New Age Arthur

Times pass and finally we have reached the time in which is relatable to all of us while we decipher the riddle of King Arthur. I find it refreshing the different perspective that is shown throughout the story. The point of view that only lasted a few pages when reading about it in Tennyson and now it is one of the strongest personalities in the book. Or so it is written. The thoughts that are followed are one of a modern teenager that allows for the rerlatablility.

This is different that the "Knight Life" reading where they remembered who they were and what they were fighting for. I am anxious to know if the other knights of the round table will show themselves later in the novel. Lancealot and Gwen (Lance and Jennifer) are worse than they were 2,000 years ago when they first fell in love. The queen could've exactly leave her castle without an uproar (though it kinda happened anyway) however in this time they decided to be intimate in the very house of the supposed Arthur reincarnation. And what's up with his dad? Is all that true? And it does sound like something Uther would do for me.

Though the Lady of Shalott was a different person back in the day, I feel as if there are still similatires between the old and new. For example, the weaving that she does, she does not exactly spend her time weaving an intracite tapestry, she does weave herself into a sticky situation. She isolates herself such as the Lady of Shalott was isolated in her tower. It is interesting because of the seemingly oppisite personalities.

True Love and a Villain worth hating (or is it...)

Finally! The story we have all been waiting for! At least, this seems to be the story for which I have been waiting. Despite all the magic, love and friendship that abounds in every King Arthur tale, it always felt as thought something was missing. I think what has been bothering me about previous works is two-fold.

Firstly, the fact that much of the love we see in the legends is wrong somehow. Sometimes it is a king impersonating and then killing his vassal to get  the vassal's wife. Or the time King Arthur was attracted to (some say in love with) his sister, which led to disastrous incest. Even Guinevere and Lancelot, who love Arthur, are not honorable at all when they break all kinds of vows and rules to have their love affair. Some of that "wrong" love is preserved in Avalon High, in Lance and Jenny's relationship, and the whole shadowy matter of  Will's (a.k.a Arthur's) father having killed his friend to marry his wife. But, this time, it seems like the main love story does not have that element of "wrongness." If Ellie and Will's relationship progresses the way it has been, and the two end up together, it will be for all the right reasons. Ellie falls for Will because he sticks up for the underdog, because he is kind, and funny. Plus, after she falls for him, she does nothing to steal him away from his girlfriend. She does not pine ridiculously, she does not starve herself to death, she makes the decision to be the girl that makes him laugh-despite the facts that it hurts to see him with his girlfriend and that her friend told her about "guys not falling in love with girls that make them laugh" (Cabot 88).

The other thing that always seemed a little strange to me about the King Arthur stories of the past was the simplicity of the villains. For the majority of the stories, villains were bad because they were inherently evil. Giants and dwarfs were always villainous, because of course if one fails to be of average size, they are evil. And evil knights like Meleagant have no reason for being bad. I like that this story moves away from making the villains so simple. It appears that Marco, (an incarnation of  Mordred, perhaps) is to be the villain of this story. If Marco is the villain, I will have no trouble accepting his role. Marco has every reason to be a villain. He grew up with nothing, he just lost his father and had to uproot his life soon after to live with a perfect stepbrother and strict Stepfather. Then he finds out that his perfect stepbrother is really his half-brother (a fact hidden from him by his only remaining parent) and that his Stepfather may have had his Father killed in order to marry his mother.

Poor Marco, he has no Timon and Pumbaa to keep him from the Dark Side.

 If half of all that happened to me, I would most definitely be a villain. Not to mention the fact that a villain whose actions may be justified makes things a little more complex for the reader. Do we hate the villain as the enemy of the hero? Or do we sympathize?

See you in our next incarnation,

Lady Bertilak

All quotations taken from Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Pictures:
http://roflhumor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/crocs.jpg

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King Arthur is a High School Jock!

How do you like King Arthur as a high school quarterback? I do. This new characterization of Arthur as A. William Wagner is another opportunity for our great king to demonstrate strong moral qualities—what we called chivalry back in medieval times.  For instance, look at the way Will stood up for the class geek outside of Mr. Morton’s class. I could have cheered. Even though we who have known Arthur for a number of centuries have become used to his acts of honor, it is refreshing to see him take command of a situation in modern times. Seeing Arthur as a high school quarterback is almost as if he is born again to delight us again.

This time our great king has a woman as devoted to him as he is to his brother, his father, his team mates, and his school mates. Ellie has good taste. She knows instinctively that Will is a good man, and I am not surprised that she falls for him. What an interesting twist to this old familiar story that Elaine (Ellie) has not chosen Lancelot (Lance) to whom to give her love. Perhaps this new version of Lancelot is not as dreamy as the older version. I wish I could say that Will has good taste in women, but I cannot. What is it about Guinevere (Jen) that even after fifteen hundred years, he still falls for her only to be hurt by her?

However, I must say that I am intrigued by Will’s attraction to Ellie. Is he, after all these centuries, finally able to appreciate moral goodness to match his own in a woman? If Ellie is able to stay close to Will and to protect him from the forces of evil that seem to be around him, maybe there will be a better outcome to our king’s life. The presence of water and all the floating that happens—on an inflatable raft or on a sailboat—is a clever connection with Tennyson’s beautiful poem. It is pleasing to imagine that The Lady of Shalott may not only reach Camelot alive, but may also do some good for its inhabitants.   

My heart goes out to Marco. Even though he is a bitter young man and seems determined to hurt Will, I believe that his character could be improved with professional counseling and with a good woman of his own—someone like Ellie. After all, think of what he has endured. He has seen his father die under questionable circumstances and his mother marry the man either directly or indirectly responsible for the loss of his father. 

May the blessings of Camelot be with you all.

Bertilak.

I Am Not That Crazy

Hello my beauties!

When reading about the story that comes along with the Mists of Avalon, I really only had one thought: I'm not as crazy as you all think! Morgaine is absolutely psychotic, and she can never seem to have any romantic thoughts about anyone who doesn't share her blood. You cannot possibly justify that to me in any way, so I'm just going to go ahead and say that Morgaine is crazier than me, which is really a breath of fresh air.

Can we also just touch upon the fact that she made this crazy sword out of nowhere? So she's really not only crazy, she's a blacksmith with crazy good skills to make a weapon so powerful. Part of me wishes I could get my hands on a sword like that in order to take out Guinevere... But alas, I cannot do so. Plus, I think I wouldn't really be making my point of sanity if I went out and chopped the woman's head off. But hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

Ahh well, I do have to say that I have taken a liking to Morgaine. She makes me seem like a pleasantly normal woman, and I can really get behind that idea. Cheers girl, maybe we can go out and get mutton sometime.

Love and lilies,
Elaine of Astolat

The Weirdness of Avalon

I am so glad that I do not live on Avalon… Seriously, what the hell were these people drugging themselves with? Morgaine starves herself and drugs herself enough to have some sketchy visions, wander around in a trance-like state, and not recognize her own brother. Morgaine really seems to have something for her family members. She was crazy about her cousin Galahad/Lancelet, and now she (temporarily at least) wants her brother. We have yet to see her be attracted to anyone who is not related to her. While reading the story, I was completely expecting this Horned God to be Morgaine’s cousin Galahad/Lancelet. Of course, that would not have been creepy enough so she had to upgrade to her brother. This whole ordeal seems to have thoroughly messed up Arthur too, since he seems to still view Morgaine now as a ‘woman’ rather than a goddess.

            It seems odd that there is only one sword/sheath like the one Morgaine made for Arthur. For a sword that epic, I was expecting it to need the blood sacrifice of 1000 men and a dragon’s breath or something along those lines to be created. Instead, Morgaine just has to do a bit of magic and not talk for a little while. This seems comparatively easy, so why doesn’t she give Arthur’s knights a bunch of these swords? At the very least, why not give them to Galahad/Lancelet since he is her family. Perhaps she did give him one, which might explain some of his crazy fighting skills. However, I suppose it would not help him taking down a knight with a wooden stool, so, regardless of whether she gave him one, he is a great warrior.

It was also interesting that Morgaine addresses Arthur as Gwydion. I do not recall this name being mentioned in any of the other texts. Based on the previous reading, those of Avalon have some belief that knowing the true name of someone gives power over that person. This obviously leads me to wish that I had known Arthur’s true name while I was alive so that I might have had him command his knights not to pursue me. Alas, I was not so fortunate.

Meleagant

Yikes x3

Greetings to all,

This was a rather interesting story. One that I can say was filled with some surprises and let's be honest it gets a little weird. I don't even wanna go into detail about all the suspect actions by some women such as drugging each other, prophecies, blood rituals, and sacrifices.  To start things off what is it with Arthur? Does he enjoy being put in such awkward positions? The man is supposed to be a King, sure I can understand his sexual urge, but come on now this crosses way to many lines. I'd honestly be shocked to hear someone say this isn't absurd regardless of the situation or circumstances. However, this brings me to my next point, when did it become a good idea for people to have sex with what is seemingly a horned being or the fact that it was a random person. I can't understand this solely because it's rather creepy. Hey, maybe she was into that kind of thing I don't know. This is not really my place to judge, but I think I may have to judge her based on her decision making. It is very poor to say the least. Who the hell has sex in a cave. The negative potential is very high. It could be dirty, filled with rodents, insects and anything else that would reside inside caves. It's just all a little to creepy and if I may say un real. Honestly, these types of actions taken by Arthur don’t surprise me even a little. Shit, I don't know if the man is my uncle or my father. He's very out here in terms of reckless acts. I for one can't see how he is worthy of being a king and I'm sure others would agree. “Yikes” is about the only thing that can sum up this entire ordeal.

Best Regard,
Mordred

Ps. I still don't know if Arthur is my dad or uncle :(

Horned and Horny

To be quite honest, I never realized how awfully insane our traditional rituals sound on paper. I can assure you, we are not the drug addicted, incest encouraging people you must think us to be after such a tale. Sure, some of our customs are a little...what's the phrase...fucked up? Like, what kind of drugs are we on when we think smearing the blood of a deer on someone's nipples is somehow normal, sanitary, and symbolic of virginity? Well, it's not like that. Our incest-born children will have some problems, so we figure we might as well get some too by just putting a bunch of blood all over ourselves. I'm kidding! You have to at least give us credit for the symbolism we incorporate that really does make sense, such as stringing crimson berries at a virgin's loins. I know you're imagining fruity look-alike christmas-lights tied at her who-knows-what, but it really is a beautiful, spiritual, and just plain creative kind of thing.

I wish it weren't so that Morgaine discovers she slept with her brother, let alone lost her virginity to him, and I especially wish it weren't so that Morgaine discovers this when she is still laying naked with him...in the cave. Why do we have them make love in a cave again? Isn't it cold? I don't know - never mind. My point is that young people don't really need to know everything because they'll only learn it effectively in time. This is similar to the philosophy I had in my telling Morgaine when she reached a stage where obedience could be tempered with her own judgement. Morgaine is a smart girl, and Arthur is even smarter, so I know they'll fare well. It is a little funny though because today is apparently National Siblings Day...Cheers to you, Morgaine and Arthur!

And if she hasn't gotten enough of Arthur's swords, I give her the noble task of fashioning a scabbard for a sword soon-to-be his with boundless spells to prevent him from shedding blood (because there has been more than enough blood involved in this so far). Of course, she doesn't initially know the sword will be Arthur's, and she wonders why I give her this task because, still, she does not fully understand what she means for Avalon. Regardless, the Goddess works through her hands; Morgaine remains focused and tranquil while completing the task. I like how she says nothing until she says, "It is done," as if she were a college student writing the same agonizing history essay from 8pm to 2am without getting up to go to the bathroom, and there aren't any snacks in the house or anything. I digress, but she had food and water, and she had a whole room full of people to help her out, so it wasn't that bad.

What is bad, however, is how Arthur is basically attached to his sister in the worst way possible - because she took his virginity? Although, he'd probably do and say the same things if neither of them were virgins when it happened. Let's be real, Arthur is just an emotional guy, but he's still pretty weird about it too. "Come to my crowning if you can, sister," he says while gently kissing her hand and probably pausing creepily before "sister" to look up at her with seductive eyes. Ew! I'm out!

Until next time,

Viviane

P.S. Doesn't Morgaine's legend kind of remind you of the Avatar? She even has the blue tattoos to match. I know they made some female version as a sequel to the real deal, but let's just forget about that.

Source:

The Mists of Avalon