THE PASSING OF KING ARTHUR, THE MYTH WAS BORN

Today, The Grandma has been reading Le Morte d'Arthur.

The Arthurian Cycle is a wonderful compilation of stories around the main figure of King Arthur and it's a must in the universal literature, especially Middle Age one. 

The Arthurian Cycle is a masterpiece from the point of view of Literature but it's also a masterpiece in Philosophy and History. 

The thoughts of King Arthur cross over cultures and languages and they become in ethical and moral guides in our 21st century because his knowledge is timeless and eternal.

Le Morte d'Arthur, originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for The death of Arthur, is a reworking of existing tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interpreted existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material.

Malory's actual title for the work was The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table, but after Malory's death the publisher changed the title to what is commonly known today. The Death of King Arthur originally only referred to the final volume in the complete work.

Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton and is today one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English. Until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript in 1934, the 1485 edition was considered the earliest known text of Le Morte d'Arthur and that closest to Malory's translation and compilation. Various modern editions are inevitably variable, changing a variety of spelling, grammar, and/or pronouns for the convenience of readers of modern English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source.

Sir Thomas Malory retold the story of Arthur's birth, his conquests, his friendship with Merlin, and his death. To this day, Malory's work is considered by many to be the most authoritative telling of the Arthurian Legend. Malory titled his work Le Morte d'Arthur. Translated into English, this means The Death of King Arthur.

 

More information: The Medieval World 

Arthur immediately began pursuit of Lancelot and Guinevere, and they were quickly found at Lancelot's castle in Wales. For months, Arthur and his men laid siege to it. Finally, an agreement was reached whereby Guinevere was returned to Arthur, and Lancelot was sent to France in exile.

But Arthur was still angry. Lancelot had betrayed him, and he wanted revenge. He followed Lancelot into France, leaving Mordred in charge. Then Arthur received the news he dreaded worst: in his absence, Mordred had declared himself King, and had taken Guinevere as his queen. Now, Arthur had no choice but to return to Camelot to defend his kingdom.

In a dream, Arthur was warned not to fight Mordred right away, so he sent messengers into his camp to try and negotiate. During their talks, one of Mordred's men was bitten by an adder. 

As he drew his sword to kill it, the sun glinted off his blade. Both armies mistook this as a sign that someone had drawn his sword to fight, and a great battle began. The battle raged on all day, and by nightfall, it was down to every last man to fight. In the commotion, Arthur had dropped Excalibur and its scabbard. Seeing Mordred, he picked up a spear, and charged at him. Mordred charged back with his sword. The sword came forward and cleaved Arthur's skull just as he drove his spear through his son's hateful heart.

As Arthur lay dying, his last request was that the sword Excalibur and the scabbard be thrown back into the lake from whence they came.

Out of the mists of the lake, three Fairy Queens appeared. They placed Arthur's body on a barge, and sailed off with him to the mystical island of Avalon to cure him of his wounds. And some say he still lays there, sleeping in a hollow hill, and that he will awaken one day to defend Britain, when Britain has need of him.

Download Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

 I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.

Idylls of the King (1856–1885) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur

CHAPEL PERILOUS, LITERATURE BECOMES PSYCHOLOGY

Today, The Grandma is reading about the Chapel Perilous, an element very important in the Arthurian Cycle and in Psychology.

The term chapel perilous first appeared in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) as the setting for an adventure in which sorceress Hellawes unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Sir Lancelot. T. S. Eliot used it symbolically in The Waste Land (1922).

Students of the Grail romances will remember that in many of the versions the hero, sometimes it is a heroine, meets with a strange and terrifying adventure in a mysterious Chapel, an adventure which, we are given to understand, is fraught with extreme peril to life. The details vary: sometimes there is a Dead Body laid on the altar; sometimes a Black Hand extinguishes the tapers; there are strange and threatening voices, and the general impression is that this is an adventure in which supernatural, and evil, forces are engaged.

Such an adventure befalls Gawain on his way to the Grail Castle. He is overtaken by a terrible storm, and coming to a Chapel, standing at a crossways in the middle of a forest, enters for shelter.

The altar is bare, with no cloth, or covering, nothing is thereon but a great golden candlestick with a tall taper burning within it.

Behind the altar is a window, and as Gawain looks a Hand, black and hideous, comes through the window, and extinguishes the taper, while a voice makes lamentation loud and dire, beneath which the very building rocks. Gawain's horse shies for terror, and the knight, making the sign of the Cross, rides out of the Chapel, to find the storm abated, and the great wind fallen. Thereafter the night was calm and clear.

In the Perceval section of Wauchier and Manessier we find the same adventure in a dislocated form.

The earliest mention of a Perilous Cemetery, as distinct from a Chapel, appears to be in the Chastel Orguellous section of the Perceval, a section probably derived from a very early stratum of Arthurian romantic tradition.

The metaphorical Chapel Perilous traces back to the story, Le Morte d’Arthur, written by Sir Thomas Malory and published in 1485. In the dimly-lit chape, named Chapel Perilous by Malory, Sir Lancelot du Lake takes the liberty of purloining a sword and a scrap of shroud-silk from a dead knight, Sir Gilbert the Bastard, before encountering a beautiful sorceress, Hellawes, Lady of the Castle Nigramous. Refusing to kiss her, Lancelot avoids her seductive efforts and moves onward to the disastrous climax of his love for Queen Guinevere. Having loved Lancelot, Hellawes dies, broken-hearted. But had he given the sword to Hellawes, he would never have seen Guinevere again.

Chapel perilous is also a term referring to a psychological state in which an individual cannot be certain whether they have been aided or hindered by some force outside the realm of the natural world, or whether what appeared to be supernatural interference was a product of their own imagination.

It was used by the late writer and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) in his book Cosmic Trigger (1977). According to Wilson, being in this state leads the subject to become either paranoid or an agnostic. In his opinion there is no third way.

Did Lancelot choose wisely? Was the fair damsel and sorceress, who loved him, truly evil? Was he a loyal Knight of the Round Table or a betrayer of his friend and King? Was he a bastard or a fool, or a bastard, hero, and fool, or something else, a lost soul? Did Guinevere invite Lancelot into coital shelter from the storms of life or a carnal version of Chapel Perilous? The sword and silk are obvious sexual symbols, and precursors but, all decoding aside, the questions cannot be answered in simple terms of yea and nay.

Chapel Perilous denotes a state of consciousness wherein a person seems to encounter a supernatural magnetic force, the sense of which defies classification in terms of good and evil. In any case, ordinary faith in dogma is made impossible by inescapable recognition of the infinite kaleidoscope-like processing of multidimensional Omniverse. Neither running nor hiding is an option.

More information: Heritage History

Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. 

But the home we seek resides not in some distant land. 

It's in us! And in our actions on this day! 

If this be our destiny, then so be it. 

But let history remember that as free men, 

we chose to make it so.
 

King Arthur

EXCALIBUR, THE LEGENDARY SWORD OF KING ARTHUR

The Grandma is reading about the myth of Excalibur, Arthur's sword, which legend says that was freed from a stone by Arthur. It is sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain.

Excalibur is one of the most famous swords in Literature and The Grandma wants to talk about it and about its source of inspiration: the story of the knight of Montesiepi in Siena.

Excalibur or Caliburn, is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone, the proof of Arthur's lineage, are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. Excalibur was associated with the Arthurian legend very early. In Welsh, it is called Caledfwlch; in Cornish, Calesvol; in Breton, Kaledvoulc'h; and in Latin, Caliburnus.

The name Excalibur ultimately derives from the Welsh Caledfwlch, and Breton Kaledvoulc'h, Middle Cornish Calesvol, which is a compound of caled hard and bwlch breach, cleft.

More information: Ancient History

Caledfwlch appears in several early Welsh works, including the poem Preiddeu Annwfn and the prose tale Culhwch and Olwen, a work associated with the Mabinogion and written perhaps around 1100. The name was later used in Welsh adaptations of foreign material such as the Bruts, chronicles, which were based on Geoffrey of Monmouth.

It is often considered to be related to the phonetically similar Caladbolg, a sword borne by several figures from Irish mythology, although a borrowing of Caledfwlch from Irish Caladbolg has been considered unlikely by recent studies that suggest instead that both names may have similarly arisen at a very early date as generic names for a sword; this sword then became exclusively the property of Arthur in the British tradition.

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae, The History of the Kings of Britain, c. 1136, Latinised the name of Arthur's sword as Caliburnus, potentially influenced by the Medieval Latin spelling calibs of Classical Latin chalybs, from Greek chályps [χάλυψ] steel. Most Celticists consider Geoffrey's Caliburnus to be derivative of a lost Old Welsh text in which bwlch had not yet been lenited to fwlch.

In Old French sources this then became Escalibor, Excalibor, and finally the familiar Excalibur. Geoffrey Gaimar, in his Old French L'Estoire des Engles (1134-1140), mentions Arthur and his sword: this Constantine was the nephew of Arthur, who had the sword Caliburc, Cil Costentin, li niès Artur, Ki out l'espée Caliburc.

In Wace's Roman de Brut (c. 1150-1155), an Old French translation and versification of Geoffrey's Historia, the sword is called Calabrum, Callibourc, Chalabrun, and Calabrun, with alternate spellings such as Chalabrum, Calibore, Callibor, Caliborne, Calliborc, and Escaliborc, found in various manuscripts of the Brut.

In Chrétien de Troyes' late 12th-century Old French Perceval, Arthur's knight Gawain carries the sword Escalibor and it is stated, for at his belt hung Escalibor, the finest sword that there was, which sliced through iron as through wood, Qu'il avoit cainte Escalibor, la meillor espee qui fust, qu'ele trenche fer come fust. 

This statement was probably picked up by the author of the Estoire Merlin, or Vulgate Merlin, where the author, who was fond of fanciful folk etymologies, asserts that Escalibor is a Hebrew name which means in French 'cuts iron, steel, and wood, c'est non Ebrieu qui dist en franchois trenche fer & achier et fust; note that the word for steel here, achier, also means blade or sword and comes from medieval Latin aciarium, a derivative of acies sharp, so there is no direct connection with Latin chalybs in this etymology. 

It is from this fanciful etymological musing that Thomas Malory got the notion that Excalibur meant cut steel, the name of it, said the lady, is Excalibur, that is as moche to say, as Cut stele.

 

In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur's possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, the first tale to mention the sword in the stone motif, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve. In this account, the act could not be performed except by the true king, meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon. 

As Malory's writes: Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born. This sword is thought by many to be the famous Excalibur, and its identity is made explicit in the later Prose Merlin, part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle. The challenge of drawing a sword from a stone also appears in the Arthurian legends of Galahad, whose achievement of the task indicates that he is destined to find the Holy Grail.

However, in what is called the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake sometime after he began to reign. She calls the sword Excalibur, that is as to say as Cut-steel. 

More information: The Vintage News

In the Vulgate Mort Artu, Arthur is at the brink of death and so orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake; after two failed attempts, as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away, Griflet finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it. This tale becomes attached to Bedivere instead of Griflet in Malory and the English tradition. Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, naming both swords as Excalibur.

In Welsh legend, Arthur's sword is known as Caledfwlch. In Culhwch and Olwen, it is one of Arthur's most valuable possessions and is used by Arthur's warrior Llenlleawg the Irishman to kill the Irish king Diwrnach while stealing his magical cauldron. 

Irish mythology mentions a weapon Caladbolg, the sword of Fergus mac Róich, which was also known for its incredible power and was carried by some of Ireland's greatest heroes. The name, which can also mean hard cleft in Irish, appears in the plural, caladbuilc, as a generic term for great swords in Togail Troi, The Destruction of Troy, the 10th-century Irish translation of the classical tale.

In the late 15th/early 16th-century Middle Cornish play Beunans Ke, Arthur's sword is called Calesvol, which is etymologically an exact Middle Cornish cognate of the Welsh Caledfwlch. It is unclear if the name was borrowed from the Welsh, if so, it must have been an early loan, for phonological reasons, or represents an early, pan-Brittonic traditional name for Arthur's sword.

Geoffrey's Historia is the first non-Welsh source to speak of the sword. Geoffrey says the sword was forged in Avalon and Latinises the name Caledfwlch as Caliburnus. 

When his influential pseudo-history made it to Continental Europe, writers altered the name further until it finally took on the popular form Excalibur, various spellings in the medieval Arthurian romance and chronicle tradition include: Calabrun, Calabrum, Calibourne, Callibourc, Calliborc, Calibourch, Escaliborc, and Escalibor.

The legend was expanded upon in the Vulgate Cycle, also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle which emerged in its wake. 

Both included the work known as the Prose Merlin, but the Post-Vulgate authors left out the Merlin continuation from the earlier cycle, choosing to add an original account of Arthur's early days including a new origin for Excalibur. In several early French works, such as Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail and the Vulgate Lancelot Proper section, Excalibur is used by Gawain, Arthur's nephew and one of his best knights. This is in contrast to later versions, where Excalibur belongs solely to the king.

In many versions, Excalibur's blade was engraved with phrases on opposite sides: Take me up and Cast me away, or similar. In addition, when Excalibur was first drawn, in the first battle testing Arthur's sovereignty, its blade blinded his enemies. Malory writes: thenne he drewe his swerd Excalibur, but it was so breyght in his enemyes eyen that it gaf light lyke thirty torchys.

Excalibur's scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Loss of blood from injuries, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all. In the later romance tradition, including Le Morte d'Arthur, the scabbard is stolen from Arthur by his half-sister Morgan le Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon and thrown into a lake, never to be found again. This act later enables the death of Arthur at the Battle of Camlann.

More information: Ancient Origins

One day, a King will come, 

and the Sword will rise... again.

King Arthur

THE PASSING OF KING ARTHUR, A MYTH WAS BORN

The Death of King Arthur by John Mulcaster Carrick

The Arthurian Cycle is a wonderful compilation of stories around the main figure of King Arthur and it's a must in the universal literature, especially Middle Age one. The Arthurian Cycle is a masterpiece from the point of view of Literature but it's also a masterpiece in Philosophy and History. The thoughts of King Arthur cross over cultures and languages and they become in ethical and moral guides in our 21st century because his knowledge is timeless and eternal.

The Grandma has also studied two new lessons of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 1 & 2).

More information: Word Formation 1

Le Morte d'Arthur, originally spelled Le Morte Darthur, Middle French for The death of Arthur, is a reworking of existing tales by Sir Thomas Malory about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table. Malory interpreted existing French and English stories about these figures and adds original material.

Malory's actual title for the work was The Whole Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table, but after Malory's death the publisher changed the title to what is commonly known today. The Death of King Arthur originally only referred to the final volume in the complete work.

The Death of King Arthur

Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 by William Caxton and is today one of the best-known works of Arthurian literature in English. Until the discovery of the Winchester Manuscript in 1934, the 1485 edition was considered the earliest known text of Le Morte d'Arthur and that closest to Malory's translation and compilation. Various modern editions are inevitably variable, changing a variety of spelling, grammar, and/or pronouns for the convenience of readers of modern English. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their principal source.

Sir Thomas Malory retold the story of Arthur's birth, his conquests, his friendship with Merlin, and his death. To this day, Malory's work is considered by many to be the most authoritative telling of the Arthurian Legend. Malory titled his work Le Morte d'Arthur. Translated into English, this means The Death of King Arthur.

More information: All Art

Arthur immediately began pursuit of Lancelot and Guinevere, and they were quickly found at Lancelot's castle in Wales. For months, Arthur and his men laid siege to it. Finally, an agreement was reached whereby Guinevere was returned to Arthur, and Lancelot was sent to France in exile.

But Arthur was still angry. Lancelot had betrayed him, and he wanted revenge. He followed Lancelot into France, leaving Mordred in charge. Then Arthur received the news he dreaded worst: in his absence, Mordred had declared himself King, and had taken Guinevere as his queen. Now, Arthur had no choice but to return to Camelot to defend his kingdom.

Lancelot and Guinevere at King Arthur's tomb

In a dream, Arthur was warned not to fight Mordred right away, so he sent messengers into his camp to try and negotiate. During their talks, one of Mordred's men was bitten by an adder. 

As he drew his sword to kill it, the sun glinted off his blade. Both armies mistook this as a sign that someone had drawn his sword to fight, and a great battle began. The battle raged on all day, and by nightfall, it was down to every last man to fight. In the commotion, Arthur had dropped Excalibur and its scabbard. Seeing Mordred, he picked up a spear, and charged at him. Mordred charged back with his sword. The sword came forward and cleaved Arthur's skull just as he drove his spear through his son's hateful heart.

More information: The Medieval World

As Arthur lay dying, his last request was that the sword Excalibur and the scabbard be thrown back into the lake from whence they came.

Out of the mists of the lake, three Fairy Queens appeared. They placed Arthur's body on a barge, and sailed off with him to the mystical island of Avalon to cure him of his wounds. And some say he still lays there, sleeping in a hollow hill, and that he will awaken one day to defend Britain, when Britain has need of him.

Download Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory

 I found Him in the shining of the stars,
I marked Him in the flowering of His fields,
But in His ways with men I find Him not.
I waged His wars, and now I pass and die.

Idylls of the King (1856–1885) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur

TRISTAM AND ISEULT, INSPIRING TO RICHARD WAGNER

Tristam and Iseult

Today, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Chapter 47).

She has been reading about Tristam and Iseult two characters of the Arthurian Cycle who inspired one of the most popular Richard Wagner's operas, Tristan und Isolde. 

The Grandma is a great fan of opera and reading Tristam and Iseult listening this opera is something amazing.

More info: Linking Words I & II

Tristam and Iseult is a tale made popular during the 12th century through Anglo-Norman literature, inspired by Celtic legend, particularly the stories of Deirdre and Naoise and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne and Gráinne. It has become an influential romance and tragedy, retold in numerous sources with many variations. The tragic story is of the adulterous love between the Cornish knight Tristam and the Irish princess Iseult.

The narrative predates and most likely influenced the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere in the Matter of Britain and has had a substantial effect on Western art, the idea of romantic love, and Western literature since it first appeared in the 12th century. While the details of the story differ from one author to another, the overall plot structure remains much the same.

Tristam and Iseult

There are two main traditions of the Tristam legend. The early tradition comprised the French romances of two poets from the second half of the 12th century, Thomas of Britain and Béroul.

Later traditions come from the Prose Tristan (c. 1240), which was markedly different from the earlier tales written by Thomas and Béroul. The Prose Tristan became the common medieval tale of Tristan and Iseult that would provide the background for the writings of Sir Thomas Malory, the English author who wrote Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1469).

The story and character of Tristam vary from poet to poet. Even the spelling of his name varies a great deal, although Tristan is the most popular spelling. Most versions of the Tristam story follow the same general outline.

After defeating the Irish knight Morholt, Tristam travels to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult for his uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, to marry. Along the way, they ingest a love potion which causes the pair to fall madly in love. 

More information: King Arthur's Knights

In the courtly version, the potion's effects last a lifetime, but, in the common versions, the potion's effects wane after three years. In some versions, they ingest the potion accidentally; in others, the potion's maker instructs Iseult to share it with Mark, but she deliberately gives it to Tristam instead. Although Iseult marries Mark, she and Tristam are forced by the potion to seek one another, as lovers.

Tristam and Iseult

While the typical noble Arthurian character would be shamed by such an act, the love potion that controls them frees Tristam and Iseult from responsibility. The king's advisors repeatedly endeavour to have the pair tried for adultery, but the couple continually use trickery to preserve their façade of innocence. In Béroul's version, the love potion eventually wears off, and the two lovers are free to make their own choice as to whether to cease their adulterous relationship or to continue.

As with the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere love triangle, Tristam, King Mark, and Iseult of Ireland all love each other. Tristam honours, respects, and loves King Mark as his mentor and adopted father; Iseult is grateful that Mark is kind to her; and Mark loves Tristam as his son and Iseult as a wife. But every night, each has horrible dreams about the future. Tristam's uncle eventually learns of the affair and seeks to entrap his nephew and his bride. 

Also present is the endangerment of a fragile kingdom, the cessation of war between Ireland and Cornwall, Dumnonia. Mark acquires what seems proof of their guilt and resolves to punish them: Tristam by hanging and Iseult by burning at the stake, later lodging her in a leper colony. 

More information: Britannica

Tristam escapes on his way to the gallows. He makes a miraculous leap from a chapel and rescues Iseult. The lovers escape into the forest of Morrois and take shelter there until discovered by Mark. They make peace with Mark after Tristam's agreement to return Iseult of Ireland to Mark and leave the country. Tristam then travels to Brittany, where he marries, for her name and her beauty, Iseult of the White Hands, daughter of Hoel of Brittany and sister of Kahedin.

In the Prose Tristan and works derived from it, Tristan is mortally wounded by Mark, who treacherously strikes Tristam with a poisoned lance while the latter is playing a harp for Iseult. The poetic versions of the Tristam legend offer a very different account of the hero's death. 

Tristam and Iseult

According to Thomas' version, Tristam was wounded by a poison lance while attempting to rescue a young woman from six knights. Tristan sends his friend Kahedin to find Iseult of Ireland, the only person who can heal him.  

Tristam tells Kahedin to sail back with white sails if he is bringing Iseult, and black sails if he is not. Iseult agrees to return to Tristam with Kahedin, but Tristam's jealous wife, Iseult of the White Hands, lies to Tristam about the colour of the sails. Tristam dies of grief, thinking that Iseult has betrayed him, and Iseult dies swooning over his corpse. Several versions of the Prose Tristan include the traditional account of Tristam's death found in the poetic versions.

More information: Carolyn Emerick

In French sources, such as those carefully picked over and then given in English by the well-sourced and best-selling Belloc translation of 1903, it is stated that a thick bramble briar grows out of Tristam's grave, growing so much that it forms a bower and roots itself into Iseult's grave. It goes on that King Mark tries to have the branches cut three separate times, and each time the branches grow back and intertwine. This behaviour of briars would have been very familiar to medieval people who worked on the land. 

Later tellings sweeten this aspect of the story, by having Tristam's grave grow a briar, but Iseult's grave grow a rose tree, which then intertwine with each other. Further tellings refine this aspect even more, with the two plants being said to have been hazel and honeysuckle.

More information: Ireland Calling

A few later stories even record that the lovers had a number of children. In some stories they produced a son and a daughter they named after themselves; these children survived their parents and had adventures of their own. In the romance Ysaie the Sad, the eponymous hero is the son of Tristam and Iseult; he becomes involved with the fairy king Oberon and marries a girl named Martha, who bears him a son named Mark.

Tristam and Iseult

In its early stages, the tale was probably unrelated to contemporary Arthurian literature, but the earliest surviving versions already incorporated references to Arthur and his court. The connection between Tristam and Iseult and the Arthurian legend was expanded over time, and sometime shortly after the completion of the Vulgate Cycle, or the Lancelot-Grail, in the first quarter of the 13th century, two authors created the vast Prose Tristan, which fully establishes Tristam as a Knight of the Round Table who even participates in the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting.

More information: The Great Courses Plus

Wagner's composition of Tristan und Isolde was inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, particularly The World as Will and Representation, as well as by Wagner's affair with Mathilde Wesendonck. Widely acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertoire, Tristan was notable for Wagner's unprecedented use of chromaticism, tonal ambiguity, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension.

The opera was enormously influential among Western classical composers and provided direct inspiration to composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg and Benjamin Britten. Other composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky formulated their styles in contrast to Wagner's musical legacy. 

Many see Tristan as the beginning of the move away from common practice harmony and tonality and consider that it lays the groundwork for the direction of classical music in the 20th century. Both Wagner's libretto style and music were also profoundly influential on the Symbolist poets of the late 19th century and early 20th century.

 

More information: The Guardian

 Love is as strong as death. 

Why be capable of feelings if we're not to have them? 

Why long for things if they're not meant to be ours? 

Isolde

CHAPEL PERILOUS: LITERATURE BECOMES PSYCHOLOGY

The Chapel Perilous

Today, The Grandma is reading about the Chapel Perilous, an element very important in the Arthurian Cycle and in Psychology. 

The Grandma doesn't know anything about Psychology and she has shared her ideas with Claire Fontaine who is a great expert in these themes. The Grandma has also studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice (Chapter 46).

More information: Possession I, II & III

The term chapel perilous first appeared in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) as the setting for an adventure in which sorceress Hellawes unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Sir Lancelot. T. S. Eliot used it symbolically in The Waste Land (1922).

Students of the Grail romances will remember that in many of the versions the hero, sometimes it is a heroine, meets with a strange and terrifying adventure in a mysterious Chapel, an adventure which, we are given to understand, is fraught with extreme peril to life. The details vary: sometimes there is a Dead Body laid on the altar; sometimes a Black Hand extinguishes the tapers; there are strange and threatening voices, and the general impression is that this is an adventure in which supernatural, and evil, forces are engaged.

The Chapel Perilous

Such an adventure befalls Gawain on his way to the Grail Castle. He is overtaken by a terrible storm, and coming to a Chapel, standing at a crossways in the middle of a forest, enters for shelter.

The altar is bare, with no cloth, or covering, nothing is thereon but a great golden candlestick with a tall taper burning within it.

Behind the altar is a window, and as Gawain looks a Hand, black and hideous, comes through the window, and extinguishes the taper, while a voice makes lamentation loud and dire, beneath which the very building rocks. Gawain's horse shies for terror, and the knight, making the sign of the Cross, rides out of the Chapel, to find the storm abated, and the great wind fallen. Thereafter the night was calm and clear.

In the Perceval section of Wauchier and Manessier we find the same adventure in a dislocated form.

The earliest mention of a Perilous Cemetery, as distinct from a Chapel, appears to be in the Chastel Orguellous section of the Perceval, a section probably derived from a very early stratum of Arthurian romantic tradition.

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The metaphorical Chapel Perilous traces back to the story, Le Morte d’Arthur, written by Sir Thomas Malory and published in 1485. In the dimly-lit chape, named Chapel Perilous by Malory, Sir Lancelot du Lake takes the liberty of purloining a sword and a scrap of shroud-silk from a dead knight, Sir Gilbert the Bastard, before encountering a beautiful sorceress, Hellawes, Lady of the Castle Nigramous. Refusing to kiss her, Lancelot avoids her seductive efforts and moves onward to the disastrous climax of his love for Queen Guinevere. Having loved Lancelot, Hellawes dies, broken-hearted. But had he given the sword to Hellawes, he would never have seen Guinevere again.

Lancelot and Hellawes

Chapel perilous is also a term referring to a psychological state in which an individual cannot be certain whether they have been aided or hindered by some force outside the realm of the natural world, or whether what appeared to be supernatural interference was a product of their own imagination.

It was used by the late writer and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) in his book Cosmic Trigger (1977). According to Wilson, being in this state leads the subject to become either paranoid or an agnostic. In his opinion there is no third way.

Did Lancelot choose wisely? Was the fair damsel and sorceress, who loved him, truly evil? Was he a loyal Knight of the Round Table or a betrayer of his friend and King? Was he a bastard or a fool, or a bastard, hero, and fool, or something else, a lost soul? Did Guinevere invite Lancelot into coital shelter from the storms of life or a carnal version of Chapel Perilous? The sword and silk are obvious sexual symbols, and precursors but, all decoding aside, the questions cannot be answered in simple terms of yea and nay.

Chapel Perilous denotes a state of consciousness wherein a person seems to encounter a supernatural magnetic force, the sense of which defies classification in terms of good and evil. In any case, ordinary faith in dogma is made impossible by inescapable recognition of the infinite kaleidoscope-like processing of multidimensional Omniverse. Neither running nor hiding is an option.

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Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. 

But the home we seek resides not in some distant land. 

It's in us! And in our actions on this day! 

If this be our destiny, then so be it. 

But let history remember that as free men, we chose to make it so.
 

King Arthur