Meredith Mansfield, Author

Well, last week went and got crazy on me, so I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.

Still, I did make some progress.

• I reviewed the part of the Mabinogion pertaining to Bran the Blessed. I’m going to have to put some thought into how this meshes with the rest of the story I want to tell. (Bran’s story is already loosely connected to Arthur’s in the Mabinogion.) Of course, there’s no more reason I have to stick strictly to the original of Bran’s story than that I need to hold to the usual version of Arthur’s.
• I watched again the historical lecture on . . . well, not Arthur, but what was happening in Britain at the time when Arthur would have to have been active. (Around the end of the 5th Century.) And what little contemporary or near-contemporary evidence we have of an actual Arthur-like figure, which is scant but not non-existent.
• And I read a little more in that book about breaking out of writer’s block. (Not as helpful as I’d hoped, but not without some useful points.)

Next, I believe I will study up on the way the Arthur legend grew over the centuries–which parts are oldest and which were added later. (Hint: Lancelot is never mentioned until Chretien de Troyes in the 12th Century.) I’ll use the course guidebook, though, rather than re-watch all the lectures. It’ll be quicker.