Justyne Kosinski '19, an Animation & Game Arts major, went to England for seven days in September on the Sis Grenald International Travel Fellowship. Below is her description of her experience and what she learned.
I went to Cornwall looking for missing pieces. For the last three years, I’ve been working on a retelling of King Arthur through the eyes of modern middle schoolers. The story is derived from the idea that Arthur will be reborn when needed most, "King once and King to be." I’ve known my characters in the modern setting very well, but there were always gaps in their historical counterparts. I had my character Paige down to a science, but there were things I just didn’t get about Lancelot.
It was suggested to me to travel, if I got the chance, to see what could have inspired Geoffrey of Monmouth or Tennyson or even Cleese. Thanks to the Sis Grenald International Travel Fellowship, I finally got the chance. I visited Cornwall, where much of Arthurian legend is rooted. This was the trip of a lifetime for me.
During my time there, I went to different sites to ask locals questions about King Arthur, hoping to bring a stronger reality to my narrative. Did they think he existed? Did they think there was any truth to the legend? What did it mean to them? The answers I got were varied and passionate and often contradictory. St. Nectan’s Glen claimed to be where the Knights of the Round Table were blessed. The Arthurian Center claimed to be on Arthur’s final battle field. But who knew if any of it was true? I had my pieces, but if I tried to find the answers in everyone else, they didn’t fit together.
And on the last day, when I returned to the Glebe Cliffs, overlooking the sea and the ruins and feeling right again, I realized that the only person who could put the pieces together was me. I’m the only one who can tell my stories, who can speak for my characters. I can take all the things I learned and weave them into my own story. What did it matter if Arthur existed or not? If the legend inspires people to live fairly and honorably and kindly, the inspiration matters more than the reality. The people I spoke with who believed in Arthur talked about justice and goodness and living well.
Combined with factual research, those personal accounts make it easier to understand the figures that inspired the legends. I can understand now the relationship that a 12-year-old girl can have to a past life of a brave but brutal knight. I can understand her feelings of guilt and the burden of being born into a role that has giant shoes to fill, and her desire to be better and not make the mistakes of the past.
Arthur always inspired me to be a better person and made me feel like even I could be great. That’s the story I can tell. And maybe that story will mean something to another girl who feels trapped by the life she was born into. And then it won’t matter that Paige isn’t real, that the story never happened—it’ll matter that Paige and Lancelot and the story only I can tell can help someone else.
