#the vulgate cycle

[cesarescabinet]

Note: This is just for fun and because I'm nosy. I realize the timeline for inspiration is not always simple and can be a bit muddy.

[queer-ragnelle]

i’m new to arthuriana but love your posts nonetheless

i am just curious about the many references to gawain sleeping with so many people when, to my understanding, in sir gawain and the green knight he specifically breaks this promiscuous behaviour and makes sure he doesn’t sleep with the wife of the duke

(i apologize if this is a stupid question!)

hello anon!

welcome to arthuriana and thank you so much for the kind words. this is not a stupid question at all! the truth is gawain is nothing if not inconsistent between texts haha. he's different from other knights such as lancelot who pines solely for guinevere across text after text, in that it seems every author wanted to create their own special gal for gawain. he therefore has numerous women attached to him, and when readers try to reconcile those many texts into a single story thread, it gives the impression our mans gawain gets around! (and he does!) i have several examples here to illustrate this so i'll put it below a cut.

for all the textual variance, sir gawain and the green knight is the exception that proves the rule—meaning that it's perhaps the only text in which gawain is abstinent. we know this because one of the five virtues attributed to the five points of his pentacle crest on his shield is chastity.

furthermore, on the wife's second seduction attempt, gawain pleas his own inexperience with "love" (ie: women).

whether or not that's true is up for debate, but it's worth mentioning, as it's a departure from other texts where his virile prowess is well-known, and in the knight of the two swords, he openly boasts about his own attractiveness and popularity. (humble guy, that gawain!)

there are several examples of gawain's reputation with the ladies preceding him and actually benefitting his odds of getting laid. one of my favorites is from lancelot part II in the vulgate. gawain had just cured his brother agravaine of an illness and agravaine's amie basically wingwoman's her sister.

goated of her. so gawain pencils it in on his calendar. later, he locates the castle, sneaks in, and succeeds in bedding the maiden. she's not named here, although malory later refers to her as "the lady of lys," and accredits her as the mother of gawain's three sons, (although the couple never formally wed).

among the strangest of examples is the middle english text the carle of carlisle, in which the carle brings gawain to the bedchamber and orders him to make out with his wife. but things quickly heat up...

so the carle stops gawain from outright cuckholding him, then leads gawain to his daughter's chambers, gives them his blessing, and locks them inside. at the end of the text, gawain marries her.

now i would be remiss not to mention my beloved the wedding of sir gawain and dame ragnelle. i think it's notable that ragnelle specifically asks for gawain by name, much like the lady of lys did (according to her sister and her warm reception of him).

now the conclusion of this poem brings us to another theme of gawain's which ties into his many partners, and that is his consistent subservience to ladies. he breaks the curse on ragnelle by granting her "sovereignty" in the relationship. this seems to be another aspect of character which sets gawain apart from other knights, as this is not a chaste expression of courtly love, but a precursor to fornication, and draws the attention of strong-willed ladies, such as ragnelle, with whom he is "a coward," or according to the translation notes, "submissive."

then again in roman van walewein, he's already famous by the time he meets his ladylove, ysabele, and whilst tied up in her father's prison, he leaves the decision of his own life in her hands.

which then results in their coming together because this is a gawain story and he always gets the girl.

even in the post vulgate, which we can all agree portrays every single character at their absolute worst (and is therefore invalid<3), gawain's choice of words consistently upholds the lady's desires above his own. at first, gawain intended wingman for pelleas by pretending he, pelleas, was dead to begrieve arcade. he discovers instead that she's elated by pelleas's supposed passing, so she and gawain fall in love. but even after admitting his feelings, he still takes great pains to frame the final crossing of that line as her choice, and only relents when she makes her intentions plain.

he might also just like it when women boss him around if his treatment from orgeluse in parzival by wolfram von eschenbach is any indication.

similarly to the knight of two swords, in parzival, gawain is aware of his fame, fosters it, and then employs his orgeluse brain worms as a motivation for sparing lives instead of like...morality.

i think what's particularly interesting about gawain's relationship history is that many of his partners are named, whereas it's pretty common for damsels and maidens in medieval texts to exist without identities of their own. there are so, so many named, interesting, fully developed women linked to gawain, it's actually pretty awesome! here are a few more:

lunette in yvain: knight of the lion by chrétien de troyes...

amurfina in the crown by heinrich von dem türlin...

bloiesine in the 4th perceval continuation by gerbert de montreuil...

marjorie in gawain and marjorie by oscar fay adams (if we extend our search through the 20th century!)...

and on and on forever! so in conclusion, gawain has been pulling bitches for many hundreds of slutty, slutty years, and from what modern retellings i've read, authors have no intention of interrupting this trend. i hope that helps clear things up somewhat. thanks for the ask!

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

This was an island on the Western Sea, thirteen days distant from the place where Nacien had been imprisoned, and the local people called in the Turning Isle. This island was rightly called turning because it is true that it turned. But everyone who has heard about it does not know how it turns, and it is right that this story show the truth, for if it did not clearly show the reason and knowledge about every doubtful thing that it mentions, it would only be words interlaced together, just like people who speak many words, claiming their truth, but who cannot cite any support, except that they have heard it from others. This story eschews this bad way, for it does not set forth any doubtful statement without explaining it in utter clarity. That is why it is rightly called the Chronicle of Chronicles.

— The History of the Holy Grail, Chapter 20, Carol J. Chase translation

EXTREMELY rich coming from a chronicle that will go on to explain that God separated the our elements, and heaven was made of fire and air and earth was made of earth and water, but they were kind of stuck together, and so when he made heaven there was this icky ball of earth and water that also accrued some air and fire and when god kicked it out of heaven it turned because the fire and air wanted to go up and the water and earth wanted to go down and then it got stuck in the Western Sea because magnets

Oh and also that Jesus can scare Apollo into shutting up, that Jesus wrote three things with his own hands and one of them is this history of the holy grail, that first-century Britain was inhabited by “Saracens” who were converted to Christianity by Joseph of Arimethea, that Hippocrates was somehow contemporaneous with both Emperor Augustus Caesar and Jesus and was poisoned by the 12-year-old he forcibly married, and that Emperor Vaspasian’s kid was healed of leprosy by Jesus’s holy sweat cloth

[alsofullofflies]

Looove this 💕💕💕💕

Arthurian legend suffers from the same vague time mushiness that Shakespeare’s plays do - a midsummer nights dream starts with the Theseus and Hypollita from Greek Myth for Christ’s sake! But is sort of smooshed into a vaguely Elizabeth aesthetic more often than togas due to when it was written - similarly the vulgate cycle in the 1300s compressed all that came before (that was already anachronistic) into a vaguely contemporary vibe and then looking back everyone assumes that’s the canon vibe?

What I’m trying to say is the only canon interpretation of King Arthur following the themes set out by Middle Ages authors of making it contemporary and relevant to an audience is with phones and macdonalds drive throughs and King Arthur deciding to nuke the fens/sending in special ops because there were giants seen there commanded by his evil sister the Duchess of Norfolk.

Merlin is a Batman-esque vigilante whose day job is advising the king. There is no parliament but the knights of the Round Table are working to bring democracy to the realm in a The Thick of It style sit-com. Mordred is Malcom Tucker but also a Game of Thrones level threat to Arthur. The tone is all over the place. Gawain is caught by tabloids kissing a dude AND his wife. Galahad is a televangelist and runs a cult of personality. Lancelot is the Camilla to Guinevere’s Charles.

I redrew some Merlin characters to be more historically and culturally accurate! The text is their original names in a later Latin script, yoinked from a display in the Corinium Museum, Cirencester. (Sneaky edit to add: Y'all are incredibly welcome to use this in any way you want, I would love to see more of my home's culture being represented more accurately in media!!) (Also on Instagram)

Unlabelled version under the cut!!

[cynicalclassicist]

Having to put this link up as can't post the actual post.

You can write Guinevere as flawed, but with plenty of good qualities as well, for she is a person.

[i-dont-know134]

holy shit that’s insane. Wasn’t galehaut like 7 feet tall??

[perplexingly]

I barely remember any of the Vulgate cycle so I checked some chapters about Galehaut and by god I forgot that it was written Like That

Galehaut, trying to convince Lancelot (in disguise) to stay with him Forever, soon after meeting him:

Lancelot promised he'd stay only if Galehaut (who at the time was battling Arthur, and was very much victorious) withdrew his army, to which Galehaut's entire attitude was like: "this pains me not at all, since it is your wish". Lancelot's reaction to this:

Galehaut planning to keep Lancelot aaaall to himself:

Galehaut answering to the question what would he do to keep Lancelot's company forever:

Galehaut's grieving out of love for Lancelot:

Lancelot and Galehaut so worried about each other they're afraid to do anything not to hurt the other (and in the second screenshot both of them almost die because they're so worried)

Lancelot and Galehaut's Romeo and Juliet-like ending:

[susanstohelits]

the description of lancelot in the vulgate is so funny. What do we need to know about this great knight?

Anonymous author, sweating: uhhh his sexy feminine neck. and he had hands like a woman. and an ass that won't quit. these are important details for reasons.

[gawrkin]

Sir Galahad, in Battle

[...]

[...]

From Vulgate Cycle -Quest for the Holy Grail

Link to a previous post about Galahad in Battle, in Post-Vulgate

[sickfreaksirkay]

Sir Kay, Seneschal of King Arthur's Court, Harold J. Herman / Illustration from the Mabinogion / The Quest for Olwen, trans. Gwyn Thomas and Kevin Crossley-Holland / The Story of Merlin, trans. Rupert T. Pickens / Illustration from The Quest for Olwen, Margaret Jones / Wace's Roman de Brut, trans. Eugene Mason / The Mabinogion, trans. Lady Charlotte Guest

a collection of sir kay and sir bedivere: companions/lovers/worse, for @queer-ragnelle's may day parade

[false-guinevere]

Okay but Mordred’s whole thing with Guinevere in the Vulgate is so interesting to me. Like it’s gone over very quickly but it’s fascinating that he just. Falls in love with her apparently.

And then the Post-Vulgate straight up compares Mordred’s love for her to Lancelot’s??

WILD

It just fascinates me. Mordred is usurping the throne but also his attempt to marry Guinevere is seemingly just from a genuine desire to I guess. I don’t know I just think it’s neat. I need to know more about these hangouts during Mordred’s regency that caused Mordred to fall so deeply in love. What did they talk about? Did Guinevere consider them friends? I have so many questions.

[wolf-tail]

It's been 800 years and I STILL have beef with whoever is responsible for writing the Vulgate cycle for having the AUDACITY to bring Galahad into the mythos. I'm someone who normally likes Mary Sue type characters, but there comes a LIMIT

[queer-ragnelle]

Hi! I really want to read the vulgate cycle but I have a hard time staying focused when reading it. Are there any sections of the vulgate that are not as important to the understanding or able to skip? Thank you so much for making all these stories accessible and thanks for your reply :))

Hello my friend! This is a great question and one I get a lot. The Vulgate Cycle is long and daunting, but I can help you navigate it!

Firstly, here is the full Vulgate Cycle PDF collection for everyone to read. Secondly, I'll summarize what you can do, and elaborate below a cut.

TL;DR

If reading a PDF, use CTRL+F to find your favorite character's name/stories.

If reading a physical copy, utilize the index (located at the very end of the Post Vulgate) to find them.

Discover chapters of interest from the summary page (also located at the very end of the Post Vulgate).

Skip The History of the Holy Grail and begin with The Story of Merlin or Lancelot I.

Now, let's break down the ways you can navigate the Vulgate Cycle step by step.

CTRL+F

This option will certainly be less effective if your favorite character is a prominent one such as Lancelot or Gawain as they appear a million times. However, if you want to learn more about someone else, say, the Lady of the Lake, you can search her up and find every instance of her appearance. Like so.

Index

In the very back of the final book of the Post Vulgate, there's an Index listing every named character [Ex: Gawain], location [Ex: Orkney Isles], entity [Ex: Holy Spirit], animal [Ex: Gringalet the horse], and language [Ex: Hebrew] mentioned in the entirety of the Vulgate Cycle. There you'll find a list of which book/chapter/page they appear in. Here are all the mentions of Gawain's horse in The Book of Merlin.

Chapter Summaries

Each book of the Vulgate Cycle has a Table of Contents with the chapter numbers and long, descriptive titles. That alone may give you an indication of what you want to read. However, at the back of the Post Vulgate, right before the Index, there's a list of every chapter in the Vulgate Cycle with a summary of events. That will give you more detail and may help you decide if you want to read in full.

Skip

If it sucks, hit da bricks. The beauty of the Vulgate Cycle is that you don't need The History of the Grail or The Book of Merlin to understand what comes later. I enjoy them because History gives a ton of background to the religious themes the Grail Quest will eventually explore and sets up all the motifs way in advance and Merlin has the Orkney Bros as well as Yvain and Sagramore as kids which is fun. But the fact is you can begin with Lancelot I and you won't be lost. Lancelot I was written first, Merlin is a prequel, so it's optional, and the motifs of the Grail Quest are going to be heavy handed when you get there anyway without the added stuff from History. That's hundreds of pages you can skip if you want to! Norris J. Lacy, the head editor, and his translation team did a phenomenal job with footnotes throughout, so if a character off-handedly refers back to something, you can rely on them to leave a little note at the bottom for you to refresh your memory with. It'll even give you a chapter/page number if you want to refer back yourself. Here's a footnote referring to Agravaine's unnamed amie [his ladylove] who helped wing woman her sister to romance Gawain. That was 4 chapters prior to this moment.

So there are plenty of ways to navigate the Vulgate Cycle and make it more digestible. That being said, it's translated so beautifully by Lacy and his team, that it reads like a modern novel. I have no doubt that once you get started, you'll become invested, and find it much easier to work through than you first thought. It's long-winded and character dense but it's fun. I do hope you're able to read it and understand why I love it so much! Thanks for this ask and I hope this helps. Have a great day!

[arthurian-texts]

When the youth [Mordred] saw [Gawain's] wounds, he turned away, grieving as bitterly as any man could ever grieve [...] He went to another chamber and fell down upon a bed and wept and cried and wrung his hands and tore all his clothes. [...] [Agravain] found the youth tearing his hair and his clothing. And when the youth saw his lord [Agravain] before him, he neither moved nor left off his grieving. "What is this, you bastard," said the lord, "what are you grieving about? Don't you see that I have been healed?" "Indeed," he replied, "I don't care, because for that good I see a greater ill." "And what is that?" asked the knight. "Ah, noble man," he replied, "in there they have mortally wounded Sir Gawain, your brother and mine." "Gawain?" he exclaimed. And thereupon his grief was so great that he fainted.

-Vulgate Lancelot, c. 1220, trans. Samuel N. Rosenberg and Carleton W. Carroll

They pushed and shoved at one another and Mordred fell backwards from the force of Gawain’s spear and landed on his shoulders, badly wounded. Sir Gawain leapt onto the man and seized him by the head. His grief was ready for this moment but so, unfortunately, was destiny. He pulled out a short knife from a silver sheath intending to stab Mordred in the throat with it; but the cut never occurred. His hand slipped and slid on the shiny chainmail as Mordred slyly shot a hand under the man on top and heaved him off, then drew a knife of his own and stabbed Gawain through a gap in his helmet, through his head and up into his brain. Sir Gawain was gone, that good man of arms. [...] "He was a giant amongst men, that’s for sure," Sir Mordred [said]. "This was the good Sir Gawain, the most considerate, the most gracious man ever to live under God’s Earth, the strongest with weapons, the happiest in battle and the noblest and most courteous in the king’s hall. He was openly praised as having the bravery of a lion and if you had known him, sir king, in the land where he lived, his wisdom, his knighthood, his accomplishments, his leadership, his courtesy, his courage, his fighting skills, then you would lament his death for the rest of your life." This traitor allowed a tear to trickle down his cheeks. Then he turned around and said no more but went away weeping, cursing the day that destiny had dealt him such a blow.

-Alliterative Morte Arthure, c. 1400, trans. Richard Scott-Robinson

I love weaving together strands from different Arthurian versions, because you can find incredible parallels like this. In the Vulgate Cycle Lancelot, we see young Mordred (in his pre-villain days) breaking down in terror at the thought of losing his older brother, so grief-stricken that he "fell down upon a bed and wept and cried and wrung his hands and tore all his clothes."

And yet in an ironic twist, in the Alliterative Morte Arthure it's Mordred himself who ends up killing Gawain at the end of their story. Yet we still see the same love and hero-worship for his brother that the younger Vulgate Mordred had, and like his younger self, Morte Arthure Mordred breaks down in tears at Gawain's death (no longer a prospect but now a reality), despite having been its cause. He "went away weeping, cursing the day that destiny had dealt him such a blow" - filled with grief and remorse at what he's done, but too late to undo it.

[queeringclassiclit]

Gawain & Lancelot

from Arthurian Legend

propaganda (quotes) below the cut

The Vulgate Cycle:

Gawain: “If God were to grant me my health,” he said, “I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that [Lancelot] would love me above all others, all his life and mine.”

Lancelot: "I should not be able to kill [Gawain] for all the world, because I think he is too noble. Moreover, he is the man, out of all those in the world that have meant anything to me, that I have most loved, and still do,”

"It is certainly remarkable of you," said King Bors, "to love [Gawain] so deeply when he hates you mortally." "Find it remarkable if you wish," replied Lancelot, "but he will never be able to hate me so much that I stop loving him."

Knight of the Cart:

'However, no business of his own can detain [Gawain], as soon as he sees Lancelot, from dismounting and extending his arms to him, as he embraces, salutes and kisses him. Now he is happy and at ease, when he has found his companion. Now I will tell you the truth, and you must not think I lie, that Gawain would not wish to be chosen king, unless he had Lancelot with him.'

Lancelot and the Hart With the White Foot:

Gawain: “[Lancelot] is the best knight alive in the entire world, and moreover the most handsome.”

massive shoutout to @gringolet for compiling quotes about them

[grail-lifesupport]

Um Galehaut, I don’t think your jailer is wicked when he is trying to protect you from Lancelot, who has almost killed you btw