The Accolade

June.  On my bedroom wall hangs a calendar that features paintings of the Pre-Rafaelite persuasion.  For this month, it's Edmund Blair Leighton's "The Accolade."  This makes me happy for a few reasons, foremost of which is because it reminds me of Camelot.

I love all things Arthurian.  Chivalry, knights in armor, ladies locked in towers, powerful wizards and sorceresses, duels, tourneys, curses, forbidden loves, jousts, monsters and dragons, quests, swords, and all the innumerable tales, poetry, and art that have dwelt on the theme.  You name it.    I don’t know.  I think I love it mostly because it’s all so fantastic – all of that just couldn’t possibly have been real – could it?  I mean, sure, historically there might have been some of this and that.  Kings, castles, feudalism, the Medieval Age, etc., have been known to exist.  But the MAGIC of it all!  It’s just the stuff of dreams – and that makes it all the more splendid. 

I don’t bother to count how many books, movies, songs, poems, etc. I’ve experienced on the matter, but the two most memorable have been Sir Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” and T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King.”  If you’re a book lover, surely you’d have heard or encountered either one of these two.  There are only a precious few books that have brought tears to my eyes, and these two belong in that list, which is why they are so memorable to me.  My heart cried so for Arthur, for his grief, for his betrayal, for the enormous burdens he carried, for his tragic fate, and for the bright shining hope that he brings with him.  I felt him to be the only one who stayed true and pure through the whole debacle that was glorious Camelot.  In any case, so much has already been said on this subject that I’m sure I’d just sound redundant if I lay out all that I think about him and all the other characters.  Rest assured that I love them all, yes, even the bad guys (they are such cool bad guys after all).  Oh yeah, my favourite knight is Sir Gareth.

That said, enjoy June.  I hope you read any or both of these books.  And I hope that if you see a picture of The Accolade, you’d catch a little bit of medieval magic just like I do.