In which I ramble about poetry, Arthuriana, aroace stuff, etc. In theory. In practice, it's almost all Arthuriana.
215 posts
Latest Posts by taliesin-the-bored - Page 4
I can remember, a few years back, getting in a taxi with my grandfather in New York City. He’s one of the kindest, most courteous to strangers people I’ve ever known and was able to establish a good rapport with the taxi driver until the taxi driver put his subtly Jewish name and face together and started blasting a radio channel saying that “all Jews are donkeys”. Even then, even in New York City, you could turn your head and there was antisemitism.
In middle school, I had been spat at and called slurs—but only after I told the other students that I was a Jew. My father’s Scottish surname and ambiguous appearance give me the option of invisibility. I’ve never chosen to hide who I am, but it’s also not immediately obvious, and that made a difference even before the current horrific spike in antisemitism.
Non-Jews, yes, it really is a serious problem. It really should go without saying at this point. It should have gone without saying an incredibly long time ago, but my cousins are receiving death threats and there was a pogrom in California and a twelve-year-old girl got raped and the people doing these horrific (that word doesn’t seem strong enough but I can’t think of a stronger one) things still somehow think they’re in the right and all I can do is try striking metaphorical matches in the dark while knowing the matches are almost certainly dead and that even if they light it’s unlikely that anyone will open their eyes whose eyes weren’t open already.
Jews, stay strong. We will survive this. I hope.
"Ashkenazi" doesn't mean "white-passing." My mother's husband has pale pink skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair. And he is INCREDIBLY visibly Jewish, even before he opens his mouth. His hair is a super curly mess and his facial features are very, very obviously Jewish. When he says anything at all, you can tell that he's a New York City Jew. No kippah, no Magen David (though that might change soon), but his appearance is JEW.
I have been living in fear every day since October 7th. It never occurred to me before then to be afraid for my mother and her husband because of his visible Jewishness in New York City. Yeah, if they were driving through Alabama or something. But in NYC? If someone had suggested it to me, I'd have laughed.
Now I just want to cry.
Veronica Whall’s depiction of Galahad ascending, from King Arthur’s Great Halls at Tintagel
I would, too.
Movie/Tv Show/Anime idea: An Action Adventure where Aliens invade Earth but it’s way back in the past, Specifically Camelot during the height of Arthur’s Reign. Now instead of eliminating or toning down the more mystical aspects of Arthurian Legend we lean into them.
Sir Kay grabs his sword and starts heating it up to make a makeshift lightsaber before growing to his giant size and slicing through alien ground troops like they’re paper.
Gawain and Ironside (the Red Knight) are just tossing aliens around like nothing with their superhuman strength. Then when the sun sets and the aliens think they have the upper hand over Gawain who loses his incredible strength at night, they hear a wolf’s howl before being attacked by Sir Marrok the werewolf.
Sir Bedwyr piercing the Aliens’ superior technology with his magic lance before darting away like the Flash, Sir Ywain using his battle lion to defend the court, etc.
Even Merlin gets in on the action, using his extensive magic to create illusions and fireballs. Morgan Le Fay even comes out of the woodwork to help, summoning lightning to attack the aliens’ ships.
Arthur, still in possession of Excalibur’s scabbard, tries to initially greet the invaders, only for them to blast him with a plasma cannon. As the smoke clears, Arthur is unharmed but his horse is a pile of ash. Arthur just looks at the alien spaceship and says, “that was my favorite horse.”
In the final battle, right when it seems like the aliens have the upper hand, one of their spaceships crashes to the ground unexpectedly. Out of the crashed spaceship comes Sir Galahad wielding a sword clearly made out of alien technology. Turns out what Sirs Percival and Bors thought was Galahad ascending to Heaven was actually him being abducted by aliens, and he stowed away when he found out they were coming back to destroy Camelot. The Knights, now emboldened by Galahad’s return start pushing the invading forces back. Galahad actually goes to the Round Table at some point, finds the Siege Perilous, and breaks the back of it off to make a makeshift shield/vaporizing weapon.
Anyway the Knights win, Galahad decides he needs to go back to free all the Aliens’ captives and lead a rebellion against their oppressive empire. He also says he’ll tell all the stars what awaits them should anyone try to invade the Earth.
I’d watch that.
Looking back on this, I’m baffled that I managed to leave out Bedivere. I’m in this very weird writing rut where I keep starting stories using the canon where Griflet is the one who throws the sword in the lake and those stories end up devolving into vaguely metaphysical Bedivere-death-centric angst. Even when Bedivere is theoretically a minor character, it happens. It happened in a reincarnation fic where the Green Knight makes them all sing karaoke and the Palug Cat is Guinevere’s Maine Coon, for goodness’ sake. I think the problem is that there are about fifteen knights who I would offhandedly say are in my top five. Anyway, apologies to Bedivere.
To anyone who loves Arthurian legends, who’s your fav knight? Mine has been Sir Palomides and Sir Gareth lately.
why are all the Jews suddenly posting about cheesecake, you ask? because it’s Shavuot!
sorry, let me give you a quick guide to Jewish holidays
Rosh Hashanah: dip apples in honey, contemplate feeling guilty
Yom Kippur: feel guilty, don’t eat
Sukkot: build a treehouse, shake a lemon at God
Simchat Torah: dance with a Torah scroll
Hanukkah: resist tyranny, eat fried food, set things on fire
Tu B’shvat: hug trees, eat every type of fruit and nut you can acquire, do complicated wine math
Purim: put on a drunken play about a teenage beauty queen, cast shade at tyrants
Passover: don’t eat pastry
Maimuna: eat a ton of pastry
Lag B’omer: set things on fire, shoot arrows, learn about rabbis with laser eyes
Shavuot: eat cheese and stay up all night reading with your female friends
Tisha B’av: mourn, preferably AT people
Hope that clears up any confusion
La Tavola Ritonda is a cavalcade of different canons:
The Lady of the Lake, Sister of Morgan and, by extention, Arthur's
Lancelot stealing from Perceval's backstory
The Split-Shield from Lancelot-Grail, given by the Lady of the Lake symbolizing Lancelot and Guinevere's sexual union, being retconned into another plot by Morgan
King Pelles being King of Organia (Orkney). Also, Amite/Elaine/Pervida's Mom* organizing the... "conception"
*(It's kind of funny, but I've always felt that Brisen and the "Queen of the Wastelands" being separate characters was pointless) *(King Pelles x Queen Brisen, woot)
Uther Pendragon is Morgan's dad**
**(per the original Prose Tristan, apparently)
The events of Pulzella Gaia/The Merry Maiden being canon here. Yes, this technically means... a whole bunch of things
and finally, Lancelot has a daughter***
***(I would sincerely like this to be Gwen's but I'm not holding my breath)
If this were the Book of Jonah, it might make more sense, but I guess someone just wanted to make a fish case for their favorite scroll, and I can respect that.
Esther scroll in fish-like case, Eastern Europe, 19th century, The Jewish Museum, London
So the only English translation I've been able to find online of the Irish Arthurian romance Eachtra Mhelóra agus Orlando ("The Adventures of Melora and Orlando") is on this old website, which I'll link here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20121222212746/http://www.literatefreedom.org/prae-9.4.htm#Adventure
However, I've copy-pasted the text and footnotes onto this PDF for anyone who wants to finally read it:
Hope both links work for everyone. Let me know if they don't.
Also let me know if you want me to adjust the format of the PDF if there are any readibility issues.
The top ten who come to my mind at the moment are Caradoc, Dagonet, Dinadan, Galahad, Gawain, Griflet, Kay, Lucan, Melora, and Mordred, in alphabetical order. That being said, if you mess with Gareth, Morvran, or really most of the others, I will offer to duel you on the spot, tell the magic trees about you, and (if all else fails) besiege you with flaming arrows.
To anyone who loves Arthurian legends, who’s your fav knight? Mine has been Sir Palomides and Sir Gareth lately.
do any of my beautiful mutuals know if kay is called cai wyn anywhere other than in culhwch and olwen? what does wyn mean?? is it a surname or an epithet or like a place of origin or something?
Agreed. This is fantastic. The mention of Camlann rather than Badon was a bad oversight. I’m confused about the sequence of alluded-to events in The Dream of Rhonabwy. On a reread, it seems like the Battle of Camlann happened well before Badon and like both Arthur and Mordred survived it, but this too could be a misinterpretation.
There was no Eliwlod reference intended, but Arthur’s nephew who turns into an eagle would certainly fit in the list.
The source for Arthur being a Red Ravager who makes it so that plants won’t grow where he’s walked for seven years is a quotation from Bromwich’s Trioedd Ynys Prydein.
The part about Merlin and Taliesin is a reference to the Vita Merlini, which I haven’t read, only read references to, and I made a notable omission. Along with them in the woods are Merlin’s sister Gwenddydd and his friend Maeldinus.
A few things which are “canon” somewhere for people who are worried they’re stretching it too far
Arthur was killed by a giant cat.
Arthur killed the cat.
Arthur didn’t fight the cat. Kay did.
Kay and Bedivere use salmon as taxis.
Lucan is half giant, half lion. (This Lucan, Lucano in the original Italian, is evil and not related to Bedivere).
King Arthur raided the land of the dead.
The human knight Caradoc Briefbras has three half siblings: a dog, a horse, and a pig.
A large portion of Arthur’s troops was killed a while before Camlann by his nephew’s attack ravens in self-defense. Arthur and said nephew were playing chess at the time and neither did much to stop it.
Merlin retired peacefully and went to live in the countryside with Taliesin.
Wherever Arthur walks, plants die. They don’t grow back for years.
Arthur had a spunky (half?) brother who died in battle after making a mysterious oath.
Dagonet is more or less able to run the kingdom when Arthur is gone. His biggest error is overspending on mercenaries.
Guinevere has an evil almost identical twin half-sister.
Hector beat up all the best knights except for Galahad while possessed by a demon.
Gawain plays tennis.
Gawain has used a chessboard as a weapon.
Near the start of his reign, Arthur left Lot in charge of the kingdom and went on a quest with a sassy parrot.
Gawain or Galahad succeeded Arthur as king.
@maniculum and @joemerl, it might take me a bit to make a list of all of the sources for the weird “canon” Arthurian info I mentioned, especially since I only have links for a few and my next week’s schedule is absolutely hectic, but I will work on one.
Ghosts can take the form of large fuzzy animals. One lived at Merlin’s for a while.
Galahad has mugged a senior citizen.
King Alastrann of India might technically have usurped the post from a dog whose parents were previously human and his brothers.
Ector de Maris has hooked up with everyone in Morgan le Fay’s friend group (separately) at least once.
Once, Tristan killed a dragon, stuck its tongue down his pants, and was severely burned.
A war involving Arthur’s warriors destroyed a third of Ireland.
Gawain became the Emperor of China.
Arthur is in fact king of the entire world.
Lancelot got married four times, once while still married (he ended up going back to his third wife and they died old and happy).
When Lancelot first met Gawain, he mistook Gawain for God.
A few things which are “canon” somewhere for people who are worried they’re stretching it too far
Arthur was killed by a giant cat.
Arthur killed the cat.
Arthur didn’t fight the cat. Kay did.
Kay and Bedivere use salmon as taxis.
Lucan is half giant, half lion. (This Lucan, Lucano in the original Italian, is evil and not related to Bedivere).
King Arthur raided the land of the dead.
The human knight Caradoc Briefbras has three half siblings: a dog, a horse, and a pig.
A large portion of Arthur’s troops was killed a while before Camlann by his nephew’s attack ravens in self-defense. Arthur and said nephew were playing chess at the time and neither did much to stop it.
Merlin retired peacefully and went to live in the countryside with Taliesin.
Wherever Arthur walks, plants die. They don’t grow back for years.
Arthur had a spunky (half?) brother who died in battle after making a mysterious oath.
Dagonet is more or less able to run the kingdom when Arthur is gone. His biggest error is overspending on mercenaries.
Guinevere has an evil almost identical twin half-sister.
Hector beat up all the best knights except for Galahad while possessed by a demon.
Gawain plays tennis.
Gawain has used a chessboard as a weapon.
Near the start of his reign, Arthur left Lot in charge of the kingdom and went on a quest with a sassy parrot.
Gawain or Galahad succeeded Arthur as king.
@usedtobeaduchess Triad 20 is where Arthur as Terror of the Sod comes from.
Arthur has superpowers too (Sort of)
From The Welsh Triads
From Layamon's Brut
From Don Quixote. (Too bad its Post-Camlann...)
Extra Points:
The Death-song/Elegy of Uther Pendragon: New Translations
(Credit to @wandrenowle (awesome person) who gave me this excerpt from a recent translation of The Book of Taliesin)
A few points to make:
There's a certain ambiguity about whether or not the narrator here really is Uther Pendragon himself.
The part where Uther is named "Shining Armor" - I believe this is the translation for the original word in the poem, "Gorlassar". From what I can research online, "Gorlassar" could also mean "Bright Blue/Very Blue" or even "Higher than the sky". I've heard some theories online before that Geoffrey of Monmouth created the character "Duke Gorlois of Cornwall" from this epithet of Uther's.
If so, that means the possibility of Igraine always having been Uther's wife and Igraine only ever had one husband. Huh.
Wow, apparently Arthur is not as badass as his dad, being only a ninth of Uther's prowess. This is the very same Arthur who, in Welsh Myth, can destroy armies by the hundreds, go toe-to-toe with giants and is the standard of comparison for warrior excellence ("...although he was no Arthur"). This elegy implies Uther is leagues more powerful than that.
It reminds of Sir Branor, the Dragon Knight, from Palamedes, a 120-year old knight of the Round Table from Uther's era. When he shows up to Arthur's court, he challenges everyone in Camelot, including Lancelot, Gawain and Tristan, and soundly kicks their asses. The general impression is that however OP King Arthur and his knights are, Uther and his boys are waaaaaay more OP. Very Anime.
(It also has shades of Nestor from the Iliad, talking about how the heroes of the "Seven against Thebes" would kick anyone's ass in the Trojan War)
The part where Uther boasts of his Poetic Prowess - "as great as that, of seven score poets". This, in particular, fascinates me. See, in an older translation, that particular segment is phrased as such:
There is a tradition Uther Pendragon really does magical abilities:
In the new translation, Uther is primarily hyping his skills in the Bardic arts, but personally, I think that doesn't preclude Uther's magic powers.
In Celtic Myth, Bards, because their status as lore-keepers, often had magical powers, like Prophecy, shapeshifting (Taliesin and Myrddin/Merlin) or having the power to harm and curse using satires:
I believe there's even a term for Bardic Prophecy in Welsh: "Canu Darogan".
This sort of loops back to "Uther>Arthur" again, seeing as how Arthur is one of "the Three Frivolous Bards of the Island of Britain"
Jeez, can imagine being at your death bed, and like, decide " I'm gonna write an entire poem about how awesome I am and how my prophesized, magic son ain't shit compared to me"
#SOMEONE PLEASE DROP THE SOURCE FOR THE HECTOR ONE THAT SOUNDS AWESOME
@sanddef
It's from Cantare di Astore e Morgana (the Cantare of Hector and Morgan).
Here’s a link to a translation originally posted by lazerbem on Reddit, courtesy of Redpanda from the Arthurian Theater Discord server:
A few things which are “canon” somewhere for people who are worried they’re stretching it too far
Arthur was killed by a giant cat.
Arthur killed the cat.
Arthur didn’t fight the cat. Kay did.
Kay and Bedivere use salmon as taxis.
Lucan is half giant, half lion. (This Lucan, Lucano in the original Italian, is evil and not related to Bedivere).
King Arthur raided the land of the dead.
The human knight Caradoc Briefbras has three half siblings: a dog, a horse, and a pig.
A large portion of Arthur’s troops was killed a while before Camlann by his nephew’s attack ravens in self-defense. Arthur and said nephew were playing chess at the time and neither did much to stop it.
Merlin retired peacefully and went to live in the countryside with Taliesin.
Wherever Arthur walks, plants die. They don’t grow back for years.
Arthur had a spunky (half?) brother who died in battle after making a mysterious oath.
Dagonet is more or less able to run the kingdom when Arthur is gone. His biggest error is overspending on mercenaries.
Guinevere has an evil almost identical twin half-sister.
Hector beat up all the best knights except for Galahad while possessed by a demon.
Gawain plays tennis.
Gawain has used a chessboard as a weapon.
Near the start of his reign, Arthur left Lot in charge of the kingdom and went on a quest with a sassy parrot.
Gawain or Galahad succeeded Arthur as king.
Obscure Arthurian text which everyone should read #1: The Story of the Crop-Eared Dog
This is what happens when you mash together a revenge quest, a slasher movie, a buddy road trip, a bildungsroman, a fantasy epic, and a shaggy dog story and set it in medieval times. Because there aren’t many Irish Arthurian texts, whether Bhalbhuaidh, the protagonist, is meant to be Gawain or Galahad is controversial. His name and titles could point to either and his life situation seems more like Gawain’s, but I will refer to him Galahad because I find the idea of a Galahad AU where he’s pagan and gallivants around with a prince who was turned into a giant dog and lost all qualms about murder along the way entertaining. It starts when Arthur, who inexplicably holds the title of King of the World, convenes a hunt in the Dangerous Forest on the Plain of Wonders and the mysterious Knight of the Lantern does what any antagonistic knight worth his salt would do: gatecrash and ask for violence. It gets less normal very rapidly from there. Abhlach the druidess is at least as awesome as she is wicked, Galahad may or may not have a magical music-making sword, and the fact that there’s an Island of Naked Monks is never given any explanation because it’s only mentioned in passing when the dog tells Galahad he killed them all.
Yeah, it’s a fun read.
Here’s a link to the translation I read:
A few things which are “canon” somewhere for people who are worried they’re stretching it too far
Arthur was killed by a giant cat.*
Arthur killed the cat.
Arthur didn’t fight the cat. Kay did.
Kay and Bedivere use salmon as taxis.
Lucan is half giant, half lion. (This Lucan, Lucano in the original Italian, is evil and not related to Bedivere).
King Arthur raided the land of the dead.
The human knight Caradoc Briefbras has three half siblings: a dog, a horse, and a pig.
A large portion of Arthur’s troops was killed a while before Badon by his nephew’s attack ravens in self-defense. Arthur and said nephew were playing chess at the time and neither did much to stop it. [Edit: before Badon, not Camlann, which has apparently already happened despite Arthur and Mordred being alive]
Merlin retired peacefully and went to live in the countryside with his also-magic sister Ganieda, Taliesin, and another of their friends. [Edited]
Wherever Arthur walks, plants die. They don’t grow back for years.
Arthur had a spunky (half?) brother who died in battle after making a mysterious oath.
Dagonet is more or less able to run the kingdom when Arthur is gone. His biggest error is overspending on mercenaries.
Guinevere has an evil almost identical twin half-sister.
Hector beat up all the best knights except for Galahad while possessed by a demon.
Gawain plays tennis.
Gawain has used a chessboard as a weapon.
Near the start of his reign, Arthur left Lot in charge of the kingdom and went on a quest with a sassy parrot.
Gawain or Galahad succeeded Arthur as king.**
*Whether or not this is canon anywhere is a somewhat meta matter. André de Coutance complains that the story that Chapalu/Cath Palug killed King Arthur and conquered England is a slanderous lie while also implying it's widely circulated. He's saying that it's canon in other places and also that it's wrong. As far as I know, no other text mentions a tradition where the cat kills the king.
**Not in different texts--Bhalbhuaidh is either Irish Gawain or Irish Galahad.
Made fancy tea for my mom for Mother's Day. Mom served as the model for Mrs. Whitaker in my adaptation of Neil Gaiman's CHIVALRY graphic novel You can also see the china I used in the book. It's my favorite pattern.
La Tavola Ritonda PDF is now available to read! Enjoy!
ID: When Isotta had returned to the pavilion, the tables were set out and food was prepared, and when water had been brought for their hands they sat down to eat. As they ate, Gariette looked out and saw Palamidesso going by looking for them, and pointed him out to Sir Tristano. Tristano got up and went to meet him, taking him by the hand and leading him into the pavilion, where he disarmed and sat at the table. They all passed that night in great joy.
Medieval Literature scans | Arthurian Retellings scans | Ko-fi ⤥Italian Name Guide Below Cut
Prose Tristan Gang
King Meliadus of Liones (Meliodas of Lyonesse)
Queen Eliabella (Elizabeth)
Tristano (Tristan)
King Marco of Cornovaglia/Tintoile (Mark of Cornwall/Tintagel)
King Amoroldo of Irlanda (Morholt of Ireland)
King Languis of Irlanda (Anguish of Ireland)
Queen Isotta the Blonde (Isolde 1)
Gouvernale (Governal)
Brandina (Brangaine)
Dinadano (Dinadan)
Daniello (Daniel)
Brunoro the Black/Ill-Cut Coat (Brunor le Noir/La Cote Male Taile)
Dinasso the Seneschal (Dinas)
King Scalabrino (Esclabor)
Palamidesso the Pagan (Palomides/Palamedes)
Isotta White Hands (Isolde 2)
Gheddino (Kahedrin)
Logres
King Artù of Camellotto/Longres (Arthur of Camelot/Logres)
Queen Ginevara (Guinevere)
Chieso the Seneschal (Kay)
Lucano (Lucan)
Fata Morgana (Morgan le Fay)
Pulzella Gais (Morgan's daughter)
Merlino the Prophet (Merlin)
Orcadians
King Lotto (Lot)
Queen Albagia of Organia (Morgause of Orkney)
Calvano the Lover (Gawain)
Agravano (Agravaine)
Gariens (Gaheris)
Gariette (Gareth)
Mordarette (Mordred)
Welsh
King Pellinoro of Gaules (Pellinore of Wales)
Prezzivale lo Galese (Percival of Wales)
Amorotto di Gaules (Lamorak of Wales)
Adriano (Drian)
Agravale (Aglovale)
French
King Bando of Benoich (Ban of Benwick)
Dama del Lago (Lady of the Lake)
Lancilotto of Gioisa Guardia (Lancelot of Joyous Guard)
Astore di Mare (Hector de Maris)
Lionello (Lionel)
Bordo (Bors)
Briobris (Biloberis)
Galasso (Galahad)
Others
Brunoro the Brown (Brunor father of Galehaut)
Bagotta (Fair Giantess)
Galeotto (Galehaut)
Sagramore (Sagramore lol)
Meliagans (Meleagant/Melwas)
King Brando of Magus (Bademagus)
Beast Glatisanti (Questing Beast/Glatisants)
People who don’t know what “aroace” means never understand why I like losing when I play Old Maid.
Alan Lee’s illustration of Rhiannon from the Mabinogion
Lucan's doing well post camlann i guess
Dindrane: claimed I could remember my unborn sibling from Heaven, then gave a description of said sibling which turned out to be accurate
Taliesin: went outside during a lightning storm and tried to fly away by using a Mary Poppins umbrella to catch the wind while making dramatic poetic declarations (I got about two feet in the air)
Sebile: tried to practice necromancy to talk to a dead Monarch butterfly
.
This isn’t something I did, but an evangelical organization once showed up at my family’s house to see whether one of us was the Messiah, and that seems pretty Galahad-esque.
arthurian legend characters as weird things i did as a kid
Arthur: created clubs for the sole purpose of making myself in charge of them
Guinevere: played barbies, but the plot of the game was that they were fighting in world war iii
Lancelot: pretended to be an exterminator by spraying actual hornets with a hose, and somehow not getting stung, against all odds
Gawain: held stair-jumping competitions, and regularly jumped down around 10 stairs at a time
Merlin: designated a particular tree branch for reading and refused to let anyone climb this branch
Gaheris: held ‘screaming contests’ in my backyard to which invited my friends (this is exactly what it sounds like and it was banned by my mother immediately)
Dinadan: eaten spaghetti while riding a bike
Galahad: made a graveyard for bugs
Morgana: recruited a friend’s little brother to spy on said friend because she wasn’t talking to me
Mordred: accidentally made a gallon of poison
✨🧡🌙SEND THIS TO OTHER BLOGGERS YOU THINK ARE WONDERFUL. KEEP THE GAME GOING ✨🧡
Thank you so much!
The difference between old Welsh literature and old Irish literature is very simple. In old Welsh literature, there are five page runs of names. In old Irish literature, there are five page runs of adjectives.
And now, for the most niche poll I’ve ever posted or even encountered on this website:
Jewish Resources (Assorted)
Since my last post seemed to be helpful to a lot of people, I thought I’d make another to share some additional resources. This list includes a bunch of stuff, meant for Jewish people in general. I would definitely encourage you to explore them! There’s a lot of useful stuff here. Goyim are welcome to reblog, just please be respectful if you’re adding tags or comments. Jewish Multiracial Network, an organization for multiracial Jewish families and Jews of Color Sefaria, a free virtual library of Jewish texts Sephardic Studies Digital Library Museum “The SSDC includes key books, archival documents, and audio recordings that illuminate the history, culture, literature, politics, customs, music, and cuisine of Sephardic Jews all expressed in their own language, Ladino.” (from their website) The SMQN, an organization for LGBTQ+ Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews Keshet, a group for LGBTQ+ Jews JQY, a group for LGBTQ+ Jews with a focus on those in Orthodox communities Queer Jews of Color Resource List (note: this list is way more than just resources, there’s a LOT there) JQ International: “JQ celebrates the lives of LGBTQ+ Jews and their allies by transforming Jewish communities and ensuring inclusion through community building, educational programs, and support and wellness services, promoting the healthy integration of LGBTQ+ and Jewish identities.” (from their website) Jews of Color Initiative, an organization dedicated to teaching about intersectionality in the Jewish community, focuses on research, philanthropy, field building, and community education Nonbinary Hebrew Project: It’s hard to describe, but they’re working to find/create/add suffixes that represent nonbinary genders in Hebrew. If you speak Hebrew/another gendered language, you might know what I mean about gendered suffixes. Jewish Mysticism Reading List (These are related to our closed practices, goyim should NOT be practicing these things) Ritualwell (you can find prayers and blessings related to specific things here, I personally like that they have blessings related to gender identity) Guimel, an LGBTQ+ support group for the Jewish Community in Mexico. The site is in Spanish. I’m not a native speaker, but I was still able to read a little bit of it. SVARA: “SVARA’s mission is to empower queer and trans people to expand Torah and tradition through the spiritual practice of Talmud study.” (From their website) TransTorah is definitely an older website, but there are still some miscellaneous pdfs and resources up on the “Resources” page. Jewish Disabilities Advocates: “The JFS Jewish Disabilities Advocates program was created to raise awareness and further inclusion of people with disabilities within Jewish organizations and the larger Jewish community.” (from their website) Jewish Food Society (recipes, have not spent a lot of time browsing here but maybe I should in the future) Jewish Blind & Disabled, an organization that operates mainly in providing accessible housing and living. Jewish Braille Institute International: “The JBI Library provides individuals who are blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped or reading disabled with books, magazines and special publications of Jewish and general interest in Audio, Large Print and Braille formats.” (from their website) Their services are free!)
💔 for Mordred if you will?
I have a headcanon that Mordred is a little magical, like Gawain and some of his other relatives. I don’t think he’s been trained to use magic, at least not in any grand capacity, or he’d use it in plot-altering ways. Magic is just something that happens to him, like when he doesn’t drown during the May Day massacre.
Where does the angst come in? I headcanon that his powers, which aren’t really within his control, have a dark edge—the shadow to Gawain’s sun. Being around Mordred for too long can do weird things to people, and his presence makes them a bit queasy, even if they like him. Everything around him dies a little. It’s always been that way, he knows it, and it’s part of what drives his arc down: if he acts like a monster, well, some part of him always thought he was one, anyway; and if he’s doomed, well, given what he does, it’s only fair.