Gawain Project: Brothers & Sisters, 73-75

[sigune]

"There was a time when the birds of the air had a contest to see who could fly the highest. All the birds competed except the Wren, and none could fly as high as the Eagle. So the birds made him King.
'He must be King,' they said. 'He's the biggest and strongest of us all. Not one of us can fly as high as the Eagle.'
'I can,' said the Wren.
'You!' laughed the Hawk. 'Why the Eagle wouldn't waste time competing with a bird as small as you!'"
- The Folk Tales of Scotland, retold by Norah and William Montgomerie (1975)



Great! I've been away for five days and while I'm gone, persons unknown break LJ, or what? >:-( I seem to have to refresh every page at least once to see what I want. Muh. Well, you know if you can't get to the new pages here, you can always read them at my Blogspot, so you don't need to miss out on anything.

Edinburgh was wonderful, by the way. Of course it's a little bit magical for me in any case because it is the site of the capital of the Gododdin, and the capital of Lothian - it's Lot Country and Gawain was born there! I rolled my eyes a bit at the shameless commercial exploitation of what is after all Highland dress in the capital of the Lowlands; I was bemused by the existence of vegetarian haggis and Scottish/Mexican fusion cooking yielding quesadillas with haggis; I wandered through the expanse of Holyrood Park pretending not to know that Arthur's Seat doesn't really have anything to do with Arthur; and of course I also drooled over the Celtic exhibits in the National Museum. I also learnt that quite a few members of the Scottish ruling class in the Middle Ages were of Flemish descent, which certainly explains some of the more absurd aspects of life in Scotland ;-).

Naturally I brought back a lot of books, one of which yielded today's quote. I also (finally) got a copy of the Mabinogion, a small booklet about Pictish fortresses, a history of the Pictish people and a copy of The Last of the Celts, Marcus Tanner's exploration of what is left of the Celtic-speaking world. It makes for gloomy reading. Tanner estimates that one generation from now, all Celtic languages will be extinct. Some of them have been killed off by aggressive governments (Breton in France, Gaelic in the UK), others are just spoken by people who aren't proud of their language and its heritage (Gaelic in Ireland). All of them have been dealt with in a bad way - measures to preserve the languages have either come too late or have had adverse effects. These things make a Celtophile despair :(.

Well, I'm trying to keep Celtic culture alive in my own modest way. New pages are below; I hope you enjoy them. Concrit is welcome, as always!


What went before
Lot and Morgana have a problem. They each have their own high hopes for Gawain, but none of their plans are going to come to anything if the boy cannot hold his own in a fight. Gawain is small and not particularly strong. To overcome these weaknesses, he will need the help of an expert - preferably of the female variety. Fortunately, Morgana knows just such a person...


Sunrise Chapter 1: Brothers and Sisters
Brothers and Sisters 1-3, Brothers and Sisters 4-6, Brothers and Sisters 7-9, Brothers and Sisters 10-12, Brothers and Sisters 13-15, Brothers and Sisters 16-18, Brothers and Sisters 19-21, Brothers and Sisters 22-24, Brothers and Sisters 25-27, Brothers and Sisters 28-30,Brothers and Sisters 31-33, Brothers and Sisters 34-36, Brothers and Sisters 37-39, Brothers and Sisters 40-42, Brothers and Sisters 43-45, Brothers and Sisters 46-48, Brothers and Sisters 49-51, Brothers and Sisters 52-54, Brothers and Sisters 55-57, Brothers and Sisters 58-60, Brothers and Sisters 61-63, Brothers and Sisters 64-66, Brothers and Sisters 67-69, Brothers and Sisters 70-72









Next week: Sister Conchobarre gives her reasons. They reveal something about Lot...

Comments

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

I've heard of Conchobarre too! Not much, but I know that name.

I'm glad you enjoyed Edinburgh. I've never been there; just to Glasgow and to the real Highlands. :D

[sigune.livejournal.com]

The Highlands and Glasgow are a future project :). I have been there before, but only for a veeeeery short while. I'd really like to go back, just like I did with Edinburgh.

I'm thinking that if you know Conchobarre, it must be because you've met her before in this comic, seeing as I invented her XD. She's partly inspired by Nessa, the mother of Conchobar Mac Ness, who led a warband together with her father. (And actually, Nessa's father is also the father of her son Conchobar - the Celts love their incest... *ahem*)

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

LOL! I'm an awful reader, I keep forgetting elements of this story all the time. I should seriously re-read it from the start.

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

Sorry - something more useful on the matter at hands. Lot is seriously risking to become a favourite of mine - all those gestures! He gets so expressive when he's angry, and that happens often. Love Conchobarre's stern face, and Morgana's lips are seriously sensuous. What is a fian?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

A fian is a warband. It's a group of warriors who will fight for anyone who gives them food and shelter. They are a sort of special mercenaries attested in Irish and Scottish legend.

LOL at Lot becoming one of your favourites - he's certainly one of mine! XD

[swift-kite.livejournal.com]

I love how expressive and distinct you make all the faces, especially Conchobarre on page 3 panel 2. A lot of professional comic artists have trouble with that and you have to rely on hair and clothes, or dialogue to tell the characters apart.

vegetarian haggis... o.O

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I didn't get an occasion to try the veggie haggis (I've been eating far too much in Scotland already!), but I did find the concept intriguing :-).

I love faces :-). They are what I like drawing best! I do try to make them expressive, but I confess that making them distinctive can sometimes be difficult. The thing is that you try to master the proportions of faces in general, and when you get good at that, all your faces look the same! Sometimes I think mine are distinctive because I'm just not that good ;-).