109 posts
Latest Posts by aarcanaa - Page 3
arthurian characters giving presentations on topics they are too familiar with
a series of shitty drawings I found while I was cleaning my room
Elaine (Carbonek): You Don’t Have to Name Your Daughter Elaine
Morgana and Morgause: Killing Your Little Brother Isn’t That Bad
Lancelot and Guinevere: Being Hot is Really Hard
Lamorak: Gawain’s Mom Has Got It Going On
Nimue/Lady of the Lake: Why Camelot is Doomed to Fail
Dinadan: Why Courtly Love Sucks
Arthur: Why Are So Many People in Love with Lancelot?
Gawain: The Reason Everyone in Camelot is Fucked Up
hi why do you ship gawain with lancelot? not trying to start shit im just curious
God so this is a true fact but I’ve been thinking about them since sophomore year of high school (i'm a college sophomore now) so this is going to be lengthy and involved. But i think Lancelot and Gawain have a really interesting dynamic as well as a lot of support in text which i think makes them compelling.
In a lot of ways they are equals in a way neither of them is with anyone else-- they are, in the vulgate at least, the two best knights in the world, the two arthur trusts most and who are famous even among other good knights. Its almost isolating, that level of renown, and you see that Lancelot in particular is uncomfortable with it, though they both at times have stories of trying to escape their own names. Of course they would understand each other in a way no one else could.
Despite the fact that Lancelot quite literally steals his place as number one, gawain is never resentful of this, never upset to lose to lancelot. In fact he seems very happy to sing his praises to anyone he meets, like in Lancelot and the Hart with the White Foot, where he says of lancelot that “He is the best knight alive in the entire world, and moreover the most handsome.”
In the stanzaic morte, he tells elaine of shallot that
“Such a leman as thou hast one,
In all this world ne be no mo.
There is no lady of flesh ne bone
In this worlde so thrive or thro,
Though her herte were steel or stone,
That might her love holde him fro.”
Or, translated,
Such a love as you have,
there’s no better in the world.
There is no lady of flesh or bone,
In this world so lucky or stubborn
Though her heart were steel or stone,
She could stop it from loving him.’
In the vulgate hes constantly running after lancelot, happy to play sidekick as long as it means lancelot's company. He pretty infamously says this about lancelot:
Then Sir Gawain thought a little, like a man who believed he would never be well again. “If God were to grant me my health,” he said, “I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that he would love me above all others, all his life and mine.”
I think this is really interesting because its not a devotion gawain shows to anyone else outside of his family. Hes oddly protective of lancelot, considering he can very well fend for himself usually. In the dutch hart, he literally tracks down and kills a man who hurt lancelot, before tying his body to his horse and dragging it around like achilles. He also rescues and heals him in morien, gets the whole court in a tizzy looking for him after a battle with galehaut where he spends a year searching, drags lancelots poor cousins all over looking for him after a tournament, freaks out when he goes missing in the hart (: “He lamented more grievously than anyone ever will, or had ever done before, because he thought he had lost Lancelot, the daring knight.”) like jesus gawain calm down.
He explicitly forsakes his devotion and duty to the country in favour of lancelot; in morien, hes called to take his place as king because arthur is gone, and he refuses in favour of, you guessed it, running after lancelot. In chretien it is said that
“Now I will tell you the truth, and you must not think I lie, that Gawain would not wish to be chosen king, unless he had Lancelot with him. “
And he lies to arthurs face multiple times in the vulgate and morte to hide lancelot's various crimes.
Speaking of crimes, theyre both uh, well. Literal serial killers. And you know its good to have hobbies in common in a relationship. No but seriously they represent a lot of the darker parts of knighthood. From lancelots bit with the proud knight in kotc to gawains… what can be only described as massacres in the dutch texts. They both have very odd relationships with death, with gawain so familiar with it by being surrounded by violence from a young age that it no longer affects him, while lancelot is almost the opposite-- its very distant to him.
I think thats another reason i like them; theyre similar in a lot of ways but in just as many they are opposites. Gawains whole deal is being charming, manipulative, educated and good with words. Lancelot is in contrast, especially in chretien and the vulgate, at his most inept in social situations. You note that in the hart, its gawain that has to talk him out of the marriage he accidentally agreed to (“ But he does not at this time wish to marry you-- you must understand...”) etc. while gawain is centered at court in a web of political alliances, lancelot is a fair unknown, who can and does disappear for years and generally avoid court when he can. I think they work well as a team because of this.
Lancelot certainly think so, at least in the morien: Quoth Sir Lancelot: "By the Lord who made me, and who shall be Doom's-man at the last day, come what may thereof, since Sir Gawain rideth hence 'tis not I will bide behind!”
He isnt as quotable outside of one specific scene ill get to later, and most of what he does say is in aside to himself, like the lengthy speech he gives in knight of the cart while debating to himself why gawain has failed to rescue him, and if this means gawain doesn’t love him (“He ought indeed to receive your aid whom you used to love so devotedly! For my part I may truly say that there is no lodging place or retreat on either side of the sea, where I would not have searched for you at least seven or ten years before finding you, if I knew you to be in prison. But why do I thus torment myself? You do not care for me even enough to take this trouble.”) trust me it goes on like this for quite a while.
On a side note, i think its a bit reminiscent of a scene from the vulgate where gawain thinks that lancelot is in love with elaine of shallot--
“That night he thought a lot about Lancelot and said to himself that he would not have thought that Lancelot would have aspired to leave his heart in any place that was not nobler and more honourable than all others. ‘And yet,’ he said, ‘I cannot really blame him if he loves this girl… (he goes on in debate with himself)...
That night Sir Gawain slept very little, because he was thinking of the girl and Lancelot,”
the morte specifically calls gawain the man lancelot loves most in the world, according to a prophecy of merlins. Then, the kicker: he kills gawains brothers on accident, gawain swears to kill him in revenge, and lancelot…. Refuses to kill gawain, or even to renounce love for him. When asked about the fight, he says:
“I do not know what the outcome will be, but I do know that if I were the winner and ought to cut off his head, I should not be able to kill him for all the world, because I think he is too noble. Moreover, he is the man, out of all those in the world that have meant anything to me, that I have most loved, and still do,”
Gawain forgives him on his deathbed and writes a letter, the entirety of which i implore you to read. He begs lancelot’s forgiveness and for him to return from france and see gawains tomb, “for all the love that was betwixt us”
I think you could interpret this as a very passionate friendship, certainly, but i am gay and so i think they are too. Not only because of the texts but because of the fact that their dynamic is fun and interesting and they work well together.
Oh, and if anyone was wondering why i call them remarkable, here is another quote from the vulgate, following the first fight with gawain:
‘It is certainly remarkable of you,’ said King Bors, ‘to love him so deeply when he hates you mortally.’
‘Find it remarkable if you wish,’ replied Lancelot, ‘but he will never be able to hate me so much that I stop loving him.’
they r having a sleepover and they love each other<3
Dinadan and Brunor investigate Camelot’s most intriguing unsolved mysteries. First episode: what ever happened with Sir Gawain at the Green Chapel?
Modern adaptations of the Arthurian mythos: everybody’s covered in shit and some guy sleeps with his sister. Maybe there’s a prophecy?
The actual source material: okay, so a Kryptonian, a werewolf, a one-handed guy with super-speed, and a dude who inexplicably keeps finding increasingly outlandish magic swords walk into a bar.
Anyways cukibola we get it youre in love with me stop stalking my blog and taking my discussions out of context to demonize me and my close friends over blatent lies <3
Gawain: the one I kiss is the green knight
Arthur: you can just point him out
Gawain: *putting on lip balm* I don't tell you how to do your job
hi guys i think its time i finally rename key arthurian texts to boost community engagement and better promote our product
effective immediately in all arthurian offices:
Historia Regnum Britannium is now Jeff’s Epic Adventures
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is now I Kissed A Boy (And I Liked It)
Le Morte d’Arthur is now arthurian lit modern au DO NOT FLAME don’t like don’t read dead dove do not bring back as a ghost and do not call me out for gawain-bashing 200k period-typical tristan
Lancelot du Lac is now 101 Tips on Raising Kidnapped Children
The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle is now Shrek
Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart is now Logres Public Transit Guidebook
Yvain or the Knight of the Lion is now My Family and Other Animals
Perceval or the Story of the Grail is now Perlesvaus
i think the evil cursed sword is pretty cool
Camelot’s Politics in the Dutch Tradition
Wanna write Arthurian court intrigue? Boy howdy do the Dutch texts have some great content for that! So here are my collected notes on the wild wild court intrigue going on in Kardoel.
Keep reading
god im too tired to articulate this but the consistent attention to guinevere and gawain’s friendship in the dutch texts??? hhhhhhhhhh. like it makes so much sense cause they both came to camelot as teenagers in ways which were not of their choosing, they are both very political characters, and especially in the dutch texts they’re the ones controlling the court and especially controlling arthur (which is also the case with gawain in the vulgate->malory tradition as well). but i havent seen many other instances in other traditions of the kind of details the dutch put in. in die wrake gawain steals a dog for guinevere because he thinks she would like it (this might be in the vengeance, idk, i havent forced myself to trek through the old french yet and theres no translation). in lancelot and the hart with the white foot it’s mentioned that gawain and guinevere are hanging out specifically without arthur. in walewein ende keye gawain sends his vanquished foes to guinevere and not arthur. and it also ties in to the really complex court intrigue going on in dutch camelot (which im making a more formal post about so i wont go into here) but also aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh they are frieeeeeeeends. they ARE the queer trans disney channel original movie villains we all deserve. they are mean and awful and bully arthur canonically. they own my whole heart
It’s Sebile day! Everyone give it up for medieval wlw who kidnap Lancelot!
Shoutout to @gawain-in-green for the design, and @beheadaed, @lanzelet and @lesbianrenard for help with research
so we got side tracked making mostly-but-not-entirely-correct translations of a 13th century venetian text
(warning for sexist language in the context of med lit)
Ahhhh today is Ysabele day!!! shes a really interesting character and im hyped to talk about her. I recommend this article (mentioned above) which discusses the proto-racist portrayal of India in the Roman van Walewein.
my reason for loving ysabele comes down to: she does actual literal murder and the text finds no problem with this. i think that is hilarious
this was written by me but with help from @pendraegon and @gringolet!!
dinadan and palamedes for day two and three of arthurian side characters week!!!!!!! they r friends that is it. also palamedes works in a zoo this is a canon fact <3
“Weeping was her most common expression, So strongly was her heart set on him.” – A Selection of Verses Concerning The Maiden of Ascolot, the Stanzaic Morte Arthur (trans. Lou G Gringolet)
It’s Elaine day! I have a very special place in my heart for Elaine, and @gringolet Lou’s translation of her bits in the Stanzaic Morte is AMAZING. But also :((( so tragic. This piece is kind of a mesh between the Morte story and Tennyson’s story.
also a bonus Elaine and Gawain that i did as a warmup sketch because their friendship is VITAL to me:
Vivaldi.
Here it is!!!! I cannot thank everyone enough for their involvement and support throughout this project. A special shoutout to @gringolet, who did the lovely cover art and explained inks to me, @lanzelet, who did the marginalia, and @pendraegon and @aarcanaa for help with editing!!
The print copy is priced at $10.59 (no profit margin), and the PDF can be read here. Feel free to drop comments in the ask box! Thank you for reading. <3
heyyyyy everyone!!! people have been talking about how there are a lot of underappreciated side characters in arthuriana, so me and some friends figured we could do a side characters appreciation week, especially with female and/or poc characters who don’t get talked about much. we’re going to make content for these characters starting on monday with elaine of shalott, plus ahead-of-time info sheets on them for anyone who wants to join in!! :)
as an astrophysics major which stars do you think lancelot gawain and guinevere are thank you this is not an astrology question i want to know about stars or space anomalies
ALKDJF;LAKDSJFSKDJF FIRST OFF ANON THANK YOU FOR PREFACING THIS WASNT AN ASTROLOGY QUESTION BECAUSE. HHHHG. okay look there is nothing theoretically wrong with being into astrology BUT the number of people who have said “you’re an astrology major, right?” to me is so infuriating that i now hate it, perhaps unfairly
anyway. complaining about astrology over. i love this question. i have no idea how to interpret it. i dont know if you mean individual stars or class of stars? and i will go with class of stars cause thats an easier answer.
so to start off. gawain is a high-luminosity main spectrum blue star because he burns fast and bright but is extinguished before his time. he’s seen from far away, far more than many of the other characters, but all the light that reaches the viewer is dead light, and there’s nothing real or living on the other end. thats the edgiest fucking paragraph ive ever typed wow
guinevere is a red dwarf star because the life span of a red dwarf is longer than the age of the universe. she is still alive. literally you cannot fucking at me at this she is alive. but jokes aside she is a red dwarf star because her light is mostly invisible but at the same time forms the vast majority of the universe. unseen but also incredibly important
lancelot is a variable neutron star, once great and now collapsed into a high-stress ball of misery with an off-kilter magnetic field that makes him look very weird. i mean this literally, in that i do believe lancelot du lac the medieval literature character is rotating at high velocity and flings out electromagnetic radiation owards anyone who looks at him
my thoughts on th white
a lot of people have been bringing up the once and future king with the whole lancelot discussions we’ve been having and i guess i just wanted to like. put my thoughts out lol.
under the cut bc itll b a bit long, and warning that its gonna be kinda negative. i know this book is like important to a lot of people and meaningful to you and thats great this is not at all to attack you lol
Keep reading
Is she trying to warn it or sink it?
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