that most of the middle ages were pretty warm. Greenland (ponder about that name a bit) used to have wineyards! Dunno how the climate on the rest of the planet was at that time, but maybe it was warm enough for the Stargate in Antarctica to be accessible.

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