What's the "original" King Arthur legend?

[deer of the dawn]

I wanted to read the authoritative, original King Arthur legend. When I looked at free-e-books, I got this list. A little help??

The Age of Chivalry
or, King Arthur and his Knights
Thomas Bulfinch

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Mark Twain

Historical Tales, Vol. 13, Part I
King Arthur
Charles Morris

Historical Tales, vol. 14, Part II
King Arthur
Charles Morris

In the Court of King Arthur
Samuel Lowe

King Arthur and His Knights
Maude L. Radford

King Arthur's Knights
The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls
Henry Gilbert

King Arthur's Socks and Other Village Plays
Floyd Dell

Le Morte D'Arthur, vol 1
King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table
Thomas Malory

Le Morte D'Arthur, vol 2
King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table
Thomas Malory

The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights
Sir James Knowles

Stories of King Arthur and His Knights
Retold from Malory's ''Morte dArthur''
U. Waldo Cutler

Stories of King Arthur's Knights
Told to the Children by Mary MacGregor
Marian Keith

[Vraith]

You're not going to find one. The first "story of his life" sort of thing was by
a guy named Monmouth sometime in the 11 or 1200's, IIRC.

But pieces/sources/mentions of Arthur appear at least as far back as 5 or 600...and even those seem based on older stories.

Morte d'Arthur [from the 1400's I think] I had to read for a class [well, just a reasonably large chunk of text...IIRC it's altogether roughly the same length as TCOTC]
It is not really an enjoyable read...more of a slog.

[I'm Murrin]

Le Mort D'Arthur has a lot of the stuff that's generally known these days from the Arthur myth, but all of these things are original works based on some combinations of folklore and stories that already existed.

Vraith is right, Mort is very long, and very dry. I've read about half of it before I lost interest.

[wayfriend]

The original Arthur was the one with Dudley Moore. Watch that one. The new one with Russell Brand stinks.

[Vraith]

The original Arthur was the one with Dudley Moore. Watch that one. The new one with Russell Brand stinks.

OTOH, too bad, cuz Brand often cracks me up.

[lucimay]

yep. Geoffrey of Monmouth was basically the first to write about Arthur and Merlin but a lot of later historians and scholars (not that much later, bout 50 years or so) thought he'd made a lot of it up.

Le Morte d'Arthur (sir thomas mallory) was a few hundred years later and is what most of subsequent arthurian stuff (TH White - The Once and Future King, and the like) were based on. it was a compilation of folklore as murrin has already pointed out.

the arthur stuff has always been my favorite and for much of my life i secretly longed for excalibur to reappear and arthur to come back.

i guess matt wagner was thinkin the same thing!

The Hero Discovered follows Kevin Matchstick, an alienated young man who meets a wizard called Mirth and discovers that he, among other things, possesses both a magic baseball bat and superhuman abilities. In the course of the comic, he defeats the nefarious plans of a being called the Umbra Sprite. He ultimately discovers that Mirth is Merlin, the baseball bat is Excalibur, and he is, in some ambiguous way, King Arthur. Also, all the chapter titles are lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

[Avatar]

I've always liked my own first experience of the Arthurian stories, which was Conan-Doyle's. "Classic" Arthur, knights, plate mail, etc.

Of course, we know that none of that was factual. I haven't read Cornwell's Warlord Trilogy, which is his take on it, but given his other books, it will probably be good.

--A

[stonemaybe]

Cornwell's trilogy is a good read (as you'd expect) but it's a bit of a mind-wrencher, having grown up with the platemail/jousting knights/roundtable myths.

[deer of the dawn]

lucimay, the Matt Wagner thing cracked me up!

See, I love reading the oldest lit. The voices from the deep past enthrall me.

Does anyone know of a cohesive collection of all these snatches and stories, one that brings together all the really interesting stuff in one place?

I also made a good stab at Morte D'Arthur a couple years ago. After about 50 pages of "this guy killed that guy, and that guy unhorsed this guy and beheaded him, and a bunch of guys on horses with armor all hacked each other to death with their swords" I couldn't take all the blood... Mallory obviously relished his battle scenes. A lot of it didn't seem to have anything to do with a story line, he rushed through that to get to the killing.

[Fist and Faith]

Mage is good stuff, for sure. But I prefer Grendel, which was originally presented as backup stories in Mage.

[lucimay]

i LOVE Grendel!!!! oh yeah i'd give my eye teeth to have a matt wagner, ANY matt wagner on my wall!!

my brother has both collections in their entirety!!

[DukkhaWaynhim]

If you can read in French, one of the larger sources of material used by Mallory is the French Vulgate Cycle, written in the 13th century, and centers mostly on Lancelot and the grail legend, but of course tells most of the Arthur and Merlin legends as well. It is (to me) presented as historical fiction.

Alternatively, here is a link attempting to piece together a historical context for Arthur:
www.olinrevelation.org/NewWebsite/Arthur.htm

dw

[Menolly]

I will put in a plug for Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle (Taliesen, Merlin, Arthur, et. al.), although it was written fairly recently.

[Avatar]

Cornwell's trilogy is a good read (as you'd expect) but it's a bit of a mind-wrencher, having grown up with the platemail/jousting knights/roundtable myths.

I trust he went the more historical way? Welsh warlord or something similar? King of a few mud huts?

Good for him.

(I'm soon going to read book 4 of his Viking series...looking forward to that too.)

--A

[lucimay]

Cornwell's trilogy is a good read (as you'd expect) but it's a bit of a mind-wrencher, having grown up with the platemail/jousting knights/roundtable myths.

I trust he went the more historical way? Welsh warlord or something similar? King of a few mud huts?

Good for him.

(I'm soon going to read book 4 of his Viking series...looking forward to that too.)

--A

who is Cornwell? should i look for this to read?

[Avatar]

Bernard Cornwell: www.bernardcornwell.net/

Historical fiction. Well written, excellently researched, one of my favourite authors.

I have almost all his Peninsular War books, his Grail Quest trilogy on the 100 years war, (Crecy and Agincourt etc.), the first 3 of his series on the Norse invasions of England, and the first 4 of his American Civil War series.

Well worth reading. (Not a fan of his contemporary thrillers though.)

--A

[lucimay]

hrmmm. i'm looking at The Winter King and it looks very familiar. i may have read this guy before. i'm gonna check him out tho. thanks Avatarbutt.

edit: my god he's prolific isn't he?!!

[Damelon]

Doesn't The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, cover most of the ground of Arthur legend?

[aliantha]

Doesn't The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, cover most of the ground of Arthur legend?

*That's* the one I read! I knew I'd read a relatively early retelling of the Arthurian cycle, but I was pretty sure it wasn't Malory, because I didn't remember it being nearly as boring as you guys say Malory is.

I don't think I've read any Cornwell. Might have to look for his version. I've read Marion Zimmer Bradley's, and the first volume in Lawhead's, and a few other random bits here and there. (There was some romance novel...ah, here we go: Lionors by Barbara Ferry Johnson.) I read so many that I swore off the Arthurian saga for awhile.

[I'm Murrin]

The Once and Future King is much more modern and a bit simplified, really. It covers the main points, yes, and is the source of the Sword in the Stone version that most people know, but I wouldn't say it's definitive of the legend.