If you’re a SLOCA Rewards member (or plan to become one), you have likely been waiting with bated breath for the release of this year’s new MiiR tumblr. Well, the wait is over! On Monday, we rolled out mockups of this year’s Middle Ages-themed mug, and we’re absolutely pumped.
If you remember our mug from our last Middle Ages history cycle (see our blog post on it from 2022), you’ll notice a familiar motif of stars against a dark night sky. But this year, they have been creatively repurposed into the shimmer of Merlin’s spell rather than the constellations Hildegard of Bingen mused upon.
Every year, the creation of the SLOCA Rewards mug is a team effort between our Development and Marketing departments. Typically, the Director of Development, Brigette Olmos, will select the quote for the mug to guide the creative vision.
When reflecting on how this year’s quote was selected, Olmos shared,
“[My husband and I] were sitting on the sofa and I was talking about how I wanted to read The Mists of Avalon this year…It was my idea to look into the Arthurian legends…[but] he found the Sword in the Stone quote!”
After the quote was selected and Olmos threw together a rough sketch of what she envisioned for the mug (left photo), our talented Graphic Designer, Lindsey Lopez, set off to work, transforming it into the version you will receive in your hands in just a few weeks (right photo).
This year, our Primary through UMS students will be diving into adaptations of The Sword and the Stone, while our High School students tackle The Once and Future King, Books 1 and 3 (“The Sword in the Stone” and “The Ill-Made Knight”). Watching Disney’s 1963 The Sword and the Stone may be your only exposure to Arthurian lore, or perhaps you’ve braved the entirety of Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur from 1485.
Either way, the tales of King Arthur and the knights of the round table have made their imprint on our culture, showing up in stories like C.S. Lewis’ The Space Trilogy, the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and so much more. The memorable themes of bravery, nobility, and honor are what make these stories beloved and relatable to readers across time and around the world.
The Sword and the Stone is not the only great literature from the Middle Ages, though! Students will also dive into…
- Beowulf — This is the oldest surviving epic poem written in the English language!
- Hamlet — Although written during the Renaissance in the late 16th century, Hamlet is set in the late 14th century, right at the tale end of the Middle Ages.
- The Arabian Nights — Also commonly known as “One Thousand and One Nights,” these captivating folktales include cherished stories like “Aladdin and His Magic Lamp,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and “Sinbad the Sailor.”
As you and your family work through our Middle Ages curriculum, we encourage you to engage with the literature with new eyes, doing your best to set aside what you thought you knew about these stories. What do these tales tell you about the human condition? How can we better understand what it means to live the good life? What are the things worth pursuing?
We hope you enjoyed getting a peek at our process for this year’s mug, and more than that, we hope you enjoy reading the fantastic literature that’s ahead of us. As you read, keep our SLOCA Rewards mug quote in mind, and remember: there are a lot of things to learn!
If you’re not a SLOCA Rewards member but are interested in learning more, check out our website: https://sloclassical.org/sloca-rewards/
Fun Fact: This is now our eighth year of making annual SLOCA Rewards mugs! Comment below how many you’ve collected. Which one is your favorite? Are there other Middle Ages literary quotes that you love?
1 thought on “the making of the mug”
Love it! Nice work Brigette and Lindsey! This is one of my favorite years to read the great literature of the Middle Ages!