Patricia Terry

Is it a translated version of some very old Arthurian m/m that's also pretty accessible as a read? Yes. If that is what you are looking for, and you don't mind the metric ton of Christianity in this that at least isn't homophobic, then this is the book for you.

With the caveat that I know the people originally wrote the story are long dead and the basic narrative isn't the translator's fault, and that I struggle to decide whether this is good or not, I can only imagine it's just not for me. If you're an Arthurian scholar or don't mind all the Christianity and just want some very old m/m with some knights, this is a great find. In fact it's extra great, because apparently a lot of the side quests were cut out to focus on Lancelot and Galehaut, which is great, because much as their relationship is lovely, the story was a very boring slog with just those two and the constant back and forth weirdness with how their knighthoods work. I can only imagine how bad it would have been if there were constant random side quests with other characters. I do appreciate the many, many times Lancelot and Galehaut talk about their love at first sight and, at least in Galehaut's case, all-consuming romance. That was fun. I love some good m/m.

Alternatively, I was prepared for the metric ton of Christianity in this and for some archaic story-telling, because that's how these stories go. Even after the intro explanation how they "modernized" it (they use the word "modern" eight times!), I was keeping my expectations low. Surely, if Christian supremacy was as central a topic of the story, the team for this would have noted that somewhere in the very long opening essay to this, along with other themes. Surely, something that only casually mentions "It is a broadly ranging fiction . . . uncomfortably caught between a Christian imperative and the vibrant mystery of a pagan past" with no other elaboration about the supremacy of Christianity erasing other religions would not be as bad as I'm worried about. I was still prepared.

What I was not prepared for was for a Jewish woman at the start of the story to become a nun apropos of nothing other than that's usually what happens to discarded women in Arthurian stories who don't just outright die, especially after reading a very long intro about how the editors and translators of this prepared this for a "modern" audience. Yes, it was a very easy read with prose that wasn't difficult to surmount. Yes, the m/m romance in it was treated respectfully and very clearly communicated. But I have to ask if literally a single Jewish person read this at all before publication. Probably not. Probably they were like "yeah that's just how a lot of these stories go" and just walked away. Usually the women this happens to are already Christian. Lancelot's mother is specifically noted as "[belonging] to the House of David", and that she'd be in danger without protection, likely indicating she'd face racism. So on the one hand, maybe this was about survival. I would have respected her going off to an enclosed Jewish community or something, but I assume this was written by Christians, so sure, whatever. I'm not even expecting them to have changed it. But even just mentioning once, somewhere in that really long intro, about the Christian supremacy and how the start of the story does a whole racism, would have earned them a lot of favor in my book.

For the record, Jews don't have nuns. That's just not a thing. Jews mourn communally. Jews also don't do mass. While a Jewish person might seek solitude in mourning, and even focus more on prayer and attending synagogue, or perhaps participate more with the local sisterhood, even in charitable works and community activities, asking to become a nun for some reason doesn't match literally any Jewish ethics, because getting closer to God through deprivation and isolation as a way to deal with your grief just isn't a thing. Jews do sometimes convert to Christianity, and there are Jews who marry Christians or somehow consider themselves of both religions. That's also a thing. But when your one Jewish character converts to Christianity at the start of the story for no particular reason other than her ethical values are Christian for some reason and the assumption that the Jewish/Christianity divide is the same as choosing to put an orange shirt on in the morning instead of a blue one, yeah, no, that's racism.

For what it is, it's probably far better than similar Arthurian tales that also pound the paganism these stories were originally rooted in into the dust. Even the magical Lady of the Lake is Christian somehow.

Do the relationships make sense? No. Is the story good? Not really. But if you want a story about very male Christian knights being very in love with each other that's from 13th century France, this is the thing for you. May you enjoy it.… (more)

So far, and this is hard for a medievalist to say, I'm finding the Reynard stories excruciating. Threw it on a syllabus for an independent study on Animals in the MA, and lord do I regret it. I suppose the task here is to account for why they're animals at all...

Cultural historians have no doubt loved the rich attention to 12-13th c. Northern French culture: we see, for example, the use of cudgels in judicial combat, and a joke about Bruin the Bear's bleeding face as a the habit of an unidentified monastic order (because, get it?, many new orders founded in the 12th c.! Hilarious!).

Oh, god, finished it. I'll never assign it again.… (more)