the once and future king

Thank goodness, livejournal is back again.

(Not that I'm an addict or anything. But it is so very convenient.)

Other than that: work continues busy, the weather continues cool and grey and depressing, and I have some nagging lumbosacral pain which I wish would get over and done with. So. That's July for you.

For some reason I'm in an Arthurian mood, and am rereading The Once and Future King, the Mabinogion, my Pendragon sourcebooks, and various short story collections that I seem to have accumulated. I'm not sure why.

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The Myth of Arthur

O learned man who never learned to learn,
Save to deduce, by timid steps and small,
From towering smoke that fire can never burn
And from tall tales that men were never tall.
Say, have you thought what manner of man it is
Of who men say "He could strike giants down"?
Or what strong memories over time's abyss
Bore up the pomp of Camelot and the crown.
And why one banner all the background fills,
Beyond the pageants of so many spears,
And by what witchery in the western hills
A throne stands empty for a thousand years.
Who hold, unheeding this immense impact,
Immortal story for a mortal sin;
Lest human fable touch historic fact,
Chase myths like moths, and fight them with a pin.
Take comfort; rest — there needs not this ado.
You shall not be a myth, I promise you.

-- Chesterton