#oakandashenborne

[pipitwrites]

Time to absolutely lose it in your asks the Gawain ficlet is excellent. The tenderness and the way that they're both speaking so carefully around each other but still seem to know each other deeply. Also I love Pierre struggling to keep making eye contact.

So I did read a summary of the story before reading. I wasn't familiar with the Gawain story but it's very similar to a folk song I love called King Henry. It's mostly the same narrative, with Henry returned victoriously from the hunt when his feast is disrupted by the hag. This version portrays the hag as dangerous rather than aged- 10 feet tall with teeth and claws, and she lists a series of demands for food and drink and lodging. Henry fulfills all of them even though they mean he has to sacrifice his own horse/wine/clothing/hunting dogs/riches (each of these are a verse lol it's a long ballad), and while she still demands to be wed she isn't revealed as beautiful until the next morning.

I'm thinking of a Pierre who sees a monster and believes in his gut that he can see Charles behind it, or a Charles who wants so ravenously and deeply from Pierre and can't stop wanting even though Pierre is being forced to sacrifice all these things. And a Pierre who still after all that is willing to believe in Charles and take him as he is with no assurance that he'll change.

More on the ballad here if you're interested. Sorry if this was a lot, I loved the fic!

HELLO!!! this was such a lovely note to wake up to this morning!! i had not heard of the king henry ballad before, thank you so much for the link. i loved the video of the furrow collective's performance!!

i agree that the ballad focuses more on her seeming monstrosity and i love this idea of hunger... ravenous wanting... and sacrifice, themes i also adore... and probably make more sense in their context SDFKJLJGJLK

with lady ragnelle, it's difficult because the crux of the story is in the riddle (what do women want) and the answer (sovereignty), and the implications it has about gender & social power, which is why i completely elided that part LMAO... but i was still haunted by the idea of choosing and what it means to give that control back to someone ;;;; hence my late night madness ;;;;

thank you so much for reading & sharing that lovely ballad!!! and also. because i am shameless about begging for more fic. please. if you consider expanding on your thoughts about pierre & monstrous charles... into a full fic..... let me know......... ;;;;;

[tyresdeg]

alexander rossi | gp3 testing 2012 for @oakandashenborne