THE MORGANS CELEBRATE EASTER MONDAY IN CAMELOT

Today, The Morgans and The Grandma say goodbye to Arthur, Guinevere, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table while celebrating Easter Monday, a festival that unites Carolingian peoples, from Iceland to the Valencian Country, passing through the fantastic world of Camelot.

Tomorrow, the family will return to London where they will continue their English training over the next few weeks.

It is been a few relaxing days, but also an intense literary lesson about one of the most wonderful and popular sagas in Europe, a saga which The Grandma loves and admires with all her heart.

Long live Camelot! Long live literature! Long live Easter Monday!

Easter Monday is the second day of Eastertide and a public holiday in more than 50 predominantly Christian countries. In Western Christianity it marks the second day of the Octave of Easter; in Eastern Christianity it marks the second day of Bright Week.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches, this day is called Bright Monday or Renewal Monday. The services, as in the rest of Bright Week, are quite different from during the rest of the year and are similar to the services on Pascha (Easter Sunday) and include an outdoor procession after the Divine Liturgy. While this is prescribed for all days of Bright Week, often they are only celebrated on Monday and maybe a couple of other days in parish churches, especially in non-Orthodox countries.

Should the calendar date for the feast day of a major saint (e.g. Saint George on April 23, or the patron saint of a church) or one's name day fall within Holy Week and Pascha itself, the feast is transferred to Easter Monday.

In Western Christianity, Easter Monday is the second day of Eastertide, as well as the second day in the Octave of Easter.

In the Lutheran Churches, the Gospel for Easter Monday concerns the Road to Emmaus appearance.

Easter Monday is an official public holiday in Catalonia, the Land of Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Navarre, the Basque Country, Cantabria, the village of Galvez, and La Rioja. In Catalonia, the Land of Valencia, and Murcia a feature of this day is a pastry called Easter mona. It is usually given by godparents to their godchildren, and it is traditional for families or groups of friends to gather for a trip somewhere, like the countryside, to eat the mona. Traditionally, the age of the children was reflected in the number of eggs in the mona, until they were 12 years old. Currently, it is common for godparents to give the mona to their godchildren throughout their lives.

The Easter mona tradition is tied to that of bakers, who make works of art with pastry and chocolate, and since the mid-nineteenth century, mones have lost their initial simplicity, making their presentation more complex, for they must be elaborated with caramelized sugar, sugar almonds, jams, crunchy toppings, or silver anise, before being decorated with painted Easter eggs or figures made from porcelain, wood, cardboard or fabric.

More information: English Heritage

Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope,

renewal, and new life.

Janine di Giovanni

THE SIEGE PERILOUS, A RESERVED SEAT FOR A HOLY CAUSE

Today, The Grandma has been reading an interesting chapter about the Siege Perilous, a special seat which only can be occupied by a special knight who had accomplished a special and sacred mission. 

In Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous, also known as The Perilous Seat, is a vacant seat at the Round Table reserved by Merlin for the knight who would one day be successful in the quest for the Holy Grail. The English word siege originally meant seat or throne, coming from the Old French sege, modern French siège; the modern military sense of a prolonged assault comes from the conception of an army sitting down before a fortress.

In Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, in an account taken from the Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal, the newly knighted Sir Galahad takes the seat in Camelot on Whitsunday, 454 years after the death of Jesus. 

The Siege Perilous is so strictly reserved that it is fatal to anyone else who sits in it. Another version of this story is related in Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King.

Originally, this motif about the seat and the grail belonged to Perceval, but the Lancelot-Grail Cycle transferred it to the new Cistercian-based hero Galahad. It appears, for example, in the earlier De Boron Didot Perceval, where Perceval occupies the seat at Arthur's court at Carduel.

According to many scholars, the motif of the dangerous seat can be further traced to Welsh, Cornish, and Breton mythology, where the bulk of the Arthurian legend was derived from. According to this theory, the Siege Perilous was a half-remembered version of a Celtic kingship ritual that has parallels in the Irish Lia Fáil.

The Siege, from the French siège, seat, Perilous is the seat at Arthur's Round Table in which only the chosen knight can sit. In the prose rendition of Robert de Boron's Merlin, the empty seat is reminiscent of the seat that Judas vacated.

There is also an empty seat at Joseph of Arimathea's Grail Table which destroys anyone unworthy of sitting there. In his Continuation to Chrétien's Perceval, Gerbert de Montreuil says that it was sent to Arthur by the fairy of Roche Menor.

Six knights tried to sit in it and were swallowed by the earth before Perceval sits it in and completes the adventure. When he does, the six are restored to Arthur's court.

In the thirteenth-century Vulgate Cycle, Merlin instructs Uther to build a table in commemoration of the Grail Table; at the table, there is an empty seat reserved for the Grail knight. 

In the Queste del Saint Graal, the Siege Perilous is said to parallel the seat of Christ at the Last Supper and the seat occupied by Josephus at the Grail Table. Two brothers, jealous of Josephus, objected to his having a special place, and one of them sat in it, only to be destroyed; so it came to be called the Feared Seat. 

Galahad is the knight for whom the Siege Perilous at Arthur's table is destined. In the Lancelot, a knight named Brumand, trying to perform an act that Lancelot never dared to do, sits in it and is burned to a crisp. Malory says that Merlin made the Siege Perilous for the greatest Grail knight. When Galahad arrives at Camelot, his name appears on the seat destined for him.

More information: King Arthur's Knights

 

 

No man could sit but he should lose himself...

Merlin

MYRDDIN, THE MOST FAMOUS WIZARD IN LITERATURE

The Grandma is reading about Merlin, the most famous wizard in the universal literature and one of the most important characters in the Arthurian Cycle.

Merlin, in Welsh Myrddin, is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry.

 

The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures.

Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt, Merlinus Caledonensis, a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius in Welsh, Myrddin Emrys.

Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales. Later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard.

Merlin's traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor and mentor to the knights until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake. He is popularly said to be buried in the magical forest of Brocéliande.

More information: Britannica

The name Merlin is derived from the Welsh Myrddin, the name of the bard Myrddin Wyllt, one of the chief sources for the later legendary figure. Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinised the name to Merlinus in his works.
 

Clas Myrddin or Merlin's Enclosure is an early name for Great Britain stated in the Third Series of Welsh Triads. It's suggested that the Welsh name Myrddin was derived from the toponym Caerfyrddin, the Welsh name for the town known in English as Carmarthen.

This contrasts with the popular folk etymology that the town was named for the bard. The name Carmarthen is derived from the town's previous Roman name Moridunum, in turn derived from Celtic Brittonic moridunon, sea fortress.

Geoffrey's composite Merlin is based primarily on Myrddin Wyllt, also called Merlinus Caledonensis, and Aurelius Ambrosius, a mostly fictionalised version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus. The former had nothing to do with King Arthur: in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the wood in the 6th century.

Geoffrey had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini, Prophecies of Merlin, which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary madman.

More information: Ancient Origins

Geoffrey's Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlin's background. He included the prophet in his next work Historia Regum Britanniae, supplementing the characterisation by attributing to him stories about Aurelius Ambrosius, taken from Nennius' Historia Brittonum. According to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower.

The tower always collapsed before completion, and his wise men told him that the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child but, when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who fought a battle representing the struggle between the invading Saxons and the native Celtic Britons, which suggested that the tower would never stand under the leadership of Vortigern, but only under that of Ambrosius.

This is why Ambrosius is given the kingdom or the tower: he tells Vortigern to go elsewhere and says I will stay here. The tower is metaphorically the kingdom, which is the notional ability to beat the Saxons.

Geoffrey retells this story in Historia Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child the name of the prophetic bard Merlin. He keeps this new figure separate from Aurelius Ambrosius and, with regard to his changing of the original Nennian character, he states that Ambrosius was also called Merlin, that is, Ambrosius Merlinus. He goes on to add new episodes that tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors, such as bringing the stones for Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales and Ireland.

Geoffrey's account of Merlin Ambrosius' early life in the Historia Regum Britanniae is based on the story of Ambrosius in the Historia Brittonum. He adds his own embellishments to the tale, which he sets in Carmarthen, Wales in Welsh Caerfyrddin. While Nennius' Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son of a Roman consul, Geoffrey's Merlin is begotten on a king's daughter by an incubus demon. 

 More information: ThoughtCo

The name of Merlin's mother is not usually stated, but is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the Prose Brut. The story of Vortigern's tower is essentially the same; the underground dragons, one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the Britons, and their final battle is a portent of things to come. At this point Geoffrey inserts a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken from his earlier Prophetiae Merlini. 

He tells only two further tales of the character. In the first, Merlin creates Stonehenge as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius. In the second, Merlin's magic enables the British king Uther Pendragon to enter into Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with his enemy's wife, Igraine. These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. As Lewis Thorpe notes, Merlin disappears from the narrative after this; he does not tutor and advise Arthur as in later versions.

Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work Vita Merlini. He based the Vita on stories of the original 6th-century Myrddin, set long after his time frame for the life of Merlin Ambrosius. He tries to assert that the characters are the same with references to King Arthur and his death, as told in the Historia Regum Britanniae. In this story, Merlin survives Arthur.

Several decades later, the poet Robert de Boron retold this material in his poem Merlin. Only a few lines of the poem have survived, but a prose retelling became popular and was later incorporated into chivalric romances. In Robert's account, as in Geoffrey's Historia, Merlin is begotten by a demon on a virgin as an intended Antichrist. 

This plot is thwarted when the expectant mother informs her confessor Blase or Blaise of her predicament; they immediately baptize the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan and his intended destiny. The demonic legacy invests Merlin with a preternatural knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the boy a prophetic knowledge of the future.  

More information: The Guardian

 

 

Camelot isn't built on magic, 

but on people, on their faith.

Merlin

KING ARTHUR & THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE

The Grandma loves Middle Age and she likes medieval legends. One of her favourite is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
 

King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.

Arthur is a central figure in the legends making up the Matter of Britain.

The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, History of the Kings of Britain. In some Welsh and Breton tales and poems that date from before this work, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. How much of Geoffrey's Historia, completed in 1138, was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.

Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul.

More information: Biography

Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann, and final rest in Avalon.

The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. 

In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media.

The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long been debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum, History of the Britons, and Annales Cambriae, Welsh Annals, sees Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a Romano-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons some time in the late 5th to early 6th century.

More information: Live Science

The Historia Brittonum, a 9th-century Latin historical compilation attributed in some late manuscripts to a Welsh cleric called Nennius, contains the first datable mention of King Arthur, listing twelve battles that Arthur fought. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum.

The other text that seems to support the case for Arthur's historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, which also link Arthur with the Battle of Badon. The Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut, Mordred, were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often been used to bolster confidence in the Historia's account and to confirm that Arthur really did fight at Badon. 

Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonum's account. The latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the complex textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at some point in the 10th century and may never have existed in any earlier set of annals. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum.

The origin of the Welsh name Arthur remains a matter of debate. The most widely accepted etymology derives it from the Roman nomen gentile, family name, Artorius. Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology, but possibly of Messapian or Etruscan origin.

More information: BBC

Linguist Stephan Zimmer suggests Artorius possibly had a Celtic origin, being a Latinization of a hypothetical name *Artorījos, in turn derived from an older patronym *Arto-rīg-ios, meaning son of the bear/warrior-king. This patronym is unattested, but the root, *arto-rīg, bear/warrior-king, is the source of the Old Irish personal name Artrí.  

Some scholars have suggested it is relevant to this debate that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as Arthur or Arturus in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as Artōrius, though Classical Latin Artōrius became Arturius in some Vulgar Latin dialects. However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name Arthur, as Artōrius would regularly become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh. Another commonly proposed derivation of Arthur from Welsh arth bear + (g)wr man, earlier *Arto-uiros in Brittonic, is not accepted by modern scholars for phonological and orthographic reasons.

More information: Caerleon

Notably, a Brittonic compound name *Arto-uiros should produce Old Welsh *Artgur, where u represents the short vowel /u/, and Middle/Modern Welsh *Arthwr, rather than Arthur, where u is a long vowel /ʉː/. In Welsh poetry the name is always spelled Arthur and is exclusively rhymed with words ending in -ur—never words ending in -wr—which confirms that the second element cannot be [g]wr man.

An alternative theory, which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars, derives the name Arthur from Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, near Ursa Major or the Great Bear.  

Classical Latin Arcturus would also have become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh, and its brightness and position in the sky led people to regard it as the guardian of the bear, which is the meaning of the name in Ancient Greek, and the leader of the other stars in Boötes.

The popularity of Geoffrey's Historia and its other derivative works, such as Wace's Roman de Brut, is generally agreed to be an important factor in explaining the appearance of significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France. 

It was not, however, the only Arthurian influence on the developing Matter of Britain. There is clear evidence that Arthur and Arthurian tales were familiar on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known, see for example, the Modena Archivolt, and Celtic names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia appear in the Arthurian romances. 

From the perspective of Arthur, perhaps the most significant effect of this great outpouring of new Arthurian story was on the role of the king himself: much of this 12th-century and later Arthurian literature centres less on Arthur himself than on characters such as Lancelot and Guinevere, Percival, Galahad, Gawain, Ywain, and Tristan and Iseult.

More information: History Extra

I must ride with my knights to defend what was, 
and the dream of what could be.

King Arthur

KING ARTHUR & THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Arthurian saga. The Grandma loves Middle Age and she likes medieval legends. One of her favourite is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

King Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas. Arthur's name also occurs in early poetic sources such as Y Gododdin.

Arthur is a central figure in the legends making up the Matter of Britain.

The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae, History of the Kings of Britain. In some Welsh and Breton tales and poems that date from before this work, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. How much of Geoffrey's Historia, completed in 1138, was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.

Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul.

More information: Biography

Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann, and final rest in Avalon.

The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. 

In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. In the 21st century, the legend lives on, not only in literature but also in adaptations for theatre, film, television, comics and other media.

The historical basis for the King Arthur legend has long been debated by scholars. One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum, History of the Britons, and Annales Cambriae, Welsh Annals, sees Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a Romano-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons some time in the late 5th to early 6th century.

More information: Live Science

The Historia Brittonum, a 9th-century Latin historical compilation attributed in some late manuscripts to a Welsh cleric called Nennius, contains the first datable mention of King Arthur, listing twelve battles that Arthur fought. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum.

The other text that seems to support the case for Arthur's historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, which also link Arthur with the Battle of Badon. The Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut, Mordred, were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often been used to bolster confidence in the Historia's account and to confirm that Arthur really did fight at Badon. 

Problems have been identified, however, with using this source to support the Historia Brittonum's account. The latest research shows that the Annales Cambriae was based on a chronicle begun in the late 8th century in Wales. Additionally, the complex textual history of the Annales Cambriae precludes any certainty that the Arthurian annals were added to it even that early. They were more likely added at some point in the 10th century and may never have existed in any earlier set of annals. The Badon entry probably derived from the Historia Brittonum.

The origin of the Welsh name Arthur remains a matter of debate. The most widely accepted etymology derives it from the Roman nomen gentile, family name, Artorius. Artorius itself is of obscure and contested etymology, but possibly of Messapian or Etruscan origin.

More information: BBC

Linguist Stephan Zimmer suggests Artorius possibly had a Celtic origin, being a Latinization of a hypothetical name *Artorījos, in turn derived from an older patronym *Arto-rīg-ios, meaning son of the bear/warrior-king. This patronym is unattested, but the root, *arto-rīg, bear/warrior-king, is the source of the Old Irish personal name Artrí.  

Some scholars have suggested it is relevant to this debate that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as Arthur or Arturus in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as Artōrius, though Classical Latin Artōrius became Arturius in some Vulgar Latin dialects. However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name Arthur, as Artōrius would regularly become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh. Another commonly proposed derivation of Arthur from Welsh arth bear + (g)wr man, earlier *Arto-uiros in Brittonic, is not accepted by modern scholars for phonological and orthographic reasons.

More information: Caerleon

Notably, a Brittonic compound name *Arto-uiros should produce Old Welsh *Artgur, where u represents the short vowel /u/, and Middle/Modern Welsh *Arthwr, rather than Arthur, where u is a long vowel /ʉː/. In Welsh poetry the name is always spelled Arthur and is exclusively rhymed with words ending in -ur—never words ending in -wr—which confirms that the second element cannot be [g]wr man.

An alternative theory, which has gained only limited acceptance among professional scholars, derives the name Arthur from Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, near Ursa Major or the Great Bear.  

Classical Latin Arcturus would also have become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh, and its brightness and position in the sky led people to regard it as the guardian of the bear, which is the meaning of the name in Ancient Greek, and the leader of the other stars in Boötes.

The popularity of Geoffrey's Historia and its other derivative works, such as Wace's Roman de Brut, is generally agreed to be an important factor in explaining the appearance of significant numbers of new Arthurian works in continental Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly in France. 

It was not, however, the only Arthurian influence on the developing Matter of Britain. There is clear evidence that Arthur and Arthurian tales were familiar on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known, see for example, the Modena Archivolt, and Celtic names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia appear in the Arthurian romances. 

From the perspective of Arthur, perhaps the most significant effect of this great outpouring of new Arthurian story was on the role of the king himself: much of this 12th-century and later Arthurian literature centres less on Arthur himself than on characters such as Lancelot and Guinevere, Percival, Galahad, Gawain, Ywain, and Tristan and Iseult.

More information: History Extra

 

 

I must ride with my knights to defend what was, 
and the dream of what could be.

King Arthur

THE ASTRONAUT, THE WISE, THE ROBOT & THE GRANDMA

Old memories in Eramprunyà Castle, Gavà

Today, The Grandma has visited Eramprunyà Castle again. She enjoyed her last visit some days ago and she has wanted to return. The Grandma has had a meeting with some friends from Gavà and Begues and she has also met three new friends, Ю́рий aka Iuri, Myrddin aka Merlin and Johnny 5.

Ю́рий is a Russian pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space; Myrddin is an enchanter featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry and Johnny 5 is an American robot from Astoria, Oregon.

Perhaps thanks to the environment, perhaps thanks to her new friends, The Grandma has remembered one of the most beautiful masterpieces in literature of all times, The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Eixupéry, a wonderful novel that talks about friendship, feelings, knowledge and experiences, summing up, it talks about life.

The Little Prince is an incredible novel that must be read slowly enjoying its literature and its drawings and understanding its meaning, a deep reflexion about human relationships.

It has been a great pleasure to visit Eramprunyà Castle again and meet old and new friends. The Grandma has got amazing memories of this experience and she is very sure she is going to return very soon.

As The Little Prince said, It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important. It is the time we have dedicated to learn new things, that makes this new knowledge so important and this time has been a fantastic experience. Thanks to all Gavà Team.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, in Russian Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин (9 March 1934-27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. 

Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин

Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Gagarin later served as the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was subsequently named after him.

Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awards the Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal in his honour.

More information: SISTER

Merlin, in Welsh Myrddin, is a legendary figure best known as an enchanter or wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures.

Myrddin

Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt or Merlinus Caledonensis, a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius, in Welsh Myrddin Emrys. Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales. Later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image. Merlin's traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities.

Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor and mentor to the knights until he is bewitched and forever sealed or killed by the Lady of the Lake. He is popularly said to be buried in the magical forest of Brocéliande.

More information: ITV

Number 5 or the name chosen by Johnny 5, is a fictional character from the movie Short Circuit (1986) and Short Circuit 2 (1988).

Johnny 5

The character was created by the writers Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson. His voice is played by actor Tim Blaney in his original version.

It is a robot originally created for military purposes, after being suddenly gifted with consciousness after being struck by lightning. Therefore, it is considered alive: it has emotions and is autonomous.

Short Circuit is a 1986 US comic science fiction film directed by John Badham and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock.

The film's plot centers upon an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a more humanlike intelligence, with which it embarks to explore its new state.

Short Circuit stars Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton and G. W. Bailey, with Tim Blaney as the voice of the robot named Johnny 5. A sequel, Short Circuit 2, was released in 1988.

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And now here is my secret, a very simple secret:

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;

what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Antoine de Saint-Eixupéry

THE SIEGE PERILOUS, A RESERVED SEAT FOR A HOLY CAUSE

The Siege Perilous

Today, The Grandma wants to remember Italian people who celebrates Ferragosto, a special day for them. In Barcelona, August, 15 is a festivity but without all the importance that it has in Italian lands.

It has been an interesting chapter about the Siege Perilous, a special seat which only can be occupied by a special knight who had accomplished a special and sacred mission. After reading, The Grandma has studied one new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 49).

More information: Spelling and Pronuntiation 1

In Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous, also known as The Perilous Seat, is a vacant seat at the Round Table reserved by Merlin for the knight who would one day be successful in the quest for the Holy Grail. The English word siege originally meant seat or throne, coming from the Old French sege, modern French siège; the modern military sense of a prolonged assault comes from the conception of an army sitting down before a fortress.

In Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, in an account taken from the Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal, the newly knighted Sir Galahad takes the seat in Camelot on Whitsunday, 454 years after the death of Jesus. 

The Siege Perilous

The Siege Perilous is so strictly reserved that it is fatal to anyone else who sits in it. Another version of this story is related in Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King.

Originally, this motif about the seat and the grail belonged to Perceval, but the Lancelot-Grail Cycle transferred it to the new Cistercian-based hero Galahad. It appears, for example, in the earlier De Boron Didot Perceval, where Perceval occupies the seat at Arthur's court at Carduel.

According to many scholars, the motif of the dangerous seat can be further traced to Welsh, Cornish, and Breton mythology, where the bulk of the Arthurian legend was derived from. According to this theory, the Siege Perilous was a half-remembered version of a Celtic kingship ritual that has parallels in the Irish Lia Fáil.

The Siege, from the French siège, seat, Perilous is the seat at Arthur’s Round Table in which only the chosen knight can sit. In the prose rendition of Robert de Boron’s Merlin, the empty seat is reminiscent of the seat that Judas vacated.

There is also an empty seat at Joseph of Arimathea’s Grail Table which destroys anyone unworthy of sitting there. In his Continuation to Chrétien’s Perceval, Gerbert de Montreuil says that it was sent to Arthur by the fairy of Roche Menor.

Merlin introduces Galahad to the Round Table

Six knights tried to sit in it and were swallowed by the earth before Perceval sits it in and completes the adventure. When he does, the six are restored to Arthur’s court.

In the thirteenth-century Vulgate Cycle, Merlin instructs Uther to build a table in commemoration of the Grail Table; at the table, there is an empty seat reserved for the Grail knight. 

In the Queste del Saint Graal, the Siege Perilous is said to parallel the seat of Christ at the Last Supper and the seat occupied by Josephus at the Grail Table. Two brothers, jealous of Josephus, objected to his having a special place, and one of them sat in it, only to be destroyed; so it came to be called the Feared Seat. 

Galahad is the knight for whom the Siege Perilous at Arthur’s table is destined. In the Lancelot, a knight named Brumand, trying to perform an act that Lancelot never dared to do, sits in it and is burned to a crisp. Malory says that Merlin made the Siege Perilous for the greatest Grail knight. When Galahad arrives at Camelot, his name appears on the seat destined for him.

More information: King Arthur's Knights

No man could sit but he should lose himself...

Merlin

MERLIN, THE MOST FAMOUS WIZARD OF THE LITERATURE

Merlin, the Wizard

The Grandma is reading about Merlin, the most famous wizard in the universal literature and one of the most important characters in the Arthurian Cycle.

Before reading about the amazing and interesting character relationed with the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, The Grandma has studied a new and difficult lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 44).

More information: Verbs followed by prepositions I, II, III & IV

Merlin, in Welsh Myrddin, is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend and medieval Welsh poetry. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures.

Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt, Merlinus Caledonensis, a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius in Wels, Myrddin Emrys.

Merlin, the wizard

Geoffrey's rendering of the character was immediately popular, especially in Wales. Later writers expanded the account to produce a fuller image of the wizard.

Merlin's traditional biography casts him as a cambion: born of a mortal woman, sired by an incubus, the non-human from whom he inherits his supernatural powers and abilities. Merlin matures to an ascendant sagehood and engineers the birth of Arthur through magic and intrigue. Later authors have Merlin serve as the king's advisor and mentor to the knights until he is bewitched and imprisoned by the Lady of the Lake. He is popularly said to be buried in the magical forest of Brocéliande.

More information: Britannica

The name Merlin is derived from the Welsh Myrddin, the name of the bard Myrddin Wyllt, one of the chief sources for the later legendary figure. Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinised the name to Merlinus in his works.
 

Merlin, the Wizard

Clas Myrddin or Merlin's Enclosure is an early name for Great Britain stated in the Third Series of Welsh Triads. It's suggested that the Welsh name Myrddin was derived from the toponym Caerfyrddin, the Welsh name for the town known in English as Carmarthen.

This contrasts with the popular folk etymology that the town was named for the bard. The name Carmarthen is derived from the town's previous Roman name Moridunum, in turn derived from Celtic Brittonic moridunon, sea fortress.

Geoffrey's composite Merlin is based primarily on Myrddin Wyllt, also called Merlinus Caledonensis, and Aurelius Ambrosius, a mostly fictionalised version of the historical war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus. The former had nothing to do with King Arthur: in British poetry he was a bard driven mad after witnessing the horrors of war, who fled civilization to become a wild man of the wood in the 6th century.

Geoffrey had this individual in mind when he wrote his earliest surviving work, the Prophetiae Merlini, Prophecies of Merlin, which he claimed were the actual words of the legendary madman.

More information: Ancient Origins

Geoffrey's Prophetiae do not reveal much about Merlin's background. He included the prophet in his next work Historia Regum Britanniae, supplementing the characterisation by attributing to him stories about Aurelius Ambrosius, taken from Nennius' Historia Brittonum. According to Nennius, Ambrosius was discovered when the British king Vortigern was trying to erect a tower.

The tower always collapsed before completion, and his wise men told him that the only solution was to sprinkle the foundation with the blood of a child born without a father. Ambrosius was rumoured to be such a child but, when brought before the king, he revealed the real reason for the tower's collapse: below the foundation was a lake containing two dragons who fought a battle representing the struggle between the invading Saxons and the native Celtic Britons, which suggested that the tower would never stand under the leadership of Vortigern, but only under that of Ambrosius.

Merlin, the Wizard

This is why Ambrosius is given the kingdom or the tower: he tells Vortigern to go elsewhere and says I will stay here. The tower is metaphorically the kingdom, which is the notional ability to beat the Saxons.

Geoffrey retells this story in Historia Regum Britanniæ with some embellishments, and gives the fatherless child the name of the prophetic bard Merlin. He keeps this new figure separate from Aurelius Ambrosius and, with regard to his changing of the original Nennian character, he states that Ambrosius was also called Merlin, that is, Ambrosius Merlinus. He goes on to add new episodes that tie Merlin into the story of King Arthur and his predecessors, such as bringing the stones for Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales and Ireland.

Geoffrey's account of Merlin Ambrosius' early life in the Historia Regum Britanniae is based on the story of Ambrosius in the Historia Brittonum. He adds his own embellishments to the tale, which he sets in Carmarthen, Wales in Welsh Caerfyrddin. While Nennius' Ambrosius eventually reveals himself to be the son of a Roman consul, Geoffrey's Merlin is begotten on a king's daughter by an incubus demon. 

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The name of Merlin's mother is not usually stated, but is given as Adhan in the oldest version of the Prose Brut. The story of Vortigern's tower is essentially the same; the underground dragons, one white and one red, represent the Saxons and the Britons, and their final battle is a portent of things to come. At this point Geoffrey inserts a long section of Merlin's prophecies, taken from his earlier Prophetiae Merlini. 

He tells only two further tales of the character. In the first, Merlin creates Stonehenge as a burial place for Aurelius Ambrosius. In the second, Merlin's magic enables the British king Uther Pendragon to enter into Tintagel in disguise and father his son Arthur with his enemy's wife, Igraine. These episodes appear in many later adaptations of Geoffrey's account. As Lewis Thorpe notes, Merlin disappears from the narrative after this; he does not tutor and advise Arthur as in later versions.

Merlin, the Wizard in a Walt Disney version

Geoffrey dealt with Merlin again in his third work Vita Merlini. He based the Vita on stories of the original 6th-century Myrddin, set long after his time frame for the life of Merlin Ambrosius. He tries to assert that the characters are the same with references to King Arthur and his death, as told in the Historia Regum Britanniae. In this story, Merlin survives Arthur.

Several decades later, the poet Robert de Boron retold this material in his poem Merlin. Only a few lines of the poem have survived, but a prose retelling became popular and was later incorporated into chivalric romances. In Robert's account, as in Geoffrey's Historia, Merlin is begotten by a demon on a virgin as an intended Antichrist. 

This plot is thwarted when the expectant mother informs her confessor Blase or Blaise of her predicament; they immediately baptize the boy at birth, thus freeing him from the power of Satan and his intended destiny. The demonic legacy invests Merlin with a preternatural knowledge of the past and present, which is supplemented by God, who gives the boy a prophetic knowledge of the future.  

More information: The Guardian

Camelot isn't built on magic, 

but on people, on their faith.

Merlin