One way to “explain” Malory is to look at the tradition in which he was writing. You can view the love triangle in the legend as arising from the medieval courtly romance, which requires a lady to have a knight (not her husband) show his love for his lady by chivalric actions. Some view this as the origin of the modern concept of romantic love. Marriage was not the source of romantic love, since marriage was a political/financial arrangement. Malory, or his source material, can be viewed as co-opting what some view as female-empowering paradigm, by actually making the romance a hindrance to knightly deeds, instead, making a knights love for his lady the source of his chivalric deeds, as was originally the case. Malory is actually quite a misogynist, if you look at this way. (And by most other standards as well--one of the reasons to find the love triangle unpalatable is that his Guin appears so unattractive and selfish that it is hard to sympathize with the lovers). And Malory does show Lancelot’s inability to resist Guin as his one failing--the failing that prevents him achieving the grail, so Lancelot does suffer the consequences for his weakness/immorality. At least this is one way of looking at the story.
Personally, I don’t believe that the stories had any Arthur/Lancelot romance. Lancelot was probably a hero from a completely different set of mythology/folklore, who, as I understand it, came to be added to the Arthur story around the same time as courtly romance genre was being developed. He might have been added to the story to fill the needs of the courtly romance paradigm. I’m not really aware of any real hints of bisexuality in the legends. Even among the modern retellings (published ones anyway), the only one that I can think of that suggests it is Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, where her Lancelot might be bisexual, but her Arthur is not.
I’m glad you’re enjoying Resurrection. I love playing with these legends, since, in my mind, fanfic is merely a continuation of the long traditon of retelling these stories. Part of the fun is that each of us can interpret the legends to fulfill our own ideas--Malory doesn’t have the monopoly on it. :)
Sorry it took me so long to respond. Feel free to friend me if you like and I'd be happy to friend you back--it’s pretty easy. I think if you just put your cursor over my user pic, it’ll give you that option. You can also go to my user’s page and do it (see the side bar on my journal where it says “user info” and click the button on the top left with the drawing of a person with a plus sign).
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!
One way to “explain” Malory is to look at the tradition in which he was writing. You can view the love triangle in the legend as arising from the medieval courtly romance, which requires a lady to have a knight (not her husband) show his love for his lady by chivalric actions. Some view this as the origin of the modern concept of romantic love. Marriage was not the source of romantic love, since marriage was a political/financial arrangement. Malory, or his source material, can be viewed as co-opting what some view as female-empowering paradigm, by actually making the romance a hindrance to knightly deeds, instead, making a knights love for his lady the source of his chivalric deeds, as was originally the case. Malory is actually quite a misogynist, if you look at this way. (And by most other standards as well--one of the reasons to find the love triangle unpalatable is that his Guin appears so unattractive and selfish that it is hard to sympathize with the lovers). And Malory does show Lancelot’s inability to resist Guin as his one failing--the failing that prevents him achieving the grail, so Lancelot does suffer the consequences for his weakness/immorality. At least this is one way of looking at the story.
Personally, I don’t believe that the stories had any Arthur/Lancelot romance. Lancelot was probably a hero from a completely different set of mythology/folklore, who, as I understand it, came to be added to the Arthur story around the same time as courtly romance genre was being developed. He might have been added to the story to fill the needs of the courtly romance paradigm. I’m not really aware of any real hints of bisexuality in the legends. Even among the modern retellings (published ones anyway), the only one that I can think of that suggests it is Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, where her Lancelot might be bisexual, but her Arthur is not.
I’m glad you’re enjoying Resurrection. I love playing with these legends, since, in my mind, fanfic is merely a continuation of the long traditon of retelling these stories. Part of the fun is that each of us can interpret the legends to fulfill our own ideas--Malory doesn’t have the monopoly on it. :)
Sorry it took me so long to respond. Feel free to friend me if you like and I'd be happy to friend you back--it’s pretty easy. I think if you just put your cursor over my user pic, it’ll give you that option. You can also go to my user’s page and do it (see the side bar on my journal where it says “user info” and click the button on the top left with the drawing of a person with a plus sign).
Thanks for your comments!