Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part A

-
King Arthur (Wikimedia)

Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part A

The Drawing of the Sword:

· This story is so English it hurts. Interesting how religious the knights are though that attending the service was a big part of their tradition.

· Interesting use of what is now a common plot twist, mysterious baby brought by a wizard who is of far greater heritage than is initially understood. I wonder if this was the originator of this concept or if it is even older

The Questing Beast:

· Wild first introduction to Merlin. Extremely mysterious and ominous. I am curious what happened. I like the chunks of exposition on the front end with a nice amount of dialogue to push the rest of the plot forward, gives a sense of action to the dialogue.

The Sword Excalibur:

· This is an interesting story as well, not the origin story of the legendary Excalibur that I would have expected. I am also interested to see if this Lady of the Lake’s favor will come back to haunt Arthur. This story has plenty of room for retelling. I think it could definitely benefit from some more descriptive imagery, specifically in the scene where Arthur sees the sword for the first time. I imagine rays of sunlight striking down and angels singing. Could also be fun to change up the Sword’s origin story completely? Could also be interesting to give this story an out of nowhere modern twist and have the arm holding the sword be the arm of a zombie, then when Arthur grabs it the undead army beneath the lake rises up.

How the Round Table Began:

· I am fascinated by what does and does not receive attention in these stories. Whereas the story of perhaps the most legendary sword receives little attention and just kind of happens, the story of King Arthur marrying his queen receives far more attention. I wonder what this reflects about the culture of the time.

Bibliography

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to an aspiring Doc

-
Image
Frankenstein's Monster, Wikimedia            My name is Drew Fancher and I am a senior this year at OU. My major is Chemical Biosciences and I am also pursuing a minor in Spanish and Pre-med. I spent my summer working at an Amazon factory and studying for the MCAT. I love science, which is why I chose my major, but I also really like reading, writing, and studying literature. My favorite book that I have ever read is Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley. The writing is incredible and the story itself is much more than that popular green monster. I love listening to all different kinds of music. My taste in music ranges from Merle Haggard, to Travis Scott, to Led Zeppelin. I am currently relearning guitar after taking a beginner’s class on campus last spring. This was probably the best class I took last semester because it was really well organized to create a relaxed environment to learn how to teach yourself different songs. I have also recently gotten in...
Read more

Week 3 Story: The Contractor and the Wolf

-
Image
The Contractor and the Wolf Boy Who Cried Wolf by Francis Barlow ( Wikimedia )             Once upon a time there was a contractor traveling through the countryside looking for his next plot of land to develop a nice neighborhood. He stumbled upon a beautiful forest. He thought to himself, “I could plow this land up and build a wonderful neighborhood that all the people will come to live in. They’ll pay me extravagantly and I’ll have plenty of money to spend on supper. As he approached the forest to explore a wolf came out. “Why have you come to my forest contractor?” asked the wolf. “I’m going to bulldoze this forest and create a neighborhood here,” said the contractor. “This is not your forest, you cannot do that,” said the wolf. “Well, then,” said the contractor, “I do not see anyone’s name on this forest, so who says I can’t take it?” “I say,” said the Wolf, “I rule over this forest and have made my marking all over the tr...
Read more