WTF???

[timepiececlock]

Apparently this is what Guenivere (Kiera Knightly) from the new King Arthur movie will look like.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16315

Yeah, I said that too.

.... and that.

Comments

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I'm actually kinda digging that. It sort of makes sense, because Arthurian legends actually were based around a Celtic king, and the tattoos are reminiscent of the body art that Pictish warriors would have had. So I think it's cool.

[http://users.livejournal.com/automatedalice_/]

yeah, but. i'm thinking morgan, myself. arthurian tales are based on pictish legend, but by & large, they're 14th century romances. this ain't 14th century.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

So... are you saying you think that this picture is older-looking than the legends usually are, or that you think she looks more like Morgan le Fay, the character? I checked the cast list, and its supposed to be Guenevere.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I think its cool as a costume, but I'm not seeing it as Arthurian legend. She looks more like a Scotish or Irish sort of warrior-queen of a small hold/kingdom, constantly at war defending her keep, rather than the character in the legend. I'll have to see how they present it before I get down with it.

Plus I'm wincing at the chafing that must happen with that outfit.

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

The thing with the legends is that the versions everyone is familiar with are the much later, romanticised versions that place the characters in medieval times. Medieval authors themselves didn't do this, though. According to a book on Celtic mythology I have, Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 12th century writer famous for his history of Britain, placed the beginning of Arthur's reign in about AD 505. In which case, the costumes they show would be perfectly in keeping for native Britons. Of course, my book also says that the legends themselves don't appear to be natively Welsh, but rather Breton, but still. Both are Celtic cultures, as are the Scots and Irish. So the warrior-queen look isn't far off the mark.

I guess I just really like that they're breaking with the old romantic tradition and showing them as they would have more likely dressed in the time that the legends supposedly took place.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I thought though, that the origins of the arthur legend were French? I remember reading that somewhere.

[ipomoea.livejournal.com]

Well, they do think they originated in Brittany, which even now still maintains traces of the old Celtic culture of France (France, of course, being the homeland of the Gauls).