At Least Romeo and Juliet Got to Hang Out

    I feel bad for the Lady of Shalott. The entire story it feels like she just always had it bad for no real reason. No one knows her, she can’t leave her weaving or interact with the real world in any way, yet she has a mirror that lets her see what she is missing out on. I think the mirror poses a very interesting question: If she didn’t have that mirror she wouldn’t know any better and would live in a sort of ignorant bliss, weaving because it’s all she’s ever known. So did she need to have the mirror? Obviously for the story she did, but what about in a different situation. Is it better to keep someone in the dark to prevent them from pain? Personally I don’t think so, but that’s the question that popped into my head as I read this.

    While the story is sad, I also find it very dramatic. The story is driving home a point, but this girl has never even MET Lancelot and is so hung up that she curses herself and dies over this man in a mirror. Love at first sight is something I understand, that’s a very common occurrence in stories. I’ve even watched it happen in real life. But to die… that’s a whole new level. Lancelot never saw her, never knew her, yet she died over him. This wasn’t protecting someone you love, or sacrificing yourself for them. No, to me her death was because she decided her life that she had been living wasn’t worth living anymore. Lancelot was merely the tipping point.

    To want a new life and to throw your old one away is a feeling that I think many people have and can relate to. This story is dramatic because it’s a metaphor for lost love, for the ones that got away. I don’t know if I can agree that death should ever be an escape, but I do understand that life can feel unbearable sometimes. For the Lady of Shalott there could be no light at the end of the tunnel, but I’d hope for anyone reading this that they know for people that aren’t cursed there is always a light, you just don’t always know when it’s going to shine.

Avalon High... oh High School

First off, I love this book so much. I have read it multiple time before and I have been looking forward to reading it since I found out it was on our reading list for the semester. I love the way this book is written, its really funny and interacts with the reader. The character of Ellie is wonderful; she is very easy to relate to; she is a regular high school just like I was. She feels like her crush on the hottest, most popular guy in school is a waste of her time. In a way I love the way that Cabot works the cliche in a wonderful light. There's the quarterback dating the cheerleader. He has a dysfunctional home life and finds relief in hanging out with new girl. It is so typically high school or rather the high school we find in novels. I really love Will, he is my perfect Arthur. He's nice and strong and a great leader. The defends the weak and supports the strong and still finds time to be a smart guy. I have always loved the character of Lance and his romance with Jen. I feel like this book is the reason the "real" Lancelot was so heartbreaking and hard to deal with for me. If I had not been exposed to Lance I would have felt different about Lancelot. Will and Ellie make me remember the beginning of my relationship with my fiancé in high school, the way she thinks about him and talks about him makes me smile and remember how good that part of high school. Ellie and Will are exactly what every high school couple aspires to be and I can't let go of high school me when I read this book and it adds so much to the memories. 

This is 4 of 5

"I'm No Superman"

How many times have we found ourselves saying, "I totally wouldn't do that" or "Well, it's different for me because...?" It's easy for us to criticize things when we are on the outside looking in, and then find it quite humbling when we are in a similar situation. Many people have found Morgaine's behavior in The Mists of Avalon less than admirable. What happened to that strong, athletic girl who kicked Lancelot's butt at hiking and won our hearts for it? How come the girl who shamelessly showed off her legs is now yearning to cover them...and all because of a guy? What happened to our heroine? A girl worth admiring should be tough, ruthless, and too confident take any negativity from anybody. Right?

Wrong. Girls have feelings. People having feelings, and Morgaine knows it. Consider the passage at the very beginning of the section,

"Anger was mixed with affection, to neither of which she was allowed to give voice, and it did strange things to her mind. She wondered at herself, because she had been taught to control her emotions as she controlled her words and even her thoughts."

Morgaine knew she was imperfect. She felt anger, she felt conflicted, and in this way it makes me love her more when she has her moments of confidence. Morgaine is a real woman, and in this way I feel that the story is more feminist than if she was written as an untouchable, godly figure. Similar to many girls, including me (especially me...) she is smart, skilled, and special, but resorts to self loathing when the man she likes rejects her for somebody...prettier.

The Ugly Duckling

I don't know about many of you, but my mind immediately went to middle and high school during this part of the story. (Time to recall blocked out memories...yay!) How many of us have been given attention by that special person? How many of us have skipped home from the bus stop because the cutest person in the world looked in our direction, smiled at us, asked to be our partner for a project? And how many of us have ran home crying when that person has chosen someone else over us, especially when we feel that their new sweetheart is better than who we could ever be?

Luckily, not all guys are like this

 There's a complete change in emotions when this happens. One day you feel like you're walking on air, and the next you're noticing every flaw you have...the zit on your nose, your awkward hair, your extra fat, or lack of. Our self image, which should be dependent on ourselves, is dependent on the other person. And while this is wrong, while we look back at our younger selves and laugh, many of us are prone to doing it even today. I'm not calling us Hood College Arthurians needy, whiny people, I'm just saying we are human. And that when Morgaine is filled with sorrow, she is being human too.

It's this human side in characters that I love. It was brought out in Morgaine's flirtiness, her desires, her dreams, and in her shame. It was brought out in a fallen Arthur, asking the million dollar question, "Are people truly good?"  

Love, Lancelot, Guinevere, and Fate

So at the beginning of this class, Lancelot was my favorite knight, he was strong and mighty and being a sucker for romance his affair with Guinevere intrigued me. The story of the Knight of the Cart kept this view of Lancelot for me. In a previous post I mentioned the couple reminded me of Will and Jocelyn from the movie A Knights Tale. I loved his devotion to her and how their love was strong and true. As we progressed my opinions began to change. The biggest change occurred when my group did our project on Camelot. Seeing the illicit affair and the hurt it gave Arthur on the screen started to sour me to their epic romance and love. In most tales featuring their affair at the forefront up until I watched that had little to do with Arthur or his feelings. Watching him love both Lance and Jenny and get hurt by both of them made me hate their relationship. I realized as I read the end of Once and Future King that what really made me hate the character of Lancelot and his relationship with Guinevere was not only that I saw its affect on Arthur that made me not like it; it was the songs! They annoyed me with their constant singing and I just wanted them to go away and stop! As we read Once and Future King my warm feelings towards them began to come back, i'm not sure how much of it had to do with the fact that Lancelot was indeed ugly in this, so I saw real true love in their affair. I skimmed some of the chapters before this morning and saw some of the tenderness they felt for each other. I then rethought their on screen love in Camelot, minus the songs, and saw some of the same tenderness. I fully believe as I stated in class that Lancelot and Guinevere are fated and destined to be together, this however does not mean that they do not have free will. They used this free will to make some really bad decisions, they could have run when they fell in love instead of waiting 15 years, but you know what people say "You do stupid things when you're in love". Not only was their judgement blinded by their love, I think they could not leave Arthur. Lance loved Arthur, it was his best friend who had trusted him and they had been friends for years. Guinevere was Arthur's wife, whether she ever loved him, I'm not really sure but she did care for him. I feel like you cannot have some kind of care for the person you have been married to for years and especially if that person has helped you run a kingdom. I think their loyalty to Arthur kept them from running and that shows more about their character than the fact that they did not try and circumvent their destiny, as we saw so many try to do only to end up in the same place.

This is 2 of 5

Guinevere's Comb

Valentine's day weekend and courtly love--isn't that like a perfectly exaggerated "Hallmark" greeting card? Reds and pinks, ribbons and lace, hearts and cupids, decorating sentiments of "I'll always love you," or better yet "forever true."  A love like Lancelot's love will suffer, bleed, sigh, and swoon for his true love.  Our recent reading of Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot or The Knight of the Cart arrived with the Mylar balloons,  aisles of chocolates, and fresh cut flowers of Valentine's day.  People still long for romance.

After reading Kellen's  blog, especially her comments on Lancelot's obsession with his beloved's hair,  I couldn't resist posting some pictures of Victorian hair and mourning jewelry.  Hair of a loved one has captured romantic fancies for centuries. The first time  I saw a piece of hair jewelry it looked very much like the plain necklace pictured here.  It was owned by a family member. Imagine wearing a hair necklace, someone else's hair, next to the skin.  How close would you have to be to a person to wear his or her hair--intimate?






Narratives and myths featuring hair have captured the imagination of audiences for thousands of years.  Samson lost his strength when his hair was cut. Rapunzel  had trailing tresses.  Finding Guinevere's comb, Lancelot delights in touching pieces of her hair.   For Lancelot, there is power in her hair.

 Hair from St. Therese of Lisieux 

Saving a lock of a loved one's hair might be considered a sentimental gesture.  A mother might save a lock of her child's hair along with baby teeth the "Tooth Fairy" overlooked.  Celebrity hair clippings sell for high prices at auction.  According to the NY Times, a lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair sold for over $38,000.  In ancient Christianity, the hair from a saint would be considered a  relic--imbued with powers to heal or protect. In recent history a large clump of St Therese of Lisieux hair was saved for posterity (died 1897).  What better way to keep a treasure than in a picture frame or crafted into jewelry?  

Abraham Lincoln's Lock

Some of pieces of hair jewelry are very elaborate others are simple. Keep a piece of your dearly departed close; have jewelry made from a loved one's hair.  Wouldn't Lancelot have taken the hair from his queen's comb and tucked it in a safe place?  Romantic love wouldn't allow Lancelot  to leave Guinevere's comb or  golden hairs behind.