Things I Want to See More in Arthurian Fiction

 It’s going to be another busy weekend but I thought I’d at least try to get a Saturday Note to you guys. Also! I’ve updated the sporking on ImpishIdea. If anyone follows that. I’m hoping that being off of Tumblr and Playstation for Lent is boosting my productivity a little bit in some areas.

I will probably not be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month, for the record. 

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Things I Want to See More in Arthurian Fiction

I thought about more things to say about certain characters, but then I realized that I had written Notes about Galahad and Mordred, and this was an idea for a Note that I had more than once. Maybe I have written this Note, but I haven’t found it on the current Notes website, so we’re doing it now! 

I want to put a disclaimer that I’m not saying that I want all of these elements within the same work–I suspect some of them probably wouldn’t fit together very well if you put them in the same book. I also imagine it as given that I want more stories that excise the Love Triangle from Hell.

Celtic Christianity

There is a tendency, which I suspect was started by Marion Zimmer Bradley–she certainly codified it, if it didn’t start with her–to depict the Arthurian story as around the time that Christianity’s being introduced into Britain, and focus heavily on the conflict between Christianity and paganism. Because there is a habit of people romanticizing Celtic paganism and assuming that Christianity at the time was a cross between Crusaders, the Spanish Inquisition, and Westboro Baptist (it wasn’t), Arthur is often depicted as one of the last holdouts of paganism against incoming Christian hordes.

Uh… no.

Okay not all authors do this–Sword of the Rightful King has Arthur and his court as new Christians, struggling to work out what aspects of their lifestyle and culture does and doesn’t fit with their new beliefs. And obviously you have Stephen Lawhead, a Christian author who makes it a key part of the characters (Merlin is basically a prophet in the Pendragon Cycle). Still, while he does have interest in Celtic Christianity, I don’t think that 

Saint David, Saint Derfel, and Saint Iltud are all saints around the time who have folklore about being related to or knowing King Arthur. For whatever reason, other than Saint Derfel being the protagonist of Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles, this is usually not referenced. I believe that Zimmer Bradley puts Saint Patrick in Arthur’s court (and of course makes him a jerk), which is a bit odd because as far as I know he spent most of his career as a bishop in Ireland.

We’ll get to the Irish/Welsh division later on.

I would like to see more inclusion of the Celtic Christian tradition in King Arthur stories. More inclusion of saints as characters (and not just in a ‘Ta-ha! Actually they’re jerks!’ kind of way, though feel free to play with their personalities), more Christian characters (as it’d be more accurate to the period), and more crazy stories involving miracles out of the hagiographies.

Welsh Mythology

You know on the flip side, if you do decide to make Celtic paganism or myth, can you actually do some research? Many times people want to add Irish mythology into Arthurian stories, and while that’s not entirely off, as they’re related, the old Arthurian stories are part of Welsh folklore, and related to Welsh mythology and legends. They are, after all, Britons. I blame the New Age movement.

There are less sources on Welsh mythology than something like Greco-Roman myth (which is also tied to Arthurian legend sometimes, like in the Imaginarium Geographica books), but it’s more true to the stories to have it included. The oldest King Arthur stories involve talking to mythological figures and fighting giants. Heck, there’s a family tree in which Arthur is a descendant of both Bran and Lyr!

Many King Arthur type of stories try to basically rewrite Arthurian Britain into a fantasy world. Very few of them do that with anything looking like Welsh myth. It should look something like Chronicles of Prydain in the way the world is set up. Probably more fantastical, really–there would be more giants, more monsters, more explicitly divine beings walking around. And obviously, include the Tylwyth Teg, the Welsh fairies.

Other things from Welsh folklore that should show up more: Arthur’s sons (yes, he has more than one), the treasures of Britain, and a bunch of other lesser kings who will compete for power and prestige. And some druids, I suppose! There were definitely druids in Britain before the Romans did their best to stamp them out, and if you emphasize the Welsh paganism those should be there. 

Mordred and Galahad Interactions

Have I written on this before? I don’t know. There’s a scene in one of the Gerald Morris Squire’s Tales in which the protagonist comes upon a campsite with Galahad and Mordred, and that’s a fun interaction. And I want to see that crop up in fiction much more often. Galahad is meant to be the perfect knight, the best of the best, and paragon of virtue. And Mordred is… not that. 

I’m not against redeemable Mordred, but I also think he’s most entertaining in stories when he’s The Worst. Just terrible. A garbage man. An evil little poop. Very often he’s able to present himself as being a good guy, but anyone who looks deeper sees how terrible he is (and then very often Mordred stabs that person in the back).

The paragon of chivalry and the absolute avatar of depravity. I want to see how those two interact with each other. Maybe even fight? Maybe not. That’d be a cool fight, though I can’t picture Mordred actually putting himself in that kind of situation. But I want to see how the two of them talk–Mordred trying to come off as a good guy, and Galahad either seeing right through it, or being utterly baffled, because Mordred’s talk is just that–talk. There’s a line in Kingdom of Summer in which the protagonist realizes that while he’s seen Mordred be nice, he’s never seen him do it when it’s not to his own advantage. Galahad seeing Mordred in action and realizing that would be interesting. Maybe he doesn’t know that Mordred’s full on ax-crazy, but he sees that something is up.

Especially because, in a lot of fiction, Galahad doesn’t get along with the other knights because he’s so Lawful Good. So you have Mordred, who is able to get people on his side because he’s a smooth talker, and his word is against the guy who we know is telling the truth about Mordred, but barely anyone believes him.

Or maybe have them fight, that’d be cool.

War in Europe

You know in the Arthurian romances, a lot of times Arthur goes to war in Europe and conquers it? We know that didn’t happen in real life, even aside from the war with Lancelot. The version I’m familiar with is that the Roman emperor sent a message to Arthur demanding tribute, and Arthur didn’t want to pay tribute so he just… went to war with the Roman Empire. And won. And took all his land. Which is utterly ridiculous, so I understand why that’s not in most adaptations, but I think it should at least come up?

I’m not saying I want more adaptations in which Arthur conquers Europe. That’s silly. But going to war with Rome? Going to war in the European mainland? Fighting different kinds of armies? These are interesting ideas. Especially since many adaptations are based off of the romances, in which many of Arthur’s knights come from around the world. Palamedes is Middle Eastern (and Muslim), and Sagrimore is the son of the King of Hungary.

Arthur is so associated with Britain and the British Isles. Stories like Excalibur make it so that his life is tied to the land in a mystical way. What happens when he leaves it? Is he still as strong? What does that mean for the kingdom? Who runs things while he’s gone? Traditionally he puts Mordred in charge and that’s when things start going wrong, but if you want to give Guinevere something to do, the story could have her running it while her husband is out.

Morgause

Most of the time Morgause’s characterization is folded into Morgan le Fay for simplicity’s sake. I get it. But look here–Morgause is the Queen of Air and Darkness in many of the stories. She’s a completely horrible human being who will stop at nothing to get what she wants and I am a bit tired of Morgan stealing her thunder. I would absolutely love to see Morgause get more spotlight.

[I suppose the recent Green Knight movie is ambiguous enough that you could argue that Gawain’s mother in the film is Morgause, as it is in the stories, but she’s never named on-screen and guide video released before the movie came out calls her Morgan le Fay.]

I don’t have much else to add here, just that.

Complexity in Morgan le Fay

BBC Merlin had a good setup for this, and then threw it out the window to make her a full-on evil villain. Which I’m sure Katie McGrath had fun playing, but is still frustrating. In the older stories, Morgan le Fay isn’t the incarnation of evil. She is a wicked witch, yes, and she does try to kill him in some stories–but other times does seemingly love her brother and there are instances of her doing things to help him. I’m not saying I want her to be a good character–I don’t think I do–but someone with more complexity than trying to destroy everything Arthur’s built.

Traditionally, when Arthur is dying, he’s taken to Avalon (to be healed or to be buried) by a group of queens, one of whom is his sister Morgan. Think about it: she’s there to bury or to heal him. Why would she do that if she had no redeemable qualities whatsoever? I should think that that’s a question more pop culture writers would want to answer, but weirdly none of them seem to think about it at all.

[The Tales of Arcadia writers did, which was a bit of a surprise for me.]

And that ‘le Fay’ thing? Is Morgan a fairy? Usually she’s Arthur’s half-sister so being a full-blooded fairy is a bit weird. According to the Gargoyles universe she’s a changeling put into Arthur’s family. Or is she someone who has spent so much time with fairies that she identifies more with them than with her human family–like John Carter of Mars, but with fairies? Either way, her identification with fairies may go some ways to explain her wayward nature.

She’s also often placed as Merlin’s student, though usually as a role that’s because she’s being combined with Nimue (although I suppose they can BOTH be students of Merlin in a retelling). What was that like? What did Merlin see in her that was worth teaching? In some stories he’s part fairy too, so maybe he saw something kindred in someone else who identifies with the fairies.

West Wing Shenanigans

My sister and I had this idea that since so much of the appeal of Camelot in many stories is how it tries to reform the way things are done in medieval England. So we’re thinking it could easily be made into a drama or comedy in which Arthur and his court are wandering around Camelot trying to make new laws pass or get certain changes made.

Or, alternatively, all of that is happening in the background, and we have our characters, the staff members like squires, ministers, advisors and such, running around trying to make things run smoothly while the figurative and literal battles are being fought.

We want The West Wing, but in Camelot. Basically.

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What things would YOU like to see in Arthurian fiction?