Given Names Meme: Arturius & Anora
(Arthur & Guinevere)Fold your arms round me close and strain me so
that our hearts may break and our souls go free at last.
Take me to that happy place of which you told me
long ago. The fields whence none return, but where
great singers s i n g their songs f o r e v e r.
“He was fierce, proud, a great warrior with honour. His love was strong and passionate, the lady everyone knew stole his heart. Arthur was everything a king should be, yet he is gone.”
mythology meme: two rulers/leaders [½]
↳ king arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur’s story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians.
mythology meme: [3/5] pairings
↳ tristan & isolde
Beginning as a Celtic romance and ending up a beloved medieval tale, the story of Tristan and Isolde has many different versions. All agree that Tristan was a Cornish knight and Isolde an Irish princess. Although Tristan was supposed to bring her back for King Mark to marry, Isolde and Tristan accidentally ingested a love potion on the way and fell deeply under its spell. Isolde still married the king, but her relationship with Tristan continued. Eventually, King Mark found out about the affair and the lovers ran away. However, they were caught and to escape punishment by death and save the woman he loved, Tristan agreed to leave the country and eventually ended up in Brittany, where he married Isolde of the White Hands.
MYTHOLOGY MEME: [½] mythological objects: The Holy GrailThe Holy Grail first appears as simply “a grail” in the works of Chrétien de Troyes. The word is probably derived from the Old French word graal meaning a “broad and capacious dish or salver”. Though usually thought of as being a cup or chalice, the Grail has indeed been variously described as a platter, dish, a cornucopia, horn of plenty or even a book or a stone.
The quest for a divine vessel was a popular theme in Arthurian legend long before medieval writers introduced the Holy Grail to British mythology. It is said that Arthur and his warriors sailed off to the Celtic Otherworld to capture the pearl-rimmed Cauldron of Annwfn: like the grail it was a giver of plenty, but also of prophecy. It was at last discovered at Caer-Siddi (or Wydyr), an island bound castle of glass, where it was guarded by nine divine maidens; but the ensuing perils were too much for even Arthur’s men. The mission was abandoned and only seven of their number returned home.
“Land of bears and land of eagle. Land that gave us birth and blessing. Land that called us ever homewards. We will go home across the mountains. We will go home singing our song. Hear our singing, hear our longing. We will go home across the mountains.” (requested by khuzdith)
Sir Morien, Black Knight of the Round Table
The tale of Sir Morien, written into Celtic Arthurian canon in the 1200s and contemporaneous with the tales of Sir Galahad, begins thus:
Herein doth the adventure tell of a knight who was named Morien. And of a Moorish princess was he begotten at that time when Agloval sought far and wide for Lancelot, who was lost, as ye have read here afore.
I ween that he who made the tale of Lancelot and set it in rhyme forgat, and was heedless of, the fair adventure of Morien. I marvel much that they who were skilled in verse and the making of rhymes did not bring the story to its rightful ending.
Some quick paraphrasing from ElodieUnderGlass’s blog:
He decides to visit England alone in the hopes of finding his father, via the quirky but unproductive method of beating up every knight he comes across until they told him where his father was/were actually his father all along. As a teenager, he held his own against the disguised Sir Lancelot in hand-to-hand combat for so long that Sir Gawain begged them to stop fighting, as he couldn’t bear to see such good knights kill each other for stupid reasons.
Meanwhile, characters in these stories aren’t really visually described unless they have superlative characteristics, such as mysterious all-black armor or remarkably long golden hair. Many knights were described as dark in hair and features. Instead of placing a large flashing sign in the middle of a saga going “THIS PERSON IS TOTALLY A PERSON OF COLOR YOU GUYS, WE REALLY HOPE YOU WILL TAKE THIS INTO ACCOUNT IN FUTURE ADAPTATIONS” the narrative might well have said “Sir Bors, who was dark” and moved on, assuming that readers or listeners would interpret it the way the narrator meant. Sir Morien is described as wearing North African armor, though most images of him are in European gear, possibly because the artists found Moorish armor too hard to draw.
Interestingly, this narrative makes a large point of describing his skin color, possibly because it was thought to be unusual and dramatic, especially as he seems to match his own shield and armor.
Here are some quotes from the translated saga of Morien:
He was all black, even as I tell ye: his head, his body, and his hands were all black, saving only his teeth. His shield and his armour were even those of a Moor, and black as a raven…
Had they not heard him call upon God no man had dared face him, deeming that he was the devil or one of his fellows out of hell, for that his steed was so great, and he was taller even than Sir Lancelot, and black withal, as I said afore…
When the Moor heard these words he laughed with heart and mouth (his teeth were white as chalk, otherwise was he altogether black)…
Morien’s saga ends when he finds his father (Sir Agrovale of the Round Table) and convinces him to return to Africa and marry Morien’s mother, thus making an honest woman of her and a legitimate son of Morien. Sir Agrovale goes “OH, hey, yeah, I completely forgot I was going to do that! Sorry, son!” and they get married and Sir Morien can therefore legally inherit his mother’s kingdom and gets to be a king.
Read more about various knights of color from Arthurian Legend here.
1. Statue of a Knight believed to be representative of Morien (Moriaen), unknown artist, later brought to Magdenburg Dom and called Saint Maurice c. 1220
2. Miniature from Illuminated Manuscript circa 1350s, of Morien, Moriaen, Maricen, or Saint Maurice, in European Armor
3. Two later images of Sir Morien from the 1700s, from German language PDF source.
