#lady olwen

[adderstones]

What lies ahead

[forever70s]

Lady Olwen on the December 1968 cover of Observer magazine

[wildbasil]

everyone say hello to creiddylad! 🥰👋🥳🥳🥳🥳

[queer-ragnelle]

So who among the Arthurian characters is into cottagecore? Morgan has to be right?

hi!

you know what i'm gonna have to disagree. i don't think morgan's affiliation to magic and nickname "le fay" are enough, especially bc she prides herself on a lofty status that elevates her above the humble rural living that cottagecore romanticizes. i mean here she is in the vulgate proclaiming herself a king's daughter (isn't she the daughter of duke gorlois?) while she prepares to kill her husband and get away with it.

queen shit. here are some characters i think would be into cottagecore.

arthur: when thomas berger wrote him as loving his simple life in wales with his family and sleeping out with the dogs and genuinely relishing his modest upbringing with his foster brother? i felt that.

blanchefleur: she definitely named herself "white flower" after her own garden's award winning blossoms at the county fair. she bottles it for perfume too, if you're interested. perceval always keeps a little vial around his neck so he can smell it and think of her while on quest or when he gets lost on his way to take out the trash. thanks wifey.

brangaine and palamedes: whether or not she can actually achieve this lifestyle whilst in the service of isolde, she definitely dreams of fleeing to the countryside with palamedes. it also makes his commute shorter (cottage is on the edge of the enchanted woods in which the questing beast roams).

culhwch and olwen: after the nightmarish tasks they underwent just to get married they absolutely retired far away from court life where those shenanigans wouldn't reach their children.

dindrane: she's the quintessential nun, one who didn't learn necromancy. she enjoys all the typical stuff expected in a remote hermitage; gardening, baking, making wine, going on an adventure bilbo style complete with chaotic means and tragic ends, bird watching.

fisher king and elaine: since the queen passed away they just want more father and daughter bonding time out on the boat to fish. they catch dinner in their little pond and take it home to cook and go to sleep happy. they do the same thing again the next day without any obligations besides living. nothing bad happens.

green knight and wife: pretty sure they invented cottagecore or at least introduced the concept into the realm. they have their own line of cottagecore starter kits with little seeds to grow personalized mini gardens for a country oasis even in the discomfort of your monarch-sanctioned barracks. so what if the plants they sell are annuals and you have to buy a new one every year. aren't you committed to the aesthetic?

isolde and tristan: did they or did they not smash in that grotto like their lives depended on it? i rest my case.

merlin: have you read mary stewart's merlin trilogy? my guy wanted the quiet life so bad it made him look stupid. he died as he lived, in the middle of fucking nowhere. say what we will he committed to the bit to the very end.

tor: he is literally a cowboy farmer kid turned knight. actually forget the whole list he's the only one.

thanks for the ask!

[merymoonbeam]

Spear?

CC3 spoilers

This is just a manifesting post and more connections I found from cc3 🫡

In my wild hunt post I talked about narben being a spear for... reasons.

I think Gwydion and Truth-Teller are inspired by King Arthur's weapons. In myths it is talked about how he has a sword, a knife and a spear...

Other weapons have been associated with Arthur. Welsh tradition also knew of a dagger named Carnwennan and a spear named Rhongomyniad that belonged to him. Carnwennan ("little white-hilt") first appears in Culhwch and Olwen, where Arthur uses it to slice the witch Orddu in half. Rhongomyniad ("spear" + "striker, slayer") is also mentioned in Culhwch, although only in passing; it appears as simply Ron ("spear") in Geoffrey's Historia. Geoffrey also names Arthur's shield as Pridwen; in Culhwch, however, Prydwen ("fair face") is the name of Arthur's ship while his shield is named Wynebgwrthucher ("face of evening").

So other than excalibur Arthur has a dagger and a spear.

To me it looks like

Excalibur= Gwydion

Carnwennan= Truth-Teller

Rhongomyniad= Narben

So why? Lemme explain.

With Excalibur it is about who is worthy to pull it out of the stone.

Excalibur is the mythical sword of King Arthur that may possess magical powers or be associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Traditionally, the sword in the stone that is the proof of Arthur's lineage and the sword given him by a Lady of the Lake are not the same weapon, even as in some versions of the legend both of them share the name of Excalibur.

Romance tradition elaborates on how Arthur came into possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron's c. 1200 French poem Merlin, the first known tale to mention the "sword in the stone" motif, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve.[18] In this account, as foretold by Merlin, the act could not be performed except by "the true king", meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon. (As Thomas Malory related in his English-language Arthurian compilation, the 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur, "whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England."[19][d])

And we have Gwydion/Starsword

That your son, not you, retrieved the Starsword from the Cave of Princes in Avallen’s dark heart. That your son, not you, stood among the long-dead Starborn Princes asleep in their sarcophagi and was deemed worthy to pull the sword from its sheath. How many times did you try to draw the sword when you were young? How much research did you do in this very study to find ways to wield it without being chosen? (Hoeab)

So it matches even though at the end it is Bryce who can access the real power of the sword not Ruhn bc it is sarah and we have the females as a main character.

And now the dagger—Carnwennan and Truth-Teller.

In myths the dagger is described like this.

Carnwennan, or Carnwenhau ("Little White Hilt"), was the dagger of King Arthur in the Welsh Arthurian legends

In Culhwch and Olwen, Arthur names it as one of the few things in the world which he will not give to Culhwch. Later, he uses it to slay the witch Orddu, the daughter of the witch Orwen, by slicing her in half.[1] In the Welsh Triads, Carnwennan is listed alongside Arthur's spear Rhongomyniad and Arthur's sword Caledfwlch as sacred weapons given to him by God: "the sacred weapons that God had given him: Rhongomiant his spear, Caledfwlch a sword, and Carnwennan his dagger" (Bromwich's translation).[2]

The fact that Arthur would not give the weapons to Culhwch when we know Fionn didn't give the Gwydion and TT to Theia? Kinda similar.

My father had never shown himself to be giving—long had he kept Gwydion and never once offered it to my mother. The dagger that had belonged to his dear friend, slain during the war, hung at his side, unused. But not for long.

We learned in cc2 that Gwydion and TT are twin blades.(I went into detail about this and how it connects to elriel in several posts > light and dark, sing me, alpha and omega)

The male drew it, and Bryce flinched. Flinched, but—“What the fuck?” The knife could have been the twin of the Starsword: black hilted and bladed. It was its twin. The Starsword began to hum within its sheath, glittering white light leaking from where leather met the dark hilt. The dagger—.The male dropped the dagger to the plush carpet. All of them retreated as it flared with dark light, as if in answer. Alpha and Omega. “Gwydion,” the dark-haired female whispered, indicating the Starsword.(hosab)

And in cc3 we learn that when you use Truth-Teller...there are shadows.

Bryce threw her power into the Starsword, light ripping through the black blade, willing it to tear this fucking monster apart— She willed it into Truth-Teller, and shadows flowed—

Seems...weird that Truth-teller has "shadow powers" and in acowar we have Elain literally stepping out of a shadow. And we never learned the reason why???

But as a black blade broke through the king’s throat, spraying blood, I realized someone else had. Elain stepped out of a shadow behind him, and rammed Truth-Teller to the hilt through the back of the king’s neck as she snarled in his ear, “Don’t you touch my sister.”

So how these connect to Arthur's dagger? (Just gonna add here that @riddlecrux told me about this before so credit goes to her 🫡)

In addition to his other magical items, Arthur had the invisibility granting Carnwennan. The dagger was providing a kind of presence concealment to Arthur or to its wielder. In European folklore, invisibility-granting items are rather prevalent. These are often recognized as caps or invisibility cloaks. The invisibility attribute of Carnwennan was probably the main reason Arthur named his dagger among the things he could never give up for any reason:

Invisibility? Shadows? @silverlinedeyes made a post before how elain could get a cloak made of void? And we know with Gwydion and TT you can make a portal to nowhere—the void.

“The Starsword is Made, as you called it.” He waved an idle hand, sparks at his fingertips. “The knife can Unmake things. Made and Unmade. Matter and antimatter. With the right influx of power—a command from the one destined to wield them—they can be merged. And they can create a place where no life, no light exists. A place that is nothing. Nowhere.”

It had been a gamble. But she’d seen what the Starsword and Truth-Teller had done to Polaris. They had created a void that had sucked the Asteri in—the only sort of prison that might destroy a being of light. The only force in the universe that ate light, so strong no light could ever escape it. A portal to nowhere. To a black hole. Wasn’t that the unholy power that Apollion possessed? The power of the Void. The antithesis of light.

So maybe we are gonna see elain and the void connected?

Also more about the dagger in Arthurian legends:

Carnwennan, or Carnwenhau, meaning "white hilt" was the dagger belonging to the great King Arthur. It is attributed with the magical power to shroud its user in shadow. This dagger, it is said, was one of three sacred weapons given to King Arthur by God. Arthur names it as one of the few things in the world which he would not give to his cousin Culhwch. King Arthur used this very dagger it to slay the witch Orddu ,daughter of Orwen. by slicing her in half. It is also possible that this is the dagger he once used to kill a giant.

So there is that.

And lastly we have the spear—Rhongomyniad.

There is not much we can use from the myths because the only things we have are its name and it was given to Arthur by god.

Rhongomyniad, or Rhongomiant (variously translated as "Slaying Spear," "Cutting Spear" or "Striking Spear"), was the spear of King Arthur in the Welsh Arthurian legends. Unlike Arthur’s two other weapons, his sword Caledfwlch and his dagger Carnwennan, Rhongomyniad has no apparent magical powers.

In the Historia Regum Britanniae, Geoffrey of Monmouth calls Arthur's lance Ron,[2] presumably an abbreviation of the original Welsh name. Layamon also calls it this in his Brut. Geoffrey states that Arthur carried this lance with him at the Battle of Mount Badon. Layamon states in a passage (without naming the weapon) that Arthur's spear was forged in Carmarthen by a smith called Griffin. He also adds that it formerly belonged to Uther Pendragon.

The wiki says it has no magical power but...if sarah took inspo from Excalibur for Gwydion and the dagger for TT...I wouldn't put it past her to use the spear as an inspo for Narben... especially with her love for 3s.

Also like the spear we dont have much to go on for Narben either. We have so little information.

“Amarantha destroyed one,” Amren said. Cassian started. “I never heard that.” Amren amended, “Rumor claimed she dumped one into the sea. It would not come to Amarantha’s hand, nor the hands of any of her commanders, and rather than let the King of Hybern attain it, she disposed of it.” Azriel asked, “Which sword?” “Narben.” (Acosf)

"Narben was even older than Gwydion,” Rhys said. “Where the hell was it?” (Acosf)

Narben’s powers had not been the holy, savior’s light of Gwydion, but ones far darker. (Acosf)

Rhys studied her blade. “Narben is a death-sword. It’s lost, possibly destroyed, but stories say it can slay even monsters like Lanthys.” (Acosf)

So that's all we know.

Another point...Fionn connection.

In myths there is a HUGE part about Fionn using a spear to defeat a giant.

Also known as the Spear of Fiacha (or Fiacail), Birgha was an enchanted, venomous spear. The warrior Fiacha, a follower of Cumal (a leader of the Fianna), gave the spear to Cumal’s son Fionn mac Cumhail so that he might defeat Aillén, an evil creature/former member of the Tuath Dé Danann who resided, three-hundred-and-sixty-four days a year, in the Otherworld. Each and every Samhain the monster—nicknamed “the burner”—would wreak havoc on the royal residence of Tara (also: Teamhair) with his fire-breath after lulling its defenders to sleep with enchanted music. Specifically, Aillén plays—or weaponizes, I should say—the suantraí (lullaby) strain of ancient Irish music, which is frequently deployed by gods, druids, and other musicians in the myths in order to incapacitate opponents. That’s where Birgha comes into play. In Lady Gregory’s version of events, Fiacha teaches Fionn how to unlock the power of the spear, instructing his pupil as follows: “When you will hear the music of the Sidhe, let you strip the covering off the head of the spear and put it to your forehead, and the power of the spear will not let sleep come upon you.”

Just saying...with all of a new character singing...having some effects on others...IDK. WEIRD. 🫣

Another point is Four treasures of Tuatha de danaan. ( @offtorivendell made a post about them before )

Dagda's Cauldron

pretty self explanatory...cauldron.

Claiomh Solais (the sword of light)

Gwydion.

The sword may be rendered in English as the "Sword of Light", or "Shining Sword".

The Sword of Light or Claidheamh Soluisis a trope object that appears in a number of Irish and Scottish Gaelic folktales. The "Quest for sword of light" formula is catalogued as motif H1337.

The Starsword sang with light, her power flowing into it. Activating it. And nothing had ever felt so right, so easy, as plunging the blade into the bony chest of the wounded Reaper. It arced, bellowing, black blood spurting from its withered lips. (Hosab)

Narben’s powers had not been the holy, savior’s light of Gwydion, but ones far darker.(acosf)

Lia Fail Stone

My whole wild hunt post is about this. You can read it there. Basically I think this is the inspo for the stone on top of Ramiel.

The Spear of Lugh

And here is the reason I think Narben might be a spear.

Lugh's spear (sleg), according to the text of The Four Jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was said to be impossible to overcome.

Interesting that Amren said this about Narben in acosf:

“I don’t know, but she found it, and when it would not bend to her, she destroyed it. As she did all good things.” It was as much as Amren would say about that terrible time. “It was perhaps in our favor. Had the King of Hybern possessed Narben, I fear we would have lost the war.”

More info for Spear of Lugh.

In a full narrative version called [A]oidhe Chloinne Tuireann (The Fate of the Children of Tuireann),[51] from copies no earlier than the 17th century,[52] Lugh demands the spear named Ar-éadbair or Areadbhair (Early Modern Irish: Aꞃéadḃaiꞃ) which belonged to Pisear, king of Persia. Areadbhair's tip had to be kept immersed in a pot of water to keep it from igniting, a property similar to the Lúin of Celtchar. This spear is also called "Slaughterer"[53] in translation.

Narben is a death "sword"

Rhys studied her blade. “Narben is a death-sword. It’s lost, possibly destroyed, but stories say it can slay even monsters like Lanthys.” (Acosf)

Also the spear of Lugh is connected with lightning.

Lugh's projectile weapon, whether a dart or missile, was envisioned to be symbolic of lightning-weapon.

Also known as the Lightning Spear, or simply Lugh’s Spear, the Gae Assail was one of the Four Treasures or Jewels of the Tuatha Dé Danann

And to me it is interesting that Ramiel means "god has thundered" maybe there is a connection?

Lugh's sling rod, named "Lugh's Chain", was the rainbow and the Milky Way, according to popular writer Charles Squire.[57] Squire adds that Lugh's spear which needed no wielding was alive and thirsted so for blood that only by steeping its head in a sleeping-draught of pounded fresh poppy leaves could it be kept at rest. When a battle was near, it was drawn out; then it roared and struggled against its thongs, fire flashed from it, and it tore through the ranks of the enemy once slipped from the leash, never tired of slaying

So thanks for reading.

I NEED A SPEAR 😭😭

[mask131]

Arthurian myth: King Arthur (1)

Loose translation of the article "Arthur (Artus)" from Catherine Rager's "Dictionnaire des fées et des peuples invisibles dans l'Occident païen" (Dictionary of fairies and invisible people in the Pagan Occident).

ARTHUR (Artus)

Mythical king of a cycle of romans, the tales of the Round Table, also known as the Matter of Britain, which blossomed throughout all of Europe from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Among those texts, we find numerous romans by Chrétien de Troyes, and The History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffroy of Monmouth, alongside its very loose translation Le Roman de Brut by Wace, itself rewrote by the priest Layamon in his poem Brut, and later, by Malory in his La Mort d'Arthur. Arthur was originally a historical warlord killed around 537 at the battle of Camlann, but he then became a super-human character identified to another Arthur, the great god of the pantheon of the Britons, and thus symbolizing the fight of the old kings of Great-Britain against the Saxon invaders.

The father of Arthur is the king Uter Pendragon who, despite his human appearance, seems to be a figuration of an Underworld king. He claims to be Constantine's descendant - the Celts, during this era, were Romanized. Arthur's half-sister is the fairy Morgane. As for his wife, the incomparable Guenievre ou Guinevere, her name means in its Welsh form (Gwenhwyfar, Gwenhwyvar) "white spirit", "white ghost". Some considered that Guenievre, who is recurringly kidnapped, is a resurgence of the Greek goddess Persephone. Their son, Llacheu, has the gift of second-sight/clearsight, as he knows the secret of material elements and of nature.

The relationships between Arthur and the Otherworld make him a magical character. In the roman of the Saxon Layamon, Brut, we see elves assist to his birth and gift him - he will be powerful, wealthy, generous and have a long life.

As many other heroes, Arthur receives his sword, Excalibur, from a supernatural creature. It is the Lady of the Lake that offers it to him. Indeed, the weapon he took away from its rock had been broken during a previous battle. Merlin, to replace it, brought the king to the shore of a lake, where an arm with white silk came out of the water, offering him the magical sword ornate with dragons - it is Excalibur, the Caladbolg of the Irish Fergus, a sword forged in Avallon. Before his death, the king will task sir Bedevere with bringing back Excalibur to the lake, where the mysterious arm appears again out of the water and takes it back. The Lady of the Lake always offers her protection to the king.

Arthur rides a black horse, a color associated to the realm of the dead: he can, as such, cross the waters that separate the afterlife from the realm of the living without his horse going wild with terror. The Book of Taliesin, a Welsh text of the 13th century, tells how the king went to the Underworld and brought back from it a magical cauldron (prefiguration of the Grail) which offers to knights an endless supply of food, but stays empty for the cowards.

Arthur is a purifying hero who gets rid of the monsters that plague the universe, just like Hercules, Theseus, Finn mac Cumhail or Cûchulainn. His first exploit was to kill the boar Twrch Trwyth which was ravaging Wales (Mabinogion of Kulwch and Olwen).

Once king, Arthur represents a solar-themed strength and wisdom. Advised by Merlin the enchanter, he establishes a rule of peace and justice (for twelve years according to some, for forty according to others), and presides at Carduel the Round Table, whose nature confirms that Arthus is both belonging to the supernatural, and an image of the Sun. His court can be found at Camelot - which might be Cadbury Castle, in the Somerset, but is before all the idealized town, the perfect city, the seat of knowledge, poetry and alchemy. The court keeps moving depending on the tales. The lord regularly sends his knights fight for just causes (and, after the Christianization of the legend, for the quest of the Grail containing the blood of the Christ), but himself rarely appears as a warrior. He sometimes even appears to figure a god of war who is above the mere battle, similarly to the goddess Badb.

For a marvelous life, a prodigious end: in his Vita Merlini, Geoffroy of Monmouth tells how the king, killed by the treacherous Mordred, his nephew and likely incestuous son, is carried on a magical boat by fairies that came from the Atlantic (where the realm of the dead is located). He is accompanied there by the Lady of the Lake and by three queens: the queen of Northern Wales, the queen of the Terre Gaste, and Morgane. Healed of his wounds by the latter, he stays with her, the Lady of the Lake, and their six sister-fairies, in the island of Avallon, "The Isle of Apples", which is sometimes a name for the Sidh/realm of the fairies, sometimes synonymous with the Blessed Islands or Fortune Isles. In Layamon's Brut, it is elves that take to Avallon the dead king, and it is the elf-queen Argante that brings him back to life. In truth, he returned to the place he belongs to, this Otherworld where there is no death, no suffering, no decadence, but only youth, feast and joy. His people hope for his messianic return, either in times of war, or simply so that he can offer them wise advice. In Cornwall, king Arthur supposedly appears in the shape of a black bird with red-colored beak and claws.

Old texts from which Rabelais took his inspiration mixed together the legend of king Arthur and the one of the giant Gargantua.

In Guillaume Apollinaire's burlesque "Arthur roi passé roi futur" (Arthur, king past, king future, 1914), king Arthur returns, wearing a shining armor, to Buckingham Palace where Georges IX is ruling. After having tested the authenticity of the ghost, Georges IX abdicates and lets the throne return to the old lord of England.

[quivthearcher]

Funny Myths and Legends facts I learned

1. King Arthur's famous sword in the stone's name is actually not Excalibur

-> The earliest version of the sword was first called "Caledfwlch" from the old Welsh Epic "How Culhwch won Olwen" it was later latinized by Geoffrey of Monmouth into "Caliburnus" then finally "Excalibur" by the french.

Heres where it becomes funny, stories in the subsequent years of the Vulgate-Cycle(a series of romances chronicling the Arthurian legends) despite usually the one to use the name "Excalibur" interchangeably with "Caliburn" and its various different spelling actually had stories depicting them as separate swords(Merlin and Merlin The Continuation).

Its unknown exactly why Arthur switched from Caliburn to Excalibur, one of the most famous reasons that we have is that Caliburn at some point in time broke and was replaced by Arthur going to the Lady of the Lake to receive Excalibur.

2.Lancelot was in fact not an actual part of the original legends

-> Lancelot is probably the most famous character of the whole Arthurian Legends alongside the Wizard Merlin, Witch Morgana/Morgan, and the Titular King Arthur, but did you know he was actually not originally apart of the original Welsh Legends?

Lancelot despite being one of the most prominent members of the legend only joined the Knights of the Round in the French version of the legends.

First Appearing in writing in an old "Lancelot, Knight of the Cart" in the 12th century he was already written out as having great passion and love for Guinevere, Arthur's Queen, and as a powerful knight of equal prowess to Arthur.

It isn't until the Vulgate-Cycle that Lancelot's story would become synonymous with the Arthurian Legends with his exploits being an important part of expanding the Legend's mystical sides with him fighting 2 dragons, and being raised by the lady of the lake(coining his name "Lancelot Du Lac"/"Lancelot of the Lake").

Heres the best part

3. Despite Lancelot's most prevalent stories being about his love for Guinevere and how it led to the fall of King Arthur, he was actually not the one who originally had this role in the story.

->The role of the Traitorous Queen's lover was none other than the son of Arthur Mordred!

[sunshinemoonrx]

Welsh Arthuriana: The Sons of Caw

A tale of King Arthur in drag, horribly unwise schadenfreude, and this big rock in the town of Ruthin

(This is an amalgamated retelling of several versions of the story from the 11th to the 16th centuries. Historical notes at the end.)

Arthur was king over the Britons in the south, and Caw the giant was king over the Picts in the north. Caw had twenty-three sons, among them the great warrior Hueil and the great writer Gildas.

Arthur, meanwhile, had almost as many lovers as Caw had sons. One day Hueil hit it off with one of Arthur's mistresses, and they snuck off to hook up. Arthur snuck up to spy on the pair, but they noticed him.

They attacked each other, and though it was a fierce fight Hueil won, stabbing Arthur in the knee. With blood spilled, tempers cooled and they all made peace. Arthur was like look, man, let's put this all behind us, I'll be mature, I won't take revenge, on one condition: Never give me shit about this. No "hey remember the time I kicked your ass", no "hey check out this guy walking funny, I wonder what happened to his leg", no nothing, okay?

For a while, there was peace, but Arthur always walked with a slight limp after that. One day he was in Ruthin in Gwynedd, dressed as a woman in order to hit on a bunch of other girls, and oh boy we do not have time to try and unpack that one here. Hueil came by and saw the ladies dancing together, and apparently Arthur passed pretty well, because Hueil only recognised him on account of the slight limp. And he knew, he knew what he had promised, but he just couldn't help himself:

"You'd be dancing all right if it wasn't for the knee!"

And lo, Arthur lost his shit, for lo, Hueil had fucked around, and now he would find out. Arthur dragged him to a big rock in the middle of town and cut his head clean off. And the rock has been called Maen Huail ever since.

When Hueil's brother Gildas heard about this, he was distraught. He took all of the books he had written in praise of Arthur, and threw them into the sea. And from that day forward, not once would the name of Arthur be found in the works of that great scribe.

So, the history

The real Gildas was a monk who probably lived in the 6th century and is our only near-contemporary source for the immediate post-Roman period in Britain. There are multiple traditions about his family, but a connection to Pictish royalty seems unlikely. This story is attempting to explain why, despite writing about the battle of Badon happening within his lifetime--supposedly Arthur's most famous victory--Gildas never mentions Arthur. The real reason is, of course, that Arthur as we know him didn't exist, and was a fictional character probably invented well after Gildas' time.

The earliest versions of the story just mention conflict between Arthur and Hueil/Huail, that usually ends in the death of the latter. Culhwch and Olwen has the person Hueil stabbed be his own nephew, and for whatever reason Arthur took a disliking to this. The idea that this explains the lack of Arthur in Gildas appears in the late 12th century, recorded by Gerald of Wales. All of these firmly locate Caw's family in "Prydyn" (Pictland/Scotland) (not to be confused with "Prydein", Britain as a whole)

Later folklore, collected by Elis Gruffydd circa 1530, localises the entire story to Gwynedd in north Wales, with Caw being a chieftan there, and this version is where the trysts and mistresses and crossdressing come from. I split the difference by keeping the Pictish origin but having Hueil just visit Wales, but I do want to clarify these are different versions in the actual medieval source material.

(Oh, also Caw being a giant might be a misreading over the years of his name as "Gawr", "big", often used as an epithet for Welsh giants)

[margridarnauds]

Where can I get a full The Green Knight (2021) tirade?

Ohohohohohohohohoho.

Alright, so there are things I can discuss, things that I can't, because they're things I've either used before or might be using in the future.

Suffice it to say, I think that it's self-satisfied. There's this notion that the film is somehow both true to the tone of the original text while also being willing to deconstruct it, raising Hard Truths about Arthuriana.

The problem is that...it isn't. It's your typical Mediocre White Male Auteur Tries To Take On the Classics film. It doesn't do anything that authors in the middle ages weren't willing to do themselves.

"Oh, what if King Arthur was a dick?" Boy, I have some news about a little text...called Culhwch ac Olwen....and another text...called The Alliterative Mort d'Arthur....and another text....called Sir Gawain...and the Green Knight...

"We should discuss how the system of chivalry can be hypocritical!" I have some news for you...about the French tradition...and about a little book...called Le Mort d'Arthur.

"Arthurian...imperialism?" ...Peredur.

And it's presented in such a smug, self-satisfied way that it's not "look! Here's a part of the tradition that we don't talk about!" so much as "Hey. Hey. Guess what? Guess what? Did you know that like. Chivalry was mainly a thing for a bunch of bloodthirsty aristocrats?" NO I HAD NO IDEA. NEITHER DID ANYONE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. And it does it while relentlessly portraying the middle ages as this bleak, moody, colorless world, aka The Visual Cliche We Have Seen A Thousand Times Over Again. Wow, look, a brothel. Wow, look, sex. Wow, look, violence. I bet you watched Game of Thrones once.

I hold a certain belief that if you're going to deconstruct a text or a tradition...you've got to do it better than the originals. And I feel like it isn't willing to take tips from what people in the middle ages were actually willing to do.

The characters don't act like PEOPLE, they act like Lowery's obnoxious mouthpieces. "Make me your LADY, Gawain!" He will NOT make you his lady and you KNOW that. Essel is seemingly there to establish Gawain's heterosexuality and be Lowery's own moral mouthpiece and ask pithy questions that seem to be deep. "Why greatness? Why not GOODNESS?" No one would ever think about that, Essel. We definitely don't have people from the Middle Ages...asking these questions.

...Alicia Vikander, you were wasted on this film.

And she doesn't escape it as Lady Bertilak, either, giving that long, self-indulgent monologue about the color green. I've seen people say that it sounds like something that could have come out of a medieval text and, with respect to them...no. It doesn't. It sounds like something that someone wrote in an attempt to be deep. Vellum is precious in the Middle Ages and you're going to waste it on THAT? (Instead of a long, long listing of Arthur's court, looking at you Culhwch ac Olwen.) Like the rest of the film, it's pretty on the outside, stylized almost to perfection, and empty on the inside. And then you have the scene in the Lowery where she somewhat teasingly, somewhat smugly imo talks about how "sometimes...don't tell anyone...when I see room for improvements, I make them " the texts she transcribes. What if the text didn't need to be improved, Lowery? What if it was FINE as it is? Like, say that you made changes in order to better deliver on the themes you wanted to convey, sure -- I still think his vision is shitty, but at least I could accept it. But an improvement? No. That's just hubris. It's rancid. That isn't Lady Bertilak talking, that's Lowery's ego.

You have the treatment of Lord Bertilak, which is...also rancid imo. Like, I don't give a single fuck what Lowery says, the kisses should have been in there. If you could give us a green kirtle cumshot and an entire plotline of Essel sighing dreamily and Emoting, you could have given us two more kisses. Or made the one kiss we got...actually consensual. But we didn't get that. Why? Why did we highlight heteroeroticism and downplay the homosociality?

And what does it all lead to? Nothing. You introduce Arthur as an imperialist, you introduce Camelot as this world that's falling apart, you introduce, but there's nothing that you leave to remedy it. Lay down and die, that's what you do when the world sucks. Can't improve it, might as well die, surrender your neck to the axe.

It encapsulates the worst elements of bad arthouse films -- the surreal is mistaken for the substantial, it's all style, no substance, and what substance it does have is rotten. I see very little of the Green Knight there, it's all Lowery.

[adderstones]

Lady Olwen and the Unicorn

Some Deep thoughts I was having while painting this piece below:

Unicorns in medieval art sometimes represented the chastity and purity women were expected to maintain, but also the game of courty love. In order to slay a unicorn, a maiden was to sit out and wait for the creature to find her, then the hunter nearby would strike. Obviously this is just an allegory for sex and the loss of virginity from a deeply patriarchal society. It also illustrated the expectation of women's roles in courtly love in the period.

It reminds me of the purity culture I grew up in, to be honest. I heard stories like this, cautionary tales that growing up and becoming a woman was like the violent killing of a sacred creature. The point of this piece became very therapeutic for me, and served more to heal something that had been hurt a long time ago.

I've also been in love with the Unicorn Tapestries since I was a teenager I wanted to draw a woman surrounded and protected by these motifs. Obviously she's not a virgin, but she is still deemed worthy of a visit from a unicorn.

[47burlm]

One of the all time greatest

Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is a British singer, actress, and songwriter.   She has had one of the longest careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades.

Clark's professional career began during the Second World War as a child entertainer on BBC Radio. In 1954 she charted with "The Little Shoemaker", the first of her big UK hits, and within two years she began recording in French. Her international successes have included "Prends mon coeur", "Sailor" (a UK number one), "Romeo", and "Chariot". Hits in German, Italian and Spanish followed. In late 1964 Clark's success extended to the United States with a four-year run of career-defining, often upbeat singles, many written or co-written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. These songs include her signature song "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Who Am I", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song" (by Charles Chaplin), "Don't Sleep in the Subway", "The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener", and "Kiss Me Goodbye". In the US, Clark was sometimes called "the First Lady of the British Invasion".

Clark has sold more than 68 million records. She has also enjoyed success in the musical film Finian's Rainbow and in the stage musicals The Sound of Music, Blood Brothers, Sunset Boulevard and Mary Poppins.

[wildbasil]

I’ve had a few messages asking me to elaborate on my comic and I gotta say, I’m super honoured that people are enjoying my silly little drawings and want to know more!!

In short, Gwyn, Edern and Blodeuwedd are figures from medieval Welsh literature and folklore. I just think they’re neat 😌🌸

Gwyn

Warrior, Arthurian knight, fairy king and supernatural huntsman, Gwyn is associated with lonely places, like moorlands and mountaintops. He’s evasive, untrustworthy and, especially in earlier texts, has a pretty bad temper. In Culhwch and Olwen, he abducts the object of his affection, Creiddylad, right before her marriage. When her fiancé raises an army against him, Gwyn goes off the deep end a bit, raining violence down on his opponents and taking a bunch of them prisoner. He even tortures one guy into insanity by forcing the guy to eat his own dad's heart. Gwyn’s really caught the imagination of writers throughout time, and at least he seems to have chilled out somewhat over the centuries. For some reason, I like imagining him as tired and sort of past it as a mischief-maker.

Edern/Yder/Ider

Edern is a spirited, confident youth and, like his brother, is a knight of King Arthur. He’s slightly better at it, though. Less violence, more chivalry. Apparently a bit of a hunk too since, in the Romance of Yder, Guinevere admits that Edern would be her first choice if she ever remarried (and it seems Edern was Guinevere’s lover in some traditions). He’s also impatient and cocky, frequently rushing ahead into danger, which normally ends badly for him. In Geraint and Enid, he appears as the ill-mannered Knight of the Sparrowhawk. Despite boasting the title of jousting champion for two years running, he ends up getting beaten badly by Geraint and, begging for mercy, is forced to admit that he’s behaving like a little shit. I like imagining him as a dumbass younger brother.

Blodeuwedd

Blodeuwedd is an owl now, but she used to be a woman. When Lleu Llaw Gyffes was cursed to never have a human wife, his meddling uncle Gwydion magicked him one out of flowers. This flower lady was named Blodeuwedd. When she had an affair and, with her lover, tried to kill Lleu, Gwydion punished her by turning her into an owl, a creature reviled by humans and birds alike. But Blodeuwedd never asked to be a woman and she never asked to be an owl; I think it’s impossible not to feel compassion for her. There’s no real connection between her and Gwyn, but I enjoy imagining them as weird friends. After all, Gwyn’s pretty disliked and feared too.

A (Very, Very Short) Reading List

Here are some links if you want to learn more!

Firstly, I recommend reading Sioned Davies’ translation of The Mabinogion, which is a collection of eleven medieval Welsh stories.

The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies (2007)

But there are some free translations online too:

The Mabinogion translated by Charlotte Guest (1877)

In particular, these are the stories I mentioned above:

Culhwch and Olwen

Geraint son of Erbin

Math son of Mathonwy

And here's one of my favourites (not from the Mabinogion): the story of St Collen and Gwyn ap Nudd.

Thanks for reading!!

[chunkecheeks]

How does one go about getting into Arthurian legend/what stories do you recommend someone start with?

There’s not really any good place to start since it’s a collection of just random stories all written over centuries but chrétien de Troyes is a pretty solid place to start, i really enjoy his writing style and his stories are short and easy to digest for medieval lit BUT SKIP ERIC AND ENIDE IT FUCKING SUCKS MAN I think starting with the knight of the cart (Lancelots very first story) is a better jumping off point

If you want to get the full canonical legend in one fell swoop you can read malory’s le mort d’Arthur but i cannot guarantee it’ll be a good time. Personally I fuckin hate how Malory writes and it took me many years to slog through that shit. It’s basically all just watered down condensed versions of other stories and in itself it was pretty much directly taken from the Lancelot grail cycle (which I can’t in good faith recommend because it’s like 7 volumes of insane girth and dry as all fuck apparently)

If you want a book recommendation I HIGHLY recommend the romance of Arthur which is a big anthology that contains the relevant fragments of so many legends and also background historical info! I still haven’t finished it but so far have read culwch and olwen and history regum brittanae or whatever the fuck which is the original “history” by Geoffrey of Monmouth who popularized Arthurian legend in a wider scope. I believe this book also has chretien’s works as well as Marie de France’s works and the alliterative morte d’Arthur and so much more so it’s a lot of bang for your buck and it makes it so much easier having them all in one place

If you want modern works I recommend tennyson’s poems, just be warned he fucking hates Guinevere and will slander her at any moments notice which puts a damper on the whole thing but the lady of shalott remains my favorite poem of all time

DO NOT fall for the whims of T.H. White. His books are not a faithful reflection of arthuriana and he does a lot of shitty racist and homophobic things with the characters it isn’t worth it at all

Hopefully that helps, it’s kind of a hard thing to navigate and I’ve only read a fraction of the works out there but if you can get the taste for medieval literature it’s so much fun reading these things that are centuries old

[faroreswinds]

Has FE always had a problem with "benevolent sexism" given the complaints people had over Ladlegard or how Engage is handling the divine dragon vs fell dragon trope?

Yes.

Examples:

Eremiya was a kind bishop who watched after orphans until her orphanage burned down and she become evil. She raised children to be assassins and has to be ultimately defeated by Marth.

Turns out she had been brainwashed by Gharnef to do his will, and had never truly been evil.

Clarisse and Reese were two of the children raised by Eremiya to be assassins. Reese (Katstina) betrays her mission and joins with Marth. Clarisse is at least more cruel, but she is still a child who was raised to be an assassin, and yearns for a family and shit. She dies after showing her caring side, by her sister's side.

Altena is Leif's sister, who was taken by Travant and raised as his own daughter. However, despite being raised by him, she had her own misgiving about the wrongs she was ordered to do and eventually joins Leif side and against the man who raised her.

Ishtar is a loyal follower of Julius, even after he goes crazy and evil. She is betrothed to him.

Despite being completely loyal to Julius, she still acts against him by saving children that were ordered to be sacrificed. As such, she is treated as a poor woman trapped by her love for her fiancée rather than a complicent enabler that she is.

Olwen also worked for the bad guys, in a similar manner that Ishtar did. ALSO like Ishtar, she was horrified by the Child Hunts. She would eventually join the good guy side.

Brunnya is a loyal subject to Zephiel. However, she is also pretty much in love with him, and like Ishtar is a woman trapped by her emotional attachment towards her liege.

Aversa was a pretty awful person who served the bad guys happily, until it is revealed that she was also brainwashed to be subservient and cruel.

However, it's not like ALL bad guy ladies are poor souls who are trapped by love or by brainwashing.

Hilda is a cruel, vile woman who relishes in being cruel and vile. She happily murders children. No brainwashing involved.

Ursula is an assassin who pretty much loves her job.

Sonia is not even human. She was specifically created to be an evil entity. But I'll count her.

You may notice a few things about these ladies, however.

Most of the ladies without outside forces like love or brainwashing are all super sexy. Revealing breasts, revealing legs, bedroom eyes, clearly know they are sexy and use it to their advantage. We don't typically see this from the "Good girls" or even the girls who are on the bad side but eventually join the good side. In other words, to be a bad girl, you will also be a super sexy, older lady who likes to show off the goods.

They are never the main bad guy. There is always a male leader who is in charge of them in some way. Either a king, or prince, or a creator of sorts. They are subservient ladies to a man, even if they like it or not.

Women in FE are rarely evil or cruel for the sake of it, and if they are they are almost always the same archetype- sexy evil. And none of them are in charge, there is always a mean man who is pulling their strings.

That's why Edelgard is sort of a breath of fresh air. Of course, you can argue that Thales is sort of pulling her strings, but Edelgard is mostly in charge and leading the conflict that Houses cares about the most (no, it does not care about the Slithers at all).

And that's also why it is equally disappointing that she is fumbled so hard. Lot of the writing has found ways to soften her, or redirect the blame to the Slithers, or, like in Hopes, literally makes her a cute magical girl and spends so much of the writing blaming everyone else but her.

It's not unique to FE by any means, of course, but it starts to really grate on you, especially in the 21st century where we should expect better quality and less sexism in the works we consume, UNLESS the story is making a comment on said sexism or that sexism is part of the story.

Engage is not looking too promising in that area either. Good female Divine Dragon beat evil male Fell Dragon. The cute girls of the bad nation join your side, and the evil king of the bad nation is an old man.

And what do you know, the one lady who seems to be a unrecruitable bad guy is a sexy, clearly older-than-the-other-girls lady who doesn't mind showing off the goods.

Like.... it's so sadly predictable. And lame.

[itmeblog]

Idk how to explain it but listening to Camlann podcast (as someone with very, very limited knowledge of Welsh culture and somehow... even less about king Arthur) is like listening to a love letter to a place you've never been. It's beautiful and passionate and very clearly not addressed to me lol.

And as someone who is obviously reading a letter not addressed to me here's some stuff I had to look up.

Disclaimer: this is cursory top layer research.

Twrch Trwyth - (from Culhwch ac Olwen, a Welsh story that survives in 2 manuscripts according to wikipedia and is considered one of the first Arthurian romances, according to Britannica, from 1325 (the manuscript itself, though I've seen elsewhere that the tale itself may be from the 1100s)) A wild boar that terrorized the Black mountains in king Arthur's tales.

The comb comment refers to the last of the 40 tasks Culhwch (nephew to king Arthur) must complete in order to win Olwen's hand in marriage. Ysbaddaden (Culhwch's dad) attempts to kill him by telling him to find Twrch Trwyth and his piglets and kill him to bring back the comb, razor, and scissors somehow attached between the boar's ears. Read a synopsis here.

Even better the fact that the Gelert is holding the boar off reflects how Twrch Trwyth was chased by dogs during the hunt. Though honestly this just might be how people hunt boars today, I'm truly not going to find out.

Samhain - a Gaelic festival that takes place October 31st to November 1st to mark the end of harvest and the beginning of winter (according to wikipedia)

Gwragedd Annwn - female faeries or Welsh lake maidens that live beneath lakes and rivers in Welsh folktales (or the watery realms of Annwn a version of the underworld.) Think the lady of the lake. In some stories they apparently try to seduce men to drown them (a tale as old as time apparently, though this might be due to conflagration with other stories from different regions) [There were no sources I felt particularly like this is great! on this one so wikipedia and here. I might need to start looking on google scholar... or the library.]

Bannau Brycheiniog - mountain range and national park in Wales.

Caru ti cariad! - I love you (? I love you darling?? Cariad might be some sort of term of endearment with no true english equivalent... because I also saw "love"... so Maybe??? google translate is terrible at colloquialisms also translation is inherently flawed and will almost never truly be 1:1, "Translation is an act of betrayal" (RF Kuang) and whatnot)

From the show notes: The Welsh folk song featured in this episode is Tân yn Llŷn, a protest song about the destruction of Penyberth.

[margindoodles2407]

more silly little rambles about my links and zeldas: full names, featuring some characters who AREN'T link or zelda :)

if you care the info is under the cut :) and if you want a challenge you can try and figure out why i named each character what i did >:) (yes you are allowed to look up certain name meanings)

Forger: Link Tarien Chidee

Goddess: Zelda Dione Gaepora

Groose: Groose Anser (boy has no middle name)

Fractal: Link Mellark Smyth (no this was not based on peeta)

Radiance: Her Highness Princess Zelda Drita Bellamy Hyrule

Orpheus: Link. He had a middle and last name but they died with his parents.

Sonata: Her Royal Majesty Princess Zelda Phoebe Minna Aroa Hyrule

Dawnbringer: Link Argus Moi

Eos: Her Royal Majesty Crown Princess Zelda Esila Calanthe Hyrule

Midna: Her Imperial Majesty Crown Princess Midna Rajani

Awakener: Link Lochlan MacIrvine

Tetra: Captain Princess Tetra Zelda Nerissa Nohansen Hyrule

Aryll: Aryll Birdie MacIrvine

Engineer: Link Daedrus Lafferty (he is embarrassed by this name)

Phantasma: Her Highness Princess Zelda Tetra Olwen MacIrvine Hyrule

Odysseus: Link Edric Telery-Mystros

Visionary: Her Royal Highness Princess Zelda Almas Melaina Hyrule

Marin: Marin Eilonwy Moeuhane

Graffiti: Link Ellis Wright

Iconography: Her Royal Highness Princess Zelda Kala Ceinwen Telery Hyrule

Ravio: Ravio Silus Ryelet

Hilda: Her Royal Highness Princess Hilda Allexa Marika Hyrule

Genesis: Link Stephess Rallet

Dawn: Her Highness Princess Zelda Amira Orabella Hyrule XLVIII (the 48th)

Somnia: Her Majesty Princess Zelda Amira Orabella Hyrule I

Paladin: Sir Link Materis Glorion

Valkyrie: Her Royal Majesty Queen Zelda Malika Bellatrix Hyrule

Lana: Lady Lana of the Moon Clan, White Sorceress

Slayer: Link Jesseran Arerris

Sealer: Her Royal Highness Princess Zelda Etheldine Hyrule

Luminary: Sir Link Alaric Inion II (so that I can keep with the official Nintendo statement saying that his name is "Link Link" without it being stupid)

Sunshine: Her Royal Majesty Princess Zelda Minerva Mnemosyne Bosphoramus Hyrule

Mipha: Her Imperial Majesty Princess Mipha Naiade Calypso do Bon

Revali: Revali the Blue

Urbosa: High Chieftainess Lady Urbosa Thema Qavaar

Daruk: Big Brother Daruk

Sidon: His Imperial Majesty King Sidon Caspian Nessus do Bon

Teba: Chief Teba the White

Tulin: Tulin the Fledgeling

Riju: High Cheiftainess Riju Dipa Thema Qavaar

Yunobo: President Yunobo of YunoboCo

@whyoneartheven in case you're interested