English Kuh-Nig-Its

So I've been making pretty good progress in Morte D'Arthur; partway through the Grail quest now, which, of course, meant that I had to watch Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. So I did. And it was good.

It's interesting; I remember reading an essay (and I can't quite remember where; it might actually be the introduction to the very edition I'm reading) talking about the construction of myth, and why stories come out the way they are - this is also a topic being touched on in my Greek myth class. Anyways, the point that was being made about the Arthurian legends was that they, like many myths, actually take their subject matter from earlier stories and reframe it for the specific region and circumstances they're in. This helps to explain the moral ambiguity of the work as a whole; in the beginning, physical prowess seems to be emphasized; Kay, Gawaine and Lancelot are the main people featured. Tristan and Lamorak come along and their stories are told; this is also when Lancelot and Guenevere's situation unfolds a bit more, so that's knightly love for their ladies which is being presented and extolled. And then Jebus comes along, and by Jebus I mean the Grail quest.

The Grail quest starts a whole new perspective on the world of Arthur, because while Christian dogma is mentioned along the way in passing, it's at this point that it really comes to the fore. Lancelot and Gawaine are limited in their quests because they are too worldly, because of their very deeds of "valor" achieved earlier in the book, which are now revealed to be blasphemous because while God granted them the strength to achieve, they went out and did their thing for their own glory. Meanwhile Galahad, being pure of mind and deed, has been riding around beating the crap out of every other knight he's encountered. It's pretty cool.

So, to sum up: myth is cool, I like myth. Wanna read more; actually I'd been hoping my Greek Myth class would be older myths: not so much Illiad and stuff but things like Leda and the Swan and Orpheus and Eurydice, partially because stories like those are used as the basis for a lot of older art, but also because the more movies I watch and books I read, the more I realize that there really aren't any new stories, just reformulations of old ones.