Stargate and the Holy Grail (including talk of Monty Python)

[quarryquest]

I must admit that when I first saw the beginning of Season Nine the change of Stargate mythology use,and the on screen placement of Glastonbury Tor in Daniel’s Power Point Presentation to General Landry, it found me, a Brit and an history lover, getting a little indignant. I even had a bit of an arm wave. Stargate doing stuff with Egyptian myth was

Comments

[sg_fignewton]

You are awesome. And delightfully detailed! :D

I felt that Sam-as-Guinevere really didn't fit, and that it was just a tag because hey, she's female, so who else can she be called?

One little nitpick here: He is the one who takes him home to his house after Dr Jackson is left wandering around the tunnels in Cheyenne Mountain in Children of the Gods and this is how their friendship begins.. Erm, no. Their friendship began back in the movie. Big time.

When the Ancients-as-Arthurian-legend began back in S9, I was very indignant about it, too, but for other reasons - we already had suggested the Ancients-as-the-Old-Ones-of-Roman-legend, and it felt to me like it was throwing a canon that I really liked out the window. After a while, though, I decided it was handwaveable. There was a huge influx of Roman influence in England at the time of Arthurian legend, after all.

Thanks for a very interesting read here, and I look forward to your take on AoT.

[quarryquest]

I unfortunately haven't personally managde yet to create joined up thinking Stargate The Movie with Stargate the TV Show. If they had done some flashbacks with our actors in movie moments (probably not possible because of rights issues!0 my head might have made the link.

Anyway, glad you liked the meta, I shall get typing away to get the next bit done. I have now got to the point where it gets complicated and I have to explain who all the women in Arthurian myths are (eep!).

[sharp2799]

I must say (and I'm American), that you're more generous than I am. I loathed the Arthurian shift in the series.

[aelfgyfu_mead]

As a professional medievalist and Anglo-Saxonist myself, I have to make a couple of nit-picks.

One is as much a question as a nitpick, since the relevant books are in my office on campus and I won't be there until Tuesday:
- It's my understanding that Guenevere's infidelity was not a pure invention by the authors of La Queste del Saint Graal but harks back to a Celtic version in which there are two Gwenhyfars instead of one, one good and one changling. Do you know this version (or these versions)? Can you . . . um . . . tell me the bits I can't remember? I read these things a long time ago and do not think I even own the relevant books (and all the ones I own are in my campus office).
- Still in Question/Nitpick 1 (part 2): Marie de France's Lanval doesn't name Guenevere, but Arthur's wife is obviously unfaithful and evil.
It's not that the Cistercian monk(s) didn't insert misogyny into their own version, but they didn't invent the motif of Arthur's cheating wife

[quarryquest]

Ha! I thought there might be someone who knew more of it than I did!

I seem to remember something about someone somewhere mentioning Gwenivere as Arthurs second wife somewhere.

I'll go home and see what I can find in my books. I'm not sure they quite on the level of your University texts, but I'll see what I can find.

[aurora_novarum]

Huh, I never really did a side by side comparison with SG-1 and the characters from Arthurian mythology.

As a (much more amateur) Arthurian scholar, I was more intrigued than annoyed Stargate decided to play on the myths. As you point out, Arthurian mythology has essentially had fanfic riffs since it practically started, complete with some AUs.

(Also, mod hat: you don't need to ask questions after a meta, but as we found when we made it a rule for the recaps, it does help spur on discussion!)

[archersangel]

personally, i didn't mind the change to arthurian stuff. i've head a half-dozen versions of the story.