Tea at Trianon: The Fisher King in the Medieval Mythology of Great Britain

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

The Fisher King in the Medieval Mythology of Great Britain

From Brewminate:

In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King, also known as the Wounded King or Maimed King (Roi blessé, in Old French Roi Méhaigné, Welsh: Brenin Clwyfedig), is the last in a long bloodline charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of the original story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of standing; all he is able to do is fish in a small boat on the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for some noble who might be able to heal him by asking a certain question. In later versions, knights travel from many lands to try to heal the Fisher King, but only the chosen can accomplish the feat. In earlier stories the feat is achieved by Percival alone, though he is joined by Galahad and Bors in the later ones.

Many later works have two wounded Grail Kings who live in the same castle (either a father and son, or a grandfather and grandson). While the more grievously wounded elder man remains in the castle, sustained only by the Grail. the more active younger man can meet with guests and go fishing, making the younger man the Fisher King.

Fisher King legends imply that the King has become unable to father or support a new generation which can carry on after his death. This is because a “thigh” wound has been interpreted by many scholars of Arthurian literature to be some sort of injury to the genitals. There are hints in early versions that his realm suffers as he does, and modern scholars have suggested his impotence affects the fertility of the earth, reducing it to a barren wasteland. (Read more.)