Week 12 Reading Notes Part B: King Arthur

-Seems like knights just walk around looking for grand ways to die. Where are their wives, reminding them not to act like toddlers and maybe just act reasonably for a day or two? I can feel the testosterone seeping out of these stories
-The castle of Maidens sounds like every guy's fantasy
-Lancelot is a lot more interesting of a character to me than Arthur. It seems that he tries to be good, but he has a past that is holding him back from the grand  and holy quests that are just outside his reach. That is much more human and much more realistic. Can you imagine being a knight and being on a quest for the holy grail and then it is within your grasp and you have to watch another knight take advantage of it, and then steal your sword and horse? That would be torture. That could be an excellent metaphor for our past holding us back from love, or a family, or the career we wanted, which is a sad but often too real truth.
-The nun is pretty harsh to Lancelot, basically saying that as far as being a sinner he is in a league of his own. Like he is the first guy to cheat on his wife. He obviously seems to repent his actions but the world just seems to keep punishing him even when he tries to make amends and do right.
-So after all the shame that they placed on Lancelot, he is kind of the last knight and he gets to have this grand burial and get to go up to heaven and be crowned the goodliest knight and truest lover- this all does not make a whole lot of sense to me. I found these stories to be very confusing

Story source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).

Queen Guinevere bidding farewell to Sir Lancelot by Emil Teschendorff (1833-1894)

Wikipedia