#knight of the lion | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

queer-ragnelle · 8 months

Note

i’m new to arthuriana but love your posts nonetheless

i am just curious about the many references to gawain sleeping with so many people when, to my understanding, in sir gawain and the green knight he specifically breaks this promiscuous behaviour and makes sure he doesn’t sleep with the wife of the duke

(i apologize if this is a stupid question!)

hello anon!

welcome to arthuriana and thank you so much for the kind words. this is not a stupid question at all! the truth is gawain is nothing if not inconsistent between texts haha. he's different from other knights such as lancelot who pines solely for guinevere across text after text, in that it seems every author wanted to create their own special gal for gawain. he therefore has numerous women attached to him, and when readers try to reconcile those many texts into a single story thread, it gives the impression our mans gawain gets around! (and he does!) i have several examples here to illustrate this so i'll put it below a cut.

for all the textual variance, sir gawain and the green knight is the exception that proves the rule—meaning that it's perhaps the only text in which gawain is abstinent. we know this because one of the five virtues attributed to the five points of his pentacle crest on his shield is chastity.

furthermore, on the wife's second seduction attempt, gawain pleas his own inexperience with "love" (ie: women).

whether or not that's true is up for debate, but it's worth mentioning, as it's a departure from other texts where his virile prowess is well-known, and in the knight of the two swords, he openly boasts about his own attractiveness and popularity. (humble guy, that gawain!)

there are several examples of gawain's reputation with the ladies preceding him and actually benefitting his odds of getting laid. one of my favorites is from lancelot part II in the vulgate. gawain had just cured his brother agravaine of an illness and agravaine's amie basically wingwoman's her sister.

goated of her. so gawain pencils it in on his calendar. later, he locates the castle, sneaks in, and succeeds in bedding the maiden. she's not named here, although malory later refers to her as "the lady of lys," and accredits her as the mother of gawain's three sons, (although the couple never formally wed).

among the strangest of examples is the middle english text the carle of carlisle, in which the carle brings gawain to the bedchamber and orders him to make out with his wife. but things quickly heat up...

so the carle stops gawain from outright cuckholding him, then leads gawain to his daughter's chambers, gives them his blessing, and locks them inside. at the end of the text, gawain marries her.

now i would be remiss not to mention my beloved the wedding of sir gawain and dame ragnelle. i think it's notable that ragnelle specifically asks for gawain by name, much like the lady of lys did (according to her sister and her warm reception of him).

now the conclusion of this poem brings us to another theme of gawain's which ties into his many partners, and that is his consistent subservience to ladies. he breaks the curse on ragnelle by granting her "sovereignty" in the relationship. this seems to be another aspect of character which sets gawain apart from other knights, as this is not a chaste expression of courtly love, but a precursor to fornication, and draws the attention of strong-willed ladies, such as ragnelle, with whom he is "a coward," or according to the translation notes, "submissive."

then again in roman van walewein, he's already famous by the time he meets his ladylove, ysabele, and whilst tied up in her father's prison, he leaves the decision of his own life in her hands.

which then results in their coming together because this is a gawain story and he always gets the girl.

even in the post vulgate, which we can all agree portrays every single character at their absolute worst (and is therefore invalid<3), gawain's choice of words consistently upholds the lady's desires above his own. at first, gawain intended wingman for pelleas by pretending he, pelleas, was dead to begrieve arcade. he discovers instead that she's elated by pelleas's supposed passing, so she and gawain fall in love. but even after admitting his feelings, he still takes great pains to frame the final crossing of that line as her choice, and only relents when she makes her intentions plain.

he might also just like it when women boss him around if his treatment from orgeluse in parzival by wolfram von eschenbach is any indication.

similarly to the knight of two swords, in parzival, gawain is aware of his fame, fosters it, and then employs his orgeluse brain worms as a motivation for sparing lives instead of like...morality.

i think what's particularly interesting about gawain's relationship history is that many of his partners are named, whereas it's pretty common for damsels and maidens in medieval texts to exist without identities of their own. there are so, so many named, interesting, fully developed women linked to gawain, it's actually pretty awesome! here are a few more:

lunette in yvain: knight of the lion by chrétien de troyes...

amurfina in the crown by heinrich von dem türlin...

bloiesine in the 4th perceval continuation by gerbert de montreuil...

marjorie in gawain and marjorie by oscar fay adams (if we extend our search through the 20th century!)...

and on and on forever! so in conclusion, gawain has been pulling bitches for many hundreds of slutty, slutty years, and from what modern retellings i've read, authors have no intention of interrupting this trend. i hope that helps clear things up somewhat. thanks for the ask!

142 notes · View notes

gawrkin · 7 months

Text

Shower thoughts: the Fair Unknown's villain

I don't know about you guys but I have a sneaking suspicion that Evraine from Le Bel Inconnu is actually Ywain, from Knight of the Lion/Lady of the Fountain. The reason is because one of the variants of Evraine's name I found is "Jrayne", depending on the manuscript. The "J" would have been pronounced with a "Y" sound.

The big problem with this theory is where would Ywain even get magic powers? I don't think Merlin teaches guys. Maybe, it was Lunette. *Shrugs*

Nah, maybe I'm wrong. Forget about it.

#Morgan le fay #Sir Ywain #Mabon the Sorcerer #Knight of the Lion #Mabon ap Modron #arthuriana #arthurian legend #Welsh Myth #Owain mab Urien #Morfydd ferch Urien #Le Bel Inconnu #Morgan “the Goddess”#Feimurgan #Maponos #Urien of Rheged #Modron ferch Afallach #Oberon's Mom

4 notes · View notes

crazyrichxplainr · 2 months

Text

Dev Patel for The New York Times (ph: Justin J. Wee)

2K notes · View notes

chalkrub · 14 days

Text

new guyyy whom i love from a design trade

he's a demigod cimera knight who was brutally defeated and then spared by a tyrant queen, with the caveat that she cut off his goat head and uses it as a hostage to keep him loyal to her. unfortunate but what are you gonna do

#my art #oc #scarab knight #chimera #anthro #furry #lion #dragon #goat #the heads all have names but collectively they're the scarab knight. or the beetle knight idk which yet #lotsa tags for this one. i loooove him it really is so cool to have a guy designed by someone else #this is nothing i could come up with by myself #but funnily enough his design slotted in perfectly with another design i was already working with (the tyrant queen)#who is basically me wanting a character that carries a head on a stick around with them #designer is monarchisfine on toyhouse btw. check em out they make great stuff very nice

1K notes · View notes

jimjamjomjum · 1 month

Text

#have a rainbow of my favorite Dev Patel characters #monkey man #the kid #slumdog millionaire #Jamal Malik #the best exotic marigold hotel #Sonny Kapoor #the green knight #Gawain #the newsroom #Neal Sampat #lion #saroo brierly #dev patel #fanart #myart

526 notes · View notes

burakku-jakku · 5 months

Text

Osamu Tezuka year of the dragon greeting card (1976)

Happy new year!

(x)

583 notes · View notes

beidak-art · 1 year

Text

Preparing some stickers for an upcoming comics festival in my city. What is not sold at the stand will be sold and given away online! ♥️

#elden ring #digital art #stickers #lion guardian #leyndell knight #wormface #monstrous crow #artists on tumblr #art #fromsoftware

1K notes · View notes

illustratus · 4 months

Text

The Siege of Chaluz (Richard I fatally wounded) by Harry Payne

215 notes · View notes

nunnimushka · 4 months

Text

Redraw my cuties from manga🤲

#nanatsu no taizai #the seven deadly sins #seven deadly sins #nnt king #nnt diane #nnt elizabeth #fairy king harlequin #king #harlequin #diane #elizabeth liones #meliodas #melizabeth #king x diane #four knights of the apocalypse #4kota #mokushiroku no yonkishi #7ds #yeah I draw them with my lil headcanons

329 notes · View notes

sexymancouldabeen · 11 months

Text

Tumblr Sexyman, a title bestowed unto only the (un)lucky few. Oncler, sans, Bill Cipher, Reigen, Komaeda, dear god wheatley somehow, i think maybe prussia, that spider from hotel dusk or whatever, there are a good handful to keep track of.

However, to counter balance that, there are hundreds if not thousands of characters that, with different circumstances, could have become Tumblr Sexymen, but fortunately evaded such infamy.

UNTIL TODAY!

May I present to you, the TUMBLR SEXYMAN-COULDABEEN TOURNAMENT!

32 Competitors that could have totally been Tumblr sexymen, whether they match the tropes or simply have the vibes, but never got the chance. Some, due to another character stealing their spotlight, others, from a franchise obscure enough that nobody noticed or they didn’t get reach outside of their own fandom, and others, simply nobody realized their true potential. Who will win and earn the ultimate title of the ultimate sexyman couldabeen?

(I would love to say the winner gets to legally be considered a tumblr sexyman for real but i sadly do not have that authority.)

Voting starts on Wednesday!