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2/27/07

In the Morte the second queen is "of the Out Isles". Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank suggests that the Queen of Out Isles might be the Queen of the Orkney Isles, or Morgause. It only makes sense, since Morgause is one of Morgan's sisters, that she'd be one of the enchantresses hanging out with Morgan when the group of them chance on Lancelot sleeping under a tree. But I don't know whether the connection was first supposed by whoever wrote this encyclopedia entry or by some other source.* I decided to use it because it meant I didn't have to invent a face. I also didn't have to invent a face for the Queen of Northgalis, who I contend is the third Cornwall sister, Elaine. That, though, is reverse-engineering on my part. The three queens in the barge which takes Arthur to Avalon after the Battle of Salisbury are Morgan, Nimue and the Queen of the Wastelands. Morgause is dead by then, but I think it'd be keen if the barge queens were all Arthur's spiritual or blood sisters, so I've decided the Queen of the Wastelands in the barge is Elaine of Cornwall. The Queen of the Wastelands figures earlier in the Morte during the Grailquest, when she represents herself to Sir Percival de Galis as his aunt, which presents a connection between the Queen of the Wasteland and Galis (Wales)**. Percival's grandfather is the Fisher King, King Pellem, whose land becomes the Wasteland when Pellem is wounded by Balin's delivery of the Dolorous Stroke - another connection between Galis and the Wasteland. Meanwhile, the King of Northgalis is throughout the Morte Arthur's friendly rival in almost all the Round Table tournaments. Elaine's husband Nentres of Garlot was one of Arthur's enemies in the succession wars who was perfectly friendly with Arthur ever afterwards. Garlot is a derivation of Caer-Lot meaning Nentres was Lot's vassal instead of a king in his own right. But, surely while High King Uther's honor might be satisfied having a stepdaughter married to not-a-king, High King Arthur's honor couldn't be satisfied till his (half-)sister's husband was a king of somewhere. And (and this is the part that's my own extrapolation), since Pellinore de Galis** spends all his time chasing the Questing Beast certainly he could spare a part, say the north part, of his kingdom. Which means Elaine of Cornwall Garlot Northgalis is Percival's aunt-in-law by succession. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The Queen of Eastland looks like the Mona Lisa (or anyhow is meant to) because, when I websearched queen eastland at Google Images, most of the hits were from some sort of art museum site. * Pellinore's kingdom is identified in some sources as the Isles, or Isles of some sort, which ties in nicely with that Pellinore is supposed to have married a sister of Arthur; but, though there are storytellers who have married Pellinore to Morgause after Pellinore killed Lot in battle, I'm not one of them. ** Percival is Pellinore's son, and all of Pellinore's other sons are de Galis, so by extension Pellinore may be de Galis too.

Webcomics I read mornings: Kevin & Kell, For Better Or For Worse, Shortpacked, Todd and Penguin, Scary Go Round, Tux & Bunny, Sluggy Freelance, Irregular Comic, Real Life, Peanuts

Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Theater Hopper, Nukees, Newshounds, Girl Genius, Pibgorn, Malfunction Junction, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa mornings: AppleGeeks, Achewood, Kismetropolis, Erfworld, Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, WIGU, Striptease, Digger

Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Questionable Content, Starslip Crisis, Anywhere But Here, Devil's Panties, Narbonic, Schlock Mercenary

Webcomics I read evenings: LuAnn, Count Your Sheep, Goats, Pearls Before Swine, American Elf, Sinfest, Little Dee

Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Two Lumps, Zortic, Order of the Stick, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Home on the Strange, Penny Arcade

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa evenings: Girls With Slingshots, The Green Avenger, Dandy & Company, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Get Out of My Head, Megatokyo

Webcomics I read bedtimes: B.C., Something Positive, Station V3, Dinosaur Comics, Wapsi Square, Help Desk, Sheldon, PvP

Webcomics I read Sundays: xkcd, Minus, Smithson, Something Happens, Li'l Mell, Butternut Squash, The Magnificent Adventures of Hieronymus Bosch, esquire, General Protection Fault, Breakfast of the Gods, Perry Bible Fellowship, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I hope will start updating again: Boxjam's Doodle, Casey & Andy, 13 Seconds, Medium Large, Mac Hall, The Angriest Rice Cooker In The World, No Room for Magic, The Whovian Observer, Gossamer Commons

See also The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, Talk About Comics, The Living Comic, Online Comics Day, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Mister Bloo, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Girls Read Comics (And They're Pissed), Fleen, Comixpedia and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.