I think I've discovered a previously unacknowledged inspiration behind Monty Python and the Holy Grail - would be fascinated to hear the opinions of scholars of #Arthurian literature and of #MontyPython
https://peakrill.com/2023/09/just-a-flesh-wound-the-inspiration-behind-monty-pythons-black-knight.html

Repost of a lightly revised review of John Morris's 'The Age of Arthur' (1973), a stimulating but flawed #Arthurian history.

https://wp.me/p9xVjG-7p

Repost of a review of the authoritative New Arthurian Encyclopedia,
edited by Norris J Lacy (updated 1996 from 1991) covering #Arthurian history, literature, the arts and popular culture.

https://wp.me/s9xVjG-encyc

A fantastical building – reposted review of '#EdwardIII’s Round Table at #Windsor: The House of the #RoundTable and the Windsor Festival of 1344' (2007) by Julian Munby, Richard Barber, and Richard Brown. Medieval #Arthurian reenactment perhaps?
https://wp.me/s9xVjG-rtw

Almost finished reading Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang, which is one of the most gobsmacking / WTF / OMG books I have ever read. I will write up fuller thoughts on my Dreamwidth blog in the coming days. Next up I’ll be reading The Cleaving by Juliet E McKenna, which is an Arthurian retelling. #yellowface #books #reading #fiction #novels #arthurian #fantasy

Heute neu im Regal der neuen Wohnung: "Die Wikinger", reich illustrierter Band von Robert Wernick (1979), und "Merlin" von Karl Immermann, mit zahlreichen Aquarellen von Franz Stassen (1984) #Wikinger #vikings #Merlin #arthurian #Buchstodon #bookstodon #Fantasy #Theater

Today I've been bribing myself to be productive by granting myself reading breaks to curl up with my ARC of Lizzie Huxley-Jones's Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend, a delicious Arthurian MG fantasy starring a wonderful, brave & autistic Welsh heroine: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62375642-vivi-conway-and-the-sword-of-legend

#fantasy #arthurian #Welsh

New Medieval Books: Tales of Merlin, Arthur, and the Magic Arts https://www.medievalists.net/2023/04/new-medieval-books-tales-of-merlin-arthur-and-the-magic-arts/ #newbooks #medieval #Arthurian #KingArthur

Lady of the Lake by Diana Van Damme
#arthurian #fantasyart

Lady of the Lake by Diana Van Damme
#arthurian #fantasyart

Stumbled into an Alternate Universe: Arthurian Legend this afternoon where Excalibur is a great blue heron.

#Arthurian #TheSwordInTheStone #KingArthur #GreatBlueHeron #Myths

It's #OldEnglish #WordOfTheDay

Gleáwferhþ (fyrhþgleáw) [ ᚷᛚᛖᚪᚹᚠᛖᚱᚻᚦ ]: A skilful / sagacious spirit / Soul

Gleáw: Clear-sighted, wise, skilful, sagacious, prudent, good

ferhþ / fyrhþ: the soul, spirit, mind

As opposed to the very similar "gleáwmód" (of wise mind); this is a much deeper type of wisdom. This is closer to divinity, something preternatural and much more akin to deep magics.

The great sorcerer and galdorleóþ (singer of #spells Merlyon (#Merlin) was known as gleáwferhþ. He held a spark of divinity in his words, and his voice could be the conjurer of things. He know the great and ancient "Charm of Making".

Artwork by me

#Storytelling #AngloSaxon #Magic #paganism #pagan #history #histodons #medievodons #medieval #drawing #Arthurian

@anglosaxon
@pagan
@histodons
@languagelovers
@oldenglish

Good morning everyone, how are you on this lovely #FairytailTuesday?

I came across this interesting article, it is a little old now, but really fascinating.

Medieval manuscript fragments discovered in Bristol that tell part of the story of #Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from #Arthurian legend, have been identified by academics from the Universities of #Bristol and #Durham as some of the earliest surviving examples of that section of the narrative.

#medieval #medievodons #histodons #KingArthur #VulgateCycle

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2021/september/bristol-merlin-update.html

"Legend Foretells that the White Tower, Then England, Will Fall"- @plstuartwrites reviews The Ravenmaster's Revenge by @JacobSannox
#fantasy #kingarthur #arthurian
https://beforewegoblog.com/review-the-ravenmasters-revenge-by-jacob-sannox/

#Poetry #Camelot #Arthur #Arthurian #FreeScotland #FreeNorthIreland #FreeWhakes #ToriesSuck

Check out Emmit Other's poem!

https://poetizer.com/poem/567908095

Also, any book with black-billed magpies on the cover gets extra points from me.

#Bookstodon #OnceAndFuture #KieronGillen #DanMora #TamraBonvillain #Comics #GraphicNovel #KingArthur #Arthurian #Magpies #UniteAgainstBookBans

2/2

The most famous line associated with it - "Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower came" - may not even belong to the same story, as it's from King Lear, where it's given no context (although presumably refers to an existing legend in Shakespeare's day).

The most famous version of the story was published by Joseph Jacobs in "English Fairy Tales" (1890). However the earliest written version (and Jacobs's source) comes from Scotland in 1814, written down by antiquarian Robert Jamieson, who heard it as a child. Jamieson tied it to #Arthurian myth by making the siblings children of Arthur and Guinevere. He also mentioned the city of Carlisle as a setting, making this firmly a story of the borderlands, at least in Jamieson's version. There are also versions in Northumberland that link it to Bamburgh (Lancelot's Joyous Gard in local legend), and Merlin is said to haunt the Tweed valley.

The story bears resemblance to several Danish tales in existence by the 16th Century; however, some version of the story clearly already existed in England by 1606, when King Lear was published.

(Just to confuse things more, Robert Browning wrote a poem based on the Shakespeare line, which has no relation to the folktale, but which Jacobs drew on when he made the Elf King's home a 'Dark Tower'.)

I love the story more for its mystery and for its patched-together sources. That's what folklore's all about!

#MythologyMonday #folklore #northumberland #Scotland #ScottishLegend #Ballads #FolkTale

I'll be following the progress of this project: #Arthurian #Inklings

https://theoddestinkling.wordpress.com/2023/03/09/beginning-my-lifes-work/

One of my sub goals in QUEEN OF MERCY is getting Gawain to dunk on Lanceloch as much as possible, even when it's an Easter egg for #Arthurian nerds INSIDE the narrative.

Merlin

O Merlin in your crystal cave
Deep in the diamond of the day,
Will there ever be a singer
Whose music will smooth away
The furrow drawn by Adam’s finger
Across the memory and the wave?
Or a runner who’ll outrun
Man’s long shadow driving on,
Break through the gate of memory
And hang the apple on the tree?
Will your magic ever show
The sleeping bride shut in her bower,
The day wreathed in its mound of snow
and Time locked in his tower?

-- Edwin Muir

#Poetry #Arthurian #Fantasy