Art-ology

baseball cards are a big business. For decades kids have collected cards that come in bubble gum packets. topps baseball cards are pulled off the racks and carried to the cashier with lawn mowing money or allowances. Now kids are able to collect trading cards of players from nearly every sport. Many adults enjoy the pastime of collecting as well. Why not develop trading cards in other areas of interest, like Knights of The Round Table?

There could be a series of knights of the Round Table. It could contain a selection of interesting statistics, including the number of crusades, the battles fought and quests endeavored, the dragons slain and the damsels saved. There exist a lot of stories of St. George and the Dragon. Why not put St. George, and the dragon for that matter on a card collection? The knights of King Arthur would be a great series of cards. There are at least 35 different knights of the round table alone. Who couldn’t desire a card of Ywain the Bastard? He was a Knight sired out of wedlock by King Urien of Gore, a name and title that sounds like a bad horror film. Ywain the Bastard was a vibrant and loyal knight that was mortally wounded by another knight during the quest for the Holy Grail. He was accidentally killed by his cousin, Gawain. He was also a knight of The Round Table. He was known as the polite Knight and the Knight of the maidens.

The legends of the Knights are full of magic, romance and noble, though often misguided deeds. They are also filled with betrayal, adultery, violence and other less then chivalrous behavior. The sons and daughters of the knights is a complex family tree with interweaving roots and branches. A collection of reference cards, might assist a child trying to untangle the Arthurian Roundtable. It could also raises some questions that parents might not be ready to answer. Untangling the connection between King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere and Arthur’s decision to burn her at the stake might traumatize both parent and child. For those not aware of the Arthurian Legend, Sir Lancelot was King Arthur’s most beloved and trusted knight. Guinevere, the Arthur’s young wife and Lancelot fell in love despite their desire to remain loyal to the knights code. It was this tryst that brought down the Arthurian Kingdom. That’s great stuff to accumulate in trading cards.

Guinevere opens up the door to and brings up the subject of the women of Camelot. There are plenty that are flesh and blood and plenty that are magical beings, and some that are both. Morgan LeFay was King Arthur’s half-sister and is said to have possessed the gift of healing. Because King Arthur was near death from a battle wound; Morgan helped carry him to the city of Avalon. There is the Lady of The Lake, likely a conglomeration a different women according to the legends. In one story she is Merlin’s apprentice, betraying him when she got all he could give her.

The people and the stories of the Knights of The Round Table are enough to create a series of collectable cards bringing the stories of the Round Table to youngsters of today.