Wolfie's Excalibur

 Well, it had to happen: Wolfie got his own Excalibur. Made of wood and not steel, but still. I will explain how he came into possession with it. Last week, we went to a "medieval festival", just for him (and me too, I am actually a medievalist). It was a rather simple affair, nothing too fancy or immersive, with jousting (more like professional wrestling disguised as jousting), falconry, archery and, well, nobody disguised but the entertainers. We had fun in any case. There were a few kiosks, among them one that sold wooden shields and swords from Tymeagain. And among the wooden toys, well, there was Excalibur. Other swords were cheaper, but neither Wolfie nor I could resist. In any case, it is an educational toy, allowing me to teach him a thing or two about the Arthurian legend. The sword will be central to our games in the next months, I am sure of it. I will keep you posted.

GrailQuest (The Den of Dragons)

A couple of weeks ago, I paid myself another trip down nostalgia lane and it only cost me £0.99. You may remember on this blog a few mentions about  J.H. Brennan, a writer of, among other things, gamebooks. I was quite fond of his work when I was a child. Well, I found on a charity shop the second bok of his GrailQuest series. I bought it on the spot. As the name indicates, it is freely inspired by the Arthurian legend, although the tone is mostly parodic. You play a young man transported magically by Merlin into the reign of Arthur through a spell, the book being a sort of "portal", as well as into the body of a young knight named Pip. It is pretty smart in a meta way. The medievalist specialised in the Arthurian legend will probably recoiled at the amount of silliness (you use a sword called Excalibur Junior, or EJ), but I do remember Brennan being capable of adding pretty dark touches here and there, as well as a few gory moments. I'm looking forward to revisiting the book in any case.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

'Tis the season to be reading and I might start this post with a confession: although I am a medievalist, specialized in Arthurian literature on top of that, I have never read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, although I know the story. Mostly because I specialized in XIIth century French literature, but I digress. I bought this version of it some 20 years ago, in the previous millenium, when I did my MA. I found it on my bookshelves at my parents' place and brought it back here with me. The cover is horrid, but this is a proper academic edition, with original Middle English and the modern translation side by side. This is next on my reading list. And it is very fitting that I start it now: not only do I consider old myths and folklore an essential element of any respectable Christmas, but this particular story starts during Christmastime.

The Sword in the Stone

I took this picture at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire, more precisely in this little pathway in the woodlands by the village. It is the sword in the stone, most likely the one from the Arthurian legend. And no, it's not the same one as Excalibur. I have seen more impressive displays, but in the woods, it's still a pretty nice sight. I was rewatching the pictures from our day there and it struck me that I must make time to reread proper Arthurian literature. Or read the numerous pieces I have not done so since I finished my PhD, and that was a few decades ago. I am a bit ashamed to admit it really. I need to check my bookshelves, but I know I have at least a few titles here and I think one of my reading objectives this year (and the next) should be to rediscover the Matter of Britain.

The crimes of MZB

I don't know why I started thinking about it, maybe because I blogged about Merlin recently. I originally came to the Arthurian legend via the movie Excalibur. It is what ultimately got me into becoming a medievalist specialized in Arthurian literature. For many people of my generation, they discovered the Arthurian legend through... The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I came across this book in college when one of my teacher got her class to read it. By that time, I had already read a few medieval Arthurian romances, so while I was far from an academic, I knew my stuff pretty well. So I plodded through the mists, and I... hated, hated, hated it. Even at that age, I could see the sheer stupidity of it: poorly researched material, using the Arthurian legend as a vehicle for neo Pagan, pseudo-feminist, modern mumbo jumbo. Characters and tropes were twisted beyond recognition and it was so very badly written. It was so bad it was vile. It was also rather creepy and distasteful when it came to sexual content. For instance, the author seeming to make an apology of the incest between King Arthur and Morgain that was going to produce Mordrer, depicting it as something mystical and noble.

While I was one of the few in my class to despise the book, I discovered in the following years that my feelings were shared by many medievalists. But it is only in recent years that I learned the truth about Mists and its author: Marion Zimmer Bradley allegedly raped and abused both her children and was complicit in the sex crimes of her husband. This came out in 2014, but I only found out last year. And this is why I think the novel is so despicable: because it does make apology of incestuous rape and sexual predatorism, and twists one of the greatest literary works of Western civilisation to defend a sick ideology. This is what infuriated me then, reading that rubbish book, and I did not even know the truth at the core of it. Bradley was a vicious monster, disguised as a terrible writer, hailed as some kind of brilliant writer of fantasy and neo Pagan guru. I am very sad for the many people she hurt, that said as a medievalist, I can't help but feel vindicated.

Merlin in Derbyshire

I took this picture at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire. There is a path in the wood, a bit outside the village and there are a lot of wooden statues and creations, some representing characters and monsters from British folklore. Including this old mage on a throne.I have good reasons to believe this is Merlin. There was a sword in the stone nearby, for one (and for the record, no, the sword in the stone is not Excalibur, see my post here for more details.). It could be any other mage or wise old man, but let's face it, when you see a wizard in the woods in a medieval or pseudo medieval setting, it is either Merlin or Gandalf, and it is almost certain this one is Merlin. And as a former medievalist, I cannot wait to visit these woods again.

Meeting King Arthur, Merlin and the others

Sometimes you get back to your old literary (and, in this case, legendary) loves. Last month, I was saying that being at my parents' home, I had the pleasure to roam the bookshelves to read and reread old books. One of them was this one. The title in English would be "The Great Book of King Arthur", about the Arthurian legend of course. I received it as a Christmas present a few years ago, I can't remember when, and I had never read it. It tells in layman's terms the details of the Arthurian legend. I had not read it before because, with all humility, I am not a layman when it comes to Arthurian literature: I did my PhD on it, so there is very little if anything I can learn from that book. That said, it is a beautiful book, with gorgeous pictures and illustrations and just for this I decided to read it. And since I have left academia a long time ago, I could enjoy it innocently so to speak, as I would have had as a child or a teenager. Without feeling guilty about reading something beneath the academic that I still am, at least in title. I did not go very far in my reading, but it was nice to meet King Arthur, Merlin and the others again, so to speak. I thought about bringing the book home, but my wife strictly forbid it (too much to read here already). So it will be for our next time home.

Merlin and a new old story

Time goes so fast that I did not have time recently to report here on this blog a piece of news that got the former academic and medievalist that I am very, very happy: they found a "new" XIIIth century manuscript telling the story of Merlin at the University of Bristol. As you may know, I specialized in Arthurian literature, so this is right up to my alley. when I read something like this, I wish I was still in academia and I envy the lucky team of experts that will investigate things further. It especially reminds me of the time I was studying paleography some twenty years ago. Now I hope the text will soon be available to the general public. Or I might just book this family a short holiday to Bristol...

Saint David's Day and me

First and foremost, for those who do not know, the first of March is of course Saint David's Day, the national day of Wales, because Saint David is their patron saint. Google commemorated it with an absolutely magnificent Doodle, with the Welsh red dragon hanging on the L and daffodils. I had to share it. I owe a lot to Welsh culture, being specialized in medieval Arthurian literature. The most vivid memory I have of Saint David's Day comes from when I was at uni, doing an amateur production of Le malade imaginaire. Many of the cast were Welsh. At the end of the performance, each threw daffodils at the crowd, wearing a Welsh flag. I remember it to this day and at that moment I wished I had been Welsh. I loved their flag so much that I bought one, which is now somewhere at my parents' home. I wish I could have it here today.

The Tomb of Merlin

This picture was taken by yours truly during our visit of the ancient and legendary (I would even say mythical) forest of Brocéliande, seven years ago. I was watching the pictures and reading my old blog posts about the forest and saw that I had not uploaded this picture yet. Shame on me. This is the tomb of Merlin. For a medievalist specialised in Arthurian literature like me, this may not be the Holy Grail (no pun intended), but this is a very special place. Unfortunately, there was no ghost of Merlin who manifested himself, no visitation of any kind and this tomb is empty because it was never inhabited. All the same, it is its association with the legend that makes it special.

The Land of Merlin

I took this picture back in 2008, during our very first trip to Brittany, where my parents-in-law live. It was the ensign of a tourist shop at the edge of Brocéliande, the legendary forest associated with the Arthurian legend. Translated, it is called "In the Land of Merlin", hence my title. My early readers might remember that I obsessed about my time there (before, during and after) and that I blogged a lot about it.

So I was rediscovering these pictures dating back from 2008 and I thought that I had not visited Brocéliande since that time and that my last trip to Brittany dates back from a few years already. This has been long overdue, especially since I have only seen a fraction of the eerie forest. I have some holidays coming up and my wife and I could take them there, but we might need to spend it in something more productive than... well, enjoying a proper holiday. All the same, it is now a project to revisit the Land of Merlin.

Arbre d'Or

Here is a quick entry, about the Arbre d'Or, where Merlin is supposed to have been imprisoned. I prefered the surroundings to the tree itself. The forest is really gorgeous around there. I wish we had had the time (and the boots) to explore the path that passes by the tree a bit longer, but it would have been a few kilometers of walk in the mud. Anyway, you really feel in another world by moments, it was really a nice experience.

Journey to Brocéliande

We went to Brocéliande (also known as Paimpont, but I prefer its Celtic name) yesterday. We didn't see all (not Barenton, for instance), but the forest is so big and there is so much to see. I will see barenton next trip. We went to the Tombeau de Merlin, the Château de Comper and some other things, I will write entries with pictures later on. I didn't see any Korrigan, or l'Ankou (but it was daytime), not even the ghost of Merlin or the Lady of the Lake. But that was still nice, and the forest really has character.