#arthurian

[illustratus]

La Belle Dame sans Merci by Paul Julien Meylan

[mortiscausa]

Whether fate be foul or fair, Why falter I or fear? What should man do but dare?

march to camelot #1: quest

[rosieandthemoon]

fading into fantasy

[escespace]

Gwaine: Man, I'm fed up with these two, we have to do something.

Elyan: What are you talking about?

Gwaine: Arthur and Merlin and their stupid desperate flirting

Elyan: What? Flirting?

Gwaine: Are you blind?!!! Of course they flirt. If not, what would you call that?

Gwaine: *turns elyan's face to where Merlin and Arthur are being separated by Lance and Leon while they yell at each other*

Elyan: Social incompetence?

[demoniacal-art]

sir gawain and gringolet!

[almondcroissantsandink]

Remember, it is only a game.

[aneurinallmoods]

My fav moodboard series I've ever done :> Alan Lee's drawings can elevate anything

The Four Branches of the Mabinogion

The First Branch: Pwyll and Rhiannon

Prince Pwyll encounters a mysterious maiden, who evades him until he finally calls out to her. Her name is Rhiannon. They marry and have a son, but the newborn vanishes and is presumed dead. Rhiannon is falsely accused of the crime, but Pwyll refuses to accept her guilt. Eventually, they were reunited with their lost child, Pryderi, thus proving Rhiannon's innocence and vindicating Pwyll.

The Second Branch: Bran and Branwen

Brân the Blessed, king of Britain, is visited by a starling. The starling carries a message from his sister Branwen, telling him that her husband, the Irish king Matholwch, is abusive. Brân and his army set sail to Ireland to rescue his sister and have revenge on Matholwch. Brân is slain by a poisoned spear, and Branwen dies from heartbreak.

The Third Branch: Manawydan

Only seven British warriors survive the war with Ireland. Pryderi offers the throne to his friend Manawydan, along with his mother Rhiannon's hand in marriage. Manawydan and Rhiannon are happily married, and along with Pryderi and his wife Cigfa, lift a curse afflicting the kingdom of Dyfed.

The Fourth Branch: Math, son of Mathonwy

In the kingdom of Gwynedd, the lady Arianrhod is ashamed at losing her virginity. She curses her son to never have a name and never bear arms; but her brother, the magician Gwydion, tricks her into giving the boy a name (Lleu) and a weapon.

Angry at being deceived, she places a third curse on the boy: that he can never have a human wife. Gwydion makes Lleu a wife out of flowers, and names her Blodeuwedd, but Blodeuwedd falls for another man instead and tries to murder Lleu. Lleu has revenge on those who betrayed him, and becomes ruler of Gwynedd, since Arianrhod was the niece of King Math.

(originally posted June 17 2024)

[greaterpaladin]

"Castle of Maidens" (AKA “Galahad at the Castle of Maidens”) by Edwin Austin Abbey (c. 1890)

[maniculum]

Perlesvaus (Evans translation)

So I'm taking another stab at reading the Sebastian Evans translation of Perlesvaus, for... reasons. Or the High History of the Holy Graal, as he titles it -- funnily enough, the people who put out this reprint apparently looked at the title, said "we're not doing that", and spelt it Grail on the cover.

Despite the bizarre choices in diction, it's still pretty fun, and I want to share some particularly entertaining bits of this text with y'all. (For those of you who aren't up on the two different translations of Perlesvaus and don't know what I mean by "bizarre choices", the Evans translation is from 1898 but pretending to be from, like, 1498.)

N.B.: Marginal notes in red are from the last time I tried this -- they stop showing up roughly a quarter of the way through the book, because that's when I decided to buy the Bryant translation instead.

I just find this funny because "who cares?" strikes me as such a modern thing to say. To me it is a phrase that seems most natural coming from a teenage character in late-20th-century media. But nope. "Who careth?"

This is here just for the bizarre scene. We have three women coming into the throne room (riding mules directly into the building, by the way). One is carrying a severed head decorated with silver and gold. Another has "a pack trussed behind her with a brachet thereupon" -- you can see from the notes that I had to look up "brachet", found out it was an old word meaning roughly "female scent-hound", and then had the mental image of this woman carrying around a beagle in a baby-bjorn.

Again something I find funny. Gawain just leaping through the air to interpose himself between the horses and this hermit, like he's trying to take a bullet for them. This is entirely because he is 100% certain the hermit will handle the saddles incorrectly, and when the hermit assures him he actually does know how this stuff works, Gawain calms down & lets him do it.

This is, for my money, one of the funniest things in all of Perlesvaus, which is saying something because it is a bonkers text. This lady rolls up and provides that description, and the hermit recognizes who she's talking about. Like, "oh yes I did see a knight with a heart of steel and the navel of a virgin". I want to give this description to a sketch artist. (I kind of want to throw it at an AI just to see what it comes up with, but you know. I don't want to encourage the machines.)

This time I'm nit-picking the translation, because that strikes me as a misplaced modifier. Obviously it's meant that Gawain is unaware of events, but the sentence is constructed to make it sound like it's referring to the building itself, which is of course unaware because it's a building and isn't aware of anything. (Also, side note, I like the phrase "as methinketh!")

One more, and I'm leaving this for now...

Here is a case where I was going to complain, but on further examination, I must hand it to Evans. I assumed that he was just randomly archaizing, but I looked it up after uploading this photo, and according to the OED, this was a valid alternate spelling of sovereign from the 17th to the 19th century. (Interestingly, the latest attested example on the OED is from 11 years before this translation was published, meaning this is evidence it was in use slightly longer than the OED entry would suggest -- does anyone know if there's still a way to submit instances of a word to the OED?)

[birdsofrhiannon]

Morgan Le Fay by John Stanhope

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

I finally updated the arthurian list of everything! Wow, after more than one year I finally had the time to add some small updates!

The file (excel) is here: open file here

12 videogames (all linked to steam)

1 movie/tv show (the 2023 "The Winter King")

11 comics (manga, manhua and manhwa)

Main "arthurian list of everything" tumblr post is here.

More detailed updates under cut:

Comics added:

Movie added (tv show):

Videogames added:

Musicals:

[cesarescabinet]

So far Diu Crône is a hilarious read because you can tell the author had massive beef with the French treatment of the legend and how it handled Arthur and just...actively and enthusiastically rejects any plot lines related to it.

Arthur? Is a good man who has the respect and honor of all of his people. Succeeds in the virtue test over everybody else in the court.

Lancelot? At peace with himself and has his own lady love.

Guinevere? Happily married to Arthur and absolutely hilarious. I just love her here.

Gawain? Not only does he achieve the Holy Grail, but he becomes immortal.

Camelot? Never falls.

At one point Guinevere's accused of adultery and while Arthur's upset and unsure, he rejects the idea of burning her at the stake because "Wow people would understandably think I'm insane and my reputation would be ruined. Best to wait and see :)" Like I just know that Heinrich von dem Türlin was giving the most BOMBASTIC of side-eyes to the Vulgate Cycle at that moment. I can't believe fandom drama goes that far back.

[illustratus]

Enid and Geraint by Rowland Wheelwright

[mortiscausa]

And then they took their horses and rode throughout a fair forest; and then they came to a plain, and saw where were many pavilions and tents, and a fair castle, and there was much smoke and great noise; and when they came near the siege Sir Beaumains espied upon great trees, as he rode, how there hung full goodly armed knights by the neck, and their shields about their necks with their swords, and gilt spurs upon their heels, and so there hung nigh a forty knights shamefully with full rich arms. Then Sir Beaumains abated his countenance and said, What meaneth this? Fair sir, said the damosel, abate not your cheer for all this sight, for ye must courage yourself, or else ye be all shent, for all these knights came hither to this siege to rescue my sister Dame Lionesse, and when the Red Knight of the Red Launds had overcome them, he put them to this shameful death without mercy and pity. And in the same wise he will serve you but if you quit you the better. Le Morte D'Arthur, Book 8 | Thomas Malory

march to camelot #4: monstrous

[angelboycult]

getting into arthurian legend has been the most rewarding thing ever because after months of reading brilliant novels It brought me to the campest, most incredibly shit and beautiful and depraved movie ever. Excalibur. It's over two hours long and Lancelot just kissed king Arthur's sword to declare his love and devotion. Merlin is a morally grey crazy bastard just as he should be. Also everything glitters all the time which is amazing.

[escespace]

Gwaine: You know... Before, I kind of had a crush on Merlin

Arthur: ...

Arthur: that shit gets over?