ok but Tom lives AU where he refuses to give Arthur his blessing to marry Gwen bec Fatherly Reasons (his daughter deserves the best and only the best). Elyan (gleefully) gives Arthur increasingly useless advice. Gwen is a bit confused and hurt (at first) but mostly amused by watching her future husband scramble around to win over his future father in law (bec of course Tom has already agreed bec he'd do anything to make Gwen happy, and everyone knows this (including Arthur but now his Honour Code or whatever is activated and his will get a definite, irrefutable blessing upto royal standards))
Yeah, we could have had like.... One woke moment where Merlin and Arthur talk about it, so we would know where the Pendragon's got their names from.
I only have stupid ideas:
Arthur: so like, my great great grandfather was like penpals with a dragon. They were like.... Really close. Close close. I think they even got married or smth. It was a whole ass rom com. Because Dragons can like shapeshift into human form.
Originally we got that name as a joke. But Pendragon sounded so badass that the entire family kept the name and stood by it with pride. I guess it helped that the dragonlord was rich af and gave my family land and royal status.
Eventually my father fought a war to defend the castle that had belonged to that couple, but they had no children with official claim to the throne and yeah.... That's how a Pendragon kept the claims to Camelot.
Merlin:..... Are you telling me your entire family estate is based on a dude who thought it would be fun to fuck a dragon?
guysss does anyone know where to find those posts about a bbcm body swap episode? there were two i think one more recent that included gwaine and leon swapping bodies and then thereās also an older one that includes gaius swapping with kilgharrah? if anyone reemmebrs and finds these plz send them my way im going insane <3
Lancelot had been hoping for an early night of undisturbed sleep and he had, unfortunately for him, advanced enough in optimism to believe he would get it.
He was wrong.
Two hours after extinguishing the candle beside the bed and he was still awake, trying to fight a mild feeling of nausea and a relentless worry over his state in general. He took a deep breath, quelling the unease in his stomach momentarily, but it flooded his body again as soon as the exhalation ended. Sitting up slowly, so as not to exacerbate the feeling, Lancelotās gaze flickered towards the window. The moon was high in the sky, filtering down through the diamonds in the glass, and he sharply exhaled. It was a long way until dawn.
Lancelot knew that it was probably nothing serious -- he'd been fine for the rest of the week -- but in the reflective stillness of the night it was hard to convince his brain otherwise. And that meant that he wasn't sure if how he physically felt was down to an actual ailment or the consequence of his brain screaming at him, which was making him even more worked up.
Closing his eyes, he counted slowly to ten to gather his strength before drawing back the sheets and stepping out of bed. Loath as he was to request any kind of help, he knew that if he remained where he was then he was guaranteed a terrible night's sleep. Merlin had not joined him, as promised, which meant they were doing something they considered more important than sleeping and, making a mental note to berate them for it in the morning, Lancelot slipped from his chambers and turned in the opposite direction to normal.
Gwaine would be fast asleep and would accidentally threaten Lancelot with a knife if he appeared uninvited, Elyan would be cocooned in a dozen blankets that created an impenetrable fortress, and Leon needed all the sleep he could get. Lancelot wouldn't dream of bothering Gwen -- besides it would take a significant store of energy to trek down to the lower town after curfew -- and Arthur was out of the question. Which left one person.
When Lancelot entered his friend's chambers after knocking, Percival was still undressing from patrol. A single candle was flickering in the window, casting skeletal fingers across his bare chest in shadows, and it illuminated his smile as he glanced at Lancelot, pulling on a pair of loose breeches.
'You alright, Lance?'
Lancelot leaned against the wardrobe for support. 'Couldn't sleep. How was patrol?'
'Quiet. A couple of chickens running around, but that was all.' Percival approached, smile contorting into a frown. 'How come you can't sleep?'
'Just feel nauseous and a little faint. It's not that bad, I'm just...worrying that it is.' Lancelot rubbed his face. It had been ridiculous to bother Percival over this, especially when a small part of him knew it would probably be a fleeting thing and nothing to worry about. 'I'll be fine. Sorry to bother you, I'll just try and head back to bed.'
He went to move towards the door before Percival caught his wrist. 'No, no, it's alright. You can stay here, come on.' Taking his hand, Percival led Lancelot towards the bed and helped him on it, wrapping his arms around Lancelotās body and stroking his forehead with one hand. 'If you're worrying about it, it's better to have someone to talk to than to spiral by yourself.'
'There's nothing to talk about, really,' Lancelot said. 'It's stupid, but I just thought company might help muffle my brain.' He closed his eyes, sinking into Percivalās body. 'Also you give excellent hugs.'
'I should think so,' replied Percival, voice warm. 'It will be alright though. I'm sure it's not going to be anything serious.'
'I know. Thank you.' Lancelot focused on the rhythm of Percivalās fingertips scudding across his forehead, rather than the screaming thoughts in his mind. 'Tell me about the chickens.'
anyway just a reminder for the myth lovers out there
king arthur was welsh. merlin was welsh. camelot was in wales. the lady and the lake she pops out of; welsh. excalibur; magic inanimate welsh object. etc.
on the way to see family, i drive past a lake that in which is welsh legend, is the last resting place of excalibur.
iām just saying in my experience a lot of these legends had been so anglo-fied in the past and itās like, all this cool shit is celtic welsh legend.
Like the kraken I emerge, summoned by the English theft of Arthur
Arthur is a Welsh name. It means ābearā. Heās likely derived from a Gaulish bear god
In the form of King Arthur, he is an anti-Saxon mythological WELSH figure, representing the native Brythonic people of Britain against the Anglo-Saxon invaders, dating from the 500s AD
The version appropriated by the English in the 1100s is the shitty boring sanitised version - they did it because they were trying to compete with the romance tradition on the continent at the time but didnāt have anything of their own to romanticise
Merlin is called Myrddin
Percival is Peredur
Kay is Cei, and also was subject to enormous character assassination in the English version - in the Welsh version heās much closer to Arthurās right hand man
Guinevere is Gwenhwyfar
There is no Lancelot, no Galahad, no tedious affair story
There is no Camelot. Arthurās seat was Caerllion - modern Caerleon, putting him into both the region of the Silures (one of the most fearsome and warlike of the British tribes, modern South East Wales) and the old Roman fortress, which would have been an impossibly huge Palace for a warlord at the time.
They all have super powers and get up to wacky hijinks involving hair care, giants, strange giant wildlife, spectral revolving/glass fortresses in the Celtic sea, and a really fucking weird chess match. Also a cloak made out of beards.
What the fuck is the round table
Anyway itās particularly irritating because traditional Welsh culture and beliefs have been so thoroughly stripped away and destroyed by England over the centuries, and Arthurian legend is one of the few surviving fragments we have left to preserve. And heās specifically an anti-English figure. So the ubiquity of the boring and appropriative English Arthur across the whole fucking world isā¦ Well, itās not great.
The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies is your best bet! Itās got a bunch of big-ass Welsh myths in, but most relevantly it includes Culhwch ac Olwen, which is a full-on Arthurian text (plus a couple of interesting ones).
Thereās a whole bunch more thatās survived in fragments, but theyāre all in Old Welsh - fully readable if you speak Welsh, but obviously not much use if you donāt (I donāt know if you do or not but from context Iām guessing not lol).
Trioedd Ynys Prydain (literally āthe Triads of the Island of Britainā, though in English theyāre usually called āthe Welsh Triadsā) are a huge collection of lists of three things from Welsh lore, including a lot of Arthurian lore. Theyāre not stories, but they contain fascinating allusions to stories, to whole strains of the Arthurian tradition, that we may or may not have elsewhere.
My favorite ship dynamic is "they're both extremely stupid in completely different ways and extremely smart in completely different ways, but rarely is any of that useful because they just get extra double stupid when together"
I love how Percival is the most logical choice to fight the guy in 4x05 like he wouldn't have had much trouble but when he suggests it both Elyan and Arthur are like Unthinkable.
It is official. Mordred now lives with Daegal, Kara, and Will in a nice cottage in Avalon. Freya and Lancelot come for tea every Saturday. Merlin stops by every few months, just to check in.
