Discover Top Posts Tagged with #squires tales

Help made a post about Arthuriana on another platform and the racists tried to say Palamedes doesn't count

#arthuriana #sir palamedes #squires tales #basically the argument was that Arthur was alive in the 500s so med lit was adding him as like a dei move I guess #which. so many problems with that. but even in the 500s Africans had boats and Rome had existed and had people moving through it #I really wish people realized that people outside of western Europe did stuff in history #and that our linear concept of time fucks with how things actually went down

Okay, who let me write my Riyria/Squire's Tales crossover fanfiction before I read the Ashmoore Affair short story and learned that Hadrian beats someone to death with a stewpot. Like excuse you??? One of those only two nickles but it's weird that it happened twice situations.

#riyria #squires tales #seriously #What does it say about me that two of my favorite book series include a character who fights with a stewpot?#I'm not sure and at this point I'm too afraid to ask #sir gawain #hadrian blackwater

So, I, uh, finally got around to making that Squire’s Tales server I talked about a million years ago:

https://discord.gg/vTePva7Q

Come hang out!

#squire's tales #squires tales #gerald morris #terence

So I've written before about how Morris' Lancelot has a redemption arc second only to Zuko in ATLA. On this reread I'm thinking my love for this version of him has to do with me aging and finding accountability and being good with kids incredibly attractive. But I am also very attached to Guin and her redemption

I feel like in Morris' Original Trilogy (which is all I had for eons), there's some "not like other girls" vibes. Eileen calls Guin "heavily painted," then the way Lynet is (understandably) always contrasted with Lyonesse in a way that can easily reinforce any "super feminine= bad" attitudes the reader has. Gawain also says Guinevere isn't capable of loving anyone very deeply, that love is for her the trapping of love. So I didn't like her.

My original, teenage dislike of Guin wasn't helped by reading Mists of Avalon, but that's a different story.

Bu then we get to The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight. We actually spend some time with Guinevere. Not as much as Lancelot, but enough to see how she's grown. She's still into fashion and maybe prone to idle gossip, but the narrative doesn't judge her for either. Kai doesn't respond to the gossip, but he also doesn't dismiss her sartorial knowledge (like, maybe he's teasing her, but it doesn't seem mean-spirited. Fashion is serious business in this story). Then, later, we see that Guin is faithful to Arthur, worries about Kai, and is a great companion to Sarah. Gawain's earlier assessment seems to be of a very different lady.

I also genuinely love how she and Kai visit Gawain when Luneta first goes to Camelot-- it's nearly all Orkney family except Rhience and Eileen (Terence is secretly extended Orkney, and you could make the case for Eileen). I can just imagine her saying she wants to go to the little party so she can be bffs with Luneta, and Kai grumbling but secretly being thrilled bc he loves hanging out with Gawain.

Then at the end of the story, she becomes Sister Arthur. She and Lancelot spend the rest of their days separately dedicated to religion, mourning Arthur for the rest of their days. No one would have known or cared if they ran away together, except for them (well, and Brother Constans). They may have loved each other once, but it's nothing compared to their vast love for Arthur. It's just so heartbreaking and good

#squires tales #gerald morris #queen guinevere #lancelot #now i really want Luneta to go to the abbey and talk to Guin #so she can let her know the small good things

So The Algorithm figured out that I love Arthuriana (couldn't be my being fully obsessed in this reread of Squires Tales) but it keeps serving me content of the "Arthur was bad, actually" and "ugh, Gawain is just arrogant" variety

Just goes to show how much our interpretation of the legends is shaped by the stories we interact with first

#arthuriana #squires tales #gawain #absolutely no shade to the creator #I just cannot #prolly if I'd read mists of Avalon first I'd feel differently #which after reading a handful of MZB books and learning how she was as a person I struggle to be a fan of #so I'll take preacher who imprinted on Gawain in college

There's different kinds of strength: physical strength, emotional strength, and the strength to read Legend of the King

#squires tales #gerald morris #I avoided it as long as possible this read through #even rereading the first book #and that MADE IT WORSE #it's so good but im so sad

So "men written by women" are amazing love interests, but "men written by Gerald Morris" are equally swoony and unattainable (if a touch more realistic on occasion)

#squires tales #gerald morris #help I'm rereading squires tales and am in love with every funny charming male in them again #arthuriana #king arthur

"Terence crept nervously through the forest, glancing often over his shoulder. He was a slim, agile boy, perhaps fourteen years old-- though he did not know his age exactly-- and he moved easily among the brambles." (The Squire's Tale, page 1)

"Gawain shrugged. 'Is that so rare? Until I began traveling with you-- fifteen, twenty years ago, or whatever it was-- I never had contact with the Other World." (The Squire's Quest, page 4)

"Terence [...] said, 'About fifteen years ago--' 'Sixteen,' corrected Eileen, who had gone back to her embroidery." (The Squire's Quest, page 21)

----

I'm having a really hard time this reread of The Squire's Tales, and the quotes above from Squire's Quest hit hard and made me think.

I found The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady in my middle school library. I was 12, younger than Terence at the time.

Let's assume everyone's math is correct about Terence's age (I trust Eileen to be the most accurate). 14+20=34 . Terence is around 34 in Squire's Quest. I'm 34. I just moved into my own house, I've gone back to school, started a new job. It generally feels like I have plenty to do and to give. When Terence died, he was my age (or close enough to), had just been knighted, had just publicly married his love. All that potential was cut short in a violent tragedy, and a happily ever after in the Other World doesn't negate that tragedy.

I will likely (hopefully) outlive Terence. Knowing that I (hopefully) will get to be an age that Terence never did is just heartbreaking. Also wtf i've been reading these books for over two decades no wonder they're so formative to my personality