#medieval ballads

[illustratus]

Hellelil and Hildebrand, the Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton

[atomic-chronoscaph]

art by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1910s)

[ballad-of-the-lamb]

Thy Ballad, I have a question for thee. What inspired you to make the designs for the cat and the lamb? I've not really seen many who puts the lamb as a more muscular force, while having the cat more of a stick figure that looks like he can't compare to the lambs lift

i like big bitches

[buriedknight]

Herr Mannelig

[castilestateofmind]

"My ornaments are arms,

My pastime is in War,

My bed is cold upon the wold,

My lamp yon star".

-Medieval Spanish ballad.

Illustration from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle, 1903.

[fictionadventurer]

I don't think we talk often enough about how amazing a poet J.R.R. Tolkien was.

I just read The Lay of Arthur and it was amazing. I got to the battle scene and was so caught up in the excitement and the sound that I just had to read it aloud. It was its own kind of adrenaline rush. I haven't been caught up in poetry like that in a long time.

[lady-alabaster]

Frederic William Burton (1816-1900), Hellelil and Hildebrand, the meeting on the turret stairs, 1864, watercolour paint and gouache paint on paper, Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland.

[from-a-spiders-web]

"A knight, 'More of More Hall', kicking a dragon in its fundament."

Scene from the ballad The Dragon of Wantley, ca. 1744 Etching by John June

[valeroyeaux]

oh idk if i ever posted this shitty ps5 pic but! miss janet ingellvar!!!

[thebeautifulbook]

POEMES ET BALLADES DU TEMPS PASSE [aka POEMS AND BALLADS OF TIMES PAST] by Christine de Pisan. Illustrated by Albert Robida. Art binding by Charles Meunier (1902).

A collection of French Medieval and Renaissance poems and romantic ballads.

source

[illustratus]

The Little Foot Page by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

[pippinoftheshire]

I said it before, I'll say it again: I hate it when I get the beginning and the end of a fic done and then still have to write the middle bit...

[worlds-of-imaginations]

Terra orientis solis - Valley of the Windmills

The Valley of the Windmills stretches between the capital city of Solpolis and the old town of Marvella.

[littlezorrillo]

⋆˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆˚｡⋆𐦍.ೃ࿔:･⋆.ೃ𐦍:･⋆˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆˚｡⋆⋆𐦍.ೃ࿔:･⋆.ೃ𐦍:･࿔:･⋆˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆˚｡⋆

[ilions-end]

so i know we love to hate on the telegony but truth be told i think some its medieval iterations are kinda fun. the silly genealogical drama and intense sentimentality feels more suited for medieval ballads, and the characters feel so far removed from their origins that i can enjoy the overwrought pathos on its own terms.

have an excerpt from john gower's Confessio Amantis, ca. 1390. really fun to read aloud. that pounding rhythm of the meter!

this is from the climax, ulysses (the "he" in the first line) defending his castle gates against telegonus, both yet unaware that they're father and son:

He saw also, but he ne’er knew What man it was, and to him threw His spear, and started out aside. But destiny, which shall betide, Befell that very time just so: Telegonus knew nothing now What man it was that to him cast, And while his own spear last, With all the ensign thereupon He cast unto the king anon, And smote him with a deadly wound. Ulysses fell anon to ground; Now every man, “The king! The king!” Began to cry, and of this thing Telegonus, who saw the case, On knees he fell and said, “Alas! I have mine own father slain! Now would I die wondrous fain, Now slay me who that ever will, For certain it is right good skill!” He cried, he wept, he said therefore, “Alas, that ever was I bore, That this unhappy destiny So woefully came in by me!”

[thelampisaflashlight]

They do coexist

Very loudly

One is always half a dewdrop away from biting the other

Dew doesn’t want people to see him as weak, but Dew also doesn’t realize being vulnerable and being weak are different things.

Vulnerability takes strength.

It takes acknowledging that you are not all powerful, that you needn’t spite everyone, but that, indeed, you can accept help, or admit your flaws.

It’s more a fear of being mistreated that keeps him from doing so.

He’s scared, and doesn’t want to be coaxed like a cat into gentleness.

He wants his anxieties acknowledged and soothed.