Latest Posts by mightybog - Page 10

arthurian gothic

there is scratching in the woods. they tell you it is the questing beast. you’ve never seen the questing beast. you don’t even know what it is.

a knight introduces himself. he is a cousin of gawain. you have never heard of him, but no one thinks anything of it.

there is something wrong with the lake. everyone whispers that there is something wrong with the lake. no one will say what.

everyone keeps telling you the queen is the most beautiful woman in the world, but you can’t get past her eyes. they are dead.

there are footsteps in the hall. there are always footsteps in the hall. there are not always people.

you have never seen the king. some say he is the man in velvet. some say he is a war hero. some say he is a sad old man. he is a roman, someone tells you. another one insists angrily that he is a knight. a third says he is gone.

no one sits in one of the chairs at the round table. you ask if you can sit down. a knight crosses himself.

you are on a horse. you can’t remember how long you’ve been riding. “where are we going?” you ask. “on a quest.” it is always a quest.

the queen is no longer the most beautiful woman in the world. there is another girl, under the pavilion in the forest. her eyes are black.

the red coat of arms on the back of a chair has been removed. there is a different coat of arms, now, and a new knight sits. no one remembers the old one.

castle carbonek is beautiful, they tell you, but be careful. you see a door cracked open. the light that streams through blinds you.

you are speaking with a woman who insists she is elaine, but you know better. elaine was a different woman yesterday. all the women are elaine.

you see a telescope in the castle. you are confused. you have never seen anything like it, but they insist it has been here since the time of the romans.

one of the knights is missing. you ask what has happened, but all anyone will tell you is that it was a fit of madness. he is back the next day.

there is blood on the rose bushes outside the queen’s window. they are trampled.

everyone wears black in may. you ask why everyone is wearing black. no one answers.

they deserved affectionate moments without one of the two dying me thinks

PLEASE watch this clip of the weird 90s king arthur movie that my sister and I have been quoting non stop for days

arthur’s death

Certified Irish person here with my own tried and test resources for learning Irish! Disclaimer, I am not fluent but you could call me a lifelong learner.

General Info

I could say a lot here but I'll start with some general info. I encourage anyone interested to go and look up these things and learn more, you'll be well on your way if you do!

We refer to the Irish language either as Irish or as Gaeilge.

It's taught as a mandatory subject in schools in the Rep. of Ireland from primary all the way to secondary level. In my opinion however, while there are genuinely good teachers out there, the syllabus leads a lot to be desired, many are backing its reform. Most of us have a similar level of Irish unless we have an Irish speaking background or have put in a lot of effort.

Irish has a different alphabet to English, some letter combinations will sound different than expected to English speakers, e.g., bh is a 'v' sound. We also use accents called fadas: á, é, í, ó, ú. The YouTube Channel Gaeilge i mo chroí is great for these kinds of explanations (see below).

We have a unique sentence structure: verb, subject, object.

There are 11 irregular verbs. All others have a predictable structure.

There are special mutations known as séimhiú and urú, these create differences in words depending on the situation/sentence structure. For example, Dublin in Irish is 'Baile Átha Cliath,' but if I wanted to say I live in Dublin it's 'táim i mo cónaí i mBaile Átha Cliath.'

There are three different counting systems, you'll find a good explanation here. Once you've read this, there are plenty of YouTube videos that teach you each one.

We don't have proper words for yes and no. Positive and negative replies to questions will use the verb back at the question asker.

There are three primary dialects but we tend to understand each other alright most of the time!

Online Resources!

I promise you Irish isn't dead, there's a lot to get your teeth into!

Get used to how it sounds! TG4 is the name of our national Irish language TV station and the Irish is usually very clear. I'm partial to documentaries myself, I recommend Fíorscéal (general topics) and Domhan an Dúlra (nature). It's all available online but you'll likely need a VPN to access it. I can also recommend a Raidío na Life, a radio station based in Dublin. You can listen back to shows of your choice or listen live.

Bitesize Irish: They have short explanation and pronunciation videos on YouTube, interspersed with some culture. On their website they also have a free learning challenge called Gaeilge Gach Lá (Irish Everyday), they will email you every day with a small assignment for a calendar week and send you a newsletter every week thereafter. This is highly beginner friendly and mostly gets you used to the idea of daily practice and effort. For those who really want to get stuck in, they have some paid resources including connecting you with other learners so you can practice.

Gaeilge i mo chroí: A really great all-rounder of a YouTube channel. They explained some grammar rules that I'd never quite got my head around in school.

Úna-Minh Kavanagh: I cannot sing Úna's praises enough. I'm sure my knowledge of her only scratches the surface of her achievements but she's translated Among Us into Irish, she streams games in Irish (she's Yunitex on Twitch), she forages in Irish and she teaches you how to use existing online resources and communities in your learning journey. She really specialises in the "how" of learning the language today. She is also a published author and she speaks out against racism in Ireland.

Online dictionary: foclóir.ie

Similar resource to the above with more explanation and pronunciations in the three dialects for learners: teanglann.ie

Books:

Gaeilge gan Stró! by Éamonn Ó Dónaill at beginners level and Gramadach gan Stró by the same. These books helped me return to Irish as an adult and are geared towards adults.

These books and other physical resources can be bought from siopa.ie, which ships worldwide.

Courses:

Gaelchultúr, the publishers of Gaeilge gan Stró offer group online courses. There are others but this is one I've tried myself. They use Gaeilge gan Stró as their course book.

Well, this post was longer than I expected it to be but for any of you who decide to give Irish a go, go n-éirí libh!

do yall know about this

just finished my rewatch of all five seasons of bbc's merlin, and my sister and i decided it would be fun to keep count of how many times merlin saved arthur's life throughout the show, so here is an accumulated list:

(disclaimer: it is absolutey possible that we weren't always watching attentively and that we might have missed a case or two, but i like to believe that it is kinda accurate)

times arthur would have died if merlin hadn't saved him

• 1x01: dagger thrown at arthur ⟶ merlin slowed down time to pull arthur out of the way

• 1x02: snakes supposed to poison arthur ⟶ merlin exposes the snakes and arthur kills them

• 1x04: poisoned cup ⟶ merlin drinks from it instead

• 1x05: a griffin attacks them ⟶ lancelot fights it, and merlin enchants his sword/spear so that it’ll work

• 1x07: arthur is to be sacrificed to the sidhe ⟶ merlin saves him

• 1x10: ealdor gets attacked, including arthur, and they’re doomed ⟶ merlin creates a huge wind gust to save everyone

• 1x13: questing beast attacks arthur ⟶ merlin kills it

• 1x13: questing beast bites arthur, the poison is fatal ⟶ merlin gets water from the cup of life to save him

• 2x01: arthur gets attacked by a huge boar (?) ⟶ merlin uses magic on a crossbow to save him 

• 2x01: camelot gets attack by living stone statues ⟶ merlin destroys them

• 2x02: assassin tries to kill arthur during a tournament on horses ⟶ merlin uses magic to make the assassin fall off his horse

• 2x12: dead stone statue thingies attack arthur and his knights ⟶ merlin uses magic to make the ceiling cave in and pulls arthur to his side, separating them from the statue thingies

• 2x13: arthur's wounds are getting worse ⟶ merlin finds balinor in time and has him help him (HONORARY MENTION)

• 3x04: arthur gets attacked (again) ⟶ merlin uses magic to save him (again)

• 3x07: morgause tries to kill arthur with a fire beam ⟶ merlin uses magic to make the fire beam explode before it reaches arthur

• 3x08: arthur gets attacked by wyverns ⟶ merlin uses his dragonlordness to stop them

• 3x08: arthur wears the eye of the phoenix bracelet (sucking life-force out of someone) ⟶ merlin takes it off him

• 3x12: arthur gets shot by a poisoned arrow ⟶ merlin uses magic to help him, then brings him to gaius

• 3x13: an army of immortal deads attacks camelot ⟶ merlin empties the cup of life of their blood to “kill” them all

• 4x01: dorochas attack arthur ⟶ merlin pushes arthur out of the way to get attacked instead

• 4x04: their food gets poisoned ⟶ merlin uses magic to save them

• 4x05: arthur fights in a duel and is about to be striked down ⟶ merlin makes the opponent’s sword fall out of his hands with magic

• 5x01: arthur and their men get attacked by morgana’s men ⟶ merlin saves arthur and gets them away from the battle

• 5x04: arthur almost got beheaded by odin ⟶ merlin created an earthquake with magic to stop that

• 5x06: dark tower traps ⟶ merlin parries an arrow with magic

• 5x07: arthur gets poisoned ⟶ merlin saves him with magic

• 5x08: someone wants to shoot an arrow at arthur ⟶ merlin attacks the shooter and saves arthur

• 5x11: kara tried to stab arthur ⟶ merlin uses magic to save him

and the one time he fails: 5x13, mordred stabs arthur with a sword forged on a dragon’s breath — merlin doesn’t get him to avalon in time

which brings us to a total of 27.5 times that merlin has saved arthur's life throughout the show

we also kept track of all the times arthur saved merlin's life, so here is that list:

• 1x03: merlin tells uther he is a sorcerer to save gwen (which would’ve gotten him a death sentence) ⟶ arthur convinces his father that merlin is lying out of love for gwen

• 1x04: merlin drank from a poisoned cup ⟶ arthur gets the antidote for him

• 1x11: arthur drinks poison so that merlin won’t have to ⟶ it was actually a sleeping draft though (HONORARY MENTION)

• 1x13: questing beast attacks ⟶ arthur pulled merlin out of the way

• 2x12: dead stone statue thingy attacks merlin ⟶ arthur strikes it down

• 4x01: a dorocha flies towards merlin ⟶ arthur pushes him out of the way

• 4x08: the lamia was about to kill merlin ⟶ arthur comes in at just the right time

which brings us to a total of 6.5 times that arthur saved merlin's life

it's kind of crazy to me to compare it like this, because on the one hand 27 near-death experiences across 65 episodes doesn't really sound like a lot. but at the same time i can't believe that arthur would have died 27 times if it hadn't been for merlin. and to think that arthur only saved merlin's life 6 times though?? oof

on my next rewatch, my sister and i want to make a list of all the moments that contributed to arthur's death (a so-called "doom list" with moments like merlin poisoning morgana in 2x13 etc), but that one is definitely going to be more subjective, since it'll be based on things that we think could've prevented arthur's death if they had gone any different

very excited to debate all the things that could go on that one!

Do you think one can just jump into the vulgate cycle? I have a vague understanding of arthuriana; I’ve read the Mabinogion, Monmouth, and Malory, but two-three years ago. Is there a text I should read before hand or reread these previous ones? Thank you so much!

Hi anon!

Absolutely you can jump right into the Vulgate cycle. Mabinogion and Monmouth predate Vulgate, and elements of those are repeated in the Vulgate, which is a complete story in itself. The Post Vulgate is then a condensed version of that, which Malory then condensed down again into Le Morte d’Arthur. So you’ll be familiar with some elements, but require no prior reading to appreciate the Vulgate.

Here is a tutorial that may help you navigate the Vulgate and here is a reader version by Norris J Lacy which compiles chapters from throughout the Vulgate.

But really you can pop open the Vulgate from the start and get right into it! History of the Grail is the first book which covers a lot of exposition stuff that will be repeated later during the Grail Quest, but is nonetheless interesting. After that is Story of Merlin which will cover stuff you read in Monmouth, like Merlin’s origin, but then continues to Arthur’s origin and gets into the Orkney bros as teenagers/young men! (And Mordred as a baby!) Lancelot Part I picks up with Lancelot’s story and continues on from there through the rest of the Vulgate. You can start with any of those books, but Story of Merlin is just so good I definitely recommend it.

I hope that helps explain things for you a bit! Here’s where you can read the Vulgate in full! Please let me know what you think as you get into it. It’s my favorite favorite favorite!!! Enjoy! :^)

Ted Nasmith

Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat by Sophie Gengembre Anderson

for the @merlinmicrofic prompts Home, Desperate measures and "You wouldn't."

Merlin & Arthur, Gen, 3 x 100 words, Major character death, AO3 link

for @mightybog

A heavy soul, a hopeful man

Their world is in crisis. It aches for its saviour.

“Emrys,” the Disir call.

He despises them. He comes anyway. There's kinship in being the last of the old ones.

“It's time." One steps forward, in her hand a coin.

“What,” he scoffs, “is it my turn to suffer your judgment?”

“We offer a chance. The time of the Once and Future King is nigh. You know it, you yourself have assembled his court.”

It's true. He's found them, souls reborn. The knights. Guinevere.

She flicks the coin into the air. “His rest in Avalon is over. Bring him home.”

The coin spins and spins, reaches its zenith, plummets down.

“Heads or tails?” He remains silent. “That's right, there is no answer. It is both and neither, a mere matter of perspective.”

“Save your riddles.”

“Two sides of a coin, inseparable. One up, one down. It will take all your magic to bring him back, every last bit of you.”

A pause.

“I will die?”

A look of pity, unwanted. “We'll lend you strength. You have three months.”

Its days numbered, his heart beats faster, rebellious. Desperate times. There's no choice. He bends his knee and picks up the coin.

Arthur returned is his every joy. He teaches him about the new world, laughs at him trying to operate a microwave, watches him discover ice cream - looming catastrophe momentarily dismissed.

Blissful ignorance can't last; his magic's gone, he's fading. Confession - now or never.

“No, you wouldn't, please don't-”

“You will have the others. You know the way. You don't need me anymore.”

“I will always-”

“Don't. Please.”

The day dwindles. Miniscule waves disturb the third full moon's reflection on the inky black lake waters. Merlin sits by its shore, Arthur's arm around his shoulders, and, for the last time, waits.

the twrch trwyth in the search for olwen !!

Armored whump

- The heavy clunk of a Whumpee in armor brought to their knees.

- A sword slammed into the ground in an attempt to keep themself from falling right over.

- Arms trembling as they try to keep themself up, the weight of their armor pushing them further down, bearing on their bruises.

- They're already succumbing to gravity. They're panting, barely holding on, leaning heavily on their sword, or their staff, their lance.

- Making the effort to use it to push themself to their feet again, pulling the sword back out of the ground, swooshing their lance as they find the strength for another round.

- The sound of a sword clanking against stone when it's twirled out of their grip or when they no longer have the strength to hold it.

- A sword kicked away. Or worse, a heavy boot crunching down on it just as Whumpee manages to close a hand around the hilt.

- The soft clinking sounds of defeat drawing nearer when the enemy approaches slowly, fully aware Whumpee is already defeated. Metal crunches with each step. Armor jingles with his soft movements, when he crouches down in front of Whumpee.

- The tip of a sword scratching along over metal, teasing over their chest plates until it finally finds the weak spot of the armor and slowly pushes through.

- Also, armor is heavy :) Give me exhausted armored characters, dragging themself along. They are supposed to stay ahead of the rest, be their shield... but every battle and by now every step has been wearing on them. And it won't take long before they'll just collapse.

Okay but what if I snap and write a full-fledged fic of Arthur becoming king in s1 and how it could have changed the entire course of the show.

kind of obsessed with thesaurus dot com claiming that lover is a synonym for knight

found this INCREDIBLY powerful pic of miss piggy from her 1983 calendar

I really appreciate that the Alliterative Morte Arthure is giving Kay a solid 45 lines to go full batshit mad scientist on his feast preparations, featuring

Peacocks, plovers, pork, porcupine, herons, swans, beef, wild boar, barnacle goose, young hawks in bread, cranes, curlews, rabbits

By my rough count, approximately eight different kinds of wine

On-fire blue stews ("wavy with azure sauce all over, they appeared to be flaming")

More fire: "pheasants adorned in flaming silver"

Poison-proof gold cups: ("So that if any poison should go secretly under them [in the cup],/The bright gold would burst all to pieces with anger,/Or else the poison should lose its power because of the virtue of the precious stones")

Elyan was being haunted by this watery ghost child and was being really freaked out by him but when he first actually talked to he went 'you're so cold' and then just hugged him like

why does no one talk about this??

We deserved more of just Merlin

The little head tilt, the sweet voice and the tiny smile, the moment he asked Arthur:

“Don’t you?”

To Merlin, magic had always been there for everyone to see, to feel.

He is magic, after all.

For all those years, Merlin had believed what he felt was obvious, and that everyone else felt the same way. It was strange to Merlin that Arthur couldn’t understand that the forest, the animals, even the smallest, living in it, were sacred. Because life is sacred. He couldn’t grasp the reason why the knights couldn’t feel that the old Druids’ camp was haunted, and therefore didn’t believe him. He had literally heard death, and cried because of it.

“As if everything is much more than itself.”

The phrase could refer to him too. Merlin is much more than… Him.

That’s what brought his doom. He had never had the chance to truly know himself. He was either a servant, or the sorcerer of a prophecy, or a Dragonlord.

Never just him.

And in this moment we see he had missed being one with nature, breathing in the animals’ lives. He was himself again.

He was vibrating, much like anything else there living with him.

They never went deep into Merlin’s powers, they were just there for Arthur. Merlin had lost sight of what he wanted to do with them, he even forgot he was so powerful he could have overthrown Arthur himself, if he really wished to.

Merlin was the only man alive able to see Avalon.

During the knights and the king’s quest to save Gwen, Merlin met the Queen of a Queendom no one had ever even seen.

He could have killed Morgana (and did try) multiple times, although she was an High Priestess, and simply decided not to, but he had more than just the power to do so.

The Catha, the Druids bowed to him, met him in the woods, called to him.

Merlin created a telepathic connection with Arthur the first days he was in Camelot.

He survived death multiple times.

His immortality forbid him to die.

Merlin hated hunting because he could feel the animals being scared, followed; he had recognised Gwen when Morgana transformed her into a deer; he could hear the magic around him, inside objects and inside people, like a whisper, as if it was nothing; he could call lightning from the sky.

He could stop the time, or at least slow it down.

Every magical being knew him by name only. But he was not a leader, he was just different.

“Is she like me?” “No one is like you, Merlin.”

After everything he had witnessed, even Gaius knew Merlin was special and did nothing to help him understand why he was.

Merlin was the reason Aithusa was born, why Kilgharrah was free, and we were robbed of him getting to really know his powers, both as a Dragonlord and as the most powerful sorcerer to ever walk the earth.

He literally deleted himself just to be at Arthur’ side, and it hurt him. We saw it constantly. He was sad not only because everyone and everything was against him, or because he couldn’t use magic for simple tricks, but because he couldn’t really know what he could do, both as a magical being and as just Merlin.

To study his powers meant treason and death, and Merlin forbid himself to go beyond what he already knew.

His incapacity to understand, his lack of will to know, and his indecision about who he was, literally helped the fall of the great destiny he was a part of.

Merlin’s decisions, whatever he wanted them to happen or not, helped Arthur die.

Merlin’s real enemy was himself.

Ahhhh @mythandmagic!! I am shook, humbled, thankful, amazed, all the things!! Look at them! This is so perfect, the way they look, the stars 😭❤️?! THANK YOU for this and for all of your lovely comments on Ao3!

please Please PLEASE everyone go read Like Every Tree Stands on Its Own by @mightybog it is phenomenal and has deliciously altered my brain chemistry. AND there's a sequel in the works which is sure to be just as marvelous and heartwrenching and beautiful as the first.

Seriously, I have been rotating this story for days, even made some picrews about it (courtesy of ElenaA's Kiss Crew, beloved).

Anyway, please go read and kudos and comment and show her some love because she deserves it.

BBC Merlin 1x04 “The Poisoned Chalice”

genders in the Blue Fairy Book, ranked

7. The knight rescuing Golden Locks

Can’t complain about a Knight. Fun ears on the helmet, impractically Triangular shield, little creature companion. Also that is a delightfully deranged dragon and I feel that merits consideration.

6. The maiden with the Brown Bull of Norroway

delightfully androgynous haircut and drapey robe, an excellent excellent bull, and an even more excellent little horned creature in the shadows going 😛

5. Aladdin

10/10 gay sprawl, delightful little mustache, and extra points for the bifurcated land mermaid genie situation

4. The Master-Maid

huge bonus points for those bootie shorts and knee socks, points detracted for this not actually being a picture of the Master-Maid, but of the prince friend, because I think we can all agree that “Master-Maid” is a *chef’s kiss* gender

3. The King of the Goldmines

the cape. the third position ballet feet. the casual “oh these dragons and harpies and eagles etc I just killed? nbd” position of the sword. an icon and a legend.

2. The Fairy in Disguise

this one does need a bit of context, because that fairy in the back right is in disguise, but when the disguise comes off, it is described as “the fairy, throwing off the hermit’s robe in which she had been disguised and appearing before them”, which to me implies that she just has that beard, which I think is very neat of her

1. Prince Darling transformed into the monster

look who wouldn’t want to at once be an ethereal, flower-crowned hottie and also a chimeric monstrous beast. 10/10 no notes.

Illustrations done for the chapter "Gareth and Lynette" (that has a major Tennysonian influence but with the ending from Malory) in the 1909 book "The Children’s King Arthur: Stories from Tennyson and Malory" by an unknown author, published by Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton [x].