Spamalot Glossary
- The 2005 show Spamalot was “lovingly ripped off” from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The playbill advertises that this show “sets musical theatre back a thousand years.”
- The song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life was originally written by Eric Idle for the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
- SPAM is a trade name of Hormel foods for a cooked salty canned pork product. The origin of the name is known only to a few at Hormel, but it is speculated that it is either a pormanteau for SPicy hAM, or an acronym for Shoulder of Pork And Ham. The product is already cooked, so it can be eaten straight from the can, but cooking enhances its flavor. It was introduced in 1937, but did not sell well, until it was used in World War II, due to the difficulty of delivering fresh meat to the fighting men overseas. Margaret Thatcher once referred to it as a “wartime delicacy.” In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev said that without Spam, the Soviet Union would not have been able to feed their army. It became part of the culture of Guam, the Philippines, and especially Hawaii. The word Spam was used in a Monty Python skit so frequently that it entered popular culture for unsolicited messages, especially email.
- A knight, in the middle ages, was a mounted warrior. (The original Old English term cniht meant “servant” or “boy”, and had nothing to do with horsemanship. Eventually it came to mean a military follower of a king.) The word did not acquire the sense of mounted warrior until the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). In chivalric romance it came to have the sense of an elite warrior sworn to uphold the values of faith, loyalty, courage, and honor. By the end of the war, heavy armor was obsolescent, and it became a social order, members putting “Sir” before their first name. The first order of knighthood in England was the Order of the Garter, founded by King Edward III around 1328. Other famous orders include the Knights Hospitallers (1099), Knights Templars (1118-1307), Teutonic Knights (1190-1525), Order of the Golden Fleece (Burgundy, 1430), Order of the Thistle (Scotland, 1687), and the Order of the Bath (Great Britain, 1725). Today knighthood is still conferred, put is purely honorific, bestowed by a monarch usually for meritorious service.
- King Arthur is the central character in the Camelot stories. It is much debated whether or not he was a historical character. The legends of Arthur arose in the middle ages, and then were compiled in the 15th century by Sir Thomas Malory in Le Morte d’Arthur. If there was a historical Arthur, he most likely lived at the time of the collapse of Roman power in Britain in the 5th century, defending the Christian British people (later called Welsh) from the invading pagan Anglo-Saxons. At the end of the story he is mortally wounded and taken to the Island of Avalon to be healed of his wounds. On his tomb supposedly are the words: Hic jacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus — “Here lies Arthur, king once, and king to be.” The legend arose that Arthur would return to England in her time of greatest peril. So far the two times of England’s greatest peril were at the end of the 8th century, when King Alfred the Great saved his kingdom from the Danish (Viking) invaders, and 1940, with the Battle of Britain, when the country was led by Winston Churchill.
Arthur is portrayed first as a timid youth of a king, afraid to face Guenevere on their wedding day. He soon matures into a well-intentioned and wise king, seeking to find the perfect formula to promote goodness and justice in his kingdom. Eventually he seems to be indecisive. He apparently is aware of Lancelot and Guenevere’s affection for each other, but does nothing to stop it. When he is forced to put them on trial, he cannot use the prince’s right to pardon those condemned.
- The Lady of the Lake is Merlyn’s lover and seducer in Arthurian legend. In E. B. White’s story the tetralogy The Once and Future King, she imprisons Merlyn for years. In one story, it is she who gave to Arthur the sword Excalibur. In various versions she is known (among other names) as Nimue, Viviane, Elaine, Niniane, Nivian, and Nyneve.
- Sir Lancelot is Arthur’s best knight and best friend. But Lancelot betrays Arthur in his love affair with Guenevere. Lancelot is a deeply conflicted figure. Although he is considered to be the greatest knight in Arthur’s court, he struggles constantly with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. He is doggedly faithful to those who love him, even if they do not always have his best interests at heart.
- Sir Galahad was one of the legendary knights of King Arthur’s round table. Galahad was always known as the “Perfect Knight”: “perfect” in courage, gentleness, courtesy, and chivalry. Galahad was the son of Sir Lancelot and the Lady Elaine of Corbenic. He was the only knight able to sit in the Siege Perilous. He once rescued Sir Perceval, and he is best known as the knight who achieves the quest for the Holy Grail.
- Sir Bedevere (or Bedivere) was a legendary knight of the Round Table. He is portrayed as King Arthur’s marshal, and a knight with one hand. He returns Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur’s last battle.
- Prince Herbert may be a Spamalot innovation!
- The Black Knight (noir chevalier in French) is the name of various characters in the Arthurian legends.
- Sir Bors (Bohort in French) is the name of two knights of the Round Table, Bors the Elder, and Bors the Younger. Bors the Younger is one of the best knights, and he participates in the achievement of the Holy Grail.
- In the 7th century, England consisted of a heptarchy (seven kingdoms), four of which were important: Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, along with three smaller realms: Essex, Kent, and Sussex. (It is unclear which are the “Two Anglias”: there were actually three kingdoms of the Angles: East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria; Wessex, Essex, ans Sussex were the Saxon kingdoms; Kent was the kingdom of the Jutes.)
- Gwynedd, Powys, and Dyfed were kingdoms of early Medieval Wales: Gwynedd (pronounced /ˈɡwɪnɪð/; Welsh: [ˈɡwɨnɛð]; the name Gwyneth is from this) in the northwest, including the island of Anglesea; Powys (pronounced /ˈpoʊɪs, ˈpaʊɪs/ POH-iss, POW-iss, Welsh: [ˈpowɪs]) in the East, on the English border; and Dyfed (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈdəvɛd]) in the southwest. (Today, Gwynedd and Powys are “principal areas” [equivalent of counties] of Wales.)
- The French did not come to England until the 11th century, first as advisers and companions of King Edward the Confessor (1042-66), who had lived in Normandy in exile during a period of Danish rule of England, and then with William the Conqueror, (also known as William the Bastard), Duke of Normandy.
- In A.D. 932 Æthelstan was king of Wessex (924-939), and the most important king in England. The main problem the men of Wessex faced was the invading Vikings, usually Danes. In 927 Æthelstan conquered Northumbria, and thus became the first actual King of all England. In 937 he defeated an alliance of Scots, Danes, and Britons (in this case, Celts of the Kingdom of Strathclyde).
- In 932, Constantine II was King of Scotland (900-943), or King of Scots. Scotland was made of three Celtic groups: Picts, Scots (said to have come from Ireland), and Britons (in the Kingdom of Strathclyde), and three Germanic groups: Angles, Vikings (usually Norwegians), and Normans (who arrived in the 11th century).
- Finland was probably not an organized country in the 10th century. The Finnic tribes were conquered by and incorporated into Sweden in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1809 Finland became a Grand Duchy united with Russia. Finland declared its independence in 1918.
- In 1842, General Sir Charles James Napier was in India to put down some Moslem rebels, but exceeded his orders by conquering the whole province of Sind. He allegedly sent back a one word message to headquarters: Peccavi (which is Latin for “I have sinned”). The story appeared in the British humor magazine Punch on May 18, 1844. The actual author of the story was Catherine Winkworth, who is best known as a hymnwriter and translator of German Lutheran hymns.
- A syndicalist is a trade unionist.
- Nine pence before the currency reform of 1971 was three quarters of a shilling: one pound = 20 shillings; 1 shilling = 12 pence.
- Actually, in stories and legends swords often have names: Bilbo and Frodo’s sword in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings was Sting; Aragorn’s was Narsil; Caliburn was Arthur's “sword in the stone”; Siegfried’s sword from Norse mythology was named Gram (or Balmung in the Niebelungenlied and Nothung in Richard Wagner’s Ring operas; other sword names here.
- The Song that Goes Like This is a parody of several Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. When the lyric says they go from (the key of) D to E, it really goes from F to G!
- A bridge too far is a reference to Operation Market Garden in September 1944, a failed British and American attempt to a series of bridges in occupied Netherlands. Supposedly British General Bernard Montgomery said before the operation: “I think we may be going a bridge too far.” The story of the operation became a 1974 book by Cornelius Ryan, and then a 1977 film by Richard Attenborough.
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