I just realized the joke about the magic scabbard of #Excalibur -

It prevents the wearer from losing blood.

Because it’s a scabbard!

[explore metaphor here]

#Arthuriana #KingArthur #Malory

Here is the version of Le Morte D’Arthur I have been reading, and the accompanying reference material I keep on hand.

Le Morte edited by John Matthews and illustrated by Anna-Marie Ferguson

The Arthurian Companion (2e) by Phyllis Ann Karr

Marginalia by Greg Stafford

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“Why, said La Beale Isoud, are ye a knight and be no lover?”

My subtext alarm is blaring. Could it be that Sir Dinadan is a gay knight?

In this he’s said to be the funniest of knight, although his jokes go mostly unrecorded. I’m curious to read about him in other sources.

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We interrupt the saga of Sir Tristram to bring you seven days of jousting ending with Sir Launcelot in a dress.

Le Morte D’Arthur, Book X, chapters 40-50

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What I would want from a digital Le Morte D’Arthur:

A way to filter only on some characters, presenting just the chapters that contain them.

Turn off chapter headers with a checkbox.

Hover over sentence and get commentary on the right.

Hover over word or name and get definition or brief bio in a footer.

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Finally, halfway through Le Morte D’Arthur, Book X, Chapter XXIII, is Sir Percivale introduced. And then back to Sir Tristram’s saga. We won’t see him again for another 28 chapters.

Okay, according to the index he was briefly mentioned in Book I in the list of King Pellinore’s sons.

I guess that’s what happens when you try to organize everything in chronological order, instead of by individual stories.

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I feel like I made good progress today.

Progress I made: reading 15 pages of Le Morte D’Arthur.

Tristram goes to meet up with Palomides, but instead fights Launcelot. After four hours of combat they become friends and Tristram at last becomes a knight of the round table.

Palomides was imprisoned and could not make the rendezvous. He encounters Lamorak and after two fights they become friends.

Just knightly things.

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I would really love an unabridged version of the Winchester manuscript for Le Morte D’Arthur, but the most easily available seems to be an abridged one from Oxford. Anyone have any recommendations?

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I’m surprised I couldn’t find more fan art of the shield Morgan Le Fay asks Sir Tristram to wear at the jousting tournament before King Arthur, at the Castle of Hard Rock.

It clearly mocks Arthur for Guenever’s love of Launcelot, but he seems oblivious even still.

At long last I have finished Book IX. But I have yet to escape the tale of Sir Tristram.

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“And so when Sir Dinas went out a-hunting she slipped down by a towel, and took with her two brachets, and so she yede to the knight that she loved, and he her again.” —Le Morte D’Arthur, Book IX, Chapter XL

I know brachets are hounds, but does towel mean something different in this context?

Another nameless damosel in Malory.

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