#arthuriana

[dykewallpaper]

i don’t need gps or directions, i start walking and end up in the story pivotal location like a maiden from arthurian legends

[agravaine]

yooo who is the mysterious young maiden who showed up at this tournament and why has no one ever seen her and lancelot in the same room ....?

malory was insane for this

[sickfreaksirkay]

possibly the greatest tragedy of modern life is that you have to do something important to get knighted. i miss when you could just find a knight wandering around a field and ask him really nicely to knight you and he would just be like yeah why not

[queer-ragnelle]

i’m currently reading the vulgate, but i just want to ask something - do we know the age difference between lancelot and guinevere? is she older than him? i believe he was 15-18 when he arrived at arthur’s court, but the chapter titles make it seem like he was born after she already married arthur. is that true?

Short answer: Guinevere is older. But imagine the characters at whatever ages feel right to you. Compiling them into groups will be easier than nailing down precise numbers because they’re subject to change and sometimes come with uncomfortable implications that weren’t present in Knight of the Cart where these relationships were first established.

Long answer: The collection of anonymous authors who worked on the Vulgate lacked continuity/internal consistency. The Story of Merlin covers the youth of Arthur and the Orkney bros while Mordred is conceived, delivered, and grows into a toddler. Then Lancelot Part I opens with Lancelot’s origins, who had apparently not been born yet. There it states that Lancelot was knighted at age eighteen, only to contradict that later by saying he was fifteen. A few more books later, we discover that Mordred is [still] a child living with Agravaine. Eventually Mordred, aged twenty or so at long last and newly knighted, goes on to sort of apprentice with Lancelot who is now magically older than Mordred. At the end during the battle of Camlann, Arthur is stated to be in his nineties, Gawain in his seventies, and Lancelot is only in his fifties. It’s wild to consider Arthur holding his own in the fight with Mordred who is, apparently, around Lancelot’s age.

It just doesn’t hold up.

None of it makes much sense and will only confuse you more if you try to track ages by the number. Birth order (Gawain oldest, Mordred youngest, Kay older than Arthur, etc) and grouping contemporaries (Kay, Bedivere, Gawain some of the oldest knights, Mordred, Girflet, Bors in between knights, Percival, Galahad, Gingalain some of the youngest knights etc) will be easier and more useful in the end as it’s a little more flexible.

[gingersnaptaff]

Do you ever think about the fact that in Arthurian myth, specifically in Culhwch ac Olwen, Gwyn ap Nudd's just hanging out on the sidelines, drinking mimosas, watching as Arthur and this coterie of superpowered knights try and grab what accounts to a barber's shop off of a transfigured boar? At the same time, his brother is a lover of Queen Guinevere AND is the dad of the first acknowledged King of Gwynedd.

[gawrkin]

I find it kinda funny that, from a Roman POV, Malory unintentionally made things legally worse for Arthur marriage-wise, by having him pre-warned by Merlin about Guinevere's future adultery with Lancelot.

Because, technically, by being informed of the future dalliance but insisting on getting married to Guinevere and no mention is made of Arthur OR Merlin forewarning Lancelot or Guinevere, Arthur indirectly permits the adultery.

Which means Arthur is guilty of the crime Pandering/Pimping/Allowing his wife to cheat.

Religion-wise, the prophecy of the affair might be seen as an impediment to marriage, making the possibility of the marriage being invalid and open to annulment.

Complicating things is the theological stance that only God has dealings with the future, with Merlin gaining his prophetic powers because he was blessed by God, according to the French writers. If Lancelot and Guinevere were something pre-destined to happen, then the affair is divinely sanctioned.

Thomas Malory, in his shortsighted attempt to try and make it look like Merlin at least did something to avert the catastrophe, only made it look like God intends for Lancelot and Guinvere to be a couple and Arthur to look like (even more of) a criminal in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church.

[daliathewitch]

Omg what's that?? An Excalibur humanisation??

*tap for better quality*

[a-funeral-pyre]

Fuck it, have another poll

[victusinveritas]

[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).

[theartofmadeline]

pitched the concept of "fireman pinup calendar but make it knights" to my straight friend. she called it "very niche" and I just have to disagree

(ps im literally 10 seconds away from making a 2025 pinup knights calendar I guess??)

edit: if you'd like to fill out my form for a knightly pin-up interest check i'd appreciate it :)

[gailyinthedark]

I was telling my dad about how there are always hermits in Arthurian stories, just, you're out on a quest and you need directions or to recover from a wound so you look for the nearest hermit because there's usually one around. My Dad said "Like gas stations" and I have not been the same since

[sickfreaksirkay]

“no rapping tonight"

why?

"you rap about arthurian knights everytime, it's embarrassing"

ok

[after one beer]

uh oh y'all i go into a trance a lot

[queer-ragnelle]

Doesn’t matter who Gawain’s wife is, she’ll leave him in every Arthurian universe.

[medievalthymes]

lady of the lake dot com slash careers

[ullevikk]

There's two things a knight should serve

His heart on a silver platter to the maiden that never loved him back

Cunt.