Mythology and Folklore

Robin Hood Statue ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 12: Ballads of Robin Hood, Part A Progress to Nottingham: · Interesting how the story changes a bit when presented as a ballad: less reliance on typical plot drivers like dialogue or action and more use of song elements like “Hey Down derry derry down” to keep the story moving along. · Interesting feeling evoked by colloquialisms that at once seem familiar and anachronistic. · Repetition here is interesting as it is the trait of Literary Narrative “Patterned Repetition” in the most explicit sense, though I’m not sure what effect it has. · This tale went from sing songy and almost Disney esque and then very quickly changed course as Robin Hood just drops all of foresters on the spot with his bow. · The story is even sing songy when discussing how they buried the men Robin Hood killed Little John: · Much like the arguing in Shakespearean pieces, this kind of dialogue always makes me laugh. T...

Lightning ( Wikimedia ) Excalibur              Arthur burst through the thicket and into the clearing. Finally, he had reached the center of the Black Forest. Fighting demons and beast throughout, Arthur had journeyed for many nights upon the request of Merlin through the evil enclave of trees. The wise old wizard had sent Arthur here in search of the most legendary sword known to man: Excalibur.             Having finally reached the center of the forest, Arthur could not find the sword, only a lake filling the large clearing in the trees with water so still it seemed a black sheet of the finest ebony. At once, the Lady of the Lake was beside him. “Go,” she whispered.             And without question Arthur knew what he must do. As a young boy Arthur had been told of the legendary sword, and that only he who is worthy would be able to walk across the dark water to reach it. With his f...

The Failure of Sir Launcelot to enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail ( Wikimedia ). Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part B Sir Galahad and the White Knight: · I like the plot development that Knights lend themselves too. Knights as characters seem love to talk about adventure and quests, and this ends up determining much of what they do in the story. There are a ton of possibilities for plot direction because nearly anything can be considered an adventure. Potential to modernize and talk about adventures of grocery shopping or other trivial things, Bird scooter as steed … things like that · This new Knight is mysterious and kind of ominous, really like the interjections of fantasy to balance out the more common stories of medieval life. · Monasteries are really cool setting for the stories that venture more into the realm of ghosts and spirits. · Fiend, devil, ghost, demon, interesting to see difference in how cultures refer to the same concept of some ma...

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 Arthu...