The flower who married my brother the traitor

This post brought to you by Heather Dale's "Mordred's Lullaby," to which gaudior and weirdquark introduced me on Sunday. As a piece of Arthuriana, I am ambivalent about it, as it depends on an interpretation of Morgause that is closer to Elizabeth E. Wein than Thomas Malory; on the other hand, The Winter Prince is one of the premier retellings in the field, and it's a fantastic piece of music. I may look up the rest of the CD. It also reminded me that I have been meaning to write about Phyllis Ann Karr's The Idylls of the Queen (1982), which I was re-reading a few weeks ago and which retains the distinction of being the only Arthurian murder mystery I've ever read. There may be others, as there may be other versions which place Sir Kay front and center, but I haven't run across them yet: and in any case, I somewhat doubt their protagonists are as fucked in the head as this one. Spoilers for Le Morte d'Arthur?

( At least a craftsman made my shield, even if a lazy slackard, probably a kinsman of yours, made that rotten lance I was using. )