#DiaD

[scrumptiouscreationturtle]

رأيكم باللوك؟؟

[finnlongman]

The joy of finding a queer reading of the lament for Fer Diad that

a) is recent b) I didn't already know about c) actually talks about queer theory beyond erotic potential d) engages with other useful theories like grievability

Anyway, it's Housley, Marjorie, '"The noble way you blushed": queering mourning verse in the Ulster Cycle' in Grief, gender, and identity in the Middle Ages (2022), pp. 142–164.

I take back what I said about there only being one article on this and it being from 2009. There are two!! And one of them is from this decade!!

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

sometimes i think i'm okay about láeg/lóeg literally meaning "calf" but figuratively being a term of endearment meaning "beloved" or "favourite" and i'm like. that's fine. totally okay for him to be called that. i'm normal about it.

and then i consider that in cú chulainn's lament for fer diad when he directly address fer diad as "beloved", that is the word he uses. a lóeg.

and on the same page: a lóeg, a phopa láeg, help me cut the gae bolga out of him, take this message for me, be there with me, be the only person i trust in this moment when i am falling apart,

and his name is fucking beloved

and fer diad is beloved and fer diad is fucking dead and láeg is fucking culpable because he helped and i don't even know where i'm going with this it's just something about being loved as an act of violence i think. beloved as a weapon. a bloody favourite and a mirror and a double and

[sissiarte]

Back at it ✌️✌️

I've been wanting to revisit these designs to stylize them more, bc I was making some characters with more exagerated shapes than others and it was a mess overall. I had sketches done for a long time that I really liked but never got around to do a lineup

[riseupriseupandcomealong]

i love to be normal about the táin bó cúailnge

[denndrawings]

Jesus Christ if he slayed (Ferdia warmup sketch)

Credits for the character design as always to my dearest @sissiarte 💙

[an-ruraiocht]

huh i was looking for something completely different and accidentally found victoria goddard's phd thesis

it is not relevant to me (i know nothing about boethius or dante, i was looking for somebody else's thesis from about fifteen years earlier which i'm devastated to report i didn't find), but kinda fun nonetheless

[niexigo]

Here’s a preview of some art for a YT project about my fic (demon in a daycare.)

More sketches below. To be finished soon. (There’s more, but those will be a surprise.)

[revisionlightning]

Art of Cú Chulainn and Ferdiad. I couldn't decide on a bg so have both.

[scrumptiouscreationturtle]

رأيكم باللوك؟؟

[finnlongman]

My supervisor about the leth mo croidhe line in the Stowe Táin:

Leth often refers to one of two, e.g. lethshuil, so one side of my heart - as the heart is often thought of as divided in two.

Me:

[incorrect-ulster-cycle]

Cú Chulainn: You want what I have.

Fer Diad: A stupid name and a death wish?

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

What's your favorite medieval stories with suspiciously queer themes?

ALL medieval stories or just medieval irish ones? because if we go for all medieval stories i think we will be here all night lol

but for irish ones... well, i'm basic, i'm an ulster cycle bitch, no matter how many times i've read táin bó cúailnge and specifically the 'comrac fir diad' episode, i never get over it (and i have read it dozens and dozens of times at this point)

i think the thing about CFD is that, yes, it's very homoerotic, but it's sort of more than that: it's about the conflict between a bond of love that you (mostly) chose, and the bonds of obligation and family loyalty that you were born into. and it's about the way that those youthful relationships get obliterated by adult responsibilities and obligations. for me there's something deeply tragic and deeply queer about that tension and the way it juxtaposes different types of relationship? idk i'm explaining this really, really badly right now but it's a story that says "would you turn your back on your family and your people for a man you loved" and the answer is "no"! love does not win! sometimes the other bonds in your life not only tear you away from someone you care about but make you do the tearing!

and yet cú chulainn's lament for fer diad really articulates the fact that there was love there. it wasn't nothing and it wasn't easily abandoned. and it sort of functions almost as a protest against the narrative, and an act of defiance against the people who set up that situation, and an ultimate expression of feeling that comes too late to be heard by its subject. which is a lot. and i think it is a big turning point for cú chulainn himself in terms of understanding violence as violence, as damage that can't be undone, as something that has a cost

and i think all of that has more weight if you read into the homoerotics of it but i think the weight of it is still there even if you don't. it's about love vs duty and duty wins – and that absolutely sucks for everyone. it's powerful.

i also love just like, everything cú chulainn and láeg have got going on, frankly. i think you see it the most clearly in texts like oidheadh con culainn and tóruigheacht gruaidhe griansholus because late texts actually let their characters express emotions out loud, but there's so much there even in earlier texts if you're willing to read between the lines. and plenty of it in táin bó cúailnge, even

so really the general message here is that we should all read the táin and have feelings about it

[sissiarte]

Cú Chulainn and the three people who want to be buried with him :) I'm very happy that I'm finally settling their designs !!!!!!