#I want him to straddle Medraut-

[the-lord-of-springs]

Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu Lleu

[exercise-of-trust]

oh, man, that was good

i’ve got to hand it to wein, those are some really well-constructed characters - obviously i’ve got the world’s largest soft spot for medraut, but goewin. i’m always enthusiastically in favor of sharp-edged sisters who ride hard and make credible threats and would probably make incredible queens if someone just gave them “eternity and a heaven to throne in.” and, on top of that, the whole way wein dealt with loyalty and the idea of choosing who gets to have what parts of you was amazing; the twist halfway through the kidnapping had me hollering very cheerfully at my phone. prolonged exposure to rosemary sutcliff had me roughly guessing which way the ending would go but every page of it was still wonderfully done and a delight to read.

let’s see, what else. oh! i hadn’t considered healer!mordred before, but especially in the context of “healers also make the best poisoners” that’s such a good way to blur the lines between what he does, what he’s capable of doing, and what people see in him. and all the allusions to the mabinogion and revelation were so well done with the context of how all the characters would have seen them in their particular historical setting. if i could change one thing, it would probably be more orkney brothers - i despair of ever getting a really interesting contemporary-retelling agravaine - but other than that it was such a great read, and made for a very enjoyable afternoon. (i could absolutely keep talking your ear off all night about everything i loved about this book; i think i’m exercising an admirable deal of restraint in limiting myself to two paragraphs!)

not sure what your thoughts are on using the internet archive, but they do have a scan of firelord up here and i highly doubt you’ll have much competition in checking it out, if you want? (no rush! but my brothers throw things at me when i ramble too long about things i read, so i have to look for sources of tolerant interest outside the home.)

i absolutely agree on the one-dimensional mordred thing; he’s delightfully complicated and he’s got equally complicated reasons for being the way that he is, and it is such a favorite thing of mine when folks really lean into that, with him and with the whole orkney family dynamic. (speaking of, and going back to an earlier point - there just isn’t enough interesting orkney brothers content; please, contemporary arthuriana authors, malory and by extension white lied to you, gawain is not a lumbering murderous idiot, i am begging you to be creative with this -) anyway! i’m going to stop talking about this before i go on too much of a tangent but you’re absolutely right, mordred has a lot going on in his history and i think there’s a very fine line between the two evils of “mordred is being a jackass for the sake of being a jackass” and “mordred’s trauma means he has no responsibility or agency at all” that the winter prince does a lovely job of straddling. (and if you’re looking for more plural-dimensioned mordred... i have fic recs.)

to conclude, because wow that got long, sorry - you’re right, that was a beautiful book and thank you so much for recommending it!

Saw that Mordred moodboard you reblogged, which twiggled a question in my mind again - have you ever read The Winter Prince, by Elizabeth Wein? It is full of the typical Arthurian content warnings plus extra parental creepiness from Mordred's mom, but it is ultimately one of the most beautiful books I've read.

i have not but thank you so much for the rec!! my tbr list is about sixty miles long so i’m not sure when i’ll get to it turns out it’s available on hoopla and ease-of-access trumps just about everything else so i’ll check it out and let you know when i’m done with it!

also are you interested in talking about mordred more generally because i am always guaranteed to have emotions about him; also also, in the vein of more sutcliff-ish-roman-britain/welsh-arthuriana, have you read parke godwin’s firelord because it sure is. Something, i’d say on balance a good thing but definitely Something and i’m desperate to get a second opinion on it