hypothetical scenario for you all: the real king arthur returns. you meet him and you welcome him into your home. what is the first thing you do with him? keep in mind, this is a man from the 500s (he died in 542), and you are from the 21st century (2024).
1. explain what a TV is
2. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
polyamory and bisexuality could have saved camelot
this was about king arthur & queen guinevere & lancelot in, like, le mort d'arthur I guess but people saying bbc arthur & gwen & merlin: yeah sure. them too.
anyway just a reminder for the myth lovers out there
king arthur was welsh. merlin was welsh. camelot was in wales. the lady and the lake she pops out of; welsh. excalibur; magic inanimate welsh object. etc.
on the way to see family, i drive past a lake that in which is welsh legend, is the last resting place of excalibur.
i’m just saying in my experience a lot of these legends had been so anglo-fied in the past and it’s like, all this cool shit is celtic welsh legend.
Arthur’s wife was called Gwenhwyfar first.
Like the kraken I emerge, summoned by the English theft of Arthur
Anyway it’s particularly irritating because traditional Welsh culture and beliefs have been so thoroughly stripped away and destroyed by England over the centuries, and Arthurian legend is one of the few surviving fragments we have left to preserve. And he’s specifically an anti-English figure. So the ubiquity of the boring and appropriative English Arthur across the whole fucking world is… Well, it’s not great.
This is so interesting! Does anyone know a good source/reading material where one could get more of the original Welsh versions of the stories?
The Mabinogion, translated by Sioned Davies is your best bet! It’s got a bunch of big-ass Welsh myths in, but most relevantly it includes Culhwch ac Olwen, which is a full-on Arthurian text (plus a couple of interesting ones).
There’s a whole bunch more that’s survived in fragments, but they’re all in Old Welsh - fully readable if you speak Welsh, but obviously not much use if you don’t (I don’t know if you do or not but from context I’m guessing not lol).
Trioedd Ynys Prydain (literally “the Triads of the Island of Britain”, though in English they’re usually called “the Welsh Triads”) are a huge collection of lists of three things from Welsh lore, including a lot of Arthurian lore. They’re not stories, but they contain fascinating allusions to stories, to whole strains of the Arthurian tradition, that we may or may not have elsewhere.
Absolutely fantastic addition, yes, Rachel Bronwich’s Triads are glorious.
You are Guinevere, Queen of the Britons and most beautiful woman in the known world. You were sold into a political marriage and queening is an arduous business. You could use some relief. Where do you turn for it?
Arthur
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Lancelot
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Gawain
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Mordred
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Agravain
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Gaheris
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Gareth
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Bors
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Galahad
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Percival
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Kay
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Tristan
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Dinadan
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Dagonet
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Bedivere
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Morgan le Fay
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OH MY FUCK GOD SHIT GREATEST MOMENT OF MY SHORT LIFE
when a cat likes you, its like being elected president.
when a bird likes you, its like being chosen King Arthur, ruler of albion, the once and future king, gifted with Excalibur, born of blood and magic
this year let's just wake up King Arthur that bitch been sleeping long enough
funniest thing would be if when Queen Elizabeth dies or steps down and Charles is all ready to assume the throne, here comes King Arthur, Excalibur in hand, sauntering back from Avalon like “oof what a nap! thanks for keeping the chair warm I’m back to be king again”
like, given that “King Arthur isn’t actually dead, he’ll be back to be King again someday” is, like, an actual aspect of the legend and a thing that a lot of people purport to believe, has anyone ever actually tried it? showing up to buckingham palace claiming to be Arthur Pendragon, The Once And Future King, and assume the throne? does the british government have a protocol for checking whether someone claiming to be King Arthur actually is? does parliament have a secret picture of the Real Excalibur kept under lock and key, only viewed if someone claims to be King Arthur, that they can use to confirm or refute the identity of alleged Kings Arthur? if not, how do they deter every jackass with a sward from pretending to be him? does filing a false King Arthur report constitute treason?
