Can you tell me more about Galehaut? I wanna read more abt him but idk where to start
Hello! I'd love to tell you more about Sir Galehaut!
TL;DR: Sir Galehaut first appears in the Vulgate as an opponent of King Arthur's. Galehaut has conquered many kingdoms and has come to contest Arthur's rule. While Galehaut is a formidable knight, a half-giant, and a prince, he has not crowned himself king. His plans change when Sir Lancelot takes the field in disguise and Galehaut falls in love with him. In exchange for Lancelot's identity (and companionship), Galehaut calls off his assault, and submits to Arthur. It's through Galehaut that Lancelot and Guinevere are able to connect. Over the years, Galehaut and Lancelot live together on and off at Galehaut's estate Sorelois, keeping the company of the Lady of Malehaut and Queen Guinevere. Several times over their time together, Lancelot suffers madness episodes, during which Galehaut wishes to be beside him at the risk of his own life. Furthermore, Galehaut's advisors warn that his life will be shortened if he stays with Lancelot, but Galehaut chooses to do so anyway. During one of Lancelot's madness episodes, he goes missing, and Galehaut's health deteriorates. When Galehaut falsely hears of Lancelot's death, he dies of heartbreak. At the end of the Vulgate, when Lancelot passes away from old age, he's interred beside Galehaut.
As always I'll be adopting the regional spelling of the characters' names.
Sir Galehaut, son of the Fair Giantess, Lord of the Distant Isles, makes his grand entrance at the very end of Lancelot I and passes away in Lancelot III, both in volume 2. Galehaut's death isn't known by Lancelot until he discovers the tomb and inscription in Lancelot IV in volume 3. Last tidbit here is that Galehaut leaves his property to his godson and nephew, Galehodin, although no clear family tree is established beyond that.
Brutal. But it gets worse. Now we have to deal with the Post-Vulgate. This version of the narrative has a sort of epilogue in which King Mark makes it his mission to destroy the kingdom of Logres. He demolishes all the castles he comes across, including Sorelois, and goes so far as to defile the tomb and remains of Galehaut and Lancelot. Yikes.
After this, Galehaut of Soreloys appears in maaaany Tristan-centric texts. In the Prose Tristan, Galehaut's family includes his evil father Brunor, mother the Fair Giantess, and a sister named Delice who I assume is the mother of Galehondis, Galehaut's nephew. In this story, Tristan kills Galehaut's parents. This motif is carried to the subsequent stories and somewhat overtakes the themes of Galehaut's closeness to Lancelot. (I am missing volumes 8 and 9, where I presume this happens as I don't see it in 1-7, unfortunately.)
Then Italy takes the field and writes a zillion Tristan texts with Galehaut in them. In Tristano Riccardiano, Prince Galehot the Dark, the Lord of the Faraway Lands, is subject to the usual from Tristan, both of his parents killed and his sister burying them. After Galehot loses to Tristan, he then destroys the Castle of Weeping and undoes the evil custom on the Isle of Giants. He then dies off page for love of Lancelot and his tomb is even more beautiful than that of Tristan/Yseut's.
The character doesn't appear per se in Tristano Panciatichiano, however his name comes up as a point of reference to indicate the depth of love between Tristan and Yseut. His name is translated as Prince Galahad of the Faraway Lands, son of a giantess, which comes with profound implications as it relates to Lancelot's son, Galahad.
The final Italian text I'll mention is La Tavola Ritonda specifically because it gives us an English translation of the murder of the parents of High Prince Galeotto, lord of the distant lands and islands, his father, Brunoro the Brown, and his mother, Bagotta the Fair Giantess, at the hands of Tristano.
Not so much a true appearance as a little reference, but an alternate origin story for baby Gallehault is mentioned in Perceforest.
Now here's where things devolve. For some reason Sir Thomas Malory decided in Le Morte d'Arthur that High Prince Galahalt of Surluse was gonna be purely an antagonist with no loving relationship with Lancelot at all. He does host the joust though at which everyone beats each other up. There's also this weird line from Dinadan about Galahalt's dislike of fish likening him to a wolf? Fascinating. At the joust in which Lancelot is disguised and wearing Elaine's red sleeve, Galahalt does ask Lancelot to join him... and the other lords. It just doesn't hit the same.
As for modern appearances, the list is exceedingly short.
Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles by Patricia Terry and Samuel N. Rosenberg: A retelling of the Vulgate!
Sword Stone Table edited by Jenn Northington and Swapna Krishna: Contains a short story that mentiosn Galehaut.
The Winter Knight by Jes Battis: Galehaut is in a throuple with Guinevere and Lancelot. It takes place in modern Vancouver, Canada.
And that's everything on Sir Galehaut! Hopefully someday soon we will have even more retellings featuring him, he's a really cool character. Take care!
hi ram !!!! thank you for the ask! here's an agravaine for you <3
with a bonus laurel!
ask game under the cut
favorite thing about them
tbh i was pretty neutral on him until i started reading vulgate, he's so much more fleshed out and layered there (i started reading arthuriana with le morte d'arthur and he does fuck all there lol)
i think he's an incredibly compelling character, especially with his interpersonal relationships. there's just something about gawain having a younger brother named essentially not gawain and being a huge contrast to him, and i also really like his relationship with mordred in vulgate as an older brother who raised him. he's the kind of character who's wedged in between characters that are larger than him (i'm sorry agravaine but you're related to gawain, mordred, and arthur and being someone who's related to them is kinda your whole thing) and that in itself is interesting. especially considering that he dies during the fall of camelot, arthur mourns his death
vulgate, death of arthur
rereading this for this post put a tears in my eyes IT KILLS MEEEEEE. AGRAVAINE...... but yes tl;dr my favorite thing about him is being related to gawain/arthur/mordred and him dying. its sooo so so fun (not for them but its fun for ME)
least favorite thing about them
tbh, i find him to be severely underutilized (and if not, completely done dirty) i hate the characterization in which he's just mordred's lackey and there to pretty much die to lancelot and nothing else.
i think it would be way more impactful if he was fleshed out as a legit character. adds to the tragedy that he was somebody the audience actually cares for and not just some NPC lancelot murders lol.
also, really dislike how prose tristan stuff writes him (and the orkney brothers in general) where he's an irredeemable villain but i digress. it doesn't help that i don't care for the orkney/wales blood feud. it's never done in a way that resonates with me.
also the character assassination TH White has done to agravaine PISSES ME OFFFFFFFF ALL THE SHITTY AGRAVAINES IN MODERN ARTHURIANA IS HIS FAULT I SWEAR. aka making him morgause's killer throwing in some added incest in which he lusts for her. GROSS !!!! agravaine get behind me!!!!!
favorite line
tbh i could put anything that he says in mordred, a tragedy by henry newbolt but i really love this one in particular. talking about their brothers and that they're on mordred's side.... it brings a tear to my eye i love the orkneys so much. they're BROTHERS !!!!!!!!
brOTP
obviously him and his brothers! gawain and agravaine is great. so is mordred and agravaine. among his brothers those two i think he has the most interesting dynamic with. this post is already stupidly long and i could make an entire post in general about agravaine's relationship with his brothers, so i think i'll focus on agravaine and mordred.
for one, i love agravaine and mordred in BBC Legend of King Arthur 1979. the orkney brothers in general are great in it (minus gaheris bc he isn't there RIP) but i adore how it expounds on his dynamic with mordred AND his aunt morgan. mordred and morgan are both schemers with plots against arthur and guinevere, morgan wanting revenge on her father gorlois' death and mordred having (in later episodes) vying for the throne, agravaine on the other hand is a lot more sincere and earnest. he had no ulterior motives and his undoing was his honesty. he loved his uncle arthur, and he meant well when he wanted to report guinevere and lancelot's affair to him, because he saw it as a betrayal on arthur, not an opportunity (like morgan and mordred). those two had to "corrupt" him in some way, which what happens during the guinevere apple murder trial because mordred and morgan essentially make agravaine an unwilling accomplice. its soooo so fascinating i highly recommend that show.
second, i'd love to talk about agravaine and mordred in henry newbolt's play: mordred, a tragedy 1895. genuinely has got to be one of my if not THE favorite retelling i've ever read. if anyone reading this hasn't, i'd just urge you to read it bc it's just that good. mordred is the main character as the title says, and agravaine is one of the main secondary characters, he takes on an almost paternal/guiding figure to a young yet incredibly idealistic, passionate mordred and acts as his voice of reason.
JAW DROP..... LIKE THIS SCENE WAS CRAZY. the earlier conversation where it was just them is top notch, and this kind of dynamic between agravaine and mordred is something i'd love to see more often.
BIG fan of agravaine essentially being the logical/reasonable one between his brothers. i've compared him to dinadan because i think they're similar characters (except obviously agravaine isn't a jester/bard like he is) but they function similarly, in my opinion.
OTP
AGRAVAINE AND LAUREL 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 i love them so so soso much it drives me insane. they're so perfect. i don't care that laurel is basically just a name in malory, i also love the HC that she's his lady love who (alongside a young mordred) takes care of him when he was suffering from a curse in vulgate.
admittedly i am biased to how i write them and how my peers write them (shoutout to @queer-ragnelle AGAIN lmao this is literally your fault)
nOTP
anything incestuous. looking at you TH White.
random headcanon
my favorite headcanon is that he's got some sort of facial scarring and he's blind in one eye. for me personally it's no reason just vibes, in my project he's got some kinda magic sigil under his eye (he can't see through it though obviously)
and like, obviously as a disability it affects how he fights. one of my favorite things about him in vulgate is comparing how he navigates battle and combat in comparison to his brother gawain, he's a lot more careful and discerning in his encounters rather than just going berserker mode. you can see this in agravaine vs druas the cruel, i think
vulgate lancelot part v
he knows his limits, lol
since i made him blind in one eye, he knows his blind spot and his weaknesses. (in my lore he's referred to as sir agravaine the one eyed swordsman for this reason) and he's a lot more calculating and cunning in his fighting style, more relying on wits + terrain (funny the guy with one eye is more observant than most people)
unpopular opinion
nothing i haven't said earlier. for whatever reason he has this reputation for being a crazy misogynist (likely thanks to Fate/grand order because of his infamous over meme'd to the oblivion line about hating women) and also again because of T.H White's depiction of him. and whatever the hell BBC Merlin did to him.
i just really hate that kind of depiction of him and honestly? there's worse characters. breuse sans pite's whole thing is being a rapist, and geraint/erec spends the entire time in his respective romances brutalizing his wife enid.
free my man agravaine he doesn't deserve this slander 😭or at the very least, i would like to have more nuanced portrayals of him for variety.
favorite picture of them
really love this image of him from the short story by P.G Wodehouse. really cute short story about agravaine!!
Palamedes, oh, Sir Palamedes. We all know this man. Either he’s crying in front of wells or he’s on the hunt for the Questing Beast. The question is: how much do we know about his family? Some of us know that his father’s name is Esclabor and that he has a brother named Safir. In other Arthurian narratives, he has more family. As such, I did a deep dive by researching several different Arthuriana, three from the thirteenth century, one from the fifteen century, and two from the sixteenth century.
The first one that we’re exploring is “Guiron le Courtois” from the Palamedes romances, written in the 13th century by an unknown author. In the narrative, around the time of the crowning of Arthur as King, the Roman emperor throws a party because his daughter got married. The emperor is brought tributes of different kinds, including people to be his slaves. A young man between 24 to 30 years old called Esclabor, his wife, several of their children (including a two-month-old Palamedes, who is named after his grandfather) and Esclabor’s brother, Arsafar, are brought from Babylon to the Roman emperor (Cadioli & Lecomte, 2021; Löseth, 1890).
As it turns out, at that exact same moment someone attempts to kill the Roman emperor and Esclabor saves his life. More events happen, but the point is that Esclabor earns his and his family’s freedom. Esclabor asks permission to the emperor for leave so he can through Logres and then disembark at Northumberland. The emperor grants his request with much regret since he has come to consider him as a son. The family arrives safe and sound to their destination. On the way to Logres, they meet King Pellinor who is out on a hunt and he and Arsafar save his life, when two knights try to kill the king. This causes for them to have favor in King Arthur’s court (Cadioli & Lecomte, 2021; Löseth, 1890).
On the other hand, in another version of “Guiron le Courtois”, it is mentioned that Palamedes has a sister named Florine, whose lover, the Knight of the Castle of the Three Roses, died of love for her. He leaves his own eulogy carved in a marble staircase, talking of whose lover he was, the name of her brother and for some knight to avenge him (Lathuillère, 1966).
Alternatively, in the Post-Vulgate of the “Lancelot-Grail”, written by several unknown authors in the 13th century, during the Quest for the Holy Grail, Galahad and Bors lodge at Esclabor’s home. Esclabor narrates to them that he is from the area of Galilee and as a young man he decided to travel to Britain to see and test how great the knights of the area were. He arrives during the start of Arthur’s reign. He stays in the court for a bit, everyone assuming he is a Christian. One day, they bring a beautiful young lady, whose father was a giant the knights killed (Asher, 1996).
They tell her that if she becomes a Christian, they’ll give her riches and someone to marry. She refuses, telling them that she would rather die. No one asks for her until Esclabor does to the amazement of Arthur. Arthur asks him what he is going to do with the young lady since she isn’t a Christian. Esclabor proceeds to tell the king that he’s a pagan just like the young woman and that that’s fine by him. It earns him the nickname “the Unknown” since Arthur thought he knew him, but it turns out he didn’t at all (Asher, 1996).
Esclabor and the young lady go on to marry. They have twelve sons, Palamedes being the eldest. One afternoon, during family lunch time, they all hear about the Questing Beast. Esclabor decides to hunt it down, alongside his eleven sons. Palamedes can’t make it because he’s sick at the time. The quest doesn’t end well since Palamedes’ eleven younger brothers die at the hand of the Questing Beast, while Esclabor is badly wounded. This makes Palamedes swear that he’ll hunt down the Questing Beast to avenge his brothers (Asher, 1996).
Similarly, the 13th century “Prose Tristan” written by Luce de Gat and Helie de Boron, is in agreement with the Post-Vulgate in mentioning that Palamedes is the son of Esclabor and that he has eleven brothers. Moreover, he uses a black shield and wields two swords, which makes distinguishable (Curtis, 1994).
In contrast, in Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” from the 15th century, Palamedes is stated to have only two brothers. Their names are Saphir and Segwarides (whose wife Tristan sleeps with, which is similar to the Prose Tristan but Segwarides isn't Palamedes' brother in that narrative) (Malory, 2009).
Moreover, in the 16th century Spanish Arthuriana “Tristán de Leonís y el rey don Tristán el joven, su hijo”, Palomades (as Palamedes is called) is mentioned to have two brothers, Garacón and Separ (Safir), which coincides with Malory but the name of one of the brothers is different. In the second part, Palomades is still hung up on Iseo (Isolde) a decade or so later after she died. He sees that Iseo’s daughter of the same name resembles her mother a lot and decides to kidnap her so he can have the chance he didn’t have with her mother. A relative of “Tristán el joven” kills Palomades in order to rescue young Iseo from her captor. Naturally, Palomades’ brother Garacón appears to avenge his brother, and he gets killed (Cuesta Torre, 1997).
Then, Palemedes' cousin Salandro comes to avenge his cousins and he gets killed as well. Afterwards, Salandro's brother Amagrafo comes to avenge his brother and cousins and gets killed too. “Tristán el joven” hangs their shields and arms for exhibition as an example of what happens to those who come fight against him or something like that (Cuesta Torre, 1997).
Earlier in the same narrative, it is mentioned that Palomades is a descendant of Ebalato, whose shield belonged to “Joseph Abarimatía.” Because of the shield’s miraculous properties, Ebalato becomes a Christian. However, he’s in incarcerated for becoming a Christian and he dies in prison. His wife (whose father is called Palomades) gives birth to twins, whom she raises as Christians. However, their descendants return to their ancestors’ religion (Cuesta Torre, 1997).
Ebalato is the Spanish equivalent of Evalach, a companion of Joseph of Arimathea in the Vulgate. He is also called Evalach the Unknown, just like Esclabor is also called the Unknown later in the Post-Vulgate narration (Chase, 1993; Asher, 1996).
In addition, Evalach was gifted by Joseph of Arimathea a shield that belonged to him (Chase, 1993), which is similar to the Spanish narrative. The mention of Evalach in this narrative essentially makes Palamedes distantly related to Lancelot and Galahad since their ancestor Nascien was the brother of Sarrassinte, who was married to Evalach (Chase, 1993). The only thing that differs between narratives is the death of Evalach, since Ebalato dies in prison, while in the Vulgate Evalach dies centuries later after he meets Galahad who gets the shield of his ancestor (Cuesta Torre, 1997; Chase 1993).
Lastly, in the Vulgate, it is mentioned that Segurades has a nephew called Canagues, who was his squire (Carroll, 1993). Meanwhile, in the 16th century Portuguese Arthuriana “Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Tavola Redonda” written by Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcelos, it is mentioned that “Monsolinos de Sulfocia” is the son of Palamedes and that he uses dual swords like his father. Moreover, he has a cousin called “Leonces de Renel”(De Vasconcelos, 1867).
If all these sources are conflated together, it can be thus deduced that:
Esclabor and his wife are parents to twelve sons and one daughter. Out of the twelve sons, only four are mentioned by name which are Palamedes, Safir, Segurades and Garacón. Their daughter is Florine.
Arsafar is Escablor’s younger brother. His sons are named Salandro and Amagrafo.
Palamedes is the eldest son (or the youngest one). He has a son named Monsolinos of Suffolk.
Safir is most likely the father of Canagues, who later becomes his uncle Segurades’ squire. Meanwhile, Leonces de Renel is most likely the son of either Segurades or Garacón.
The name Palamedes is a family name, seeing as there was an ancestor named Palamedes. In turn, Esclabor’s father was named Palamedes, whose grandson was also named Palamedes as well.
Palamedes is a descendant of Evalach and Sarrassinte, sister of Nascien. That makes him a distant relative of Lancelot and Galahad who are descendants of Nascien.
References
Asher, M. (1996). The Post-Vulgate, part II: The Quest for the Holy Grail. In N. J. Lacy (Ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation: Vol. V (pp. 110–289). Garland Publishing, Inc.
Cadioli, L., & Lecomte, S. (2021). Il ciclo di Guiron le Courtois. Romanzi in prosa del secolo XIII. Roman de Meliadus. Parte prima. S.I.S.M.E.L. Edizioni Del Galluzzo.
Carroll, C. W. (1993). The History of the Holy Grail. In N. J. Lacy (Ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation: Vol. II (pp. 115–238). Garland Publishing, Inc.
Chase, C. J. (1993). The History of the Holy Grail. In N. J. Lacy (Ed.), Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation: Vol. I (pp. 1–163). Garland Publishing, Inc.
Cuesta Torre, M. L. (1997). Tristán de Leonís y el rey don Tristán el joven, su hijo: (Sevilla, 1534). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Curtis, R. L. (1994). The Romance of Tristan: The Thirteenth-century Old French “prose Tristan.” Oxford University Press.
Ferreira De Vasconcelos, J. (1867). Memorial das Proezas da Segunda Tavola Redonda (M. Bernardes Branco, Ed.; 2nd ed.). Typ. do Panorama.
Lathuillère, R. (1966). Guiron le courtois: Étude de la tradition manuscrite et analyse critique. Librairie Droz.
Löseth, E. (1890). Le roman en prose de Tristan, le roman de Palamède et la compilation de Rusticien de Pise: Analyse critique d’après les manuscrits de Paris (E. Bouillon, Ed.). Macon, Protat Frères, Imprimeurs.
Malory, T. (2009). Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript (D. Armstrong, Ed.). Parlor Press LLC.
One thing that is both lovely and frustrating about the Arthurian legends is the fact that since there are so many different authors, not a lot lines up. Like it offers such wild plot lines and in depth explorations of different characters, but at some point you become confused on where some interactions even come from. The perfect example of this is the tale of Tristan and Iseult, something from the twelfth century that is older than the existence of the character of Lancelot, and something that predates the Vulgate Cycle. The story essentially establishes Tristan as a character and as a brilliant knight. However, he is not Arthur’s knight in the tale, instead Arthur only makes a brief appearance as a third party judge, and he is simply King Mark’s nephew and favored knight. Well until he gets caught having an affair with Iseult and it all goes downhill and he suffers from the plot device of the Sails of Theseus. However, in the Prose Tristan and other later adaptations he is the best friend of Lancelot and Arthur’s second best knight and a noble guy, etc. I guess the point of this whole thing is that it always screws with my head when I stare at the multiple versions of the same character and have to reconcile that they are all true and real and right cause it’s literature and stories are meant to adapt and change. That’s the beauty of it as a genre, but sometimes I wish there was just one definitive timeline.
A while back in a post you mentioned Fate's take on Arthurian Legend takes a lot from "The Once and Future King", can you explain that a bit more, if it ain't too much trouble? Arthurian Legend and retellings aren't something I've gone too deeply into in general so its not something I caught onto but am curious about.
Thing about Arthuriana literature is that there's a lot. Arthurian canon is big, and it's loose, and there's a ton of variation. There are the old Welsh accounts like 'Culhwch and Olwen', which Fate makes some references too (such as Cavall and the hunt of the Twrch Trwyth), the more modern British stories, tales such as the 'Prose Merlin', Wagner's Parsifal, the Vulgate-Cycle pertaining to Lancelot and the Grail, The Historia Regum Britanniae, Tristan and Iseult... you get it.
Fate honestly tries to pull from as many Arthurian sources as possible, to it's own credit. Hell, Britomart even represents The Faerie Queene, which seems a bit more esoteric when trying to consider Arthurian sources. But again, there's a LOT.
So, a few people have made attempts to try and culminate everything. Most notably Thomas Malory and the Morte d'Arthur.
In all honesty, Fate borrows the most from the 'Morte d'Arthur', rather than 'The Once and Future King'. Which isn't strange, because Malory's work is probably one of the most comprehensive attempts at creating an overall 'canon' for Arthuriana. It talks about Arthur, his family, his knights, their quests, their characters, so on and so forth until the fall of Camelot at the hands of Mordred. Everyone borrows from the Morte d'Arthur, because it's a thousand times more comprehensive and convenient than trying to dig around for another source that probably won't have as much detail and is also probably not translated in English. It's not perfect- again, there's a lot- but if you're trying to get a grasp on the wide range of Arthur and his knights, Malory's got you covered.
'The Once and Future King', being notably based on Malory's work, is probably another one of the more comprehensive attempts at creating a straightforward Arthurian canon in regards to things that Malory didn't write in Le Morte d'Arthur, such as Arthur's youth with Sir Kay and Merlin, which Fate also uses.
Anyways, more accurately I'd say that Fate uses 'Le Morte d'Arthur' to detail the aspects of Arthur/Artoria's life, and 'The Once and Future King' to sprinkle in the details dealing with Arthur/Artoria's youth.
After an article about “Greco-Roman fantasy” or Antique fantasy, I also have found an article evoking the role and importance of the Arthurian myth in fantasy (well, two articles actually).
The first one is an article by Sara Doke, who offers her own chronology of the Arthurian literature. You will be able to compare it with my original Arthuriana post, and see the slight differences.
1) For Sara Doke, the beginning of it all, the foundation of the Arthurian literature, the first works of the Arthurian world as we understand it today, would be Geoffrey of Monmouth’s works: The Prophecies of Merlin, The History of the Kings of Britain, and the Life of Merlin. (You will often hear these orks referred to by their Latin names, such as Vita Merlini or Prophetiae Merlini).
2) Then, there was the “spark” that actually ignited and gave life to the Arthurian legend and literature. This “spark” was a set of two authors, who used the work of Monmouth as a basis for their work. On one side, Robert Wace with his Roman de Brut, followed by his Roman de Rou (not to be confused by Layamon’s own Roman de Brut, an English rewrite of the original French epic). On the other side, the author I heavily talked about in my original post: Chrétien de Troyes, the “father of the matter of Britain”, and the shaper of the Arthurian myth as we know it today - with his five novels, Erec and Enide, Cliges, Yvain the Knight of the Lion, Lancelot the Knight of the Cart, and Perceval the Story of the Grail.
3) The third step of the Arthurian evolution was a series of works that slowly shifted the focus of the plot and stories away from the knights of the Round Table themselves, away from their individual and personal adventures, to rather follow the quest of the Grail, which became the main “end-goal” of the Arthuriana. This was the time of Robert of Robon who, through his cycle of works (Joseph d’Arimathie, Merlin, and others lost to time), opened the way for the Vulgate Cycle (or “Lancelot-Grail”), with its History of Merlin, Lancelot Proper, Quest for the Holy Grail, Death of King Arthur... The Vulgate Cycle was then followed by the Post-Vulgate Cycle, which took back the material, books and stories of the Vulgate, but fused them with another very popular literary work of the time: the Prose Tristan.
4) After the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Sara Doke notes that there was a disinterest in the matter of Britain and the Arthuriana throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. We will have to wait until sir Thomas Malory’s work, Le Morte d’Arthur, for a new Arthurian boom/Arthurian wave. By gathering together the versions of the Vulgate, of the Post-Vulgate and of the Chrétien novels, sir Thomas Mallory created a work that would become THE defining story of the Arthurian legend, and the main reference for all posterior Arthurian authors. Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King (later adapted into the famous Disney movie The Sword in the Stone), Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Stenbeck’s The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights... They all were inspired by and taking their Arthurian vision from Le Morte d’Arthur.
5) Sara Doke concludes her chronology by a handful of more modern works, that truly turn the Arthurian myth into moder “fantasy”. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. Mary Stewart’s Arthurian novels (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, The Wicked Day). Bernard Cornwell’s The Warlord Chronicles. Lawhead’s The Pendragon Cycle. Doke also mentions French authors that English-speaker might not be accustomed to: René Barjavel with his L’Enchanteur (The Enchanter), Michel Rio with his Merlin et Morgane, Jean Markale with his Le Cycle du Graal, Jean-Louis Fetjaine with his Le Pas de Merlin followed by Brocéliande...
To conclude this post, we leave Sara Doke for another article, this time written by P.J.G. Mergey, who is rather focused on movies based on the Arthurian myth. He does mention a non-movie piece, Wagner’s opera Parsifal, to prove that the Arthurian texts have always been producing visual entertainment. In terms of actual movies, Mergey mentions 2004′s King Arthur, John Boorman’s Excalibur, 2007′s The Last Legion and 1995′s The First Knight. As he speaks of The Last Legion, he mentions that the mystery of the “missing legion” was notably brought to the public by Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth, a historical novel that was adapted two times nto a movies - in 2011, by the same name, and in 2010 as “Centurion”.
Two last mentions. Talking about the character of Mebd/Mabd, Mergey mentions an old Irish epic I am not sure I talked about before: Tain Bo Cuailnge, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, of which Mebd/Mabd is one of the main characters.
And finally - since this is a French article talking about king Arthur, one work HAD to be evoked. Kaamelott. The British have their Arthurian parody in the shape of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, we have Kaamelott. Kaamelott started out in 2005 as a humoristic shortcom depicting the daily life of king Arthur and the characters of the Arthurian legend, who are either completely logical and reasonable characters faced with the inherent craziness and absurdity of the Arthuriana, or actually incompetent, flawed and caricatural characters a far cry from their original fictional selves. On top of deconstructing the myth itself, the humor of the series was also historical, since it replaces the king’s life in the context of the crumbling of the Roman Empire and the invasions of the barbarians from the north. This series’ massive success led to it having six full seasons, that slowly went from short comedy skits to actual full, serious, dramatic television episodes - and its fame hasn’t stopped, since very recently a trilogy of movies meant to conclude the series was announced, with the first movie being released in 2021.
'The Wicked Powers' theory regarding the plot based on Arthurian legend
I was looking for some infos about twp and i found this:
I had completely forgotten about this info CC gave us and because I have recently studied the Arthurian legend, I decided to look more into it. I think one of the most interesting things about the Arthurian legend is the Sword In The Stone/Excalibur.
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are in some versions said to be different, though in most incarnations they are the same. In Welsh, it is called Caledfwlch. It was forged at the Isle of Avalon.
In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur's possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, the first tale to mention the "sword in the stone", Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve. 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 Malory related in his most famous English-language version of the Arthurian tales, the 15th-century Le Morte d'Arthur: "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born." After many of the gathered nobles try and fail to complete Merlin's challenge, the teenage Arthur (who up to this point had believed himself to be son of Sir Ector, not Uther's son, and went there as Sir Kay's squire) does this feat effortlessly by accident and then repeats it publicly.
The identity of this sword as Excalibur is made explicit in the Prose Merlin, part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle of French romances (the Vulgate Cycle). In the Vulgate Mort Artu, when Arthur is at the brink of death he orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake; after two failed attempts (as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away), Griflet finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it. This tale becomes attached to Bedivere instead of Griflet in Malory and the English tradition. However, in the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently Malory, early in his reign Arthur breaks the Sword from the Stone while in combat against King Pellinore, and then is given Excalibur by a Lady of the Lake in exchange for a later boon for her (some time later, she arrives at Arthur's court to demand the head of Balin). Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, naming both swords as Excalibur. In some tellings, Excalibur's scabbard was also said to have powers of its own, as any wounds received while wearing the scabbard would not bleed at all, thus preventing the death of the wearer. For this reason, Merlin chides Arthur for preferring the sword over the scabbard, saying that the latter was the greater treasure. In the later romance tradition, including Le Morte d'Arthur, the scabbard is stolen from Arthur by his half-sister Morgan le Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon during the Fake Excalibur plot and thrown into a lake, never to be found again. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of magical protection, many years later in his final battle.
Now, do you see the connections there?
The sword
There are many important swords in tsc such as, Cortana, Heosphoros, Pheosphoros and The Mortal Sword.
Cortana is based on the legendary sword Curtana, attributed to Ogier the Dane and the legendary knight Tristan. The real sword, Curtana, also known as the "Sword of Mercy", is a ceremonial sword used at the coronation of British kings and queens and is one of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Cortana is owned by Emma Carstairs.
Heosphoros is a family sword of the Morgensterns, Clary was in possession of it until she used it to kill Sebastian and the Heavenly Fire destroyed it. However, both Heosphoros and Pheosphoros (which was owned by Valentine and then Sebastian) still exist in Thule and Janus is in possession of both of them, in fact, Heosphoros was likely never even owned by the Clary Fairchild of that world, nor was it used on Sebastian. Janus took possession of the sword at one point and began to wield it, and then he took the sword and Sebastian's Phaesphoros with him to Ash’s world (aka the “real” world).
The Mortal Sword also known as the Soul-Sword, Maellartach, and Angel Blade, is the second of the Mortal Instruments given by Angel Raziel to Jonathan Shadowhunter. The Soul-Sword is primarily used to compel Nephilim to tell the truth, mostly during trials. Shadowhunters who wish to have their claims tested and proved may submit themselves to "trial by the Sword," during which a suitable judge, often a Silent Brother, sometimes the Consul or Inquisitor, wields the sword and places it in the hands of the deponent, where it adheres and cannot be removed until the judge wills it. Downworlders and mundanes cannot be compelled by the Soul-Sword, thus preventing the Sword from becoming used by the Shadowhunters as a general tool for interrogation.
The Sword can also have a dark purpose, if intended. Originally, the alliance of the Soul-Sword is seraphic, its power drawn from Angel Raziel himself. However, Valentine Morgenstern discovered an ancient spell to reverse the alliance from angelic to demonic, through a process called the Ritual of Infernal Conversion, where the Sword is seethed until red-hot and cooled four times in the blood of Downworld children: a child of Lilith, a child of the moon, a child of the night, and a child of the fey. With its demonic alliance, the Sword can be used to summon demons and allows its bearer to have control over them.
In September 2012, the Sword was used to question Annabel Blackthorn, who subsequently used it to kill Robert Lightwood and Livvy Blackthorn. It was shattered when Emma struck it with Cortana. Emma and Julian later acquired a version of the sword from Thule, claiming that the Iron Sisters had repaired it and used it to force Horace Dearborn to tell the truth about his involvement with the Unseelie Court and his schemes to gain the position of Consul.
I believe that in twp we will see more of Heosphoros and Pheosphoros in use, but I also think we’ll have a new enchanted weapon, one that will rapresent Excalibur. But if the sword is a parallel with Excalibur, then who is Arthur? In my opinion, the owner of this enchanted weapon will be Kit Herondale and let me tell you why. Arthur was a normal teenage boy who wasn’t aware of his lineage until he pulled the sword out of an anvil. We have three main characters in twp, Kit, Ty and Dru. Guess who is the only one who didn’t know he was a shadowhunter and wasn’t aware of his lineage? Kit. Also, the Arthurian legend is Welsh folklore. Which shadowhunter family is of Welsh orings? Yeah, the Herondales.
I assume The Mortal Sword will once again come in hand, except that this time it's a thule version of it. Also, the only other person who has an analogue arc to Kit's is Clary, and that's why I think the both of them will play a big role in the killing of Janus. Especially if you think about when Jace was once killed with the mortal sword by Valentine.
The lake
In a version of the legend where the sword of the stone and Excalibur are two different blades, Arthur breaks the sword of the stone and is given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake at the enchanted lake.
The correlation here is obvious, the enchanted lake in tsc is Lake Lyn, also known as the mortal mirror of mortal glass. Ingesting the lake's waters can be poisonous to Nephilim, but it has no effect on Downworlders. Faeries have been known to drink from the lake, saying that it gives them true vision; for the Nephilim, the water causes hallucinations and may even drive them to madness. Among the Fair Folk, the lake is known as the Lake of Dreams or Mirror of Dreams.
The Lady of the Lake is a name used by several fairy-like enchantresses in the Matter of Britain, the body of medieval literature and mythology associated with the legend of King Arthur. They play pivotal roles in many stories, including providing Arthur with the sword Excalibur, eliminating Merlin, raising Lancelot after the death of his father, and helping to take the dying Arthur to Avalon. Different sorceresses known as the Lady of the Lake appear concurrently as separate characters in some versions of the legend since at least the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently the seminal Le Morte d'Arthur, with the latter describing them as a hierarchical group, while some texts also give this title to either Morgan or her sister.
The Lady resides in an enchanted realm, an otherworld the entry to which is disguised as an illusion of a lake. I think she may be in fact the Seelie Queen. It would make total sense for it to be her because of her correlation with Kit (the only known living descendant of the First Heir of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts), Ash Morgenstern (the son she had with Sebastian, who is half shadowhunter and half faerie) and Janus (whom she has an alliance with).
According to her backstory in the Vulgate Merlin, the Lady of the Lake was a daughter of the knight Dionas (Dyonas) and a niece of the Duke of Burgundy. She was born in Dionas' domain of Briosque in the forest Brocéliande. Which takes us to the next point.
The forest
Brocéliande, earlier known as Brécheliant and Brécilien, is a legendary enchanted forest that had a reputation in the medieval European imagination as a place of magic and mystery. Brocéliande is featured in several medieval texts, mostly related to the Arthurian legend and the characters of Merlin, Morgan le Fay, the Lady of the Lake, and some of the Knights of the Round Table.
Here too the correlation is obvious, the forest in Idris is called Brocelind. In September 2012, a portion, specifically the center, of the Brocelind Forest was blighted with dark magic by the forces of the Unseelie King, making the area a space where Nephilim runes and adamas-weapons would be ineffective. Making it, in fact, an echanted forest, like in the legend.
Soooo these were some of my thoughts, if you found something more please let me know cause I really like all of this lol.
i kinda rly wanna learn more about arthuriana stuff bc of ur posts but i have almost no idea where to start 🥺 do u have any recs or links?
YES ill copy and paste my usual answer under the cut real quick cus its . late and im tired . maybe tomorrow ill make a doc explaining this better actually...
sorry to mobile users fr the read more <3
i think the best two starting options involve the same strategy of “pick a knight you like the most and consume all the content you can find on them until you get bored/think of another knight and repeat” and its as simple as “do you want to start with sir gawain or do you not know who you want to start with.”
sir gawain i think is the best starting knight if you wanna go the route of reading as much as u can about one and moving on, since theres a LOT of varied content and hes just in a lot. hes important! anyways the first recommendation i have to start with is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. its a wonderful piece of poetry about a homoerotic beheading game, getting a movie this summer! its fucking gorgeous and a really good introduction if youve never read this old of texts before. i have a few different links so you can take your pick of what you prefer :-)
heres it in the original middle english, its beautiful and if you get the beat down sounds fucking gorgeous but i understand how hard it is to get through if youve never read through it before.
lou recomends Raffels translation above all others which i kinda have to agree with. heres part one and heres part two of that.
and the other link i have directly on hand atm is tolkiens translation which ive skimmed before and it seems really solid.
if you dont want to start with a short and tender christmas party, consider another text most arthuriana fans will consider a must read. its a bit more intimidating than sgatgks poetry but like. hey. its Sir Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur.
this is more on the level of most of the story things youll find for arthuriana and a good starting point to get an overview of a lot of major plot points and characters that show up time and time again in the legends, all of the major knights are covered through malory’s own spin on them and he tries to cover a lot of older tales in his weird fanfiction.
the text can be weird ESPECIALLY if you arent used to middle english since he …. used some weird as fuck words? even for the time. but thats malory.
I highly recommend, if you can get a copy, Kieth Baines modern retelling of Le Morte, it rewords things to make more sense to those used to a more modern prose and while it takes out some of the nuance of some scenes, its way easier to pick up and read. were working on a full scan of it atm actually but the book of arthur is up in our shared drive :-) ill shove a link down here for u
heres the first bit of baines rendition. honestly if u can find a copy for cheap grab it is a fun time
heres the pdf i use for the full text, warning for how weird its structured? its long paragraphs with no quotes around text but if you have no problems with that go for it. heres book one and heres book two.
from there, theres a ton of different options you can follow, but again i think the least overwhelming way to go about it is pick a knight you like and read whatever seems fun that has them in it !
best choices include gawain again, the marriage of sir gawain and dame ragnelle is fun, l’atre perilleux is so fucking wild and just a fun time, the turke and sir gawain has gawain playing tennis? like what more do you need
lancelot has a decent collection of old stories including the entire vulgate cycle (my favorite piece of arthurian lit, im working on scanning the entire english translation ;-)), lancelot and the hart with the white foot IS SO FUCKING GOOD and i have scans of most of the lancelot compilation works, if you have like 10 bucks to spare, Lancelot and the lord of the distant isles is on amazon for cheap and retells the book of galehaut section of the vulgate and its . so good. please care about galehaut.
tristan as wild as he is is also a really good choice for how popular the Tristan and Isolde legend was in europe. you can find a ton of versions of it, though i prefer the german one by gottfried von strassburg, another amazing one is the povest o’tryschane which is a slavic take on the legend that weirdly throws sections of the vulgate and some italian romances in? i adore it either way.
uhmmm some more off the cuff recommendations include Troyes four romances and also Perceval. as much as i bully troyes knight of the cart, knight of the lion, and knight of the grail are some of my favorite words. skip cliges if youre doing that though it sucks so bad. troyes hated his version of tristan and isolde so much he wrote cliges. that alone should keep you from it. eric and enide is ok but eric sucks SO HARD. i hate that bitch.
more modern but tennysons Idylls of the king? fucking stellar. i recently got a copy and its really gorgeous poetry. kinda like le morte in having a good overview of key events in the texts and some notable characters so this works as a good jumping off point
and finally one i cant really speak on much due to my preference of the romances, but i have many good friends who say the welsh sources are REALLY REALLY good and worth checking out :-) the mabinogion mainly, but a lot of the scattered poetry is really fun!
for finding pdfs for some of the ones i just named, u can check out my doc of whatever sources i have on hand. im missing quiet a few but i got most of the ones i recommend at least io3hewt. heres the link to that. ill post a link to the vulgate when i can finish up scanning the prose merlin !
anyways mwah feel free to msg me if u have questions im insane and like researching this stuff for hours and am willing to find out any information
