#music inspired by arthuriana

[mercyking]

another symptom of my "I think too much about Gary King" disease is that I automatically associate The World's End with all the other media that was important to me at the same time. So I'm like "Oh TWE? Thematic parallels with The Divine Comedy, obviously." Pal, that movie has jack shit to do with Dante. Arthurian legend is right there.

[camlannpod]

Just wanted to say, I absolutely adored the podcast and am currently on my first relisten of it now that it's all complete! <3 Loved the music, the characters, the voice acting; everything was fantastic from start to finish!!

I have to ask.. any recommendations for books inspired by Welsh mythology? Alternatively, are there any books you might recommend that would fill the Camlann-sized hole in my heart? 👀

Hello hello! Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm so glad you enjoyed the series!

Specifically books inspired by, rather than books that are - so I'm going to recommend you some fiction:

Spear by Nicola Griffiths, which specifically explores queer themes in urban fantasy Arthuriana, and uses a lot of Welsh inspiration

Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy (it's great and iconic, though mostly uses Norman sources)

The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R Lawhead, which is a great classic high fantasy series, though has a slightly abrupt ending due to publishing drama.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner - this is a YA novel but does use the Mabinogi as a direct source!

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. It's a YA novel but one of my absolute favourites, and very much displays Arthur as deeply flawed, as well as including some subtle queer themes.

The Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo, these are childrens books but also the most heavily inspired by Welsh mythology I know.

I hope this helps! And thank you so much again for listening to the show!

[arianwells]

please id love some recommendations for audio dramas

There are so many amazing ones! I'm not sure what genre you enjoy, so I'll try to choose different ones.

Camlann podcast is a post-apocalyptic fantasy story about people trying to survive together. It's inspired by Welsh folklore and Arthuriana. It has one season and maybe there'll be more? I really liked the general tone of it, the music, the charming and relatable characters and they way it deals with the power of names. There's a dog, also.

The Pasithea powder is a sci-fi story about Captain Sophie Green and Dr. Jane Gonzalez, who find themselves on two different sides after the war. Now they must overcome their shared history and so many other things in order to solve a mystery. It's brilliant, dark at times and always intriguing, a very solid story overall and probably the best slowburn around.

The Vesta clinic is a show about doctors in space! It's hopeful, compassionate and just very well written. I was really looking forward to hearing about the next patient and how they'll help them.

[haljathefangirlcat]

Now that you mention it, the Volsung-Nibelung-Dietrich cycle would make a good sitcom if you just focused on the zanier parts. The Nibelung siblings Gullrond, Gunther, Gernot, Giselher, Kriemhild, and (maybe) Hagen, with all their pals. Nephews Dankwart and Patavrid; Gunther's incredibly athletic girlfriend Brynhild and her dog and horse; the Nibelungs' best pal and Brynhild's ex Sigurd, who would be the man you wished your man could be if not his moments of random philosophizing or idiotic life decisions despite knowing what was going to happen; Hagen's best pals, Volker the musician and Walther the nerd; local businessman Rudiger and his sweet, cutesy young daughter; socially maladjusted Dietrich and his gang of pals, who always pop up during hangouts despite nobody inviting them... With less murder and more mayhem, it sure would make a good show!

You know, one thing I will always be irrationally sad about when it comes to the Sigurd/Siegfried cycle and related legends is that... it just never gets any of the wacky, zany, "how tf did you even come up that" adaptations and reimaginings Arthuriana keeps getting.

I mean, sure, you do have adaptations with some humor in it, and different ways to mesh Norse and Continental and even Wagnerian elements, and very different perspectives on the same characters. But Arthuriana really has anything and everything from Disney movies to anime and manga to Monty Python movies and musicals to kids' cartoons to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and all its parodies to Young!Arthur/Young!Merlin Slashy Bromance shows to irriverent French sitcoms to loosely-inspired queer YA romance novels to a few recurring and even main characters in "all stories are true" fantasy series like Once Upon a Time or The Librarians. There's even those collector's edition Merlin & Morgana Barbies that were making the rounds on here a while ago!

Meanwhile, the wackiest, less "serious" stuff our Nibelungs get are:

The brief Siegfried & Fafnir cameo in the Mara and the Firebringer movie, where the main mythological figures are actually Loki and Sigyn (can't really say anything about the books, as I haven't read them)

A weird Hungarian (?? iirc??) comedy movie where Siegfried has a talking piglet as his animal companion for some reason and Kriemhild really doesn't like him but she apparently can't just tell him to get lost and stop courting her so she orders Hagen to drive him away from Worms and kill him, which I've only ever managed to "watch" in bits and pieces

The comedic operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen, which I've never managed to find anything about that wasn't in German, so I'm not even really sure what it's actually about

The 70s porn movie The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried, which... tbh, I'd rather stick to fanworks on the nsfw side of things, if the alternative is Siegfried with a pornstache

A Modern/High School AU fantasy romance self-pub I once found where, from what I remember of the summary and excerpt I read, Brunhild is a Mean Girl/Queen Bee who tries to steal Siegfried away from Kriemhild and Hagen is Kriemhild's shitty jealous ex-boyfriend (nothing against High School AUs, or romance novels, or alternative takes on the Kriemhild/Siegfried/Brunhild love triangle, or Hagen/Kriemhild as a ship... but tbh, I'd rather see all those elements handled in vastly different ways XDD)

A couple of old Italian Disney comicbook parodies featuring Donald Duck and his family (but those were mostly Wagner-based, iirc, and then again, an amazing thing about Italian Disney comics is that they will parody literally everything under the sun from the Divine Comedy to Twilight)

... Siegfried (or Sigurd?) showing up in one of the Fate anime series? Or novels? Or games? Not sure. I've only ever watched like two episodes of the Fate/Stay Night anime and then dropped it because I didn't like the normal guy protagonist always rushing to protect his (secretly Fem!King Arthur) supernatural sworn knight just because she was a girl

And... that's it, I think.

And on the one hand, I get it. With Arthuriana, you have adventurous romances and ridiculous (affectionate) quests and so many different bizarre canons and twists on them that even that cartoon where Morgan Le Fay sends an American football team back in time to Camelot (I think that was the plot, at least????) is just another "you know, this might as well happen" situation. I suppose that, at least by comparison, the Nibelungensage & All Adjacent Stuff may appear more grounded and less easy to play with and bring in whatever strange, unlikely new direction you want. Plus, tragic events like Sigurd/Siegfried's death, Brynhild/Brunhild being tricked into marrying a man she doesn't want, and Gudrun/Kriemhild's revenge, or even Dietrich's exile, are just central to it, so that's kind of a downer already, I guess.

... on the other hand, King Arthur's tale literally ends with him and his son killing each other at the end of a bloody civil war. And it's not like anyone's ever had any problem merrily ignoring THAT part to, idk, have everyone in the story be cats.

All this to say, I'd watch the hell out of a Modern AU Nibelung sitcom. Or even just a Nibelung sitcom set in the Middle Ages, or Late Antiquity, or a vague mishmash of the two. The dream for that would be a Galavant-style show with musical numbers and a lot of scenes poking fun at epic and heroic tropes, ngl.

Actually, let's be real: I wouldn't just watch it, I'd probably write fic and make gifs and fanvids for it!

[lucythornwalter]

Shadows of Shalott 2/58: “Spirit of Shalott” by Ronnie Cox // Combyne

The first song on this list was a loud, unbalanced, introspective piano piece accompanied by thumping drums and howling intensity. This is a slow, meandering, atmospheric jazz-adjacent number in which the titular Lady, here “a girl in white with flaxen hair, face full of fear and pain”, sets out in her boat and is drowned, only for her spirit to haunt Camelot after and torment those who knew about her and watched it happen.

In keeping with the jazz club vibes this piece summons (though there’s enough guitar to make it nearly blues) I’ve paired all-vintage pieces with some modern cosmetics to capture a fleeting moment in the brief life of some young noir murder mystery victim, perhaps doomed to be discovered in the local pond by a hardboiled detective for her Lancelot. Arthuriana in modern settings has always intrigued me, and while “Wild West town” has been done before I’m not sure we’ve seen Camelot-as-mob-headquarters yet. Perhaps we should.

The Lady here is atmospheric and absent - like the original poem, her story is told by an observer rather than her own voice. Last time she was saying “bring me to my death” in earnest, sadly and romantically throwing herself after a doomed love affair. Now, she’s a beautiful piece of tragic window dressing, but her story deserves attention regardless.

“Shadows of Shalott” is a 58-installment project where I curate one outfit per song adapting, based on, or inspired by the Tennyson poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’. Spoken word recordings are exempt, as are covers; the 58 songs I selected are original musical pieces. The tag to track (or block) is “shadows of shalott”.

[wutheringheightsfilm]

14 17 19 29‼️

LOVE UU I JUST SENT U AN ASK OF THEM LOL

14. where do you get your inspiration?

i am a BIG music and music video girlie. as you can probably tell from my penchant for making amvs for whatever i'm obsessed with at the moment, i love creating visuals to match a song

17. talk about your writing and editing process

i tend to struggle a lot to fight the demon of Editing While Writing (which for me is never productive). what i usually do is i'll write my first draft in one document and then open another new one and just rewrite it usually using the first draft as a base and just expand on what i did

19. the most interesting topic you've researched for a fic

oooh recently ive been looking at a lot of topographical maps of china and i think that's very cool even though i don't know what a lot of it means. i've also spent a lot of time looking through jstor articles about arthuriana for some of my merlin fics so that's always fun!

29. how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

HAHA. genuinely very easy, i'm proud to say titles and summaries are something i'm very excellent at doing. i don't always use poetry and lines from literature as titles, sometimes i use lyrics from songs or just lines from the fic itself. i LOVE making a title and a summary!

LOVE U CHARLIE THANK U

[versegm]

Also gimme the deets on Theatre AU!!

Oh BOY this is gonna be a long one. I am incapable of making a normal modern au i NEED these bitches to be freaks in some way I literally can't help it.

The cape Castoria finds is meant to be Saber's cape! The relationship between Castoria & anime girl king arthur would be way too long to explain in thsi post, but they're connected so I figured it would make a cute easter egg.

I considered having Castoria freeload below the deck instead, because I've personally never played in a theater that had storage rooms above deck, but I really wanted to keep the Phantom Of The Opera vibe so I just went fuck it.

Love my girl Castoria who is a paranoid little rat constantly looking for the closest escape route <3

I have no idea how to write Oberon I just imitated Herlock's speech pattern and crossed my fingers

Gray is in fact a different Fate character! the tl;dr of Gray is that she's a regular-ass human, but unfortunately she was born in a weird arthuriana cult, which lead to her body slowly turning into that of king arthur. She has issues with her face a lot because like, if your face shifted to become that of a perfect stranger wouldn't that be fucked up. Coincidentally, Castoria also has king arthur's face, though for arguably less angsty reasons.

The Night of Wallachia is another nasuverse character (technically from Melty Blood rather than any fate work tho.) I will redirect you to Lance's post as to whomst this man is though because I have yet to play Melty Blood myself.

Moly is a plant from Homer's Odysseus btw

Deep fucking sigh I fucking wish. I fucking wish we had more stories about the aftermath of isekai adventures, my man. I want to know what's it like to see someone with medieval wartime reflexes who just refuses to talk about shit. Anyways the entire Guda subplot is just me not being normal about isekais, as per usual.

So this scene was originally a lot longer, with Guda tricking Castoria into giving a lot more personal information (exact date of birth, last name) and ending with them taking a group selfie- all info they can use later on to forge her ID. But it was kinda boring so I just went the "Guda forges papers by winging it and she can't call them out on it without admitting that her own living situation is garbage" route.

Didn't put nearly as much foreshadowing as I would have liked, but it's meant to be a hint of "hey maybe Castoria straight-up created Oberon, cuz how else would he know so much about her?"

Castoria is so fucking gender.

You probably saw me posting about it, but Guda's canon age in fgo is kinda nebulous. At the beginning of the game they are definitely "below the drinking age," but it's mentioned/implied a couple times later on that no one knows how old they are now (I think Vritra? Has a voice line along the lines of "oh you don't drink because you don't know how old you are so you're just being safe by assuming it's below 21? ok") What time travel and time loops and being locked outside of time does to a mf.

The Guda-Castoria-Oberon banter is a fucking joy to write. Bitches who keep teaming up to dunk on the third one.

This bit was inspired by my sister, who has collected all six of her chairs on the streets.

SO FUNNY STORY. I didn't actually ship Castoria/Oberon going in. But like. There was no reason for me not to include them having weird sexual tension, especially considering I was gonna do that with GudaCas and ObeGuda. So I was like whatever I'll keep it ambiguous but I'm not closing any doors. And then like a fool I tricked myself into liking it. I literally never fucking learn.

Ultra mega shout out to my cosplayer friend for their extensive knowledge of how to make fantasy armor.

The Luik festival is in fact a real-life music festival.

Lance was the one to point out that in a way the theater au is a role reversal from canon. In canon, Castoria and Oberon are both painfully aware of what they are and what they need to do, while Guda is increasingly unsure as to what they want and why they want it. Meanwhile here Oberon and Castoria are desperately grasping at any hint as to what is wrong with them, while Guda is crystal-clear on their singular goal of "I need to get the fuck out of here."

I keep forgetting that sexual attraction is a thing so I tried to pay attention to it for once. Hope I didn't overdo it.

Something something you have to let go of your past or you will only end up hurting the people who are in your life now.

When you learn that your friend has been on a path of self-destruction and you are directly to blame bottom text.

I think I already said it, but my original outline was for the three of them to have incredibly violent sex post fight, and then an extra chapter of "mh. Perhaps we should talk about things actually." I remember I wanted the dialogue to go along those lines:

Guda: ok so maybe we should talk about things actually

Oberon: not talking about things worked just fine for us until now

Castoria: it literally did not

Oberon: cranky because hatesex is so much better than regular sex aren't you

Castoria: I wouldn't know, only ever had one of those two

Guda: wait, shit, was that your first time? Oh my fucking god. what the fuck. let me give you an actual proper kiss instead of whatever the fuck this was. Oberon, you kiss her too.

I rewatched a bit of lb6 for unrelated reasons recently and I'd. Completely forgotten that when they reunite with Mash at the end of part one they do in fact act like that.

Quote from the lesson of the moth!

Wanted to make it reminiscent of their first meetings, with Guda also dragging them through a door.

So yeah, that's my self indulgence! I had a lot of fun writing it :) I love... isekais.

[alliluyevas]

@marieduplessis and I watched the northman last night (very good btw) and we were discussing Archetypes and Narrative Cycles and fantasy as genre and asoiaf and she told me to post my Thoughts so I am coming on here to see if I can clean it up a little from spitballing-in-the-dms and make some commentary

anyway I was thinking about fantasy as a genre and how I call myself a fantasy fan but I am primarily a LOTR and ASOIAF fan and yes I definitely do need to read more fantasy but so much of it is a less-good knockoff of either of the former series or just generally not particularly inspiring imo...I do really like Tamora Pierce but I’m talking about books written for adults here mostly. a lot of the other fantasy media I have truly enjoyed and gotten strongly invested in are either movies (like i LOVED the green knight) or, actually, video games (dragon age and witcher primarily), and thinking about why that might be

some of my thoughts:

to me fantasy is most successful when it really embraces the fact that it is about cycles and archetypes and both reworking and embracing them. I know I complained about a lot of authors copying LOTR or ASOIAF here but that’s not what I’m talking about, it’s fantasy being built on real world history and ancient literature and mythologies, so whether it’s borrowing from Arthuriana or Greek myth or Shakespeare or the literal Bible or Norse saga, I feel like to me the best fantasy embraces that and leans into it

I also think it is sometimes easier to overlook plotting or characterization flaws in a more visual or immersive media like film or video games, like Dragon Age is definitely more flawed as a story than either LOTR or ASOIAF but it’s so immersive that it compels me deeply anyway (and ofc there is also a lot of really bad fantasy movies and television so it can’t overcome everything, but I think in some ways it is a very theatrical genre that is told well on screen)

also: leaning back into the idea of cycles. one thing that i find extremely compelling is the idea of like. this is an old story and a story that’s existed in many different forms in the past and will exist in the future. we’ve all been here before. but maybe this time it will end differently. there is fate at play here but there is also free will. and I don’t think this is just a thing in fantasy (I mean, this is the feeling that overcomes me while watching the sopranos lmfao) but it is a thing in stories that engage heavily with mythos and the concept of storytelling (I mean, look at the musical Hadestown) and again at its best I think that’s something that is deeply compelling about fantasy as a genre. and specifically with video games it works really well on a meta level because you can literally play the game over and over different ways but there are still a finite number of routes within the story’s parameters and possible endings.

I would also like to close with that John Steinbeck quote about how “so many scholars have spent so much time trying to establish whether Arthur existed at all that they have lost track of the single truth that he exists over and over” which is like one of the quotes of all time to me and it’s so true...and applies to all mythologies and story cycles but truly to Arthuriana because like it is so ingrained and archetypal but I have also read or seen so, so many deeply compelling Arthurian retellings or even just Arthurian themes and archetypes in non-retelling media (like ASOIAF or Dragon Age).

he exists over and over! roll credits. rewind the tape. will things end differently this time?

[almost-correct-quotes]

arthuriana-inspired folk music save me please

[amashelle]

“She kept her loveliness, she kept her gold

but there’s an emptiness way down in her soul

Was it myth? Was it truth?

Does she miss the madness

Does she miss her youth?”

Talk of amazing Arthuriana-inspired songs (looking at you @pendraegon 😑💕) has me once again obsessing over Christopher Brown’s ‘Guinevere of Camelot’.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1mONfIPNDxCOWjOzVY1kDQ?si=47R08VoPT3a_8E-CQGDxuQ

And the worst part is that I’m sick, which means it sounds really good when I sing along right now, but it also kills my throat 😩

[valodia]

Recorded a song for the first time in a while <3

[moriaen]

 ok the tolkien arthuriana post bc i kept saying i’d make it

background/overview

huh so he was actually a lot less inspired by arthurian legend than i initially thought and kind of denied its influence;

his main problem with arthurian legend was that it was not actually british: “Of course there was and is all the Arthurian world, but powerful as it is, it is imperfectly naturalized, associated with the soil of Britain but not with English; and does not replace what I felt to be missing. For one thing its 'faerie' is too lavish, and fantastical, incoherent and repetitive. For another and more important thing: it is involved in, and explicitly contains the Christian religion.” [letter 131]

he mostly wanted something that was uniquely british, mythological and actual concise storytelling but considering arthurian legend is a bit of a hodge-podge and was spread all across europe (and even further) it was decidedly not that (honestly “fantastical, incoherent and repetitive” is a very fitting description for arthurian legend as a whole--) 

he also found the characters like arthur to be too idealised and over-powered

but still you can draw a lot of parallels and have fun there: there’s gandalf as merlin, galadriel as the lady of the lake, aragorn as arthur, etc.

but generally, having interacted and influenced by medieval and european literature, interaction with arthurian legend would have been inevitable whether or not he particularly liked it

sources?/further reading? (a lot on parallels if you’re interested in that): wikipedia on tolkien’s influences, arthurian influence on lord of the rings by daniel nozick, the letters of j.r.r tolkien, interrupted music, the making of tolkien’s mythology by verlyn flieger, aragorn and the arthurian myth by pascual mondéjar, gandalf and merlin: j.r.r. tolkien’s adoption and transformation of a literary tradition by frank p. riga, galadriel and morgan le fey: tolkien's redemption of the lady of the lacuna by susan carter,

and with that done, onto:

works!

sir gawain and the green knight

sir gawain and the green knight (1925) scholarly edition (i.e. middle english) edited by tolkien & e.v. gordon

(this is also what they had to say about the gawain poet:)

He was a man of serious and devout mind, though not without humour; he had an interest in theology, and some knowledge of it, though an amateur knowledge perhaps, rather than a professional; he had Latin and French and was well enough read in French books, both romantic and instructive; but his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery...

sir gawain and the green knight - translation

sir gawain and the green knight, pearl & sir orfeo - edited by christopher tolkien  

original work

the fall of arthur (written c.1930s; published 2013) - unfinished epic poem, edited by christopher tolkien

other??

a middle english reader (1922) - it’s tough to know where to really draw the line between arthurian legend & medieval literature because of how entwined they are but for intents and purposes enjoy this; it’s a glossary of medieval english :-)

the red book of westmarch (fictional hobbit manuscript) may be based on the red book of hergest (featuring the mabinogion -- for which alan lee also did some illustrations for!!)

and that’s more or less it. now enjoy some various quotes vaguely pertaining to arthuriana because i combed through his letters for this

But the feats of arms in (say) Arthurian Romance, or romances attached to that great centre of imagination, do not need to 'fit into a politically purposive pattern'. So it was in the earlier Arthurian traditions. Or at least this thread of primitive but powerful imagination was an important element in them. [183]

I actively disliked [C.S.L’s] Arthurian-Byzantine mythology; and still think that it spoiled the trilogy of C.S.L. (a very impressionable, too impressionable, man) in the last pan. [259]

But his own mythology (incipient and never fully realized) was quite different. It was at any rate broken to bits before it became coherent by contact with C. S. Williams and his 'Arthurian' stuff – which happened between Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. A pity, I think. But then I was and remain wholly unsympathetic to Williams' mind. [276]

You can (if you wish) shove in 'Arthur'* on some other date, when you are recovered fully. *=presumably a lecture on arthurian legend [48]

most of which are actually in the context of c.s. lewis who probably had a stronger connection to arthurian legend if this is anything to go by however i have never read anything by him so. erm. tolkien arthuriana post over. here’s the lord of the rings. ok bye thanks for reading

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

Come and join arthuriana after watching “Cursed”

You enjoyed “Cursed”?? You want to know more about King Arthur or jump in the King Arthur fandom and books and movies? And yet, the whole arthurian thing sort of looks like a mess because there are a tons of movies and books and THINGS??

Yes, there are a bunch of characters that are all different iteration than some vaguely (more or less vague) shaped character from some old more or less obscure text. Most arthurian books and movies take a lot of inspiration from Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, which is also based on previous texts. To look at a list of old texts (chronological order) where I put in bold the ones I consider the most engaging... click here on quick old texts downloads! 

Also, for a WHO IS WHO?? here is a good resource.

The feeling of the show

If you enjoyed the feeling of the show I would absolutely recommend the BBC tv show Merlin (and you probably already know about it), and the miniseries The Mists of Avalon (it has the whole religious conflict thing). Other arthurian texts and movies usually don’t have this religious conflict unless inspired by Mists of Avalon, as most old texts have a mix of magic and Christianity which is not seen as conflict-inspiring.

And now for 3 novels/1 movie/ 1 tv shows I loved based on “Cursed”’s main characters:

Nimue’s focused 

Here Lies Arthur (Philip Reeves): historical based, the lady of the lake and Percival are the protagonists (and I’d call them both non binary, but the novel never says it explicitly), evil Arthur. Merlin and Guinevere are also in it.

Avalon High (Meg Cabot): modern au, lady of the lake reincarnated, better than the movie

Mordred (William Campbell):  Mordred and the lady of the lake are the protagonists, Merlin is a secondary character, Play/tragedy.

Movie: Merlin 1998 miniseries

Tv: Sadly, there is not a lot, but the last episode of The Boy Merlin has an interesting Nimue!

Arthur’s focused books

The Road to Avalon (Joan Wolf): historical based, Arthur is the protagonist alongside Morgana, Guinevere and Lancelot. Arthur/Morgana and Lancelot/Guinevere

The Once and Future King (White): this is one of the arthurian modern classics, with Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot as main characters.

Sword at Sunset (Sutcliff):  Historial retellings of Arthur's conquest and ruling of Britain. Arthur and Guinevere are protagonists.  LGBTQ themes (implied queer Arthur)

Movie: Camelot (1967) the musical, has an amazing Arthur (from The Once and Future King) finding ideas and inspiration to create a fair and just kingdom (it has also a great Guinevere and Lancelot)

Tv: Kaamelott, this French tv show starts as a parody, but the last three seasons are all about Arthur’s character development and will end up in a movie soon!

Morgana’s focused books

I am Morgan le Fay (Nancy Springer):  The story of Morgana, her childhood and her path to becoming Arthur's main villain.

Morgana (Michel Rio): in French or Spanish or Italian. This novel has Morgana as a rational and complex enemy of Arthur, plus a bisexual Morgana with her lover Vivian

Idylls of the Queen (Phyllis Ann Karr): while this novel has Kay and Mordred as protagonists, 

Movie: Mists of Avalon 2001 miniseries

Tv: The Legend of King Arthur (BBC), has an amazing Morgana as the sympathetic antagonist. Camelot Starz has also an amazing Morgana.

Lancelot’s focused books

Lancelot (Peter Vansittart):  The story of the Roman Lancelot in a world which is becoming more and more distant from the Roman traditions. Lancelot is the main character, Gawain and Mordred as secondary characters, Welsh inspired, Lgbtq because of Lancelot and Mordred being attracted to each others.

The Once and Future King (White): this is one of the arthurian modern classics, with Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot as main characters.

Lancelot (Gwen Rowley): A Lancelot who is not in love with Guinevere?? 

Movie: Sword of Lancelot

Tv: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

Gawain’s focused books

Gawain (Gwen Rowley): A fantasy novel based on Ragnelle and Gawain’s love story; Gawain starts as a bit of a jerk, but gets some character development!

Down the Long Wind (Gillian Bradshaw): a trilogy that starts with a first book from Gawain’s pov, mostly about his difficult relationship with his family. The third book is Guinevere’s pov.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A CLASSIC!)

Movie: Green Knight 2020, this movie is not out so Sire Gauvain et le Chevalier Vert (2004)

Tv: Camelot (Starz) has an interesting Gawain!

GENERAL RESOURCES 

Arthurian list of everything (an excel file with all the books, old texts, movies, tv shows, music etc. I know of. Very big! Download it to use filters) - Download links for old texts are in the list

Books I’ve read and tagged by ship, lgbtq, character and theme

Quick old texts downloads

Favorite arthurian tv shows (in order of preference + explanation)

List of arthurian tv shows (with pics)

List of arthurian movies (with pics)

List of lists

The News tag on the blog

[pendraegon]

more snippets from arthuriana band au. as a treat.

me before: band au is SOLELY comedy. only funny stuff.

me now: let’s get deep into everyone’s insecurity! (:

The thing is, Dinadan’s never had any illusions of grandeur, it’s just not in his nature. He’s not very flamboyant or impractical or out there, if the Orkney brothers are the violent wind whipping through fresh laundry with too-bright skies, and Lancelot is water, tempestuous and illusive, then Dinadan is earth, grounded, not intrusive, and steadfast. Music has always been his thing though -- Dinadan’s voice isn’t too high that it’s grating or too low that it blends into the raucous clash of riffs, he can’t do much, but dammit, can he sing. In interviews Dinadan quietly talks of his childhood dreams of being in a band, being famous, spreading that warm, fuzzy feeling only an album can inspire -- but that’s not entirely the truth. Dinadan never thought he’d make it this far, being a musician was always a fleeting thought in his weakest moments, staring up at his bedroom ceiling, despising his internship, his life, and the world in all of its monotonous, ordinary buzz.

Lancelot changed it all because, of course he did. Golden, gentle, kind Lancelot. He’d known Gawain Orkney (a tiktok, instagram star known for his wildly inappropriate Wonderwall covers and his terrifying horse) who was the nephew of music producer Arthur Pendragon. One thing led to another and with all the grace of a sleet of marbles upon hardwood floors, Dinadan found himself stumbling upon a fantasy which he barely even tasted.

(Lancelot had refused at first to join, a fact which would forever leave a bitter ache in the back of Dinadan’s teeth. He had been the first person Dinadan had asked, the only person whose opinion mattered.

“Oh, I don’t know the first thing about music,” Lancelot had explained awkwardly, looking away. “I don’t play any instruments.”

Gawain Orkney, annoyance extraordinaire, had changed that all. Despite his enthusiasm for parading about half naked and his exuberance to well, the zest of life, Dinadan had spied the brittle, cracked chinks in Gawain's carefully crafted smile. Dinadan still couldn’t figure out how Gawain did it -- weaseled his way into Dinadan’s band and then weaseled Lancelot into joining Dinadan’s band, and finally weaseled Lancelot into playing the bass in Dinadan's band. Probably by batting his stupidly long eyelashes and asking real nicely. Probably.)

treat part deux >:3c some Lancelot angst because the vibes on this boy. rancid.

When he was little, Lancelot’s mom had told him he was very, very special and that he’d grow up to do very, very special things. Lancelot hadn’t believed it then and he sure as hell doesn’t believe it now. (“Of course you still cry, you’re a Pisces after all,” Guinevere had cooed at him, a lock of his hair twirled around her delicate finger. “Come now, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s just me and us.”) (“You’re really something, Lancelot,” Galehaut had said, eyes alight and gazing at him as if Lancelot really was worth it, as if Lancelot was truly talented. “Hey, do you mind if we take a selfie together? It’s for the gram you see, I sort of run a stan blog--”) (“Lancelot du Lac,” Gawain had smiled, bending over to grasp at his face, calloused fingers rubbing at Lancelot’s tears. “Do you want to swim or drown?”)

Lancelot doesn’t believe in much of anything, but he wants to. So he grips his bass and doubles down, heart heavy and fingers numb.

[laurelsofhighever]

Writing Questionnaire

tagged by @athenril-of-kirkwall and by @gingerbreton - thank you lovelies!

Short stories, novels, or poems? When I used to read regularly I would devour novels, and I still have a massive pile waiting to be read. I have read short stories and enjoyed them, but reading was my escape from the real world and they’re just. not. long enough.

What genre do you prefer reading? My bookshelves will tell you that my favourite genre is fantasy, but there are some classics and other things scattered through that.

What genre do you prefer writing? I’ve had a stab at urban fantasy and high fantasy, though with concentrating on fanfic more recently I’ve discovered a love for alternate universes with high political drama.

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person? Definitely a planner. I went through almost two notebooks just jotting down ideas for Falcon, and made sure I knew exactly where I was going before I started writing the first draft, which was really just a more detailed version of the previous plan. I like to frame things around dialogue, since that’s what I struggle with most, and that usually means that when it comes to actual, polished writing I can produce it relatively quickly. I’m also ten chapters ahead of what I publish so I can go back and change things when I forget a detail, and planning about ten chapters ahead of that so I know where I’m going. 

What music do you listen to while writing? It’s usually movie/game soundtracks, asmr videos with a white noise generator in the background, but just this morning I’ve discovered the Vitamin String Quartet, so I can see them being added to the list.

Fave books/movies? I’ve read too many books to list absolute favourites, but I love Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, Havemercy by Jaida Jones, and the first book I ever read, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Any current WIPs? I’ve got two longfics at the moment, The Things We Hide in the A:tLA fandom, and The Falcon and the Rose, which is a Dragon Age: Origins AU. I also have far too many planned oneshots to count.

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Everyday wear is usually jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie, a shirt and waistcoat if I can be bothered.

Create a character description for yourself: Summed up in the pub last night: I’m an old soul, a very nice person completely prepared fuck you up if you cross my boundaries.

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing? I don’t see how it’s not possible to have at least a little bleed from reality, but I don’t actively try to insert real people into characters.

Are you kill-happy with characters? I don’t really see the point of killing characters for shock value, but sometimes it’s needed for plot reasons.

Coffee or tea while writing? I’m not really a massive fan of either, but one of my favourite places to write is a bubble tea bar in town, and it’s only polite to buy a drink before setting up the laptop.

Slow or fast writer? Most of the time I end up procrastinating far more than I should, but then I’ll get into the zone with a scene and i won’t be able to type fast enough. Those are good days.

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from? I get so much inspiration from history and mythology for plot points, but beyond that it’s hard to pin down where inspiration comes from. Really, it’s just an ever increasing web of ‘what ifs’ with ever more interesting answers.

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be? A dragon. Or a forest witch who lives on the edge of society with a pack of large hunting dogs, decorates her home with animal skulls, and offers quests to passing adventurers.

Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche? Magical artifacts that choose their wielders are usually fun, because aside from granting a whole load of cool powers, the reaction of the new wielder is fun to play around with.

Amorphous evil empires with no clear intent other than ‘to be evil’ are so overdone, and so often have very little thought put into logistics, all I can do is roll my eyes.

Fave scenes to write? Battle scenes. I love figuring out the choreography and the emotions behind it.

Most productive time of day for writing? Mid-morning, probably, which is annoying because that’s usually doing my real-world job.

Reason for writing? It’s an outlet for my maladaptive daydreaming. If I didn’t write it down, I would go insane.

tagging, for those who want to: @dovahgriin @tea-me-and-salt @magpiesandmabari @thejeeperswife @out-of-the-embers @athenasdragon

[teabooksandsweets]

Okay, so let me recommend some books, simply because I want to

“The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica” by James A. Owen (series)

Dragons

Inspirational

Badgers

Illustrations

Humour

The absolutely complete multi-crossover of everything

Pure awesomeness

Best fandom (@Gatherum: I love you, guys!!!)

“The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis (series)

If you haven’t read them by now, do it now

Especially if you think you’re too old for them

General brilliance

Very important

Lucy Pevensie

Will draw you in...

...and never let you go

“The Dark is Rising Sequence” by Susan Cooper (series)

Arthuriana

So atmospheric

Beautiful scenery

The prose

The whole beauty of it all

Feels like an actual vacation

“The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle (stand-alone)

Incredible prose

So bittersweet

Beautiful in any possible way

Seriously, it’s simply beautiful

Even more beautiful than the music

Whistful and nostalgic

“The Worlds of Chrestomanci” by Diana Wynne Jones (series)

Dressing gowns

Cool cats

Great child characters

Interdimensional travel

What if?

Did I mention dressing gowns?

“The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury (stand-alone)

A Halloween Carol

Actually informative

Beautiful prose

Generally fascinating

Exciting rhythm to read

Consider what you dress up as

“Northanger Abbey” by Jane Austen (stand-alone)

The Jane Austen novel everyone forgets about

Gothic romance parody

Heroine reads so many books she’s starting to make up things

Henry Tilney is actually a great love interest and has puppies

Bad guy and girl cause such realistic discomfort

Seriously funny

“The Phantom of the Opera” by Gaston Leroux (stand-alone)

Metafiction all the way

Tragic

But also funny

Romantic

But not in a romantic sort of way

Beautiful

Crazy

“Muppets meet the Classics: The Phantom of the Opera” by Erik Forrest Jackson and Gaston Leroux (stand-alone)

See above

Plus Muppets

Plus illustrations

Plus anachronisms

Plus references

Plus even more fun

And a bit less tragedy

“A Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket (series)

Actually, don’t read it

No seriously, don’t

Lemony doesn’t want you to read them

Despite the great language

And genius plot

And whimsically weird brilliance

So don’t read them

“The Space Trilogy” by C. S. Lewis (series)

Grown up Narnia

Cute aliens

Lots of Christianity

plus unexpected Arthuriana

Protagonist is basically Tolkien

Except later, when he’s also Charles Williams

Book three is cool, but not like the others

Positively weird

“Little Peter’s Journey To The Moon” by Gerd von Bassewitz (stand-alone)

If you can find it

In English

That’s not an easy task

But it’s so incredibly beautiful

And cute

And imaginative

Who wouldn’t follow a June Bug to the moon?