false-guinevere

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I think about "seinfeld is a better arthurian adaptation than bbc's merlin bc it has a woman named elaine" every single day of my life. @ whoever commented that can we kiss.

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There's something really fascinating about how Athena treats Diomedes so differently from how treats Penelope and Odysseus (even Telemachus but that's a lil different too)

Athena has basically known Diomedes since he was born (some even say that she had a say in naming him) because of Tydeus. I don't think it's far-fetched to say that in a way, she possibly "molded" him. And Diomedes is kind of known for being the "perfect warrior king". He's respectful of the gods and most of his comrades, an incredibly skilled soldier, and has already achieved so many things despite being one of the youngest kings in the war.

I sadly think that's why Athena treats him so differently than Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus.

She cares for him, but it's still "distant" in a way. Or almost in an "I molded you. You will react the way I would want you to therefore I will not be surprised."

When it seems like she's known her other favored mortals for less long, she didn't get to "mold" them. They surprise and bring something "new" for her. She sees her little tricksters' scheme and plot and watches with intrigue but watching the perfect warrior is a "Yes, perfect form. That's what I'd do."

I mean even how her favored mortals pray to her tells you a lot about the relationships they have.

For example, in the Iliad, Odysseus doesn't need to really give as much reverence to her to "earn her favor" during book 10's Night Raid.

Odysseus rejoiced, and prayed to Pallas Athene: ‘Hear me, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus, you who are with me in all my adventures, protecting me wherever I go. Show me your love, Athene, now, more than ever, and grant we return to the ships having won renown, with some brave act that will grieve the Trojans greatly.’ And Diomedes of the loud war-cry followed him in prayer: ‘Hear me also, Atrytone, daughter of Zeus. Be with me as you were with my father Tydeus in Thebes, when he went there as ambassador for the bronze-greaved Achaeans, camped there by the Asopus. A friendly offer was what he made them, but on his way back he was forced to take deadly reprisal for their ambush, and you fair goddess, readily stood by him. Stand by me now, and watch over me, and in return I will offer a broad-browed yearling heifer, unused to the yoke. I will tip her horns with gold and sacrifice her to you.’

(Book 10, A.S. Kline)

Diomedes brings up his dad and offers a young heifer (granted that could just be how Diomedes is with every immortal) while Odysseus doesn't and is basically like "Yo, help me out like you always do!". Odysseus is much more casual and personal with Athena. And with Penelope, Athena takes the form of one of her sisters to comfort her!

While Athena also most likely has known Telemachus since he was a baby, she's still closer to him than Diomedes.

Imagine that. You're basically molded by a goddess since birth, listen to her and other immortals dutifully, basically become her perfect warrior, and yet you can't seem to reach that familiarity with her. The same warmth she has for her other favored mortals.

#ooooooh #Athena #Odysseus #Penelope #diomedes #epic cycle

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Ralph Fiennes The Return

#yayayay #get ready for me to be horny on main for Penelope when this comes out

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Need to reread Christabel. Poems been on my mind all day

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Fascinated by stories of the - I guess you'd call it the "stolen identity" genre, like, of the Anastasia Romanov variety. But - from both sides.

Your husband has been at war for thirty years. You married when you were teenagers. The man who returns bearing his name looks... plausible, you don't remember his eyes being quite so blue, but it's been thirty years and it's not like you could ever afford to have a portrait painted. He knows your name and the names of your children and your parents, but there are curious gaps in what he remembers. But war does things to the mind. And if he's kinder than you remember? Kind enough that, maybe, you let yourself believe...

No one has ever looked twice at you, since you're just the maid, until the day a revolutionary bomb goes off, blowing a crater in the summer palace. The famously reclusive duchess and the rest of her household lie dead in the rubble. You know that you and she were the same dress size. You know where her jewels are kept. Most importantly, you know the location of the secret tunnel that leads down to the docks, and to a life overseas that would be torturously hard going for a poor maid, especially one suspected as a thief, but a lot more comfortable for a royal in exile...

The old king's most faithful retainer swears this is the heir to the throne, raised in secret and trained to one day step into his father's shoes. As the usurper as dragged off the throne, she screams that the old king's children are all dead, she made sure of it; no one pays her any heed. (Maybe they should have...)

The man in the tavern is buying drinks for the whole bar before he sets sail tomorrow for the far side of the world. He's got it all figured out - a ship of his own, retirement to a tropical paradise when he gets sick of the pirating life. His lip curls as he talks about the stultifying boredom of the aristocratic world he's already left behind. You find out that his parents recently died, and the estate is in the care of his younger sister, who was only six when her brother first left home two decades since. Between the lines, they sound like a good family; they sound like they love him, the way your family never did. Your heart aches. He shows you portraits, letters, before shoving them carelessly back in his coat pocket. They would be so easy to lift...

It's a surprisingly common concept and I just love it. It's The Return of Martin Guerre; it's multiple 90s romcoms; Agatha Christie pulls it half a dozen times. Sooner or later, it crops up in fanfic for just about any fandom with a royal or aristocratic main character.

And I can see why, because there's so much richness to it. From the outside, it can be anything from a horror story to an unlikely love story; from the perspective of the person pulling off the con, a heist movie or a tragedy or a heartwarming tale of found family. And then there are the longer-term implications: What happens if you wear a mask so long that it becomes who you are? What happens if you come to love the "replacement" to the point where you don't want to find out the truth? What is it like to uncover such a deception a century down the line, to find out that your great-grandfather... wasn't?

Just. Identity stories, man. <3

#false Guinevere

[false-guinevere]

The Guinevere/False Guinevere dynamic TO ME

#Guinevere #false Guinevere #arthuriana #Arthurian legend #Arthurian literature #gotta get my thoughts in order for the Mordred post

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Metaruu’s Headcanon Ask Game

Send in a character or characters and an icon and I’ll give you…

🏳️‍🌈 A sexuality headcanon

🏳️‍⚧️ A gender headcanon

😇 A headcanon about their religion/lack thereof

🧸 A headcanon about their childhood

👻 A headcanon about what scares them

🎶 A headcanon about music

👽 A headcanon about a weird quirk of there

💤 A headcanon about their sleep

🦾 A disability headcanon

💝 A headcanon about their love language

🫂 A friendship headcanon

💔 An angsty headcanon

🪢 A headcanon about their family

📓 A headcanon about their hobbies

👗 A headcanon about their clothes

🔪 A headcanon relating to fighting/violence

🌟 A headcanon about their desires/wishes

🥇 A headcanon about what they’re best at

🍫 A headcanon about food

🎭 A headcanon about what they lie about

❤️‍🔥 A romantic headcanon

💄 An appearance headcanon

🖕 A headcanon relating to anger

😺 An animal related headcanon

😬 A headcanon about the worst thing they’ve done

😭 A headcanon about the worst thing that happened to them.

😶 A random headcanon!

#if anyone wants to #always happy to talk about my Arthurian headcanons

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Reading Sharp Objects and having Mordred ThoughtsTM

Will elaborate once I’m done

#Mordred

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Tumblr's May Day Parade 2024!

Calling all Arthurian creators!

This May 2024 let's celebrate Arthurian Legend in all its bloody spring time glory with our unique creations and contributions to this ongoing tradition. Artforms of every variety welcome and encouraged. The May-themed prompts are...

May 1-5: Morbid Month of May {May King Mordred}

“Know that he will be born the first day of May in the kingdom of Logres.” —Post Vulgate

May 6-10: Queenly Month of May {May Queen Guinevere}

“Seeing it now, this crown of swords...Guinevere is the only one who knew where it was.” —Alliterative Morte

May 11-16: Lusty Month of May {Free Space/Flower Festival}

“Tra la! It's May! The lusty month of May! That lovely month when ev'ryone goes Blissfully astray.” —Camelot Musical

May 17-21: Grumpy Month of Kay {Seneschal Celebration}

“Sir Kay, the Seneschal. Is that your name?...Now wit ye well that ye are named the shamefullest knight of your tongue that now is living.” —Le Morte d'Arthur

May 22-26: May le Fay {The Anti-Queen Morgan}

“Now come forward and see a king's daughter wield a sword.” —Post Vulgate

May 27-31: May Day Melee {Violence is Romance Enacted in Blood}

“A melee quickly ensued in which a large number of knights took part; spearheads and broken shafts soon covered the ground.” —The Crown

✧✧✧

Rules: Each prompt allows 5 days except for free/flowers which is 6 days. All mediums accepted: Illustrations, paintings, writing, music, videos, gifsets, webweaves etc. No AI generated content.

Remember to tag #May Day Parade and @queer-ragnelle so I can reblog your creations! If you have any questions feel free to ask. :^) Good luck!

[false-guinevere]

May I have 💝🫂 and 🌟 headcanons for Gareth? He's my favourite~

Hi, sorry for the delay, not all these emojis appear on desktop! So I had to Frankenstein this answer between my computer and my phone lol

💝Headcanon about love language:

This is harder to answer than it should be bc my multi-shipper self likes Gareth with Lyonors and Lynette and some crackships but Gareth sort of mutates to his partner. lol. In a world with wifey Lyonors, I think he likes how calm she is, on the opposite end from Kay and Lynette in regards to his treatment. "Words of Affirmation," so to speak. She reassures him when he’s anxious and strokes his ego when he’s confident. In a world with wifey Lynette, Gareth is more of an "Acts of Service" guy. He performs feats for her to show his affection. In return, she patches him up<3 Now for the crackships, he [redacted]...

🫂Headcanon about friendship:

The thing about Gareth is all his friends are older. Whether by design or subconsciously developing these sorts of relationships, he has situated himself into the "little brother" role that Mordred usurped from him, in a sense. Whether that be friendships with Kay, or Lancelot and his kin, or even his sister-in-laws, he has successfully appointed himself as the youngest around, surrounded by people he can look up to and ask for guidance. High anxiety Gareth is real to me and he needs to be immersed in an environment of people who Know What's Up or at least lead him to believe as much.

🌟Headcanon about desires/wishes:

Gareth does, secretly, wish to be French. Blasphemous, I know. Idolizing Lancelot has gone to his head.

#I knew it I always knew Gareth was a Francophile at heart #Gareth

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The Grail Four: Bors, Galahad, the Grail Heroine, and Percival

Survivors of Camlann: Bedivere, Cynwyl Sant, Griflet, Kay?, Lucan, Morvran, and Sanddef

#GRAIL GANG cmon guys!! #do this for Percival

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everyone on arthurian tumblr

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Fantasy authors fear the landsknecht and his drip

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new griflet lore just dropped????

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anecdote of the pig, tory adkisson // achilles & partoclus // house of dragon, 1x07 // plainwater, anne carson // the truth about forever, sarah dessen // lighthousekeeping, jeanette winterson

[false-guinevere]

i'm literally the priest's favorite sacrificial lamb because i am so docile and sweet and i hold very still when they put the rope around my neck and i trot along so happily while they lead me to the altar and they do not even have to tie me down because i lie so very still and only bleat once or twice in my lovely lamb voice and when the knife comes down it cuts through me like butter and i offer no resistance and i bleed so prettily all over my new white wool and my guts all unspool like the most beautiful shining yarn and my eyes are animal and dumb and hold no accusation and every time i die i come right back as another little lamb because the priest loves me so so much and he always chooses me for the sacrifice every time and he always places one hand on my small and twitching nose to calm me while he lifts the knife and he doesn't do it for the other lambs only me because i'm his favorite

#Galahad #to me