The Once and Future Blog

Atop a quaint hill at the furthest end of the longest road in the kingdom sat a small cottage, wherein a small family of three lived. The father was old and gruff, with a beard down to his toes, and the mother was fragile and sweet, with a particular penchant for making the finest pies in the land. Their child, a single daughter, was a delightful, fair lass with the most elegant blonde hair in the whole of the kingdom. There they lived, beloved by the whole of the village around the hill, in peaceful harmony. One day in the village, residents reported that their livestock had been disappearing when they neared the hill to graze. None could find why such a thing was happening, so a pair of farmhands decided to keep watch over the grazing cattle during the night. The next morning, they were nowhere to be found. The folk of the village soon began to suspect the elderly couple atop the hill thereafter. As more and more livestock and villagers disappeared, the residents became angry. At l...

Today we return to the European Fairy Tale unit, as told by Lang. These enchanting tales are somewhere between strange, horrific, and quaint, and like most takes, provide a unique look into the minds and ideals of the people who first thought them up as tales and told them, in the purposes they serve and morals they espouse. The first story that caught my eye was the Cottager and the Cat, as a big cat person myself (and occasional midnight hermit). The story begins with an odd character, a terrible miser who manages to starve himself to death by not wanting to spend money on food. Personally, I'm the opposite - all of my money goes to food it seems. The man dies, and his son, the heir, receives an apparition in a dream telling him to abandon his father's ill gotten capitalistic gains, giving half back to the poor he stole it from and half to the sea, for whatever reason. He rescues six shillings from the sea, wanders to an old house, learns that cats exist, and buys a cat. Per...

Bluebeard For our final unit, we come to the stories and fairy tales that make up the canon that we in the western world know best: The stories of Europe. A majority of the people in the United States are European descended, thus most of the cultural tales hail from there. To that extent, I looked for a set of stories that could tell me new tales, instead of maybe alternative versions of what I knew already. The primary story that caught my eye this week was the tale of Bluebeard. The story grips you tightly right off the bat, with the peculiar man with the Blue Beard and his inane wealth. His story to marriage builds him up as a pretty decent dude, one who parties extremely hard, but nonetheless someone who just wants companionship (in the still weird old French male dominated way). Turns out he has some major skeletons in his closet (literally), and his wife (told not to go into the closet and does anyway because this is how horror movies happen) is scared nearly to death. When...

Britomart Once again we return to the enchanting and strange tales of Britomart from the Faerie Queene, an epic poem of gallantry and knightly honor. Britomart is a lady raised as a knight of honor herself, choosing to disguise herself as man in some occasions (due to the culture of the time). She sees the face of her destined lover in the mirror of the magus Merlin, and goes to seek him out. As a (precarious) lover of Arthurian/Troubadour tales, I was happy to find these stories to be a refreshing, almost not misogynistic corner of the canon, featuring a valiant, strong female lead (who is unfortunately still on a goal that revolves around heterosexual love, but you can only get so much). Despite my complaints to this, Britomart maintains her royal air and strong demeanor throughout the story, and displays knightly qualities beyond even that of the legends Lancelot and Gawain. She even tries to maintain this in spite of her falling in love with Artegall, more and more as each day ...

This week, we continue with the British and Celtic mythological stories. While last week, I read a more traditional/canonical story with the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, I turn this week to something closer to a fairy tale - that is, the story of the Faerie Queen. These tales of enchantment, magical trickery, and a characteristic of whimsy make up what many know and love as the classic fairy tale in the British descended world. Holiness defeats Error Britomart is a mystical being in European tales, originating in Greek mythology and appearing as something akin to Fae in Celtic myth. She is a female knight in our stories - a rarity in older mythology. Her legendary enchanted spear defeats Sir Guyon with ease, and the two form a fast friendship. Later in, Britomart displays knightly honor in assisting one knight who is being attacked by six, then fully defeating the six knights at once. Doing so, she won the hand of the lady of a castle. And what would a...

Caliburn - the sword of destiny, drawn from the stone of the king's court years ago by the now King Arthur, showing that he was the rightful heir to Uther Pendragon's throne. The sword itself represents control of Britain and its vassals, and Arthur closely guards it in his chambers at all times, save for intricate ceremonies such as knighting. Rumors in the court say that this manner of succession was a construction of the sorcerer Merlin, meant to protect the bloodline with his magic. Merlin himself is an enigma to put all others to shame - the son of a witch and an incubus with an ageless body and the ability to see all of time at a single moment, he operates only by offering his prophecy and assistance at unpredictable moments. One such moment was when Arthur was returned to the court so bloodied, they panicked to find a successor. More than one hundred children claiming to be Arthur's son suddenly came to light, from inside and outside Camelot. Merlin constructed what ...

For our reading this week, we enter the British and Celtic tales unit. Being the descendant of Celts myself, and having spent time all around Ireland, I have particularly been awaiting this unit, but one story catches my focus above all the rest - the tales of King Arthur. My storybook sits within the canon of the Once and Future King, and my blog takes its name from it. Not the Real Holy Grail One fun item within this unit was the distinction of Excalibur. While this version of the story does not name the Sword in the Stone, it does distinguish it from Excalibur, which is more than most "common" retellings of the story. The tale of the reception of Excalibur, and all of the stories, practically shouts the very motif I've been imbuing into my storybook, drawn strongly from that of common British canon - the tide of destiny. Whether it is our birthright to rule all of England (as in the sword in the stone), or the expectation of repayment for Excalibur in the futu...

An Empty Plain In the beginning, there was nothing more than a great, dusty plain with not even so much as grass upon it. In this plain, nothing changed and nothing was born, until at last the plain began to dream. Its dream was occupied by thoughts of grasses, bushes, trees, and birds, and soon, those things began to spread over the whole of the plain. The birds began to chatter amongst themselves, so lucky to have been given an infinite world of food and shade, but quickly found themselves parched. They echoed a cry to the plain, and soon, water began to flow over some parts of the plain, and the west of the plain became an infinite sea. The birds were happy, and they found themselves contented as before. This contentment did not last long, as the birds began to grow tired of eating, drinking, and flight from tree to tree. Once again, they expressed their discontent to the world, and once again, the world began to dream something new - the land itself began to leap up and fall d...

Today, we continue with the legends of the native people of Alaska, the Inuit people. Once again, they provide a long series of extremely unique stories that differ strongly in content and even moral from many of the common stories in American peoples, but with a tone and motifs very similar to their continental counterparts. The first story that stuck out to me in the context of writing was "The Land of the Dead". I hope to be able to explore, at the end of my storybook and perhaps in my weekly writing, the idea of a place after death and the people who guide you there. Right off the bat, this story hits with an interesting concept - being a shade of yourself in the very world you lived. It quickly turns around to show the various punishments being inflicted on people, such as taking the place of a beaten dog or being stuck in the grass for chewing stems. Eventually, she finds herself at the village of the dead, surrounded by the gifts of her people and her ancestors. She l...

This week, I will be taking a look at the legends from the native people of Alaska, the Inuit. This one stood out to me due to its disconnected connection to the continental United States' native people, being close yet far. Just glancing at the titles of the stories gives an obvious impression - the importance of the raven. The Raven Right off the bat, we are given an incredibly interesting, unique creation story in which man is the spawn of what feels to be a side project of this Raven god, emerging from the pod of a vine planted in whimsy. The Raven, almost as confused as the first man, guides him along in a cooperative path of discovery of all the world has to offer for man, including water, fruit, earth, hunting, and the creation of a companion. The Raven's explanations of purpose likely directly reflect the views of the societies that told these stories, like how a shrew isn't good for food but makes the plain more interesting, and integrates many "explanati...