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My boy Sir Galahad 🙏

in my mind fortress thinking about stuff

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I only call him Huge Ackman now 😔

Uhh uh there

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I will admit to not really getting the Tristan hate. Like...he's a jerk, but I sort of like characters who are basically a trainwreck. If you do them right, they can be very compelling, and it helps to make his story different from the mess that is the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot relationship.

Though enjoying him might be because I'm playing fast and loose with the different versions, and focusing more on the love potion part of the narrative, and the question of what, if anything, in Tristan's relationships was real to start with.

I'm gonna say something controversial.

Hating a character so much that it blinds one to the significance of their role doesn't serve anyone's creative work for the better.

Nobody has to love Tristan. But if one hates him so vehemently that they're incapable of articulating what it is that makes Isolde so attracted to him (love potion aside), Palomides so motivated to defeat him, Dinadan so loyal, Mark so trusting, Gouvernail so devoted, etc, then all of those characters are diminished by that bias. (This is why Gwen Rowley's Geraint book didn't work for me, which I'll touch on shortly.)

I also think it's soooo valid to disregard any storylines you don't jibe with. Prose Tristan, Post Vulgate, and Le Morte d'Arthur have some really dogshit narratives that, for many people, are incongruous with character sympathy.

I used to despise Gaheris because of the matricide storyline. If anyone has read that chapter in the Post Vulgate, you'll know what I mean. There's no room for sympathy toward Gaheris. His mental gymnastics to justify going in there to murder his mother are wild. He never intended to kill Lamorak, it was premeditated matricide. On his way out he told the handmaidens to go in there and see what he had done to their lady. Then Agravaine and Mordred attempt to behead Gaheris for the crime but are stopped because "killing their brother would be wrong." And I'm supposed to go along with that? Nahhhhh. I'm ignoring it. I do not see. Rethinking the parts of the character I didn't like has made the characterization of Gaheris in my first book much stronger because I didn't have that looming over me as I wrote.

Post Vulgate character assassination has no place with me.

And there are maaaaaany such cases. Look at virtually any modern interpretation of King Pellinore. Did the creator leave in his rape and impregnation of a child? No, because that's fucking disgusting and incongruous with literally everything else going on in the story. What about King Mark raping and impregnating his niece and then having her killed? Or Merlin transforming himself into the guise of a child to befriend a child Ninian and groom her to be his lover? Or Arthur raping Morgause and impregnating her with Mordred and then trying have the baby murdered against Merlin's advice? Or Galahad refusing to count Palomides among the group and later forcing him to convert to Christianity at swords point?

What about the ladies? Morgause/Morgan never raped Arthur in medlit, that's T. H. White's invention. Isolde uses Brangain to hide her own lack of virginity and then tries to have her killed, something done in Medlit and adapted in many retellings. Guinevere's treatment of Lancelot in Chretien or Lanval in Marie de France is exaggerated and now understood as misogynic and homophobic so if one has any sense one reframes their understanding of it. Ninian/Vivian who "tricks" Merlin into imprisonment is often desribed as evil despite Merlin being the one to guile her into a relationship in the first place. Plenty of modern Elaines are written as Lancelot's loving wife instead of a rapist because there is zero nuance about it in Medlit and one solution is to disregard that aspect. We're pretty much unanimously decided to collectively ignore that Morgause tried to get her son Gawain to marry her daughter Clarissant because its gross and weird and unresolved in Chretien.

We could do this for virtually any character because mythology is just like that. Your fave is problematic etc etc and the spectrum of depiction is vastttttt. They're characters. They're narrative tools. We can't "hold them accountable" for anything because nothing really happened. It's words on a page.

These aren't real people. These aren't "receipts" from medlit or other retellings we're obligated to acknowledge and incorporate. If someone hates when Tristan's treatment of Palomides is especially racially charged, or hates the misogynistic way Tristan treats Isolde White Hands, or even the way he treats Isolde of Ireland in Prose Tristan as a piece of meat he's laid claim to and fights his uncle for, just write around that and stop harping on it. Who cares.

People are entitled to their discomfort with dark subjects. I would never tell someone they have to "be okay" with the rape or racism in Medlit. Obviously. But if you want to engage with Arthurian mythology, any mythology, then you do have to be mature enough to accept the existence of dark themes and stop letting it overwhelm everything else. That's why I've made it a habit to say, "In [text], [character] does [action]." Every text is its own canon and they're not all created equal.

I hate Geraint's treatment of Enid in the Mabinogion. I hate Erec's treatment of Enide in Chretien's work. I hate Erec's treatment of Enite in Hartmann von Aue's work. But Erex Saga rules. I only learned this because I didn't avoid reading it based on the previous iterations. You gotta go in open minded. Every. Single. Time. I promise you WILL be pleasantly surprised at some point! Geraint/Erec CAN be reimagined in such a way that he's actually compelling enough to root for. It doesn't mean I have to like his behavior elsewhere, but when I voice that, I'm specific about it. It's perfectly reasonable to say, "Geraint treats Enid badly in the Mabinogion and I don't think he atones sufficiently to sell me on the happy ending. But I find the nuances of the narrative worth exploring, and developing reasons why Enid would remain loyal is something underutilized. Perhaps the resolution could be written so she leaves him, or he properly atones to earn her trust back." It doesn't make the original medlit less misogynistic, but if someone wants to write a redemption arc or divorce arc for that story, great. More power to you. Ironically, didn't care for Gwen Rowley's version and would've preferred the Isolde/Tristan romance as the third book since the Prose Tristan characters, including Dinadan and Lamorak, were in the other two books while Enid/Geraint weren't. Yet I respect the attempt. I make the book available even if I don't recommend it. However, medlit and modern retellings/interpretations are not the same thing and the difference should be specified.

Generalizations don't belong in Arthuriana.

I've also received a string of anonymous asks which included one that read:

I can understand how this happens. It's easy to internalize fanon interpretations before one has a chance to read the medlit. There's so much to get through. But at the same time, going into 800 year old literature with modern or even personal preconceived notions will inevitably make for a more negative reaction to the dark source material heightened by contrast to expectation. On the other hand, really negative retelling versions of Morgause have essentially ruined the character and she's now synonymous with pedophilia/incest while Merlin gets off scot free. Breaking up each story into it's own little continuity benefits every character and every story and every fan. It's a good rule of thumb for mythology in general.

It's not so much about liking or hating Tristan; it's about the ability to take him as he is in any given story without getting all worked up about it and putting it in the tags like this is a bonafide serial killer with a dedicated fan base. It's really not that serious.

In the end, this isn't a Tristan problem, this is a reader problem. It takes practice to reframe the way we engage with mythology, but it's important to do so in order to process each story to the best of our ability and get the most out of them.

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I love BBC Merlin but omg when I’m looking for the ACTUAL Arthurian Legends all I see is MERLIN, IDC ABOUT MERLIN RN 😭🥀

having a medlit blog on tumblr like

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This is helpful 😼☺️

Beginner’s Guide to Medieval Arthuriana

Just starting out at a loss for where to begin?

Here’s a guide for introductory Medieval texts and informational resources ordered from most newbie friendly to complex. Guidebooks and encyclopedias are listed last.

All PDFs link to my Google drive and can be found on my blog. This post will be updated as needed.

Pre-Existing Resources

Hi-Lo Arthuriana

Medieval Literature by Language

Retellings by Date

Films by Date

TV Shows by Date

Documentaries by Date

@arthurianpreservationproject

If this guide was helpful for you, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi!

Medieval Literature

Page (No Knowledge Required)

The Vulgate Cycle | Navigation Guide | Vulgate Reader (French)

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle (Middle English)

The Marriage of Sir Gawain (Middle English)

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (Middle English)

Sir Lanval (French) | Sir Launfal (Middle English)

The Welsh Triads (Welsh)

Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (Middle English)

Squire (Base Knowledge Recommended)

Owain (Welsh) | Yvain (French) | Iwein (German) | Ywain (Middle English) | Íven (Norse)

Geraint (Welsh) | Erec (French)| Erec (German) | Erex (Norse)

King Artus (Hebrew)

Morien (Dutch)

Knight (Extensive Knowledge Recommended)

The History of The King's of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Latin)

Alliterative Morte Arthure (Middle English)

The Marvels of Rigomer (French)

Jaufre (Occitan/Tagalog)

Le Bel Inconnu (French) | Gliglois (French) | Wigalois (German) | Vidvilt (Yiddish) | Sir Libeaus Desconus (Middle English) | Carduino (Italian)

Here Be Dragons (Weird or Arthurian Adjacent)

The Crop-Eared Dog (Irish)

Perceforest | A Perceforest Reader (French)

Le Roman de Silence (French)

Grail Quest

Peredur (Welsh) | Perceval + Continuations (French) | Parzival (German) | Parceval (Norse)

The Crown by Heinrich von dem Türlin (Diu Crône) (German)

The High Book of The Grail (Perlesvaus) (French)

The History of The Holy Grail (Vulgate) (French)

The Quest for the Holy Grail (Vulgate) (French)

The Quest for The Holy Grail (Post-Vulgate) (French)

Merlin and The Grail by Robert de Boron (French)

The Legend of The Grail (French)

Lancelot Texts

Knight of The Cart by Chrétien de Troyes (French)

Lanzelet by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven (German)

Spanish Lancelot Ballads (Spanish)

The Lancelot Compilation (Dutch)

Gawain Texts

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (Middle English)

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle (Middle English)

Sir Gawain Eleven Romances and Tales (Middle English)

Sir Gawain and The Lady of Lys (French)

The Knight of The Two Swords (French)

The Turk and Sir Gawain (Middle English)

Perilous Graveyard (French)

Roman van Walewein (Dutch)

De Ortu Waluuanii (Latin)

Valvens Þáttr (Norse)

Tristan/Isolde Texts

Béroul & Les Folies (French)

The Romance of Tristan (Prose Tristan) (French)

Tristan and The Round Table (La Tavola Ritonda) | Italian Name Guide (Italian)

Tristano Panciatichiano (Italian)

Tristano Riccardiano (Italian)

Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg (German)

Byelorussian Tristan (Russian)

The Tristan Legend (Norse)

Educational/Informational Resources

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

The Arthurian Companion by Phyllis Ann Karr

The New Arthurian Encyclopedia by Norris J. Lacy

The Arthurian Handbook by Norris J. Lacy & Geoffrey Ashe

The Arthurian Name Dictionary by Christopher W. Bruce

The King Who Was and Will Be by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Warriors of Arthur by John Matthews, Bob Stewart, & Richard Hook

Essays & Guides

A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes edited by Joan Tasker & Norris J. Lacy

A Companion to Malory edited by Elizabeth Archibald

A Companion to The Lancelot-Grail Cycle edited by Carol Dover

A Companion to the Gawain-Poet edited by Derek Brewer

Arthur in Welsh Medieval Literature by O. J. Padel

Diu Crône and The Medieval Arthurian Cycle by Neil Thomas

Wirnt von Gravenberg's Wigalois: Intertextuality & Interpretation by Neil Thomas

The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac by Jessie Weston

The Legend of Sir Gawain by Jessie Weston

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If I was a knight of the Round Table, I would be embarrassed too 🥀

Anyway, Lancelot is the goat 💪

(Source: Vulgate Cycle - Lancelot pt. V)

Arthur is super not helping Lancelot's case here...

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This is the only way I’ll ever picture “little wolf” in my head 😼

How "little wolf" actually went:

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My shaylasss ☺️🫶

Suitors...and goatherd

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YESSSS I GOT LANCELOT & GUINEVERE 😼❤️

The signs as Starcrossed Lovers

Aries: Achilles and Patroclus

Taurus: Othello and Desdemona

Gemini: Odysseus and Penelope

Cancer: Tristan and Iseult

Leo: Cleopatra and Mark Anthony

Virgo: Lancelot and Guinevere

Libra: Violetta and Alfredo

Scorpio: Tancred and Clorinda

Sagittarius: Romeo and Juliet

Capricorn: Heathcliff and Catherine

Acquarius: Orpheus and Eurydice

Pisces: Paolo and Francesca

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ARTHUR X LANCELOT RISEEE 🙏🙏❤️❤️

Sir Lancelot and King Arthur / Knights of the Round Table (1953)

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ACHILLES/PATROCLUS AND LANCELOT/GALEHAUT 💔

MY LOVES ❤️❤️❤️

— ya'aburnee; you bury me

1. richard siken, "the worm king's lullaby" in war of the foxes 2. "hasanlu lovers", dating 800 BCE 3. nazim hikmet (trans. randy blasing & mutlu konuk), letter from my wife 4. homer, the iliad book xxiii 5. gavin hamilton, "achilles lamenting the death of patroclus". 6. anonymous, lancelot—grail 7. mcr, "to the end" 8. romeo & juliet (2021) 9. halsey, "ya'aburnee" 10. rogelio de egusquiza, "tristan and isolde (death)" 11. anonymous (trans. renée l. curtis), prose tristan

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I LOVE THEM SM 😭❤️❤️

I'm literally gonna crumble into dust

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Introducing the characters of Epic the Musical:

cr: duvetbox, gigi, oatmealdoodles.

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Ngl if I was a suitor, I’d bully him too 💀

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MY BABYGIRLLLLL 😍😍😍❤️❤️❤️🥰🥰🥰

lancelot scribble i forgot to post last night

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Pack it up Gawain, we know it’s you 🤦‍♀️

It's not gay if you're on a quest

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I love knights ☺️❤️

Strong and brave 🤍