#ygraine's sigil

[adhd-merlin]

#i mean the bird on the crest is obviously an eagle #but whatever tell me your thoughts #polls #merlin polls #merlin #ygraine de bois #ygraine's sigil #bbc merlin #*

[sundry-whovengerslocked]

Snow and Dirty Rain (Merlin)

Richard Silken, "Snow and Dirty Rain" // BBC Merlin

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

-

and we've got a part three! with merthur this time! and significantly less angst!

I tried to make this one a bit like a duet, if you pay attention you can see that the words are closer to one of the boys vs the other, rather than spread across the pictures like I usually do.

Gaius, Hunith, and Leon will be in the next part, I promise. I've got it all sorted out.

-

the first one is arthur and merlin in ealdor. I was gonna do the "there is no more rope!" scene for the literal climbing out the window, but I figured the more metaphorical rebellion against uther was better.

peep the poetry with the scene about poetry! haha

I chose the labyrinth of gedref for that catalog line because I wanted to include it, and also I found it fit because they were trying to bring back the food/harvest - like dawn to a field

also that kingdom line was too perfect to not use for Ygraine's sigil! I'm so happy I got to fit it in!

#bbc merlin #richard siken #merthur #labyrinth of gedref #ygraine pendragon #ygraine's sigil #arthur's sigil #merlin #poetry #original post #arthur #arthur pendragon #ealdor #the battle for ealdor #snow and dirty rain #excalibur #the most powerful sorcerer #merlin emrys #the once and future king #two sides of the same coin

[bramblebush3]

Ygraine de Bois had been dead for a long time now. Decades. Yet, she never lacked for something to do. She tried not to think of what Uther had done; the lives he had destroyed. She remembered when he had been kind, quite like Arthur, really. But those days were long passed. Now, she watches Arthur grow up. Oh, how she adored him. She was not always pleased with his choices and actions, but she was always proud of him. And then: Merlin. The young boy was fiery and bright, with a lively glow and an infectious smile. Ygraine could not help but feel amused and joyful as she watched him insult her son in an effort to stand up for the poor servant Arthur had chosen to pick on that day. She felt something was different about Merlin, and she could tell Arthur did too. She had always been quite magic sensitive, so Arthur being so as well was not a stretch. The full body laugh that escaped her as she watched her husband proclaim Merlin Arthur’s manservant warmed her to her core, and the feeling something was changing wiggled its way into her head. 

She was right, of course. Ygraine watched as Arthur changed, becoming something more. And she knew. Oh, she knew. It was all because of Merlin. The adorable, smiling manservant who made luminescent butterflies and defended Arthur against anything that wished him harm. Before she knew it, Merlin had become as much a fixture of her life as Arthur. Ygraine watched, a swooping feeling of excitement in her chest, as Arthur and Merlin’s relationship became something deeper than even that of friendship. Love.  

So now, Ygraine watches Arthur carefully and reverently gift Merlin her sigil. Merlin does not know exactly what it means (neither of them do, really), but he cradles it as if it is the most precious thing in the world. Ygraine smiles, and finally allows her soul to pass on.

#bbc merlin #arthur pendragon #merlin #bbc merthur #ygraine de bois #i cried a little writing this #ygraine de bois' sigil

[arthurpendragonssassydaggers]

This my official request for the fandom to start writing more about the fact that Arthur wears his mothers ring.

#Seen so much about the sigil which cute and not the ring which is canon #bbc merlin #arthur pendragon #merlin #ygraine pendragon

[witchmd13]

marjorie, taylor swift // merlin, beauty and the beast II // merlin, the sins of the father // the opposite of a haunting is something very lonely, katie maria // to die for, carol lee //  a woman moving within me, nizar qabbani, translation // carolina, taylor swift // x // merlin, the darkest hour deleted scene.

#arthur and ygraine with a hint of merthur because i like to torture myself #:) #ygraine de bois #ygraine pendragon #arthur pendragon #merlin bbc #merlinedit #merlin #the sigil scene #web weaving #**m

[queerofthedagger]

Arthur covered in tattoos. That's it that's the post.

#arthur pendragon #he'd have the phoenix from ygraine's sigil on his back #flowers from her garden sneaking up one arm #excalibur on the other #he'd get nonsensical stuff just for the fun of it and others that remind him of his friends #and yeah modern au etc etc but also canon where tattoos are a thing and so much of him belongs to his kingdom but his skin is his own #when he learns about Merlin's magic and merlin keeps being uncertain if arthur really accepted him #arthur sneaks out to the druids one night and asks if they'd be willing to tattoo him a traskelion on his wrist #it becomes Merlin's favourite spot to kiss right after the dragon that eventually winds up Arthur's entire leg #anyway you get the idea the tags are getting away from me #also i guess I'll have to write it huh

[neptunesyellowsands]

Has the sigil been beaten to death? Yes. Am I going to write a small essay about it anyway? Also yes.

The sigil is such a monumental piece of the story, guys. No matter who you ship, Arthur giving Merlin his mother’s sigil is outrageously important to the validation of their relationship and to Arthur’s character growth, AND a view into his evolving perception of his traitorous family, which is probably why they were cut bc why would we want THAT. I will explain.

Arthur resists verbalizing his friendship with Merlin so much, but he says a lot more with his actions - sacrificing himself for Merlin time and again, confiding in him, keeping him close even though he’s not really supposed to. The sigil is a tangible piece of himself that he gives to Merlin, inviting him into his family and reminding him, even if he can’t quite do it with words, how close they really are.

But his FAMILY. I think that Arthur’s perception of his family is really starting to shift here. He doesn’t give Merlin something that makes him a Pendragon. He doesn’t give him his father’s ring or a dagger encrusted with the symbol of the dragon. He gives him his MOTHER’S sigil, the symbol of the bird, which is of course very symbolic of the relationship between Uther and Ygraine vs. Arthur and Merlin, but it also means that Arthur doesn’t want to associate Merlin with the side of the family that connects via his father - Uther and Morgana, ruthless and hard and traitorous. Arthur didn’t know that Agravaine had betrayed him yet. He wants Merlin to be family, but I think he wants to try everything he can to associate Merlin with the soft bits of his family history - the memory of a kind, gentle mother and a loyal uncle. This, to me, suggests that Arthur is really feeling his own departure from his father’s ways and trying to find a part of himself that was maybe like his mother instead. That would have been important if Merlin had told him about his magic earlier, because Arthur maybe wouldn’t have wanted to react as his father would have.

I just think keeping the scene in would have changed everything about the show from that point on. WHICH IS WHY IT IS CANON IN MY HEAD.

#merthur #bbc merlin #merlin #bbc merthur #arthur pendragon #merlin bbc #in this essay i will

[inamagicalhallucination]

merlin au where arthur giving merlin his mother’s sigil is like a marriage proposal and sharing his clothes with him, dining privately with him, doing all of these things are considered intimate so like the nobles in and out of the kingdom think that theyre married

on the other hand the magical community come near arthur and he REEKS of merlin’s magic, like it’s everywhere and so intimately woven into arthur’s aura that their like “omg he married merlin/emrys” so they also think that the two are married

and merlin and arthur are happily oblivious to all of this

until of course the druids and other magical ppl and nobles and kings and the whole jazz start making the long long journey to come to camelot and personally congratulate on the marriage

and merlin and arthur are standing there, side by side, merlin wearing ygraine’s sigil and arthur drenched in merlin’s magic like “literally why the fuck would you think that”

but then they dont know how to like explain all of that so theyre just like “well thats a thing now” and yeah

#merlin #merthur #merlin emrys #merlin bbc #arthur and merlin #merthur au #merthur prompts #merthur headcanon #king arthur #arthur #prince arthur #Arthur Pendragon #bbc merlin #bbcm #bbc arthur

[lavendersins]

okay, but imagine merlin accidentally accepts a random king's offer to become their heir apparent, but then the whole problem of ygraine's sigil becomes known. next thing you know camelot is competing against this random kingdom for merlin in a bunch of ridiculous challenges like it's the freaking olympics.

it should be over soon.

until you add in the druids wanting him to claim his leadership and kingdom in the perilous lands, that merlin also unknowingly accepted from the fisher king.

meanwhile, merlin is just off to the side scratching his head confused.

i think it goes without saying that arthur's practically frothing at the mouth at this point. :)

#merlin #merlin bbc #merthur #arthur pendragon #merlin emrys #king arthur #writing prompt #fic prompt #someone pls write this #im begging

[camelotsheart]

I think part of the reason Arthur gave the sigil to Merlin was because he didn't want to take the sigil into the veil. He wanted to keep some part of Ygraine alive. And since Merlin is the one who's saved Arthur's life countless times (not even counting the times Arthur doesn't know about) and is always following him into near-death situations, he's requesting Merlin to keep this part of him alive.

In Arthur's eyes, Ygraine gave her life to birth him. Arthur is living two lives: as himself and as Ygraine's son ("Almost as though she's part of me"). And when he's giving the sigil, he's giving away both parts of himself. The one that's made from the memory of Ygraine and the one that grew to care for Merlin enough to give him the sigil, and he's asking Merlin to keep both memories alive.

Because he's not only Arthur Pendragon (just as Merlin and Arthur's devotion can't be encompassed by the logic of "What is the life of a servant compared to that of a prince?"), he's also Arthur du Bois.

#bbc merlin #ygraine #arthur pendragon #merthur

[adhd-merlin]

choosing to believe the de bois crest and ygraine's sigil depict two different birds. it's like her personal badge or something

#I know nothing about heraldry #I need this for a throwaway line dw. I'm just thinking out loud #surprised to see dove in the lead #you are right though it does look like a dove #more than anything else #ygraine's sigil #ygraine de bois #*

[nextstopparis]

i do think one of the reasons why arthur gave merlin ygraine’s sigil, specifically, is bc merlin was the only person who really Got it. like. idk. he was presumably the only person arthur really talked to about how much he wanted to know her. he was the only person in arthurs life that witnessed arthur seeing and talking to her for the First time. he was the one who witnessed those first words between mother and son and just how tightly arthur clutched her. like i think he wanted merlin to have it because every memory arthur had of his mother, merlin also knew. was apart of, in some way. regardless of whether arthur thought that ghost was real or not - she was still his mom for that first bit yknow. i think maybe he wanted to leave one of the last things he had of her to someone who knew better than others how much he loved her and wanted to know her etc

#idunno #mooooom arthur pendragons making me sad again #my mom (an arthur stan): he can do what he wants #ignore me

[oswinsdolma]

not a day goes by when i don't think about the parallels between the scene where arthur gives merlin his mother's sigil and the ending when he gives gwen the royal seal, because it's just so representative of their different roles in the narrative, and who they are to arthur; he loved both merlin and gwen dearly, but in different ways.

arthur's relationship with gwen is an interesting one, and i think is probably more demonstrative of character growth within the show than any other. when arthur and gwen first fell in love, they were children, but as all children do, they grew up, going from boy and girl to king and queen. their character arcs are intrinsically intertwined, arthur realising the need for kindness whereas gwen became more confident in herself and came out of her shell, and as they grew, so did the kingdom, fruit pollinated by the best in both of them. as a result, gwen was arthur's love, but she was also his wife and queen, as he was her husband and king, their love becoming synonymous with the prosperity of the state, on both a literal and figurative level. when arthur gave gwen the seal, therefore, he passed on a legacy kept very much alive by the love that existed within them both, and it is stronger for it. in essence, gwen comes to represent arthur's tangible legacy; the people, the castle walls and the good he did for the people, and in his death, she keeps alive the parts of him that were most worth saving under the seal that once belonged to him. this is made particularly pongiant in light of the fact that arthur's trust in gwen was something condemned by uther, and there is a sort of triumphant irony in the fact that their love was not what destroyed the kingdom, but kept it alive. when uther passed on the throne, he did so out of reluctant obligation, clinging onto power as a parasite in arthur's memory that is slowly gnawed away. in inheriting the sigil, gwen provides resolution to this discordant, unfinished cadence, completing the circle and bringing the kingdom to where it was always meant to be.

yet with merlin... while gwen embodies the arthur that is remembered, merlin represents the arthur that never was; while she received the key to a kingdom to finish building, merlin was given proof of a memory that never really existed. furthermore, if gwen and arthur's love resolves the cadence of uther's selfish isolation, we can start to see the patterns of how merlin's translates from ygraine's. because if you think about it, arthur almost loved merlin in the same way he loved his mother. merlin was his friend, his confidant and the person who knew him best in the world, but ultimately, he only ever saw a version of him, a half truth, veiled by secrecy and aborted confessions, which were ironically borne from the actions and prejudices of his father. arthur loved his mother unequivocally, but the tragedy of their relationship is that it existed only as borrowed memories from those who loved her before him, his idea of her founded only on dreams and the space in his soul he left behind. but then you take this and apply it to merlin: when arthur died, it was in the anticipation of a future that could have been built, but was cut down before its time, forced to take root in intangible hopes for a future that might never come. as the centuries passed, arthur became not a king, but a legend, more metaphor than person for anyone but merlin, the sole survivor of an almost entirely fabricated past. in a slightly fucked up way, i suppose arthur giving merlin ygraine's sigil almost foreshadows the ending, with arthur passing on the legacy of a love borne of absence to the only one who will survive long enough to carry it. yes amongst this tragedy, there is that eternal motif of hope, because unlike arthur, merlin does remember, and not only that, but he waits. as gwen resolved the legacy of uther, merlin did the same of ygraine, turning the tragedy of what never was into something that still could be.

and the most beautiful thing about this is that it's all symbiotic: gwen could not have built camelot were it not for the love shared between merlin and arthur, and merlin could not have founded a legend were it not for the foundation laid by the marriage of his best friends. they are all elements of a web of stories, suspended in fragile dreams that need each other to be kept alive, but they endure nonetheless, propelled by an insatiable love of one another kept in perfect balance, because there was no other way for the story to go, and no other version of the world that could ever have been.

#this has been brewing for a couple of days and i've only just found the words to articulate it #once again i'm posting gone midnight so apologies if this is shit #terrible midnight analysis #i promise i'll post some happy analysis some day... #merlin #bbc merlin #merlin meta

[pippin-katz]

Ygraine’s Sigil

Why did Arthur give it to Merlin?

Alright, we all know about the medieval history thing that this is essentially a proposal, but I think even without that subtext, there’s something really interesting about his choice.

Let’s break this down real quick:

This is a deleted scene from season 4, episode 2, “The Darkest Hour: Part 2”. It has dialogue from the scene right before Merlin saves Arthur from the Dorocha:

This is important because of the implications of the timeline. In the canon version, we can assume he doesn’t give the sigil to anyone, because the conversation in the deleted scene could never have happened in the timeline we’re given.

Why does that matter?

I saw a very sweet post that maybe one of the reasons why Arthur gave it to Merlin was because he wanted part of his mother to stay in the living world rather than come with him through the veil. He wanted her to live on somehow.

I totally love that, and that’s super sweet, so I have no problems taking that as canon!

Though for this post, let’s think about that:

If that’s the only reason why he wanted the sigil to stay behind, he could give it to anyone; specifically, Leon. From what the show implies, Leon is older than Arthur and has been a close friend to him for his whole life. There’s a small possibility that Leon even knew Ygraine, or met her before her death. Elyan would’ve made sense too because he could ask him to give it to his sister.

He doesn’t give it to anyone in the canon version though, so it’s not just “I want this to remain here”. They could’ve easily used one of the canon scenes while Merlin was gone to give it to one of the knights, or even added it more casually into the episode.

But instead, they filmed the scene with Arthur and Merlin, and chose that as the scene. The scene that has the lines of a canon conversation where they actually have an emotional connection. They have this conversation while being the only two still awake and softly talking, the way they frame the shot of Arthur handing it to Merlin, the way Merlin tries to refuse it at first because it’s clearly important, Arthur insisting without even explaining why, and so on.

That’s the scene they chose for Arthur to leave the sigil with someone. So I ask again: why did Arthur give the sigil to Merlin?

I think we all know why; of course, this was cut, much like a lot of other one-on-one interactions between them.

Good god it’s like they were incapable of giving us a sincere conversation between them that was wasn’t dripping with subtext.

#merlin #merlin bbc #bbc merlin #merlin thoughts #merlin deleted scenes #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #medieval husbands #two sides of the same coin #merlin 4x01 #merlin 4x02 #the darkest hour #the once and future fandom

[witchmd13]

the thing about the sigil scene though is that we never see any trace of ygraine in camelot. gaius speaks her name in apprehension of sending uther into a gif of rage. she’s never mentioned except when absolutely necessary. we never even see her grave like uther’s. the anniversary of her death is instead celebrated as arthur’s birthday. even Arthur tells merlin “[uther] refuses to talk about her... sometimes it's as if she never even existed.” then the only thing we see of her is her ring on arthur’s finger. the same ring he’s later shown staring down at and twisting around his finger after he was stripped of his title during uther’s wedding (arthur, the most proud pompous ass in camelot, albeit slightly rightfully so but still, looking down in pain after the role that mattered to him the most was taken from him).

then the sigil appears and from the scene we gather that arthur brought it with him because he knew he was gonna die. he’s already given agravaine the royal seal so he thinks camelot’s already in safe hands but there’s still this last part of ygraine that will be gone when he is. and then he just simply hands it to merlin so easily. and I can’t help but feel like if maybe by doing so he wanted to keep the last part of her alive. didn’t want the last piece of her to die with him. he gives it to merlin because he knows that merlin will keep it safe because it was arthur’s as well as ygraine’s. and maybe it’ll be there for merlin when he’s gone just like it was for arthur when ygraine was gone. because if there’s one person that knows what is it to lose someone you love it’s arthur and he wants to leave a part of him there to comfort merlin. he wanted to leave merlin the part of him that was ygraine’s.

I’m gonna go set myself on fire now.

#merthur #I’ll never get tired of this scene I’m going INSNA E #The sigil scene

[defending-grilled-cheese]

a (non exhaustive) list of reasons why modern merlin uses the name "de bois" as his surname

because he does, let's be all honest. merlin has ygraine de bois's sigil, which makes him a part of the family, middle ages laws (or at least i presume it does, i'm not a historian)

it's his only remaining physical thing of arthur's, after camelot's fall. and better yet, it's untainted by uther and how his name still is used as a curse word for magic users.

finally, and maybe with some pragmatism, every member of the de bois is dead, at least of this branch. no one can exactly say what agravaine was doing between his siblings' death and coming to camelot in the show. merlin has dark hair and pale eyes, connection isn't that outlandish, especially since his true parentage is kept secret.

all to say, i just think that merlin de bois sounds nice and can be a connection to ygraine i have been oh so desperately craving

#merlin #bbc merlin #ygraine pendragon #ygraine de bois #merlin de bois propaganda