Fleur de What Now?

... MY APOLOGIES TO ANY MEN WHO READ THIS POST ...

Because:  this isn't fun male thinking, I believe.

Among the flotsam of my recent reading - a new take on what the Fleur de Lys symbolizes (from, it must be said, a wildly conspiracy-minded and anti-Semitic screed of such prodigious length, ignorance, and offense, I absolutely will not link it here):  circumcision.

It does have a certain thrusting and, dare I say...peeling sort of look...
Image:  Wikimedia
(though I'm sure they/the city of Florence won't be pleased to see it here)

To be fair, I can actually see why someone (weird) would come up with this theory, but in all my years of Frankish research, this is definitely a new one on me, so I'd like to posit that this idea is not common nor accepted.

Merovingian Heresies, Divine Descent, “What’s In A Grail?” and the Inspirations That Don’t Come to Fruition

Nyki Blatchley has a great post about all of the above, the Merovingian bit of which sets me to thinking, inevitably, about my own work and some of the more fringe people I might expect to meet once it gets out there.  The Heresy I have discussed before, but the origin of the Franks themselves I should perhaps get into further than the excerpt from Liber Historiae Francorum here.  He's got some good takes on some of the interpretations of what The Holy Grail "means" - both literally, and to us, as readers.

Nyki's experience is a useful illumination of how we come to retire certain stories, and why they can still be interesting even if not viable.