#read all the arthuriana

[onceandfuturecourt]

History of the Holy Grail has defeated me for now. I quit. I can’t make myself slog through it.

I’m going to start with The Story of Merlin and then come back to HotHG after Death of Arthur.

It was one of the last pieces to be written, after all, so it’s fine to read it last, right? (It’s like. The “begats” of the Holy Grail lineage and I am not motivated enough for this.)

[yourfavecharacterisqueer]

hypothetical scenario for you all: the real king arthur returns. you meet him and you welcome him into your home. what is the first thing you do with him? keep in mind, this is a man from the 500s (he died in 542), and you are from the 21st century (2024).

[sickfreaksirkay]

gerald morris understands lancelot like no other author

[tboymordred]

percival concept scribbles

[see-arcane]

me: "Wow, The Green Knight (2021) dir. David Lowery, starring Dev Patel is such a breathtaking classical epic. It's so richly portrayed in its fantastical and character study elements. The dynamic between Gawain and the Knight, plus the pseudo-throuple chemistry of him and the 'Lord and Lady' is so well done. Gawain seeing the ruinous vision of where cowardice and pure self-preservation would lead him as opposed to a dignified ending (so he thinks it will be) and being a fellow of honor and a kept word was incredibly powerful. What a marvel of storytelling. If the movie is this good, I can only imagine how great the original poem must be!"

The original Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: This poem is 99.99% descriptions of feasting, pretty armor, and how great wonderful hot awesome virtuous beloved Gawain is. Also how utterly jacked and virile and sexy and green the Green Knight is. No it will not explain how or why an explicitly pagan Fae-coded forest entity is a devout Christian, ditto his wife and castle staff. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, enjoy this spontaneous rant at the end where Gawain blames his and all other great men's ills on falling for evil icky women wiles--directly after being told by the Green Knight that his wife was working under the Knight's orders to tempt and test Gawain in the first place. Green Knight and his lady are still DTF and let Gawain crash with them though, xoxo

[apopcornkernel]

there are a lot of smart things to be said about lancelot saving guinevere from that final stake. but i think what rang clearest in my heart about it will always be: the love 😞

[kashilascorner]

for @queer-ragnelle May Day Parade. May 17-21: Grumpy Month of Kay {Seneschal Celebration}

I have been here since before you became yourself: a collection of Kays (and Arthurs)

Chulhwch and Olwen / Camelot (2011) ep. 1 / Vulgate Cycle: The Story of Merlin / La Morte D'Arthur (Sir Thomas Malory) / The Once and Future King, book 1 The Sword in the Stone (TH White) / Sir Kay's coat of arms / Matthew 16:19 / Under cover of darkness (The Strokes) / Arthur of the Britons (1972) ep. 3 / Vulgate Cycle / Camelot (2011) / Icarus (The Crane Wives) / Idylls of the queen (Phyllis Ann Karr) / Hey Brother (Aviicii) / The High History of the Holy Graal (aka Perlesvaus), trans. Sebastian Evans / Camelot (2011) / Alliterative Morte Arthure, trans. Richard Scott-Robinson / Icarus (The Crane Wives)

[dullyn]

One thing that is both lovely and frustrating about the Arthurian legends is the fact that since there are so many different authors, not a lot lines up. Like it offers such wild plot lines and in depth explorations of different characters, but at some point you become confused on where some interactions even come from. The perfect example of this is the tale of Tristan and Iseult, something from the twelfth century that is older than the existence of the character of Lancelot, and something that predates the Vulgate Cycle. The story essentially establishes Tristan as a character and as a brilliant knight. However, he is not Arthur’s knight in the tale, instead Arthur only makes a brief appearance as a third party judge, and he is simply King Mark’s nephew and favored knight. Well until he gets caught having an affair with Iseult and it all goes downhill and he suffers from the plot device of the Sails of Theseus. However, in the Prose Tristan and other later adaptations he is the best friend of Lancelot and Arthur’s second best knight and a noble guy, etc. I guess the point of this whole thing is that it always screws with my head when I stare at the multiple versions of the same character and have to reconcile that they are all true and real and right cause it’s literature and stories are meant to adapt and change. That’s the beauty of it as a genre, but sometimes I wish there was just one definitive timeline.

[gingersnaptaff]

What's your take on the 3 Gwenhwfars of The Hergest Triads?

Hi anon! Now, do you mean as to whether they're like three aspects of the same woman or whether they're separate? Or just... that they are all women who are married to Arthur?

I mean, I do find it funny he married three women who bore the same name. Like that's so fuckin hilarious to me. Did he have it legally mandated that his wives all had to have the same name so he didn't forget it? I won't lie I do find it fascinating that two of the Gwenhwyfar's have some kind of supernatural element to them! Gwenhwyfar the second was Gwythyr app Greidawl who - if you've read Culhwch ac Olwen - gets mentioned as Gwyn ap Nudd's May Day nemesis who batters him to death each year so spring can be sprung. Also, the fact that, y'know, Gwyn stole Creiddylad from him probably put his nose out of joint.

And then u have Gwenhwyfar three whose dad was Ogrfan Fawr, a literal giant. Like sjdjdjd Neato. Although she did start Camlann along with her sister, Gwenhwyfach, so like can't give her all the plaudits there.

As for whether they're like a reflection of some long-lost triple goddess, I don't think so. If they were - and it's a very tenuous if - then why haven't we found records for that? Or some reflection of that from the myths? We know Rhiannon from Branch 1 of the Mabinogi was a goddess, or at the very least an echo of one, so why don't we have that for Gwenhwyfar?

Personally, I can't see it. We only know of Ogrfan's Gwenhwyfar that she was 'bad when little, worse when great.' As for the other two, I don't have anything to go on! The lack of sources is frustrating but I mean at the end of the day I can't be like 'Oh, you shouldn't believe this!' I would just caution that I can't give u a full picture simply because there isn't one!

I think it's fascinating that the triads were like 'Yeah, Arthur had three wives and they're all named the same!' Like he must be one scatter-brained lad if he can't remember names! That detail is just so sjdjssks.

Anyways, hope u have a good day, anon! I'm sorry I couldn't give you much I'm just incredibly hesitant to ascribe things to the three Gwenhwyfar's when I can't give you sources for them!

[lit-in-thy-heart]

when you need a secret identity but creativity isn’t your forte:

[ID: a cropped picture of a page from Book 8 ('Sir Tristram de Lyonesse') of Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. The highlighted line, spoken by Sir Tristram in disguise in Ireland, reads: 'my name is Tramtrist'. End ID.]

[flowersandfashion]

RIP Alfred Lord Tennyson. you would've loved Arthur Pendragon/reader fanfiction

[onceandfuturecourt]

QRV - Story of Merlin 1

preface | intro pt 1 | intro pt 2 | HHG

I've given up for now on the History of the Holy Grail, so let's move on to The Story of Merlin instead, translated by Rupert T. Pickens.

We get a lot of worldbuilding in this first chapter! Devil lore, Merlin lore, medieval Christian magic lore, and some of the cultural beliefs about women:

Things that make you vulnerable to devils: not crossing yourself before you get into or out of bed, sleeping in the dark ("a devil does not come willingly where light is"), being by yourself instead of in a crowd, and getting angry.

Women are seen as lustful, sexual beings ("We women are made for just one thing: taking our delight from men" - this comes up more later in the Vulgate Cycle).

Incubi live in the air, can have sex with humans if they're secretive about it, and can impregnate women.

Devils have the "art of knowing things that are done, said, and past." They're also cunning, intelligent, clever, and have good memories.

Merlin's mother is the eldest of 3 sisters (the middle of which is deceased before Merlin is born) and a brother (also dead).

Merlin is named after his maternal grandfather, who was driven to death by Merlin's incubus father.

Merlin was born extremely hairy, his midwives and mothers were very frightened of him from the moment of his birth, and he started speaking in full sentences at 18 months old.

Merlin is born with "the power and mind of a devil, and the cunning, because he was sired by one" (he gets to keep their craft, artifice, and their "intelligence and memory"). He also gets to keep the "devils' art of knowing things that are done, said, and past," and also gets the divine ability to know the future.

Because Merlin's mother was devout and repentant, because she "had not wanted or willed what had happened to her" (the incubus impregnating her while she slept), and because Merlin was baptized immediately after birth, he's protected from the influence of the devils. But God grants him their abilities, powers, and the additional divine power of prophecy. Cambion with the Cleric class, I guess?

Merlin defends his mother in court, and absolutely roasts the attendees and judges in the process. Reveals secrets and so on. It's all very courtroom TV show types of dramatic.

It starts at the beginning: with Merlin's conception and childhood. And the story of Merlin's conception starts further back than that, with the devils being upset about the whole Jesus thing, because apparently that involved freeing a bunch of people who were in hell.

This is a corner of theology that I'm less familiar with. (I went on a tangent about religion in Arthuriana at this point and made it into its own post.) It gets a little preachy in a weird way, kind of reminding me of Screwtape Letters (C. S. Lewis).

But eventually the devils come up with a plan: they'll get their own preacher! Someone to "speak out and tell about our aims, our deeds, and our ways of life" and might have the power (like the devils, apparently) to divine the past. Maybe even the future, if they're lucky.

One of the devils knows a woman who will do anything he wants her to do, and he knows of another devil who can take on human form and secretly have sex with a woman. So the devil ruins the husband by killing his livestock and his son, then getting the wife to hang herself, and so the husband became so grieved and stressed that he became ill and died.

So then there are three daughters left. The middle daughter gets seduced by a squire and then executed for adultery. A priest (who we later discover is named Blaise) shows up and converts the eldest daughter. Another woman shows up (at, of course, the devil's urging) and manages to lure away the youngest daughter.

Here's where we see some of the beliefs of the era about women really highlighted. The woman who's luring away the youngest daughter says, "We women are made for just one thing: taking our delight from men."

Taking their delight from men. Women were seen as lustful, sexual beings, often tempting pious virginal men away from Christian purity. This is important context in understanding the rest of the story - especially because the modern stereotype of how medieval women were viewed tends to be the opposite of how they were actually depicted.

(We'll get into medieval masculinity later, because that gets really interesting in contrast with modern, Western masculine norms.)

Back to the story.

The older sister is very worried about the devil who haunts the whole family, but the priest says that if she's very devout and very careful, avoiding anger (because "the devil likes most to be where wrath is"), crossing herself when she gets into and out of bed, and makes sure "there is light wherever you lie down, for a devil does not willingly come where light is," she won't have any cause for concern.

Which works out for two years, until a rough confrontation with the younger sister leads to the older sister laying down in bed, distraught and wounded, without crossing herself or lighting a lamp. She falls asleep, and the devil impregnates her. She wakes up feeling awful, crosses herself, and has a bit of a breakdown for the rest of the night.

She goes immediately to the priest who gave her the advice, confesses the whole situation to him, says she awoke to find herself "shamed and deflowered" but with her room locked and empty.

Blaise responds in a pretty shitty way at this point: "You are all full of devils and devils dwell in you! From what you tell me, how can I hear your confession and give you penance, since I truly believe that you are lying? For never was a woman deflowered when she did not know by whom, unless she could not see the man who did it to her. And you want me to believe that such a wonder happened to you!"

She swears it's true, and while he still doesn't believe her, he gives her a few taboos/penances and blesses her. Eventually he starts to doubt his disbelief, and comes around to helping her. She goes off and lives exactly as he commanded, a "very good and simple life."

But she becomes visibly pregnant, and so she gets arrested and brought to trial when she can't name the father. Blaise comes to testify on her behalf and advises that the judges lock her up in a tower with two midwives, letting her live at least until she gives birth and the child has grown up enough to speak.

The child is born with "the power and mind of a devil, and the cunning, because he was sired by one," but because he was sired "by deceit and trickery while (the mother) was asleep" and because she confessed and cried out for mercy immediately upon waking, "God did not want the child to lose, because of the devil, anything that belonged to him; rather He allowed the child to have what was his by right. Therefore, He bestowed on him the devils' art of knowing things that are done, said, and past - all this he knew." And since he got baptized immediately after birth, that protected him from what happened, especially because the mother "had not wanted or willed what had happened to her." And then the child also is given "the sense and power to know the future."

He was born hairier than any other child the midwives had ever seen; mother and midwives alike were very frightened of him. She named him after her father, Merlin, and she nursed him until he was nine months old, though he looked as though he were two years old or more at that point.

When he was 18 months old, the two midwives left, which meant the mother would be brought to trial. She was very distressed about this; her child looked at her, smiled, and said, "Never will you die for what has happened to you because of me."

Merlin basically becomes his mother's lawyer in the ensuing court case, and threatens everyone with knowledge of their infidelities and the infidelities of their parents. He reveals that the judge's father is actually the mother's priest, who colluded with the judge's mother to make it seem like the judge was the son of her husband.

It's all extremely dramatic.

But the judge says "it is not right that I should bring (Merlin's) mother to justice when I do not condemn my own."

(The judge's biological father drowns himself when he learns that the judge knows of the adultery, and the story says, "This is why this story forbids anyone ever to flee other people, for the devil abides more often with a man by himself than in a crowd.")

Merlin eventually explains who his father is: "I am the son of a devil who ensnared my mother. Know also that one kind of devil is called incubi, and they live in the air. God allowed me to have their intelligence and their memory, so I know things that are done, said, and past… And because of (my mother's) holy and true repentance… God has given me such power that I know the things that are to come." He later says to Blaise, "The devils have lost hold of me, but I have not lost their craft or their artifice."

Then Merlin and Blaise the priest talk about Blaise writing down all the events Merlin shares with him, and what the future holds for both of them.

[youjustwaitsunshine]

i love you historical epics with prefaces and footnotes i love you bilingual historical epics with side by side verses i love you historical context i love you endless appendices i love you explanation for the historical text that makes up half the book

[vulgayte]

Proved him wrong ig

[yugocar]

i said it before somewhere but while t.h white made some choices, he was sooo right for doing crazy amount projecting onto lancelot and then taking it further

[each-uisge-enthusiast]

everyone's always talking about MORGAN keeping knights in her basement no one's ever talking about TURQUINE keeping knights in HIS basement