Things Arthurian
GAH! Back one day and Gawain is having a stroke! That's terrible!
Okay, so, it's the author's way of solving a problem that I'm actually also having, which is this. Given how completely and unutterably awesome Gawain has been thus far, how can he fulfill the somewhat negative roles he has to take on in the last chapter of the story? His answer seems to be: brain damage. As for my answer...well, I'm sure when I figure one out y'all will be the first to know, but it will almost certainly involve a crisis of chivalry of some sort. (It's like his thing).
But it makes me saaaaaad because I love Gawain and I especially love how he's been in AKOTAS up until now.
In related news, Erin came by today and lent me her copy of the Alliterative Morte d'Arthur. This is a Middle English poem which is not related to Mallory at all - in fact, it's mostly a take off on the Geoffrey. And in particular the part of the Geoffry I've been particularly interested in lately - the Roman campaign and its aftermath (which, in the Geoffrey, is Mordred's rebellion and the battle of Camlann). Also, like the Geoffrey, it apparently makes reference to Mordred's kids.
SO. Mordred's got kids. Did you know that Mordred had kids? I didn't know that Mordred had kids.
But anyway, they're in Geoffrey, and they get murdered in churches by Constantine III after Arthur and Mordred have killed each other. Geoffrey doesn't say where Morded got them, of course, but since he's been living "adulterously and out of wedlock" with Guenivere, there's a good bet (although wouldn't they then be waaaay too young?) In the Alliterative Morte, I have been told, they're explicitly Guenivere's kids. This is convenient for me at least. Maybe it'll also explain how they manage to be adults by Camlann.
I'm not that far into the Alliterative Morte yet - a coupla pages, and it's been mostly the sorts of descriptions of food that George R. R. Martin would be proud of. It also has the weirdest version of the Guenivere name I've ever encountered: Dame Weynor. She just came in with Gawain, where I am. It took me forever to figure out that's who she was supposed to be - at first I thought they'd actually given a name and role to Gawain's wife, which would have been even more bizarre. And I know that Gawain is often W'd for alliterative purposes, but the W in Weynor is not alliterative. So yeah. That was weird.
I also learned that the Clodas plot in The Lance Thrower actually does have medieval sources, and was not just made up by Jack Whyte in order to give Lancelot Clothar something to do before he goes to Britain.
Which reminds me. I need to make up something for Mordred to do with the first N years of his life before he goes to Camelot. In particular, before he goes to France. And I don't really have the AKOTAS option of having him play Cool Older Brother to Galahad. (It's impressive, the number of ways Galahad is not in my story.) Little Mordred playing Cool Older Brother to Little Galahad in the contemporary arc of AKOTAS is one of the Best Things Ever.
I still have not seen the Starz "Camelot" series. But there are new episodes of Merlin up! Huzzah!
Okay, so, it's the author's way of solving a problem that I'm actually also having, which is this. Given how completely and unutterably awesome Gawain has been thus far, how can he fulfill the somewhat negative roles he has to take on in the last chapter of the story? His answer seems to be: brain damage. As for my answer...well, I'm sure when I figure one out y'all will be the first to know, but it will almost certainly involve a crisis of chivalry of some sort. (It's like his thing).
But it makes me saaaaaad because I love Gawain and I especially love how he's been in AKOTAS up until now.
In related news, Erin came by today and lent me her copy of the Alliterative Morte d'Arthur. This is a Middle English poem which is not related to Mallory at all - in fact, it's mostly a take off on the Geoffrey. And in particular the part of the Geoffry I've been particularly interested in lately - the Roman campaign and its aftermath (which, in the Geoffrey, is Mordred's rebellion and the battle of Camlann). Also, like the Geoffrey, it apparently makes reference to Mordred's kids.
SO. Mordred's got kids. Did you know that Mordred had kids? I didn't know that Mordred had kids.
But anyway, they're in Geoffrey, and they get murdered in churches by Constantine III after Arthur and Mordred have killed each other. Geoffrey doesn't say where Morded got them, of course, but since he's been living "adulterously and out of wedlock" with Guenivere, there's a good bet (although wouldn't they then be waaaay too young?) In the Alliterative Morte, I have been told, they're explicitly Guenivere's kids. This is convenient for me at least. Maybe it'll also explain how they manage to be adults by Camlann.
I'm not that far into the Alliterative Morte yet - a coupla pages, and it's been mostly the sorts of descriptions of food that George R. R. Martin would be proud of. It also has the weirdest version of the Guenivere name I've ever encountered: Dame Weynor. She just came in with Gawain, where I am. It took me forever to figure out that's who she was supposed to be - at first I thought they'd actually given a name and role to Gawain's wife, which would have been even more bizarre. And I know that Gawain is often W'd for alliterative purposes, but the W in Weynor is not alliterative. So yeah. That was weird.
I also learned that the Clodas plot in The Lance Thrower actually does have medieval sources, and was not just made up by Jack Whyte in order to give Lancelot Clothar something to do before he goes to Britain.
Which reminds me. I need to make up something for Mordred to do with the first N years of his life before he goes to Camelot. In particular, before he goes to France. And I don't really have the AKOTAS option of having him play Cool Older Brother to Galahad. (It's impressive, the number of ways Galahad is not in my story.) Little Mordred playing Cool Older Brother to Little Galahad in the contemporary arc of AKOTAS is one of the Best Things Ever.
I still have not seen the Starz "Camelot" series. But there are new episodes of Merlin up! Huzzah!