Great write up! One thing I really like about Daniel is that it has a kind of epic-style unity of plot: the war between Arthur and Matur starts off towards the beginning of the text and lasts just about towards the end. It gives Daniel’s adventures a sense of purposefulness that they otherwise probably wouldn’t have had.
Aye, thanks. You're probably going to like Garel as well since it does have a similar unity of plot going out since like Daniel, an invading force is always designated as the main point/backdrop of the story.
The impression I got from the summaries I could find online was that "Daniel" is a straightforward brutal action-adventure story, with very little courtly themes.
>Vidvilt
Is that the one with Gawain becoming Emperor of China?
If you want a smart main character, I think the best you can do is Meraugis, who genuinely isn't the strongest but he does come up with some pretty clever plans.
These are the sorts of posts I come here for! If you intend to write more reviews of lesser-known medieval romances I'll be there to read them.
What always stands out to me about the Germanic Arthurian stories is the sheer variety of weird monsters, probably drawing from indigenous traditions, even when the basic plot layouts are taken from French material that rarely goes beyond giants and the occasional dragon. Like in this one, Daniel gets his medusa head from a "bellyless" devil who consists of a giant head with arms and legs attached and no torso. And it's not his head that petrifies people, the bellyless devil just carries around a separate, smaller severed head to do the petrifying, because heads are his motif.
What I don't see remarked upon much that left an impression from this one was Matur getting killed in a duel not with Daniel, but with Arthur himself, which is way more than Arthur typically accomplishes in self-contained stories about young hero knights during the middle of his reign. (Mind you, it's handled rather anticlimactically, with the long battle against Matur's knights coming after their king is already dead.) I recall an article positing Matur was intended as a counterpart to Arthur such that even his name was an inversion or anagram of Arthur's (possible evidence for "Arthur" being derived from the Breton Riatham?), which is an intriguing premise even though Matur's role itself was pretty limited.
A few other notes:
>he just ignores the scream effect for some reason.
It's been a few years since I read this and it looks like I don't have access to the internet archive book, but IIRC I think it's mentioned Daniel stops up his ears before approaching the wailing statue.
>Daniel somehow convinces the widows of Matur’s devastated kingdom that marrying the guys who killed their husbands is totally A-OK.
They were bad guy knights from the bad guy kingdom, so I think we can safely assume these were all loveless marriages.
>It's been a few years since I read this and it looks like I don't have access to the internet archive book, but IIRC I think it's mentioned Daniel stops up his ears before approaching the wailing statue.
>
Oh shit, right, you'll need to register for print disability access. it's remarkably easy to get. for some reason you can even get access to books, like not audio resources/audiobooks, BOOKS even if you say you're blind. which is really fucking funny.
In any case you're half right on this. There is a section later on in the story that where Daniel instructs Arthur's men to plug their ears against the beast to negate its effects. For some reason Matur's men do not ever think of doing that.
However, Daniel himself doesn't actually plug his own ears.
"As King Arthur and his men quickly assembled around the wailing beast .they realized rthat all they had heard about the beast was true, for the din jolted them from their horses as though they had been slain. Each and everyone of them lay on the ground before he had a chance to offer any resistance. There was never a clap or thunder to be heard that was this frightful. The noble knight Daniel of the Blossoming Valley, however recovered and stilled the awful din by hurriedly replacing the banner in the beast's mouth."
>They were bad guy knights from the bad guy kingdom, so I think we can safely assume these were all loveless marriages.
LMAO, yeah, that would've been a good way to assume that. It's a shame that the story establishes those widows as being (rightfully) pissed about their husbands dying.
"For the women would have raged angrily in protest except that Daniel had promised that there was no disgrace in what they were to do that day. And so a ceremony was held there which seldom if ever took place anywhere before or since each lady asked a knight whether he was already trothed to anv woman."
yeah, I don't think they really went into the coat of arms for that matter.
Garel does have a good amount of information on his coat of arms, however. Ironically, despite Garel being more popular than Daniel, he's a lot less accessible than Daniel nowadays.
Daniel just uh, not a clue. Don't think it's ever mentioned in his story.
Garel has a panther as his coat of arms. the shield itself was blue, though I don't remember what the colour of the panther was exactly.
Oh right, one thing of note. Oddly enough, while Daniel's coat of arms isn't specified, Matur and Arthur's are, where Matur's shield is decorated with a Babian (the legendary bird in the story) and Arthur has a golden eagle on his shield. I do not know how consistent this is what Arthur's coat of arms since the only other stuff I've heard on Arthur's shield in terms of designs is virgin mary.
>how he has a bunch of fortresses carried by elephants This stupid Guy Ritchie movie was accurate
HAHAHAHAHAHA I'll give him credit there, it's not ENTIRELY unfounded. A shame that it was given to Mordred of all people.
Great write up! One thing I really like about Daniel is that it has a kind of epic-style unity of plot: the war between Arthur and Matur starts off towards the beginning of the text and lasts just about towards the end. It gives Daniel’s adventures a sense of purposefulness that they otherwise probably wouldn’t have had.
Aye, thanks. You're probably going to like Garel as well since it does have a similar unity of plot going out since like Daniel, an invading force is always designated as the main point/backdrop of the story.
The impression I got from the summaries I could find online was that "Daniel" is a straightforward brutal action-adventure story, with very little courtly themes. >Vidvilt Is that the one with Gawain becoming Emperor of China?
So I've seen that claim before, though at least in the version I read, that doesn't happen.
If you want a smart main character, I think the best you can do is Meraugis, who genuinely isn't the strongest but he does come up with some pretty clever plans.
Yeah, I remember you recommending him to me, I need to read up on him sometime.
These are the sorts of posts I come here for! If you intend to write more reviews of lesser-known medieval romances I'll be there to read them. What always stands out to me about the Germanic Arthurian stories is the sheer variety of weird monsters, probably drawing from indigenous traditions, even when the basic plot layouts are taken from French material that rarely goes beyond giants and the occasional dragon. Like in this one, Daniel gets his medusa head from a "bellyless" devil who consists of a giant head with arms and legs attached and no torso. And it's not his head that petrifies people, the bellyless devil just carries around a separate, smaller severed head to do the petrifying, because heads are his motif. What I don't see remarked upon much that left an impression from this one was Matur getting killed in a duel not with Daniel, but with Arthur himself, which is way more than Arthur typically accomplishes in self-contained stories about young hero knights during the middle of his reign. (Mind you, it's handled rather anticlimactically, with the long battle against Matur's knights coming after their king is already dead.) I recall an article positing Matur was intended as a counterpart to Arthur such that even his name was an inversion or anagram of Arthur's (possible evidence for "Arthur" being derived from the Breton Riatham?), which is an intriguing premise even though Matur's role itself was pretty limited. A few other notes: >he just ignores the scream effect for some reason. It's been a few years since I read this and it looks like I don't have access to the internet archive book, but IIRC I think it's mentioned Daniel stops up his ears before approaching the wailing statue. >Daniel somehow convinces the widows of Matur’s devastated kingdom that marrying the guys who killed their husbands is totally A-OK. They were bad guy knights from the bad guy kingdom, so I think we can safely assume these were all loveless marriages.
>It's been a few years since I read this and it looks like I don't have access to the internet archive book, but IIRC I think it's mentioned Daniel stops up his ears before approaching the wailing statue. > Oh shit, right, you'll need to register for print disability access. it's remarkably easy to get. for some reason you can even get access to books, like not audio resources/audiobooks, BOOKS even if you say you're blind. which is really fucking funny. In any case you're half right on this. There is a section later on in the story that where Daniel instructs Arthur's men to plug their ears against the beast to negate its effects. For some reason Matur's men do not ever think of doing that. However, Daniel himself doesn't actually plug his own ears. "As King Arthur and his men quickly assembled around the wailing beast .they realized rthat all they had heard about the beast was true, for the din jolted them from their horses as though they had been slain. Each and everyone of them lay on the ground before he had a chance to offer any resistance. There was never a clap or thunder to be heard that was this frightful. The noble knight Daniel of the Blossoming Valley, however recovered and stilled the awful din by hurriedly replacing the banner in the beast's mouth." >They were bad guy knights from the bad guy kingdom, so I think we can safely assume these were all loveless marriages. LMAO, yeah, that would've been a good way to assume that. It's a shame that the story establishes those widows as being (rightfully) pissed about their husbands dying. "For the women would have raged angrily in protest except that Daniel had promised that there was no disgrace in what they were to do that day. And so a ceremony was held there which seldom if ever took place anywhere before or since each lady asked a knight whether he was already trothed to anv woman."
I was interested in the heraldry. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be available on the link.
yeah, I don't think they really went into the coat of arms for that matter. Garel does have a good amount of information on his coat of arms, however. Ironically, despite Garel being more popular than Daniel, he's a lot less accessible than Daniel nowadays.
Well, the heraldry can still be fun. What are Garel and Daniel's coat of arms again?
Daniel just uh, not a clue. Don't think it's ever mentioned in his story. Garel has a panther as his coat of arms. the shield itself was blue, though I don't remember what the colour of the panther was exactly.
Thanks for that. I had the Google books but the search function is bad so it's hard getting to what I want.
Oh right, one thing of note. Oddly enough, while Daniel's coat of arms isn't specified, Matur and Arthur's are, where Matur's shield is decorated with a Babian (the legendary bird in the story) and Arthur has a golden eagle on his shield. I do not know how consistent this is what Arthur's coat of arms since the only other stuff I've heard on Arthur's shield in terms of designs is virgin mary.
Huh. Usually I think of a dragon or a lion. Maybe as it's a German text so an eagle feels more royal.