M³ Ladies of The Lake Are Trouble

            Yeah, I know, I’ve been really going off on the Ladies of the Lake for a while, now. But they change the entire landscape of the stories. Not only that, they’re not in Monmouth’s account. The Ladies of the Lake come into their own in Mallory’s story, and they’re huge. How huge? Killing Merlin huge.

M³ Faerie Adoption

Remember when I said this was a binary mythological system, and had been for hundreds of years? That’s true. Remember how that implies that there’s nothing outside of that? Yeah, that’s not strictly the case. See, no culture is completely isolated. Even in the ancient world, cultures impinge on one another, fiercely. This is more true with England, Scotland, and Ireland than other mythological frameworks.

M³ Mobsters of The Medieval World

            Okay, so faeries. Notice the spelling. These are not fairies from fairy tales. This isn’t Tinkerbell, a fairy godmother, or anything like those stories. Thanks to modern storytelling and the marketing strategy of Jake and Will Grimm, those are happily-ever-after stories. Those fairies are nice.

M³ Moistened Bint Lubbing a Scimitar

            Ah, Excalibur. The sword is almost as famous as King Arthur. It is the modern template for heroic weapons. Of weapons with a name, it is at the top of the list when it comes to recognizability. Other weapons have had names before it, but Excalibur reigns supreme.

M³ Fate Is in The Air

            While the Greeks and Romans had personifications of fate in their mythologies, Christianity does not. However, the mindset still does not allow for free will. Redubbed predestination, the idea is that God knows everything, past, present, and future. For that to be the case, then everything has already been written. Nothing can be changed. There is no choice.

M³ Devilish Origin

            Not only could devils have sex and children, they did so all the freaking time. What can I say, they were horny (rimshot). The same asceticism that turned angels into beings incapable of sex hypersexualized the devils and demons. Copulation with devils and demons became one of the favorite methods of denouncing anyone different.

M³ Angelic Origin

            So there might have been a simpler way to give Merlin power: angels. Merlin—and Arthur, for that matter—could be the son of an angel. It certainly would have simplified the entire process. Arthur’s divine mandate could come from his angelic heritage instead of from a sword in a rock.

            So why didn’t it?

M³ Thoughts on Merlin's Origin

            As a student on superhero stories (comics and movies), I appreciate a good origin story. We all want to know where the hero came from—though I thank Marvel for skipping a third version of Spidey’s origins on the big screen (please do the same for the Fantastic Four now that they’re back!).

M³ Young Sir Arthur

            Book VII of Le Morte D’Arthur describes Arthur’s coronation. What’s interesting here is that he “took the sword between both his hands, and offered it upon the altar where the Archbishop was, and so was he made knight.” Most kings don’t get knighted. They’re crowned, and that’s an end to it. With Arthur, the idea of knighthood is inextricable from his character. This is not merely a king, this is a knight-king, who holds to the chivalric code, someone of divine character.

M³ The Stuck Sword

            After Arthur was born, he wasn’t raised by his father and mother. Instead, he was raised by Sir Ector, and his foster brother was Sir Kay. Those familiar with Disney’s The Sword in The Stone will recognize the names. In fact, Disney does a heck of a job when it comes to the whole pulling of the Sword in the Stone.

M³ Arthur Son of Uther

            The story of King Arthur begins properly like most hero myths, with his birth. The birth of Arthur is of typically mythic proportions, with plenty of the supernatural involved. While most heroes receive the divine treatment—most commonly due to Zeus—Arthur can’t go this route. Christianity has well and truly spread across Europe, even into the far reaches of once-Celtic Britain, and it would be blasphemy for Arthur to be sired by God. It can’t happen.

M³ Prelude to Arthur

            All right, by request (thanks a lot Jay), we’re going to be delving into King Arthur. Before that I have to give some background (and rant a little). The farther in time we go, the more records survive. It’s just the nature of the game. Precious few sources from Ancient Greece survive. We do have differing versions of some stories, but these are the result of geography, cultural assimilation, and transcription of oral tradition.