Missing Mothers (and Sisters): More Thoughts on Female Characters on Merlin

[zahrawithaz]

Since next week's Merlin episode focuses on Morgause, it seemed a good time to post this.

Not long ago I had an idea for a Merlin vid, using a song that’s about parent-child relationships. The chorus uses the words “father” and “mother” fairly often, though, as as I started planning out clips I realized I had a problem.

Merlin puts a lot of

Comments

[zahrawithaz]

Off the top of my head:

Joan Wolf, The Road to Avalon (focused on a sympathetic Morgan w/a lot of Guinevere)
Persia Woolley's Guinevere trilogy
Sharan Newman's Guenvere trillogy
Parke Godwin's Firelord & Beloved Exile (strong Guenever in both; 2nd bk her POV)
Fay Sampson's Morgan le Fay quintet
Barbara Ferry Johnson's Lionors (focused on Arthur's mistress Lionors)
Sharon Schwarz's Grail of Hearts (focused on Kundry the Grail Maiden)
Diana L. Paxon's The White Raven (focused on Branwen & Isolde)
Rosamund Miles's Guenevere trilogy & Isolde trilogy
The last book of Gillian Bradshaw's excellent Arthurian trilogy focuses on Gwenhwyfar
The second book of Elizabeth Wein's 5-book series focuses on Arthur's daughter Goewin
Vera Chapman's YA series focuses mostly on female characters (The Green Knight on Vivian the Younger, The King's Damosel on Lynette, King Arthur's Daughter on Ursulet, and The Enchantresses on Morgause, Morgan, and Vivian the Elder)

That's 29 books. I'm sure there are more. Not all of these books are unproblematic from a feminist viewpoint (then again, neither is Mists), but they do assert the importance, even primacy, of female characters.

As I point out above, a lot of medieval versions give female characters prominence and agency; even Malory is awfully sympathetic to Guinevere, and he was IN PRISON FOR RAPE WHEN HE WROTE. Tennyson is one of the most misogynistic interpreters of the legends, but his Enid, Lynette, Guinevere, and (I would argue especially) Vivian are vivid and important. The bar here is pretty low.

I agree with you--part of my love for the Arthurian legends comes from the abundance and importance of female characters. Arguably that's why these stories have surged in popularity while other medieval legends haven't. And the fact that they often use newly-invented characters like Sophia suggests that this myopia comes from reading centuries of material through the assumptions that the women don't matter, and can be ignored...