Reading Notes: Faerie Queen - Britomart, Part A
When searching for a story that I wanted to read for this week I stumbled upon Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod. The first thing that caught my eye was the word Faerie Queene, I have never seen it spelled in that way before. I looked it up to see if there was any difference between that and the spelling of fairy queen, but I could not find anything different. I assume it was just the language from the time when Edmund Spenser wrote the original poem. The other thing that made me want to read this story was the magical weapons. I thought there would be some useful ideas for my project and the storytelling assignment.
Right off the bat, the reader is introduced to the enchanted weapon, which is a spear that Britomart uses to knock Sir Guyon off of his horse. I thought that their introduction to the enchanted weapon and characters was great because it immediately creates some conflict between the characters. Sir Guyon is upset that he has been knocked off of his horse, but he is unaware that the spear is enchanted and, what would further his disappointment and embarrassment, was the fact, unknown to the characters and the readers until it was revealed, that Britomart was a woman. It was also interesting to me though that one of the characters, the Black Palmer, was wise enough to see that the spear was enchanted. I wonder what it was that clued him into the weapon's secret? Something else, which I find rather funny, is how Britomart and Sir Guyon quickly reconcile their differences and embark on an adventure. This theme of a woman cross-dressing and ganging up with a group of men reminds me of Mulan. I thought that it would be a great idea to flip the gender roles to create a new story. By that, I mean that I would have a male character dress as a woman. I would have to ponder on the idea a bit because, in this story and Mulan, it has a cross-dressing girl does things that are 'manly.' So, I would need to think of something that a man could do which would be universally understood as a 'women's job.' Unfortunately, I feel there is a fine line to cross where it could be a good idea or it could be offensive to others... I am sure, however, that there is something that I could come up with!
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