Madness and Arthuriana
“If he failed, it was with honor.
-Jane Yolen
In his name we all dwell
in Camelot Long after the towers fall,
and merlins nest
in the ruined stones.”
The Sword in the Stone: A Book Review
The Sword in the Stone by the venerated T.H. White is a standard in any Arthurian enthusiast’s book collection. As part one of the Once and Future King trilogy, The Sword in the Stone is a good place to begin when looking at somewhat contemporary Arthurian literature. The Once and Future King provides a glimpse…
The Coven, the Tri-fold Goddess, and the maidens of Camelot.
Celtic mythologies have a powerful view of femininity and its connotations. Goddesses were most often mighty earth mothers who could kill as easily as nurture. Most of these deities had three forms. The archetype of the “coven” concept, the maid, the matron, and the crone, come from the three forms taken by a given goddess.…
The Man he Loved Best: Gawain and Lancelot explained
“There shall never man handle this sword…and Launcelot with this sword shall slay the man that in the world he loved best, that shall be Sir Gawaine.” Le Morte D’Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory When Gawain was still a fledgling knight and Lancelot hadn’t even entered the picture, Merlin delivered this dire prophecy about their destiny.…
Character Crawl: Lancelot; the Favorite Fighting Frenchman
Sir Lancelot is without a doubt one of the most enduring characters in Arthuriana. Lancelot is the pinnacle of knight-hood, being a shining example of chivalry, strength and honor. In the process of making him so perfect, various writers accidentally gave him some interesting or just plain BAD traits in the process. What is the…
Types of Love in Arthur’s Court
Here we go! A quick look at how the different types of love defined Camelot. There’s an overview of how each type of love effects the legends and then a brief blurb about some of the characters that seem to display it the most. Storge: Familial love and natural affection Storge held Camelot together for…
Unsung Lovers: The Tragedy of Gorlois and Igraine
The story of Gorlois and Igraine isn’t one you hear very often. Igraine is the mother of Arthur, but she isn’t named in many versions of the story. Since she’s just a woman, the misogynistic writers of later ages didn’t deem her worthy to talk about. Gorlois is an even rarer mention. Most readers don’t…
Such Power! : A Knight Tier List
Before anybody gets up in my grill about their character’s spot (or absence from) on the list, please note that this is my own personal interpretation of the legends and I physically CANNOT fit every single knight into this list. GOLD TIER King Arthur: Arthur goes here because like it or not he has Excalibur…
Media Minute: Type Moon and Anime Arthur
Lots of people know about the anime series called Fate that pulls from global history/myths to make super-powered warriors in a magical battle royalle. If you’ve ever seen an episode, you know that Type Moon decided to walk on the wild-side when designing Arthur. Arthur became Arturia, and the world of Arthurian legend exploded. That…
Camelot: A Linguistic Nightmare
It’s an interesting fact that most of the characters in Arthuriana wouldn’t have spoken English like we are all lead to believe. The rightful King of England not speaking English? Get out of here! As it turns out, Arthur’s English would have been almost unintelligible to modern speakers. Old English was guttural, rolling, and sounded…
Character Crawl: Whatever Happened to Gawain?
Our sun god turned mortal, our dashing feminist paragon turned asshole, let’s talk about the nephew of King Arthur, Sir Gawain of Orkney, and what went wrong. Sir Gawain is one of the oldest characters in the Arthurian Universe. He began life as Gwalchmai a mysterious hero who was only a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from being…
Character Crawl: King Arthur and why he’s so bipolar
Arthur is one weird character, but after being around for such a LOOOOOOOONG time, he really can’t help it. King Arthur is the centerpiece of the Arthurian legend. The only things we can agree on is that he’s a) King of Camelot b)Married to Guinevere c)Wielder of Excalibur and d) He dies by the hands…
Arthuriana Reading List
I’m starting out small and alphabetizing by author: J. Bedier’s retelling of The Romance of Tristan and Iseult (This is a book I’ve had since I was a kid, and it’s a very accessible, though condensed version of Tristan’s story) Gillian Bradshaw’s Down the Long Wind trilogy (I’ve only ever gotten my hands on the…
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Madness and Arthuriana 