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I'm excited about The Green Knight! But, LORDT. People are ALREADY being loud & wrong about King Arthur on Beyonce's internet!
There is no single Arthurian story. No sacred text. Black people existed in the Medieval. KA is 1500 year-old global fanfic that began in Wales. Repeat!
There is no single Arthurian story. No sacred text. Black people existed in the Medieval. KA is 1500 year-old global fanfic that began in Wales. Repeat!
I don't want people to come for me but I know they will. Don't worry, I'm armed with a lifelong obsession, an MA in communication w/ folklore training, fanfic study, & months of research with MA & PhD medievalist consultants specializing in Arthuriana (early Welsh & late Europe.)
Let's say you only want to focus on the classic "Sword in the Stone" story. Let's say that. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT STORY IS SAYING? It says that power, leadership, worth, & value do not come from claims of ownership. They come TO whomever the world needs in that moment. Jesus.
"A fo ben, bid bont." -- from the medieval Welsh in the Mabinogion, which collects oral folklore from possibly as early as the 11th century. Translation: "They that would be a leader, let them be a bridge."
A BRIDGE, folks. A *BRIDGE.* Not a gate or a wall or a safe.
A BRIDGE, folks. A *BRIDGE.* Not a gate or a wall or a safe.
If you want to be a purist go to the Welsh early sources recorded from bards/oral stories. PLEASE do. Arthur's birthplace is Wales in my mind, in my Welsh bardic tradition consultant's mind, in all I've read as origination and fact. But the stories YOU know are likely not those.
Oh, do you like Lancelot? Guess what bruh, he's French. 12th century. First written mention of Arthur is Welsh, 6th century. SIX HUNDRED YEARS DIFFERENCE, give or take. That's a LOT of storytelling time, y'all. Lancelot ain't OG. And the love triangle story we know ain't either.
Let's not forget about my boy Merlin! I love that ridiculous cambion! What a wild one! BUT GUESS WHAT E'ERBODY? He wasn't in the early tales. He's based in part on a Welsh figure. Ole Geoff of Monmouth composited the 1st depiction of the Merlin we know in the 12th century. Bloop.
I don't know Geoffrey of Monmouth like THAT but I feel like I do so I call him Ole Geoff. He's cool with it.
I should probably say something about Tennyson and Idylls of the King but he's a bit racist so. Lemme think on it. Just know he's English and wrote it in the 1800s, & was inspired by the French KA stories. The version of the story where Guinevere retires to a convent is his.
I wanna pause & refer to this tweet.
The frantic need for a single story + callback to an idealized imagined time in history = literally the worst narrative energy. Let's call the effort to centrally canonize, purify, and make white THIS legend what it is. A tool of oppression.
The frantic need for a single story + callback to an idealized imagined time in history = literally the worst narrative energy. Let's call the effort to centrally canonize, purify, and make white THIS legend what it is. A tool of oppression.
Yoooo correction to Tennyson's ownership of the convent fate of Guinevere. Medievalists are the freaking best.
https://twitter.com/tragiculous/status/1228040509668646912?s=20
https://twitter.com/tragiculous/status/1228040509668646912?s=20
Y'all, I'm glad folks are thinking about how stories become multiplied and retold, esp. in intellectual properties. But for real, when I said Arthuriana is fanfic I meant what I meant. And I'd argue that fanfic as a practice (w/oral trad roots) came before IP spin-off phenomena.
I would never say that IP writing and fanfic are one in the same because they absolutely aren't. Different contexts, different goals, different audiences, differences in relation to canon, etc.
BUT the people spinning Arthur tales were not hired by a single corporation, mkay!
BUT the people spinning Arthur tales were not hired by a single corporation, mkay!
Y'all are great!! Is this when I tell you that my debut YA contemporary fantasy novel is available for preorder?
LEGENDBORN *is* this thread, but with a mystery plot set in North Carolina, swords, a love triangle, queer folks, magic, & Southern history! https://twitter.com/tracydeonn/status/1224435415475638272
LEGENDBORN *is* this thread, but with a mystery plot set in North Carolina, swords, a love triangle, queer folks, magic, & Southern history! https://twitter.com/tracydeonn/status/1224435415475638272
Sorry I just wrote this tweet and it's cracking me up: https://twitter.com/tracydeonn/status/1228078088728326146
Lancelot mixtape: https://twitter.com/spoonhaus/status/1228379316188274692?s=20
