Arthur Pendragon
cast
(This space intentionally left blank for future personal text messages.)
Posts: 53
|
Post by Arthur Pendragon on Jun 20, 2005 8:18:19 GMT -5
Merlyn - A magician, the son of a wizard and a demoness. - He lives backwards in time, born at the end of the Earth, allowing him to see the (our) future as memories, but frustratingly so because he cannot know what happened in the (our) past to cause events. - Falls in love with Nimuae, who learns much of his magic and traps him in a cave for hundreds of years - In a battle with Mordred, the magic unleashed around the village of Avaloch causes the village to fall out of regular space/time. (1203) Uther Pendragon - 1st king to unite most of England - through pure force at arms - was a violent and petty man - convinced Merlyn to use magic to help him defeat the Duke of North Humberland and to change his shape to the Duke so that he could force himself on Igraine, the Duke's wife. - Arthur, the son of Uther and Igraine, is taken by Merlyn to Sir Ector's barony to be raised as an adopted son. - When he dies, a magic sword "Calibur" is driven through an anvil and stone with the inscription that "Whosoever pulleth out this sword is right-wise the King of all England." Igraine - Duchess of Cornwall, forcibly wed to Uther, Arthur's Mother - dies soon after Arthur is born - Also mother of 3 daughters - Morgause, Morgan LeFae, and Morganna - all 3 are magically influenced Morgause - Half sister of King Arthur - Duchess of Orkney, a province of Scotland - Married to King Lot, who rejects the rule of Arthur -- King Lot dies in battle with Arthur (1204) - Magically seduced King Arthur (he didn't know Morgause was his half-sister) soon after he was crowned in a effort to sire a son as revenge for Uther forcing himself on Igraine. - Mother of Sirs Gawaine, Gaheris, Gareth and Agravaine with King Lot. - Mother of Mordred with Arthur. Morgan LeFae - Half-sister of King Arthur - closely affiliated with the dark fairies (le Fae) - eventually poisons Gwenevere so that she cannot have children Morganna - Half-sister of King Arthur - attempted to implicate Qwenevere as a flirt to ruin marriage to Arthur (1202) more...
|
|
Arthur Pendragon
cast
(This space intentionally left blank for future personal text messages.)
Posts: 53
|
Post by Arthur Pendragon on Jun 20, 2005 8:29:04 GMT -5
Arthur (Items marked with a * are not known to the populace, only to Arthur, Merlyn and possibly a few others) - Called "the Wart" as a boy - Was only son of King Uther Pendragon - taken away by Merlyn to Sir Ector's castle in the Forest Savauge - Kay, Sir Ector's proper son, is like an older brother to Arthur - Is tutored by Merlyn both normally and by being changed into various animals for morality lessons - Pulls the sword "Calibur" from the stone by accident while seeking a sword for Kay to use in a tourney, thus identifying himself as King (2001 season = 1201) - After a battle with a noble knight, the sword is broken. When Arthur regrets this battle, the "Lady of the Lake" (a powerful water spirit) reforges the sword as "Excalibur". The defeated knight was Ban, the ruler of a province of France and father of Lancelot. Ban becomes one of Arthur's strongest allies, and Lancelot is later sent to Arthur's side, and becomes his closest friend. - Marries Gwenevere, daughter of Duke Leodegrance and Seli Camilliard of Cornwall, older sister to Iago Camilliard. Leodegrance gives Arthur the Round Table as a wedding gift. - Defends marriage against manipulations of Morganna (1202) - Through the magical manipulations of Mordred (son of Morgause), Duke Caradic of North Humberland challenges Arthur's rule. When Caradic submits, England is finally one United Kingdom. (1203) - ** For our faire's purposes, Mordred was magically accelerated in growth to a young adult by Morgause, and NO ONE but Arthur knows that he is his son. Any patron that mentions it should be countered with shock and the obvious impossibility of the situation. ** - Allows rulership of Avaloch to temporarily pass to King Amaranth and Queen Petunia Foraday when Avaloch falls "out of time". (1204) - Over the past two years (1203 - 1205), Arthur has been busy - he has consolidated his rule over England, begun to establish the Council of the Round Table, and defended his kingdom against aggressors on the Continent. As a result, Bors, Ban and several other French provincial leaders have pledged their fidelity to Arthur. - Arthur and Gwenevere have returned to Avaloch to celebrate their anniversary - at the same time, "The Brotherhood of the Coast" is coming to town to have a trial. At first mistaking this as an invasion, Arthur readies the town defences. (1205) *- Merlyn has foretold many future events to Arthur ALONE, granting him the edge he needs to establish his kingdom and accomplish his goals. Gwenevere - Daughter of LeoDegrance and Seli Camilliard - Promised in marriage to King Arthur (1201) - Accused of betrayal by Morganna, but defended by Arthur and truth determined when evidence is found by Pester (1202) ** For our Faire's purposes, there is NO RELATIONSHIP between Lancelot and Gwenevere. Any patron who mentions it should be countered with shock and surprise that they would accuse the Queen and a noble knight of such things! **
|
|
|
Post by Lady Catharine on Jun 20, 2005 12:56:11 GMT -5
BK, why are your concerned about walking on eggshells? I think it's nothing they've not heard prior.. Relax my friend! You bought and paid for your pass--it's not free... Remember that nothing is free..
|
|
|
Post by Hephzibah on Jun 21, 2005 0:25:27 GMT -5
Arthur Pendragon or is it your Highness Thankyou for your ealier posts..... it helps in more ways than one can know.............plus the time it took
|
|
Arthur Pendragon
cast
(This space intentionally left blank for future personal text messages.)
Posts: 53
|
Post by Arthur Pendragon on Jun 22, 2005 7:34:11 GMT -5
Actually, it only took an hour or two to type it all up - while I was at school and my students were doing work or taking tests! The cast has had this info for two months, but it just occurred to me to post it here about a week ago. Copy and paste, and there it is...
|
|
|
Post by Kayenne on Jun 22, 2005 20:47:37 GMT -5
** For our Faire's purposes, there is NO RELATIONSHIP between Lancelot and Gwenevere. Any patron who mentions it should be countered with shock and surprise that they would accuse the Queen and a noble knight of such things! ** Is there a Lancelot in the cast this year?
|
|
Arthur Pendragon
cast
(This space intentionally left blank for future personal text messages.)
Posts: 53
|
Post by Arthur Pendragon on Jun 23, 2005 8:56:34 GMT -5
Jasmine asked "Do we have a Lancelot on cast this year?" No. We had a Lancelot in 2002, played by one of the jousters - Brian (and I can't remember his last name right now). He, Gwenevere and Arthur spent half their day fending off questions from patrons about their "affair", which hadn't happened. Even without a Lancelot, the audience members will throw that out to Arthur and Gwenevere very frequently. From that experience, we will probably never have a "Lancelot" again, unless we actually *do* the affair storyline. And we will probably never do that storyline, because Larry wishes us to always portray a family friendly environment - and affairs are *not* family friendly. For us, the people that constantly bring up the Lancelot-Gwenevere story are kind of like someone who is a spoilsport; they are cheating in our "game" by telling us the outcome ahead of time. We always try to accept whatever patrons say as golden truth to encourage them to play. But, this is one of the few times where we (kindly, tactfully) negate their assumptions by reacting with shock. Hopefully, we will still get a laugh out of the patron, and we have maintained our illusions. If you would like to hear my thoughts on the whole Art-Gwen-Lance affair for the legends, I will post what I have discovered / decided for my portrayal of Arthur, but that is for another post.
|
|
|
Post by Sir Trevor on Jun 23, 2005 14:27:14 GMT -5
If you would like to hear my thoughts on the whole Art-Gwen-Lance affair for the legends, I will post what I have discovered / decided for my portrayal of Arthur, but that is for another post. Sounds cool! I always like your thoughts on things like this. They are always well researched and thought out.
|
|
Arthur Pendragon
cast
(This space intentionally left blank for future personal text messages.)
Posts: 53
|
Post by Arthur Pendragon on Jun 24, 2005 23:35:01 GMT -5
Thanks for the compliment Trevor! Ya make me blush!
But for this one, all the research that I had to do was to read "The Once and Future King" (referred to from here on as "TOAFK"). It really is a great book, and I recommend it to you all.
There are only a few basic questions about the Arthur - Gwenevere - Lancelot affair that need to be asked / answered, and the rest falls into place.
First - "Does Gwenevere love Arthur?"
Yes. However, she is often portrayed as younger than Arthur, sometimes by as much as 10 years, sometimes more, sometimes less. In actuality, that was fairly typical for the Medieval time period, where a girl of 12-14 would marry a young man of 25, or sometimes much older. Regardless, because of this age difference, Gwenevere loves Arthur, but she does so almost as a father-figure, or elder brother, with a definite sense of awe and admiration for his ideas and goals for creating a just society. What she doesn't give him is her "passion" - she doesn't physically spark to him, or to any other man for that matter, for the first few years of their marriage. And that leads us to our second question...
Second - "Why do Gwenevere / Lancelot fall for each other?"
At first, Lancelot has no interest in Gwenevere. In TOAFK, Lance actually dislikes her at first, because he is jealous of the time that Arthur spends with her instead of with him / the other knights. Gwen tries to make nice to Lance, partly because he is Arthur's best friend, partly because she is the kind of person who wants to be liked by everyone. Lance eventually feels bad about being jealous, and looks at her with a kinder attitude. This is the first girl he has ever looked at like that, so he falls in love with her. He knows this is wrong, so he goes away on quests to help establish the new order / laws of the Round Table. Every time he defeats a foe, he sends them to court to bow before the queen, not Arthur. Gwenevere is flattered by the attention.
And so, it is only after Lancelot does things for her (or in her name) that she sparks to him, and becomes "passionate" (for lack of a better word) toward Lance. Arthur, for his part, keeps thinking that everything is innocent, and spends so much time / attention on running the kingdom, that he spends little time doing things with Gwenevere. So her heart, though it loves Arthur no less, focuses its lustful attentions on Lancelot.
Third - "Does Arthur know the whole time what is going on?"
Yes. But, he chooses to disbelieve the events are occurring. Merlin actually warns him before he ever gets married of what will happen. But Arthur, ever the kind-hearted optimist, believes always the best of everyone else. "Why would my wife and my best friend ever betray me like that?" he thinks. So, he doesn't say anything, and in effect helps to maintain their secrets. By not confronting them, he has plausible denyability. He hopes that if he lets them alone, they will eventually see the error of their ways and stop doing whatever they are doing.
Fourth - "I would confront Gwen and Lance, and tell them to stop. Why doesn't Arthur do that?"
Well, it's not that simple for Arthur. He is establishing for the first time ever a system where the law and justice are paramount, not just the will of the king / leader. If he were to confront Gwen and Lance, he would be forced to uphold his own laws, and execute his wife and best friend for treason. ( In the mean-time, several of the stories suggest that Arthur was no slouch in having affairs himself, but it wasn't treason for him. It's good to be the king! ) So, Arthur's good nature allows him to forgive them and continue to hope they will stop what they are doing.
So there you have it - a delicate balancing act between Arthur, Gwen and Lance. It is Mordred's revealing the affair to the public that first stirs up the trouble that will eventually lead to Mordred airing his own dirty laundry about his parentage, which eventually leads to the death of Arthur.
|
|
|
Post by SwordSchoolGroupie on Jun 25, 2005 12:43:19 GMT -5
the mists of avalon (marion zimmer bradley) is an excellent book. written from the women's perspective and in a fictional style that isn't as boring as some of those earlier works. i recommend it to anyone. i have not read the prequel that came out after that, but i am sure that it is good.
|
|