Fic: After her, the flood

[emei]

Title: After her, the flood
Author: emei
Fandom: Merlin
Rating: PG13
Lenght: 3050 words
Warnings: Warning for character deaths.
Prompt: 105) I have noticed that as soon as you have soldiers the story is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called

Comments

[archaeologist_d]

That was lovely. I really liked that Morgana kept living over and over and yet she seemed to find Gwen more often than not.

[emei]

Thank you! I'm pleased that the way they find each other again and again worked. :)

[srin]

Goodness, this is incredible. It's beautiful and rather tragic and so true. I love the discussion of history, in terms of soldiers and women, and absolutely everything you've done with Morgana. Sneaking in to paint Gwen's gravestone; (I want to climb into the story and smack her husband, really, I do,) never being much of a mother and going mad when that one awful dream comes true; driving ambulances and being perpetually not-quite-connected and always, always coming back. And Gwen's amazing too, so solid and steadfast.

Just wonderful.

[emei]

Thank you!

That first scene is born of my desire to slap certain husbands - I've seen a few too many nameless Wifes on gravestones lately and I find it so horrid.
perpetually not-quite-connected is a great way of putting it. I wanted to get at this difference between Morgana and Gwen - how Morgana's strength and greatest weakness is that she's in touch with many times and places at once, while Gwen is very connected to the present in a strong, determined and practical way. Glad you liked it! :D

[angelqueen04]

Oh my, this is brilliant! It's so intriguing, seeing Morgana live out her various lives, many of them finding Gwen and occasionally even Merlin. Heh, I wonder if she ever saw Arthur at some point, unless he gets the singular honor of sleeping on an isle that no one can find anymore. ;)

You make an excellent point about the history of women being the history of war. When I was getting my Bachelor's in History, I took quite a few "Women's History" courses, and the professor taught us something very similar to that philosophy. History has been written over the centuries by men, and even as history is taught today, what the women were doing in various eras (War of the Roses, the Civil War, etc.) is still treated as a separate subject. The history of the world really is about more than just the soldiers and the generals and the fighting.

Excellent story! :)

[emei]

Thank you, I'm pleased you liked it!

I do think Arthur gets that lonely honour, actually, at least so far, which makes me feel quite sorry for Merlin. (I wanted to hint at that, with Merlin's disappointement when Morgana finds him, but it was probably far too subtle, hah.)

Ah, yes, very much that. What bugs me about having Women's History as a subject is that it tends to strengthen this idea that the history of women isn't really History - it's something else, something separate. And History still gets to be all about the generals and the big battles. Bring the academic revolution, I say!
:D

[magic_at_mungos]

OOh. I like the whole sense of living lives and finding each other again.

[emei]

Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment. I'm pleased you liked it! :)

[magic_at_mungos]

And just to let you know, I recced it at my journal :)

[woldy]

Lovely. I really like Morgana's observations about history & how her lives intersect with Gwen's across the centuries.

A quck question because I'm curious - do you have a sense of what the concert is where she encounters Merlin?

[emei]

Thank you!

I'm afraid not - I was thinking some classic symphony, but I had no specific piece in mind. You'll have to imagine whatever you feel like. :)