Just joined

[custodianiseed.livejournal.com]

Hullo
I have just joined your auspicious community so I thought I'd say hi - Hi.
I'm an English Lit student in Scotland currently working on final disseration - subject King Arthur of course. My title is: 'Kingdom, Court & Table Round: Literary Interpretations of the Arthurian Legend', or something like that. Basically I'm writing about the different interpretations/representations of the Arthur stories and why specific authors chose to focus on specific aspects. Early title was 'Arthur's Anxieties' because I am looking at how King Arthur's Britain is used to examine an anxiety facing the Britain of the author's time. So far I have read most of the major English-language works pre-WWII. I am planning to get hold of the story where Arthur and chums go to the north pole and fight walruses next. Not that I will be using it in my work, mind you...

So, yeah, I thought it would make sense to join up to a community to keep my head focused on Logres even when I'm online!

~fin~

Comments

[cat-o-wen.livejournal.com]

Greetings and welcome to the community! Good luck on your paper as well.

[merulina.livejournal.com]

OK, I have to ask - is there really a story about Arthur and co. fighting walruses at the North Pole? The idea sounds strangely fascinating....

King Arthur saves Christmas!

[custodianiseed.livejournal.com]

It seems that there is... according to Myth and National identity in Nineteenth Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood:

"It was at the height of this near-hysteria [a polar expedition under Sir John Franklin going missing] that Bulwer Lytton's poem appeared, and Franklin's still mysterious fate provided the source for what has become one of the most ridiculed episodes in British literature, King Arthur's visit to the North Pole. First, Arthur fights a battle against a herd of angry walruses with 'flashing tusks', a scene which cannot help seeming highly comical to twentieth-century readers..."

Apparently they end up being rescued by Sir Gawain and some Esquimaux... remarkable.

Re: King Arthur saves Christmas!

[coralonline.livejournal.com]

XD can't help but laugh, really =P
That episode of the story must be written by some opium-using Romantic in the 19th century, huh?
XD

Re: King Arthur saves Christmas!

[custodianiseed.livejournal.com]

A little more research (okay, Wikipedia) informs me to my surprise that the author is the man who coined phrases like 'The Great Unwashed', 'the Pen is Mightier than the Sword' and most impressively of all 'It was a dark and stormy night'... I may add him to my list of Heros of Literature.

Oh, it wasn't actually called King Arthur saves Christmas. Missed opportunity there, methinks.

[coralonline.livejournal.com]

Aw nice topic! =) Good luck with it!!