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A mythical figure (media.piefed.zip)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/tumblr@lemmy.world
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Triggered by another post I didn't want to hijack: Excalibur. In the legends, Excalibur comes out of a lake (although some versions have Excalibur as the sword in the stone, those are later...the sword Arthur pulls from the stone breaks and he goes to get a better one). From the "Lady of the Lake." Here's the thing. In northern Europe in the Iron Age all the way through to the early Medieval period, most iron came from bog iron. It was hard to smelt, because it was a rather low grade ore, but you didn't have to mine it and it was a renewable resource (in about twenty years you could just come back and get more, because it formed constantly). Meaning that the iron used to make a sword came... out of water. In most fairy stories, fairies don't like iron. So the vision of the Lady as some kind of fairy or elf? Not likely. The idea of her as a druid? Maybe. But what's far more likely is this: The Lady of the Lake was a smith. But.... but... The Celtic deity in charge of smiths and ironworking was Bridget, a goddess. The mystical associations with the Lady would fit with her being a priestess of Bridget...and thus, a smith. IOW, Arthurian people, maybe we should not be visualizing the Lady of the Lake as a slender, graceful woman in a gown... ...but as a jacked smith in an apron.
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[–] 39 points 7 months ago (11 children)

otoh...

If she's a 'Lady' she's an aristocrat, not a commoner.

It makes more sense to think of her as a Queen giving a present to a fellow monarch instead of a smith who happened to come up with a great weapon.

I always figured she was the ruler of the fae who lived in the other dimensional version of England. She wanted peace and harmony in the human realm because conflict would spill over into her possessions.

President Kennedy made a joke that he'd go down in the history books as the man who brought Jackie Kennedy to Paris. We think of the Lady in relation to Arthur because that's the only reference we have. She had a life long before and long after she met him.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    I like this take, and now I want a full film and TV franchise about the Fae Queen.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    There's a famous play called 'Brief Encounter,' and one of the aspects of it is that the hero borrows a friend's apartment for the afternoon so he can see his married lover. Director Billy Wilder was intrigued by the idea of someone lending out their home for trysts and wrote 'The Apartment' which is considered one of the best movies ever made.

    https://youtu.be/OcslkrBMLGc

    'Tom Brown's Schooldays' was one of the most widely read books in British history. There's a beastly bully in the books, a rogue by the name of Harry Flashman. Flashy gets thrown out of the school for drunkenness. Another writer came along a few decades later and wondered whatever happened to the scoundrel.

    https://youtu.be/jdJGRKBPhPw

    Courage. You might have a shot!

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    I'm sorry, are these about the Fae Queen? Did you maybe reply to the wrong comment?

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  • [–] 5 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    They are about minor characters in other books that were reinterpreted to great success. The Flashman novels are great picaresques.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Oh I see, thanks for the explanation. My focus is more on female leadership representation in a medieval setting, less on spinoffs in general.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    You could try the Mists of Avalon, it’s a book about the Arthur legend, magic and all, told from the perspective of the women involved. I enjoyed it, but admittedly I read it decades ago.

    It’s maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but might scratch the itch all the same :)

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Thanks :) my hunt is specifically for respected female leadership at the center of the narrative. It's hard to find, especially done very well. I like Joan of Arc stories, for example.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    Then you might like mists of Avalon :) it’s about powerful women and their role in common lore, though it’s fiction :) it was written by a woman if that helps, Marion zimmer Bradley (why I remember that is unknown, but I do. I misplaced my copy many many moves ago)

    Either way I wish you luck on your hunt! That’s the only thing I know of that might work, sorry I can’t suggest further!

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