The Burne-Jones Agenda: Gawain Had An Emo Phase

Another Arthuriana Ask Game!

💀- Who had your favorite death? (Most resonant/funniest/coolest)

🧙- What's Merlin's deal, in your own words?

🦄- What's your favorite creature or creature-related story?

🐴- How do you envision Gringolet?

🐻- What animal would your favorite character be?

🚀- What setting/time period would you most like to see a (good) retelling in?

⭐- Which character do you think would most easily adapt to modern-day life?

🥫- Which character do you think would crumble like a soda can in a pressure chamber if they had to deal with the day-to-day horrors of modern life?

🍑- Does Arthur have a flat ass?

📽️- What retelling/tale would you most want to see be adapted into a standalone movie?

A few variants of Guinevere's name and my thoughts on them:

Velivera--sounds like you'd put it in a soap, but still mellifluous.

Jennifer--the name of half the women of my mother's generation; sounds less epic than it might once have because it's used too frequently.

Guanhamara--pretty, if a little difficult; reminds me of the character from Chronicles of the Red King.

Gwenhwyfar--the Welsh option, one of the classics.

Vanora--sounds like a pretty normal fantasy name; does not sound like Guinevere.

Ginevra--also sounds fairly normal; a little more recognizable.

Guendoloena--and her less assuming relative Gwendolen; this is also Merlin's wife's name (Geoffrey of Monmouth thought it was a good wife name, apparently).

Gaynour--I like the sound, but it would be mocked mercilessly in a modern middle school.

Guilalmier--I like it. Not as classic, maybe, but charming enough.

Wenneuereia--"Can you spell that one more time, please?" I had to check Wikipedia for the spelling of this one.

Ntzenebra--from The Old Knight, the only surviving Arthurian romance in Greek. Very cool.

G(ui/we)n(n)(i)ev(i)(e)r(e)--the closest thing we have to a standard formula of the name is this. You can add some letters or you can take away some letters, and the vibes will change, but it will still be the same in essence and pretty recognizable, unlike...

Winlogee--the coup de grâce. My feelings on this one are complicated, but I feel it can speak for itself.

Veronica Whall’s stained glass depiction of Galahad ascending, with Bors, the Grail Maiden, and eight angels, from King Arthur’s Great Halls at Tintagel

Griflet-centric Reincarnation AU following Mort Artu canon

Griflet remembers bits and pieces of his past life, mostly from Camlann, so he starts doing surface-level research on Arthuriana. Since he's the one to throw the sword in the lake in Mort Artu but Bedivere is best known for it, he becomes convinced that he's the reincarnation of Sir Bedivere.

There are two outcomes which immediately come to mind. One is that he runs into other Arthurian reincarnations. In this case, he might vastly confuse everyone, particularly if Bedivere shows up too. They might even think he's an imposter. However, they might remember who he actually was and have a laugh about the whole thing.

The other is that he never tells anyone, or only tells the people he's closest to, because he doesn't think anyone will believe him. He goes about the rest of his life secretly thinking he's Bedivere. It impacts nothing substantial, though from time to time he makes references which confuse the people around him and he's always kind of worried something will happen to his hand.

Morvran Afagddu Appreciation Post

I am obsessed with Morvran Afagddu’s life story. With how he’s expected to amount to nothing to the point that his mother tries to make him talented with a potion and someone else gets it instead and he grows up to be a great bard anyway. With how no matter how great he is, what he says is doomed to be obscure forever. With how that’s contradicted by Uther Pendragon himself mentioning Afagddu while Uther is dying. With how that shatters all the timelines, since Morvran is a child at the start of Arthur’s reign and also survives Camlann. With how he survives Camlann because of his appearance, the reason why they thought he wouldn’t get anywhere in the first place. With the life he built and kept partly because of the things which people thought were wrong with him. With how he might not even be one person, might be two characters who blurred into one and in the process made a story which is one of Arthuriana’s most hopeful, a story formed from fragments and only existing on the boundaries of other people’s but existing nonetheless.

Morvran might be my favorite knight of the Round Table, and he’s not even technically a knight. A lot of Arthuriana is tragic, at least when you look at overarching narratives, and that pathos is extremely compelling, but it's also refreshing and joyful when a character can rise above it and endure against odds that seem impossible, and that's what Morvran's story is to me.

References: Ystoria Taliesin, "Angar Kyfundawt", "Marwnat Vthyr Pen", Culhwch ac Olwen, Marged Haycock's notes in Legendary Poems from the Book of Taliesin

Wikipedia, most definitely.

For several years, nearly all of my Arthurian knowledge came from Wikipedia, because I (rather oddly) decided to try to get a comprehensive idea of Arthuriana as a whole before actually diving into medieval literature. This was probably because, despite having absorbed my very eccentric great-grandfather's belief that we were descendants of Merlin, I wasn't really into Arthuriana before I was given a prompt to write an alliterative paragraph featuring the letter G, started writing about Gawain, never came to a conclusion, decided to make it a novel, decided I needed to do research to write a novel, etc. This led my seventh grade self to a lot of bad takes, particularly about Lancelot, and very random headcanons. On the other hand, the assumptions I made about Agravaine, while based purely on his name, were mostly accurate.

I can spot at least four possible morals to this story and there are probably more, but I'll leave them to the reader.

Anyway enough King Arthur flour asks time to talk about Ragnelle.

Arthurian Quotes I Love, pt. ?

“The music of the sword of the High-king of the World”. I love that phrase. Given that this is TSotCED, it could be poetic imagery or an actual, magical singing sword, but either way, I think it’s beautiful, and so is Lancelot recognizing Bhalbhuaidh by the sound of a weapon which Arthur lent him for his quest. Here, Galahad/Bhalbhuaidh, who might actually be intended to be Gawain, is not said to be Lancelot’s son and was fostered by Arthur (who is the High-king of the World, not only Britain or Logres). That Arthur raised him and gave him the sword, that Arthur sent Lancelot to lead the search party for his ward, and that Lancelot was immediately able to recognize him by the sound alone says a lot about how close to Arthur both of them are and how they slot into the court in general. You get so much from that one phrase.

The bit at the end about the Knight of the Lantern being able to fly like a bird is only a plus.

Fun fact: Assuming you don’t count Tancred, there is no proof that Dagbert ever successfully drowned anyone.

Arthur's different genealogies from the book "Heroes of the Round Table" by Mike Dixon-Kennedy.

“The Lay That Had No End” by Ernest Rhys

"Puis comence le iengleor Bloys

Deslaiaux de mort du roy:

Mais porquoi on dit.

Sanz fin james laisser çi."

                             I

"The sun sank red, the moon as red

   As blood did rise o'er Caerbrë town;

The King," he sang. "But Bloys," I said,

    "Come tell me where is Caerbrë town?"

                             II

"The Haut King, red with blood, returned

   From Barendown's fire, and came therein

To die," he sang. "What in him burned,

   Dark Mordred's death? or Gwenevere's sin?"

                             III

"They buried in his blood the dead;

   But One bore water there to save

The King," he sang. "But Bloys," I said,

    "Where lies indeed the Haut King's grave?"