A Little Incest Never Hurt Anyone

    Seeing women in power was a nice change in Mists of Avalon. In basically all of the stories during this time period women are depicted as weak, dependent, or evil. To see women as priestesses and to have a female goddess is a big step forward in how women can be viewed in a positive light. Of course this story came well after the first Arthurian tales, and women’s rights movements have made a little progress since then.

    Unfortunately, the animalistic rituals and incest kind of dominated this story and were hard to overlook. Obviously the title of this post is wrong and incest causes serious issues over time. However, before medical research, incest was the easiest way to keep bloodlines pure and keep royalty in power, so it was a very common occurrence. What is shocking though is that brother and sister relationships were never ok. Despite this, Viviane sets up the fertility ritual knowing that Morgaine is being given to Arthur. Just as concerning as the incest portrayed is whatever drugs are used in these rituals. Not only are drugs dangerous, but they are being given to children! Whatever effect they would have on a full grown adult will only be multiplied in kids. I know this is before medical research, but man that’s irresponsible.

    As a side note, I thought it was really funny when Merlin asks Arthur if he prefers the sword or the scabbard. Arthur chooses the sword and Merlin is like yeah but seriously keep the scabbard. I think this is a very typical response of someone younger versus someone older.

Overall this was an interesting twist on the conception of Mordred and on depicting women in a different light than usual. Yes it got weird, but the story itself was enjoyable. I just never want to accidently stumble into Avalon if that’s what they do over there.

Farewell, King Arthur! But not forever

Guys, we are in the home stretch! We are almost finished our course on King Arthur (save the final). We have learned about Arthur as a tall, huge, amazing, studly man, as well as Arthur as the small, scrawny, yet inquisitive boy, Wart. And of course, let's not forget the Arthur in Knight Life, a character I imagine being played by Paul Hogan, Crocodile Dundee style.

Replace the knife with Excalibur and you're good to go. I dunno, it just seems like the whole "outsider dropped into the city" type thing is similar to Crocodile Dundee, a movie that came out just before Knight Life was published.

 Who was my favorite Arthur? Definitely the endearing Wart, willing to learn and reminiscent of anyone's childhood, when everything was fresh and new.Who was yours? Was Arthur even your favorite character?

 Call it strange, but while I found Arthur from Once and Future King perfectly endearing, Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon was a close second when it came to favorite characters! I found myself constantly relating to her. She is strong, and perfectly capable of being powerful on her own, but she has flaws as well. The Mists of Avalon was enjoyable to read in the fact that the women were powerful in their own feminine positions, instead of being is masculine positions.

Image from http://dravite.wordpress.com/tag/morgaine/

I also loved The Lady of Shalott. She is such an enigma, and is symbolic for many emotions that women (and men) have felt in history: temptation, the desire to be noticed, loved, appreciated in one's community.

By John Atkinson...how very funny that the skyline looks Victorian! *hint hint*

Why is Arthur still enjoyable to read about today? What do you think? Is it because everyone needs a hero to look up to: that strong Arthur that looked down at the tallest man anyone would know,the Arthur who killed many men with a whack of his sword, the military leader, the fair diplomat, the friend? Is it because people need to know that seemingly untouchable figures have their own crutches: the nervous Arthur who always consults Merlin, Arthur, a man whose in denial that his best friend is sleeping with his wife? Arthur, the uncle and father (need I say more), who brings his own downfall by having a bastard son. Arthur is a character with many sides...he's been painted as a god in old writings, but his crutches, physical and mental, have been brought out in later texts. Perhaps we can pity him, love him, learn from his wisdom and his mistakes. Perhaps we can ponder on the question he asks upon his death, "Are people truly good?" Arthur is special because he makes people yearn for an age that never existed, an age of knights in shining armor, spells, strength, and insurmountable glory.   

Umm...

So, the readings this week have been very interesting. The first reading, which I missed the class discussion on, was pretty intriguing to me. I thought that it was interesting that even though Morgaine is a woman she very strong to be able to compete and win against Lancelet. Through out the first text the feminist point of view can be seen. This is most prevalent in the belief that before religion came to Avalon the fairies ruled and their leader was a woman. The fact that the fairy leader was a woman was pretty cool just because you always here of men being the ruler not the woman. Also, this made me think too. I'm not to religious but what if the god that christians pray to is not a man as so assumed by the use of male pronouns. What if God is a female? That would completely turn our male normative society on it's head and cause a strife. Overall, it was really nice to read something that offered a different point of view and challenged the standard of how we read King Arthur.