Shiny!

Hey, all! Sorry I haven't been blogging lately...registration has been looming over me like a sinister Sword Bridge (yay, references!) but I'd never miss a blog post! What I wanted to talk about today was the parallels between The Lady of Shalott and the Passing of Arthur from The Idylls of the King. 
                First of all, Tennyson's writing is beautiful...so melancholy. There was one line that especially caught me eye from The Idylls of the King (around line 125):

"Thou wouldst betray me for the precious hilt;
Either from lust of gold, or like a girl
Valuing the giddy pleasure of the eyes"

In other words, Arthur is displeased with Sir Bedivere, so he's calling names. (I'm not sure if I'd be much better if my head was split.)

 Here is another section describing the appearance of Arthur's beloved sword (around line 51):


"There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
And o'er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work
Of subtlest jewellery. He gazed so long
That both his eyes were dazzled as he stood..."


As you can see, Excalibur is described as being bright like a star, leaving Bedivere in awe as a girl would be from seeing something pleasurable. (You know how us silly girls are...) 
 
Let's look at a girl he may have parallelism with in The Lady of Shalott:

"The gemmy bridle glitter'd free, 

Like to some branch of stars we see 

Hung in the golden Galaxy. 

The bridle bells rang merrily  85           

As he rode down to Camelot: 

And from his blazon'd baldric slung 

A mighty silver bugle hung, 

And as he rode his armour rung,            

Beside remote Shalott.  90  

All in the blue unclouded weather 

Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather, 

The helmet and the helmet-feather 

Burn'd like one burning flame together,            

As he rode down to Camelot.  95

As often thro' the purple night, 

Below the starry clusters bright, 

Some bearded meteor, trailing light,            

Moves over still Shalott.   

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd; 100

On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode; 

From underneath his helmet flow'd" 

 This is how The Lady of Shalott sees Lancelot. She is as much as in awe of Lancelot as Bedivere is in seeing Excalibur. But is it Excalibur himself (yes...I wrote like Tennyson!) that has Bedivere in awe, or is it what the sword is symbolizing:  King Arthur, The Round Table, and Camelot? Most importantly, King Arthur and his rein. In seeing Escalibur shine bright like a diamond (lol), Bedivere is filled with nostalgia of once was as The Lady of Shalott is filled with a similar emotion upon seeing Lancelot. This, of course, introduces the question on whether one can feel nostalgia for something he or she has never experienced?

Unless you just have a really bad memory like this character.

In seeing the beautiful, curly haired Lancelot, The Lady is filled with the sorrow of what could have been: a life of love, passion, and glory, possibly with him. When Bedivere feels sorrow at the idea of the end of the Round Table, it is because these knights have experienced love, passion, and glory together. While Bedivere may realize that throwing Excalibur in the lake will bring on the death of Arthur, The Lady of Shalott realizes that Lancelot may bring upon the death of herself.

"She has a lovely face."

Well that was philosophical. I feel like Cicero. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

 

The Passing of Arthur

     So it is a little late for me to start blogging, but better late than never.  I enjoyed the passing of Arthur, mainly because it brought about change.  I felt that this time period with Arthur as king was a great time of prosperity and triumph, but it was of tradition.  Yes traditions are great, but sometimes if that is all that is followed then there is no growth.  The kingdom would be stuck in a time where tradition ruled the day.  Like waiting for something to happen before anyone could eat diner, should had been a tradition that never even started.  If I'm hungry, I better be eating dinner with or without something happening.
     Now it is the end of King Arthur's reign and now he must give his sward back to the Lady of the Lake.  Reading this passage again, I took throwing the sward back into the lake as a chance of rebirth.  Merlin prophesied Arthur would come again, so I looked at this, that because it was his sward why not place it where no one else can get it.  Then when he comes again, go back and take the sward again.
     We also talked about in class how in line 155ish the sward became a "he", but Arthur describes it as a "he" first in like 36.  I think this is why Sir. Bedivere, and most likely other knight would call it a "he".  If their king did, then they would follow suit.
     For someone that is cut in the head, Arthur does a really good job at articulating specific details about the things Sir. Bedivere is supposed to see and hear when he throws the sward into the lake. Literally this would not be possible.  If concussions prevent people from articulating properly, then a wound "so deeply smitten through the helm" would certainly immobilize someone.
     So I ignored the reality and saw that the wound represented the inner battles Arthur faced during his life, and that's why the wound was so deep.  Giving up his sward represented accepting that his reign his over and that he is dead inside.
     The symbolism in Sir. Bedivere taking three times could be compared with the Jesus story with Peter denying knowing Jesus three times.  I interpreted it as Sir. Bedivere seeing the tradition of King Arthur's kingdom coming down, and all of the people they knew were dying or dead.  I didn't look at the multiple times meaning different things, but that he was conflicted.  If this was going to be the end of Arthur, he wanted to make sure it was the truth.
     At the end of the poem, there were three queens dressed in black.  There is the in three again in the poem.  I never fully understood why there needs to be threes, but there should have been one.  At the end the poem talks about the sun bringing in the New Year.  After thinking, to me it seems like this whole thing took place in the time of the celebrations Arthur would have.  That is just crappy timing for his court to have to say their goodbyes to their beloved king and have their first festival without him.  Well onwards and upwards and just like this poem is the end of a tradition, this is the end of my blog post.

Is That You, My Dear Sir?

                                             Lancelot in the movie Lancelot du Lac (1974)

I have always been intrigued by Lancelot in the legends of King Arthur. In all the compilations of movies that I have watched it was almost like all of these directors got together and had him drawn out and represented in the same way. He was the best sword fighter and lancer, the noblest of knights, and always had that darned beautiful flowing hair that will always rival all of his brother knights. Since I am very much obsessed with knights and their differences I sort of hone in on abnormalities or lack-thereof.

Although I first began to question everything I have ever known about Lancelot in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. In the Tale of the Sangreal, Lancelot's image changes drastically because through a series of steps it is shown that he is not  virtuous and sin-free beneath that hunk of shining armor.The people of King Arthur’s court have always been idolizing him; “Oh hey, Lancelot is beautiful, strong, and virtuous in every single way” that Lancelot’s core is never really talked about. I cannot really blame him, if people praised me every day I would probably get a little hot-headed too. The point is that in this tale Lancelot is not a golden pillar of greatness and being able to see his weaknesses helped to change my perspective on the knights I have filed away in my subconscious.

                                              Lancelot in the movie King Arthur (2004)

More recently discussed in class is the Sir Lancelot in regards to the Tennyson poem "The Lady of Shalott" in which he is once again that beautiful knight in shining armor that captures the heart of the lady toiling away in the tower. I know that technically Lancelot has nothing to do with the lady's foreboding death because he cannot help it if women fall for his pretty face and beautiful singing voice; however, it does put Lancelot in a bad light. At the end of the poem, he only glances at the poor lady's corpse which is "pretty" and she is put aside. Yet, he did not know the lady. I suppose Lancelot becomes a regular guy, and that in itself is upsetting because (in my mind) he was previously in a high place that was nearly otherworldly in virtue and bravery.



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The Squirrel of Shalott

So, my group was assigned the movie The Sword in the Stone to present on. Today, I decided to rewatch it and while watching it, I noticed a parallel between "Hazel" the squirrel and the Lady of Shalott. Although, I don't know whether or not she dies -although it eventually will happen- she reminds me of the Lady that spent her days weaving. During one part of the movie she runs up a tree and into a borrow in it, while watching this it really made me think of how the fair maiden spent her days weaving up in the castle.

Looking for love with Hazel

This was really cool to think about because in the scene prior Hazel was all over Arthur, and quickly fell in love with him. This for me also parallels The Lady of Shalott because when the Lady saw Lancelot she quickly fell in love with him and because of if eventually brought about her own death. I won't go as far to say the Hazel brought on her own death by falling for Arthur, but the parallels between the two events are really interesting to see, whether or not they were on purpose of not.

King Arthur's Death

The talk of the past few classes has been on the death of King Arthur. We discussed a few terms relating to the poem and my group and I's was elegy. I found that discussing this word and its meaning helped me to better understand the context of the poem. It is a type of poem or song that is generally very sad regarding ones death. In that case, it made reading this poem not so enjoyful at first. Compared to most of the other readings, we're used to battles and crazy, energetic things occurring. I believe all of those stories were mad to build up to this poem. It was almost a shock when reading the poem because of how gloom it was. However it was calming and left you feeling like things were coming to peace. We built up this respect and honor for King Arthur because of his heroic moments and victories that took place so when it came to his end, it would effect us readers more emotionally. His stories give us something to remember and I think it was smart to make his last story into a poem considering poems are genuinely more in depth and have some type of deep meaning behind them.

Looking In the Mirror: Allegory and the Lady of Shalott

A woman and her loom: weaving for economic independence

The “Lady of Shalott” looks into the mirror as she weaves,why?  Kathryn Sullivan Kruger tells us that weavers using certain types of looms face the back of their tapestries and gaze at the front side of the tapestry in the mirror  (Weaving the Word: The Metaphorics of Weaving and Female Textual Production).  Weaving on that  type of loom, the weavers see only a reflected image of the art that they are creating. They do not have a direct experience of the image.  Tennyson’s mirror metaphor is a cleaver spin, in this case weave, on the ancient “Allegory of the Cave” in Plato’s Republic. 

The weaver's focus is on the work in front of her.  Most of us are like the weaver.  We pay attention to what is  before us and call it real.

Plato’s metaphor likens people’s perception of reality to that of prisoners in a dark cave, chained tightly with their back to a low wall, and unable to turn around.  Their field of vision, their perceived reality, is limited to the reflected images that appear on the back wall of the cave or what is in front of them. This cartoon clip is a bit long but does a nice job of explaining the allegory of the cave.  .

What do we stare at? What is in front of our face, or the Lady’s face, that we call reality?  The Lady is staring at her life’s tapestry.  What do we focus on?  Like the Lady, we weave threads of thoughts and ideas into the fabric of our consciousness and daily lives.  What cave or tower are we trapped in?  Are we aware of our chains?  Are the images that we stare at so engaging that we have trouble taking our eyes away from them to turn around and look at the sun?  Do we find comfort and security in what is familiar?                                                    

Backs to the wall 

We might think that we are different from the Lady and perhaps we are. I suggest that we are unwilling to turn ourselves away from the projected and reflected images that capture our attention.  The Lady of Shalott was brave.  She dared to leave her tower and turn toward the unfamiliar. Venturing outside brought death.


Growing up, growing old, and death are all rites of passage.  Eventually we all die.  Turning away from what she was told to do and thinking  for herself might have been Tennyson's response to Kant's essay "Enlightenment."    Allegories provide multiple possibilities.

What would happen if we put aside our technology for a day or two, ventured outside, and  turned toward the sun?  

Chasing Ghosts: Leaving Behind White Harts, Hounds, and Hunting

Imagine hearing tales of a rare white creature coursing through the forest.  Might the ghostly animal seem magical or like some rare omen?  We've been given a glimpse of this in our readings this semester

So far, the stories up through Malory contain tales of knights on horseback hunting deer, fox, and boar with their hounds. The move past Malory and into the picturesque poetry of Tennyson appears to be a long ride away from the visceral images of battle 
fields and hunting. The first half of the Arthurian semester was blood splattered and littered with body parts.  There was one hunting term I needed to look up.  One of them was "hart." In this part of the country we tend to call male deer (OED) bucks. Harts tend to be over five years old so they are larger and have bigger racks or antlers.



It is the white hart of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur that captured my attention.  Do white deer exist?  I have seen white-tailed deer, I like to call them Maryland’s “suburban lawn rats,” but never an albino deer.  

White hart- a buck

On rare occasions, I have seen a piebald deer.  Piebald deer are white tailed deer that have  brown and white patches of hair.  They are not part albino but have a genetic anomaly  that may present with other physical defects.  Albino deer, white deer herds, and piebald deer are unusual for good reason.

Piebald deer

Piebald fox--genetically domesticated.  You can get one for about $8000!

Unless living in an area covered in snow most of the year, a white deer and piebald deer would be at an extreme disadvantage.  White coloration, or absence of color, makes animals easier to see—good for the predators, human or otherwise. Some animals become piebald when they become genetically domesticated. When foxes become domesticated, in as little as 20 generations, they become piebald.  

The knights in Arthurian legend, and in history, did indeed hunt on horseback and with hounds or “stag” hounds.  In the United Kingdom, hunting means hunting on horseback accompanied by dogs. Americans often think of this as simply fox hunting.  Hunting became illegal in  most of the UK around  2005.  It is still practiced in Northern Ireland.  People are still allowed to “stalk” game on foot and shoot game—there are regulations, restrictions, and seasons.  In the United States each state has their own hunting and licensing regulations.

 In my neighborhood, people still foxhunt.