Last Blog

Well, it is already the end of the semester. There have been many readings and assignments throughout the class, and many discussions as well. The projects in the class were fun, the papers were interesting, and the readings were both interesting and fun. Although some readings were long and others were short, they have all been interesting in some way or another. My favorite reading was a tie between Knight of the Cart and Avalon High. 

Knight of the Cart was a good reading to have in the beginning of the semester to introduce us to Lancelot-especially since toward the end a lot of people were tired of Lancelot. Knight of the Cart had everything I like in a book; it had action, adventure, romance, and a little mystery. My favorite part in the reading was the sword bridge scene because he crosses it without anything covering his hands and after he is across, he is ready to go. My second favorite part was the tournament scene where Guinevere tells Lancelot to "Do his worse," and he does. I liked this part because even though he is an amazing fighter, he holds back.

Avalon High was also my favorite reading in the class because it was a nice change in style. Although some of the parts in the story were a little cheesy, it was a fun book. Throughout the story, I was wondering when the characters finally find out who they are. I also loved all of the scenes with Marco in them. I especially liked the scene in the counseling center. I liked this scene because it had me thinking that Marco was going to do something to Will right then and there. But the best part for me in the book, in terms of both excitement and humor, was the final scene between Will, Marco, and Ellie. When I was reading it, I was excited to see how it would turn out, but I also laughed when Ellie gave the sword to Will and when Marco knelt down after seeing Will with the sword. I thought that it was funny that a guy with a gun was intimidated by a guy with a sword. This book was also my favorite reading because it was an easy read in terms that it took only a few hours to read the entire book. 

Over all, this class has been fun and informative. The projects were fun and interesting, especially the Arthur Goes to Hollywood project, the papers were thought provoking, and the readings were exciting. I also enjoyed the class discussions. The class discussions helped to understand the readings and also helped to see things in a different way. They also allowed us to engage in the class rather than only the professor speaking. 

And finally the blogs. The blogs also helped to engage us in discussion and to talk about and understand the readings that we have read. They also provide a way to revisit past readings and help to remind us what happened in each. These blogs have really helped me to understand some of the readings.

Now it is time for my last blog to come to an end. I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts and have enjoyed the conversations that have been held on them. I wish everyone good luck on their finals and hope everyone has a fun and safe summer vacation. So long Arthurians.

Very Interesting

So, the readings this week sure have been...interesting. These readings are definitely not what I thought we were going to be reading about in this class. At first, I thought we would be reading all about Arthur being King, Merlin being this amazing sorcerer, Lancelot being the best Knight ever, and the quest for the Holy Grail. I certainly did not think we would read about incest.
To tell the truth, when Dr. Mitchell-Buck told us that we were going to read about the conceiving of Modred and how it might be uncomfortable, I was only expecting a little bit of detail. However, when I was reading, I stopped about three or four times and said to myself, "What?" The description of their intercourse was more than I thought was going to be provided.
Another part that was disturbing was when the woman "probed" Morgaine to make sure she was a virgin.
When Arthur brought up that incident when he next saw her was weird. I do not understand how you would want to remember something like that.
Even though these parts were disturbing, I really enjoyed these readings. It was a nice break from the usual readings focused mainly on knights.

Feelings about Arthur

I am really looking forward to the readings next week. Ever since we read Idylls of the King, I have wanted to read what really happened to Arthur. Now that I know we are going to be reading about him next week, I am really excited.

When I was growing up, I thought of the Holy Grail and Merlin when I heard King Arthur. I also thought about Arthur pulling the sword from the stone. That is why I loved the readings from Book 1 in White's book. The details of Merlin's house painted a real life picture inside my head (although the long paragraph that detailed it was a little annoying). It was also nice to see an interaction between Merlin and Arthur for more than a few paragraphs. And the way Merlin is portrayed in this story is the way I have always thought of him. He is the guy who has things from the future, the guy who has moving furniture and dishes, who has a talking owl and glasses, and who is a tutor to Arthur. 

Also, growing up, I was under the impression that Arthur receives only one sword which is the sword that he pulls from the stone. But after taking this class I come to find out that there are two swords that are obtained in two different ways. 

The Death of a King

The poem about Arthur's death really grabbed my attention. For most of the class, we have been talking about knights more than Arthur, therefore, it was nice reading about Arthur for a change, even though it was mainly about throwing Excalibur in the lake and his death.
       The best part of the poem in my opinion is when Sir Bedivere goes before King Arthur for the second time after not throwing Excalibur into the lake and King Arthur threatening to kill Sir Bedivere if he does not do it the third time even though the King is dying from a mortal wound. I kept thinking, "what kind of power Arthur had that allowed him to keep on living with his body being so weak and injured?"
     The ending is also a very important part that i feel will eventually be brought back up later in the class and possibly in the readings. At the end, the poem says that the King vanishes into the light and the sun rises to bring the new year. The way that I see this, Arthur does not die, but is taken somewhere to be healed and then brought back in some point in the future to be king again. 
         Reading about Arthur was a nice change. Hopefully Arthur is brought back in some of our future readings.

The Lady of Shalott

This poem was interesting. I am not going to lie, I had a very hard time understanding what this poem was talking about. At first, I thought it was only talking about how Camelot looked and how the lady was floating down the river dead. After sitting in class and hearing it read aloud and discussing it as a group, I have a better understanding of the poem. Now that I know what it is about, I have a little more appreciation for this poem. I find the magic in this poem odd. The oddest part to me was the curse put on her that if she stopped weaving she would die. I want to know why this curse was put on her and who put it on her. And of coarse, Lancelot makes an appearance in the poem, and again, a girl falls in love with him. This is getting to be predictable. I understand Lancelot is an important part of Arthurian legend, but I would like to read more about other knights too. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a nice change in character. We should have more about him, as well as more about Arthur. You know, the guy whose name is in the class title?

Half Way Point

Well, we are half way through the semester. There have been projects, papers, readings, and discussions. My favorite reading from this semester is The Knight of the Cart. To me, this story held many of the elements that I thought of when I thought of King Arthur stories. It had fighting, magic, love, and obstacles. My favorite part was the part with Lancelot fighting in the tournament. I liked this part the best because of his determination to do whatever his beloved Guinevere asked or wanted. When she told him to "do his worst" he did, and when she told him to "do his best" he did as well. I also really enjoyed the part when Lancelot crossed the sword bridge. He was cut and bleeding but he never thought about it because he was thinking of Guinevere.
The projects were both fun and challenging. Arthur goes to Hollywood was fun because I really enjoy watching movies and television. It was also fun because I love things dealing with magic and otherworldly phenomenons and happenings which my assignment, Merlin 1998, had throughout. There were only a few reasons this project was hard. Those reasons are it was hard to find, it was on VHS so we had to fit in a small space in the library for three and a half hours, and it was hard trying to find a time that would work for all the group members to do the PowerPoint presentation. Other than that, this project was fun.
The paper was a fun assignment to think about. It made me think harder about the issue of courtly love. I had a little trouble getting started because I wasn't sure how I felt about courtly love. But, after reading more about courtly love and thinking a little more about it, I was able to find my standing point on the issue and was able to write the paper. The other negative thing about this paper was the timing. I had four projects other than the paper due that same day and two other projects due that week.
The discussions in this class are never flat. The discussions are always fun and informing (unlike some classes where it is only lecture after lecture). Discussions are always about the readings which are most of the time interesting. Unlike some classes in college, it is not only the professor talking, it is also the students. This gives us more chances of learning the information and also keeps our interest and attention. Most of the time I have questions about the readings from the night before, but hearing the professor AND classmates,  I have almost all of my questions answered.
I am not going to lie, I thought this class was going to be difficult and a time consumer. But this first half of the semester has proved me wrong. I am really enjoying this class and it is not taking up too much of my time. It is also not that difficult as long as you keep up with the readings and assignments. I am glad that I signed up for this class and am looking forward to the second half of the semester.

I have been really enjoying the readings in this class so far. Usually I hate reading for classes, but these readings are what interest me so it is less of a  chore. There are two readings that have really been fun to read. They are,The Knight of the Cart and The Saga of the Mantle. The Knight of the Cart had me from the first three pages. Every page made me want to keep reading to find out what happened next. Since I talked about the first part of this story in my last blog, I will talk about the second half this time briefly. The parts that I found the most interesting were the parts with Meleagant. Even though Meleagant's father, King Bademagu, refused to give aid or assistance to him in fighting Lancelot, Meleagant still wanted to fight. Throughout the story he  wants to fight Lancelot and always his father says he is alone. Going off of that, the part where Meleagant walks into the room where Kay and Guinevere sleep, he sees blood on both Kay's and Guinevere's sheets and immediately wants to have Kay killed. This just shows that Meleagant is always wanting to fight and always ready for someone to die. One part that I found confusing at first is after Lancelot has come all the way from Arthur's court and after going through many obstacles and fighting many opponents, Guinevere doesn't want anything to do with him. At first this just gave  me a big slap in the face because I was expecting her to throw her arms around him and thank him justly, but instead she turns and walks away. After reading further I came to find out why she did this, but it still seemed weird to me. One aspect of Lancelot that I admire is he always keeps his word. The Saga of the Mantle, at first, was a little slow. But after the women start to put on the mantle it becomes interesting. At first, the women do not know that the mantle will reveal whether they have been faithful or not. But after some have tried it on,they find out that it tells if they have or have not. Despite knowing what it will do, all of the women still put the mantle on. Throughout the story I was thinking that at least one would be found to have been faithful but instead there were none. It was only at the very end that a girl is found in a room alone and brought to the mantle that someone was found pure. This was interesting because until I read this I thought that women in this time period were going to be very faithful to their men. These are, to me, the most interesting readings so far.

The Knight of the Cart

I don't know about anyone else, but this reading was fantastic. There were numerous parts in the story that brought to life what I had imagined this time period being like. For instance, the part in the story where Lancelot jousted with his opponent. To me, jousting comes to mind every time I here the word "knight". Also the loyalty that is shown throughout the story is something that comes to mind when I think of knights. The story also captured my interest because of the way it was written. The way the that it was written using both old and modern day language helped to better understand it whereas other texts with related material might be written in a way that is hard to read and understand because of the style of language it is written in. The parts that I find the most interesting is the part where the women is supposedly being raped. At first when Lancelot arrives at the woman's home she tells him that no one else besides she lives there. Then a few paragraphs later there are men all around her. But that is still not the part that I find interesting. Lancelot begins to fight the men and is cut by an ax. He then ends up killing one of the men. Again, this is not the part that I find the most interesting. the part that i find interesting is that after Lancelot is injured and after he kills a guy, the women dismisses the men who were attacking her and tells the knight that he has nothing to worry about. I find this interesting because since she dismisses the men, that means that they were under her command. Not only did Lancelot become injured in the "fight", but one of the men died. I interpreted this as an order that was given knowing that someone might be injured or even killed. That is amazing that someone could be so loyal to someone. The other part I enjoyed was the sword bridge section. In the beginning when they said that the bridge was called sword bridge, I had no idea that it was an actual sword. I loved the part where Lancelot  took his armor from his hands and feet off. It was an actual sword and he takes of his armor. Granted, it was in order to get a better grip, but still that is insane. 

 

Even though we have only read a handful of pages so far this semester, it has given me an idea of this class. For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in the tales of the Knights of the Round Table, Merlin, The Holy Grail, and Arthur himself. So far these readings have mentioned pretty much all of these things. Therefore, I have a feeling that I am really going to like this class. The readings thus far have been interesting. The parts of the readings that I found fascinating are the dog print on the rock and the size of the bone and skull of Arthur. The fact that the rock cannot be taken from the top because the paw print will always return to that spot is very intriguing. Also the idea that his shine bone reached above the knee of the tallest man is an extraordinary idea. These  readings are great examples of why I chose to  take this class.