First Years, Lesson Two

Gabrielle was generally a little more lenient to first years taking their time to get seated, but she didn't want to encourage bad habits. Besides, this group was boisterous, she had to keep them in line. "Alright, you've had your time to ease into it, and now the real work begins. So take your seats and get your note taking materials out, please," she said, taking a long sip of water before getting started on her lecture. "Now, some of the most famous witches and wizards of history come from the medieval period, also known as the Middle Ages, being the time period from around the 5th Century to the 15th Century. Many of you will be familiar with the most well known wizard of that time, at least from Europe," she clarified, mindful that there was a large contingent of Japanese students who would perhaps know more of Abe no Seimei. "Who would that be?" she looked around, giving a nod when one of the students gave the answer of Merlin. "Correct, thank you."

"I suspect even if you are from a non magical background, you may well have a passing awareness of Merlin, of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Merlin worked for King Arthur, and for his father, King Uther Pendragon before him. Merlin was especially wise, and given that throughout history royal succession has always been perfectly smooth," Gabrielle's voice dripped with sarcasm at this point, "it was considered in the best interests of the young Arthur to be placed up for adoption, to be fostered and raised in secret until such time as he was old enough to claim his royal lineage - and strong enough to defend himself should that be challenged. At least, that is one telling of the tale." A lot of these tales got changed over time, or had different interpretations, but Gabrielle would not bog her students down with that just yet.

"I dare say many of you will know the tale of the sword in the stone. Now Merlin, powerful wizard that he was, added another protection to Arthur's birth right as king. When Uther Pendragon died, there was no clear successor as Arthur was still not yet ready take the crown. So Merlin enchanted a sword in a large stone, with an inscription stating that whoever pulled the sword out would be king. Many attempted, but were not able to do so. Arthur eventually pulled it free, and the rest, as they say, is history." Gabrielle raised her eyebrows at her own lame joke, pausing to take a few breaths and let her students catch up. "This sword is often called 'Excalibur', by the way, but it's also argued that Excalibur was given to Arthur later, by the mysterious Lady of the Lake. Different swords? Same swords? Something you can look into. I suspect the mermaids in our lake don't hand out swords so freely, but you are more than welcome to ask them."

"Merlin was not the only magician that was involved in the story of King Arthur. While we will mostly be talking about her next year, please make a note of Morgan Le Fey, who was a powerful witch and most commonly known as Arthur's half sister. This may be something to recall for your exam, hint hint," she added, giving a look over the students. She'd waved her wand as she was talking, putting a few dot points to recall from her lecture that would help the students with notetaking, but she'd hoped they'd been listening more than just copying down what was on the board.

"Now, one last thing before we wrap up for the day. I mentioned at the start of the lesson that a majority of witches and wizards we have awareness of come from that medieval period in history. Some of you might be wondering why that is. Well, it's important to note that many records of people such as Merlin come from muggles - perhaps primarily romanticised versions of the story, but muggle records nonetheless. You should all, I hope, have at least a passing awareness of the International Statute of Secrecy, the laws that hide the magical from the non-magical. This was passed in to law in 1692. I would be a fool to say that that is the only cause of the reduction of records of notable wizards and witches...but it is easy enough to think that it played a major role, yes?" She knew she was pushing for time, but at least wanted to give the students a little more context. "And why do we have the Statute of Secrecy? Well, we'll go in to that next lesson."

The class time was up, and Gabrielle shifted on the spot, not realizing her legs had gone a bit numb. "Well done, you've survived your first big lecture. So, for homework," she paused to have the homework come up on the board, shaking her head at the inevitable groans. "What, you didn't think you weren't going to have to work, did you? For homework, I would like you to write me a short essay on King Arthur, Merlin...or if you want to be really clever, anything you can relate back to Arthurian legend. You could talk about the Holy Grail, or the type of dresses Queen Guinevere wore, if fashion is your thing. I promise, there's so much there to work with and so many fascinating stories from that time you could have a look into. This is an opportunity for you to practice using the library, which you'll thank me for later I'm sure. If you're having trouble, please come and see me, I don't want anyone falling behind this early." With that, Gabrielle opened the classroom doors once again and let the students go with a small smile and nod.

Homework
RP the lesson. First poster to answer the question gets bonus house points. Complete the homework assignment for extra credit. Does not need to be long, one or two paragraphs is fine, please list your sources!

 

[Lilith Ilves]

It was the second week of lessons and Lilith was easing up to the rhythm of things. Her nerves were still there but she was confident she could manage and do better. As she settled in she listened and one of the stories began that her grandmother had told her multiple times, when the Professor asked who it might be she was talking about Lilith raised her hand eagerly. "I believe you are talking about Merlin Professor." She said, albeit still a little unsure. Surely she knew she'd be right but she was just nervous to get it wrong and being seen as a failure. A smile etched onto her face as Moncrieffe told her she was correct.

Lilith sat back in her chair listening to the familiar stories she had heard in the darkness of her grandmothers bedroom. The words were so familiar yet so strange that she felt a slight ache in her chest, perhaps it was that of missing what once was, whatever it was she was glad to hear more of it. Lilith wrote a few notes but mostly her attention was on the witch in front of the room talking. There was something in the way the she spoke that intrigued Lilith. By the end of it she was a little sad it had already ended, but also looking forward to next week. She sat in the room for a bit longer to do her homework before handing it in and leaving.

Spoiler: Homework essay

Merlin's story retold and romanticized.
Somewhere in the 13th century French poet Robert De Boron took it to himself to retell and romanticize the story of Merlin. Naming his epic poem very creatively as Merlin in his work he reworked the original story and emphasized Merlin's power on prophesy and linking him to the Holy Grail. In the poem his life is told as the redeemed antichrist and his part in the birth of Arthur and his way to monarchy.

Merlin's story bears relations to the authors other works. It became rather popular in the medieval times. It's introduction of The sword in the stone, redefinition of the Grail and turning Merlin into one of the most important characters in the legend of King Arthur

Source ♡

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

She's decided, after everything, to write Professor Potter a letter - she supposes at this point she can just call the woman Lyra. She wants to talk to her dad about it first, but he's not really around and she doesn;t know how to deal with that first. She didn't see him at all over the holidays and after finding out that he was about to be a dad again - and he didn't even tell her, she's still a little hurt over it. It's almost like no one really wants to talk about how that's supposed to make her feel with everything. She needs advice and she has no one to ask. She doesn't like to ask her mum about her dad, because it feels weird, maybe she could ask Rory about him but he doesn't know much about her dad either, they have different dads, not hat it's ever caused any problems between them.

She listens intently, doing her best to keep up with the whirlwind of information the professor is going through. There's so much going on and her note taking ability is absolutely just not great for any of this. She really needs to talk to Eoghan about that because she wants to get better at taking notes and she knows he knows what he's doing. He's really smart. King Arthur and Merlin is a legend she knows quite a bit about already though, since her mum is English, not that it's super easy to tell. She wonders briefly what it would be like to live in that time, but honestly she likes her creature comforts and they say to never meet your heroes... not that she considers Merlin a hero, there are plenty of other people who deserve a sort of hero's worship than Merlin. The class finally comes to an end after what feels like forever and she focuses on the assignment before heading out of the class.​

Morgan Le Fey - A Witch's Tale
In many stories, some fantasy, others not, Morgan Le Fey (or Morgana) is the half sister of Prince Arthur of Camelot. There are differing opinions on whether or not Morgana is a villain of Arthur's story, but what is clear is that in a time where women can't do anything, Morgana did more than most. There is little faith in adaptions of her story with most focusing on her destiny to be a hand in King Arthur's destruction and few look beyond that, to why she might have been involved, or how her father came to be lost only for Ygraine to then become Arthur's mother. In fact, some of the first murmurings of her story are that she was a healer first - but those never seem to get much mention.

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[Elijah Edogawa]

Slowly, very slowly, Eli has started to let Jonah back into his space. When they were small, it was not unheard of for the triplets to study together, these days, after everything that has happened, they had kind of grown apart. Rose seems more inclined to either study on her own or with Sayuri, though Eli doesn't really know why, and Jonah... well, Eli doesn't really know what Jonah was doing, though he suspects it probably wasn't studying. Still, he has been watching his brother and he's started to notice things that he hadn't noticed before. He can't say for certain yet, he needs to wait it out a little longer, but something is off about the way his brother has taken to studying and it is throwing him off a little. Eventually he will talk to Jonah about it, but he wants to see if Jonah will bring it up first. He knows he probably won't but he doesn't want to be nosy and assumptive straight out the gate. Let Jonah come to him.

As the professor begins her lecture - FINALLY - he takes quick notes in Japanese (in case anyone wants to cheat off of him, they will not be able to, except obviously Rose) and listens intently to what she is saying. He likes lectures because they are helpful in helping to explain how the world works or thinks, which is something he considers to be quite useful honestly. One of the things he is a little annoyed about though is that, despite being in a history class in New Zealand they are learning about the history of British people, which... maybe not such a great topic for this country. He knows that were they in Japan this would not have gone over very well, but what is he supposed to do other than listen to the professor and do as he's told for the moment. Perhaps his dad would be a little understanding, but he has never found his father to be particularly wise. He has always counted more on his Aunt for that. His mind wanders briefly considering the differences between magical history and how it is spoken about in the muggle texts since he knows probably more about muggles than most wizards given his dad, but he also was not raised muggle so his perceptions, he is aware are still contingent on being a wizard with a wizards perspective. As the class winds down, he finishes up his notes and nudges Rose, letting her copy some of them down (since he knows she is really not focused on this class right now) and makes a note of what he will write for the essay before he leaves the class and drags Rose with him to the library.​

Merlin: Muggle Wizard

So well known that even muggles associate him with magic, Merlin lived a long time ago in a period of rough upheaval. Many believe he was alive around the time as the statute of secrecy was created, which puts him almost before Hogwarts was built. There is some struggle to really know when he lived as per muggle guidance he lived in medieval times and yet no one can say for sure when Camelot to King Arthur lived as that would have had to have been before the times he is listed to have survived or there would be more record than there is.

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[Vikram Bakshi]

The semester was going well, Vikram thought as he walked the grounds that morning. He was enjoying himself with his education so far, as they were over halfway through the year he was sure that his time at this school would be memorable. He hummed softly as he went back to his dorm, getting ready for the lessons that day.

He found his way to class again, personally quite enjoying the walking and the lectures. History of Magic was a good class, perhaps one of his favorite. He just found it all fascinating. He took a few notes, and after some thinking, decided he'd make a little work for himself and he'd go to the library, write out a full essay on the subject. Determined, Vikram gathered his things and headed out.

 

[Esme Styx-Cade]

Professor Moncrieffe was quick to instruct them to take out what they needed to take notes which told Esme they were in for a long lecture. Her hand wouldn’t thank her when she was done but she took out her parchment, quill and ink and once Professor Moncrieffe began her lecture on Merlin and Arthur she started taking notes. There was a lot of information in Professor Moncrieffe’s lecture and Esme made sure she got as much of it down in her notes before the lesson was brought to a close. Once the lesson was over Esme packed up her notes and once they were dismissed by Professor Moncrieffe Esme made her way out of the classroom.