#smerdodug the infidel

[gailyinthedark]

what a name

[gailyinthedark]

Final thoughts: Morien, Byelorussian Tristan, The Lady of Shalott

Morien

I adore this story. I adore this character. He's a kid and he's a knight. His father abandoned him and he wants to fight everybody about it. He needs a friend so bad and everyone is scared of him. He's my perfect little guy. I want to make him tea.

Also I get the Gawain love now. I think this author has as much of a crush on him as Malory does on Lancelot in Le Mort.

Byelorussian Tristan

Probably the bloodthirstiest sample of arthuriana I've come across so far. Usually courtesy, honour, gentility etc are paid lip service at least, but here the only way to prove your worth is beating up other guys. My favourite part was Smerdodug the Infidel because of his name.

The Lady of Shalott

I was super excited to read this because a) arthuriana b) poetry c) it's endorsed by Anne Shirley herself! It has to be good!

Alas, I was sorely disappointed. One of the coolest things about poetry is the way it can express things concisely through imagery and judicious word choice, effectively packaging more punch per word than prose, but this...does the opposite of that? The rhyme scheme is needlessly bloated. There are some lovely individual lines but they don't build on each other. Our girl doesn't even know what the curse is and after reading this three times neither do I? I'd trade the bearded barley for some concrete information.

Tl;dr the poem sucks, sorry Tennyson.