Kevin's Watch

The only one I read as a whole so far has been "Sword in the Stone" by T.H.White. It was a really great spin off on something so old and ancient. I liked how White was able to re-write the artherian story with a modern style and still maintain the "old folk lore" feel to it. I plan to read the rest 3 books someday.


The other novel I have been reading is "Mists of Avalon" by....well, I forgot her name. I have went only through the first 100 pages or so, but what I read was REALLLY AWSOME! I mean, talk about great story and suspence. I don't know why, but I just love the author's interpretation of the celtic tale. Also, how she portrays her characters far more realisticly than Thomas Malory or even White. They just have so much depth and there isn't even such thing is pure good or evil. That's also the part that intruiged me, since most folk tales seperate their characters into those catagories.

What about the rest of you? Is there anybody else that read these or other arthurian legeds/tales that you would like to share some insights?

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley leaves me with mixed feelings nowadays (it was one of my favourite books long time ago (I will forever believe in her version of the Arthur Saga... I really like her Morgaine/Morgan le Fey) she has a very special way of writing I think. Some say that it is feministicly written, but some of my more feministic friends say that it is a disaster... I truly dont know.). I saw the TV-version with Anjelica Huston as Vivianne and it followed the books rather well with some big exceptions I think. I never liked Lancelot or Guinivere...

One of the strangest way of introducing the arthurian saga is in Guy Gavriel Kays Fionavar tapestry... Why? I love that story - i would have made it nicely withouth the arthurian bit I believe there was a period in fantasy history (late 80ies? ) when the arthurian stuff was just too popular - it was like a pop-song nowadays: if you dont have some rap and some voice distorsion - it just wont do...

I'm not that well-read on Arthuriana. I've read the whole Once and Future King series by T. H. White (more about that in a bit), bits and pieces of Malory's Morte d'Arthur, watched the first half-hour of the Mists of Avalon film (I'm gonna get around to finish it one of these days) and of course Excalibur. I also recently got my hands on the role-playing game Pendragon, which is set in Arthur's Britain as portrayed in Malory - that is, a slightly weird cross between the early Dark Ages and the High Middle Ages (you've got both knights in shining armour, tournaments and heathen Saxon and Pict invaders).

I strongly urge Blue_Spawn and anyone else to do themselves a favour and read through the whole four-book series of White's: The Sword in the Stone is followed by The Queen of Air and Darkness (set during the early part of Arthur's reign), The Ill-Made Knight (the Golden Age, mainly about Launcelot and Guinevere), and finally The Candle in the Wind (the Golden Age ends, Camelot is destroyed and everything goes to hell). It's an amazing series, brilliantly written and spans over a huge spectrum of themes and moods. The first book, as most people know, is funny and light-hearted but still contains some serious themes. Throughout the series the mood gets darker. The Candle in the Wind is not only a tragedy but one of the darkest, saddest books I've ever read. Watching the Golden Age of Arthur come apart in vicious kin-strife and finally civil war is actually a bit like seeing the horrendous things done to the Land in The Wounded Land. I can't recommend this series highly enough. It also seems very true to the spirit of the medieval Arthur romances in the way it mixes history, legend and deliberate anachronisms, although there are of course modern sentiments to (there's a strong pacifist subtext creeping through here and there, of which Merlin is often made the mouthpiece).

I recently rewatched the first half of Excalibur (I have this very bad habit of not watching movies all through ), and it was actually better than I remembered it. OK, it's tremendously silly in places (the knights all wear their shiny aluminium armour everywhere, including when Uther Pendragon seduces Ygraine in her bedchamber), and it's confusing at times, but I found it oddly charming. I also liked their take on Merlin and his magic (although I could have done without his chrome headpiece ).

I'll get back to you on Mists of Avalon when I've finished watching it.

Theo

Ylva Kresh wrote:One of the strangest way of introducing the arthurian saga is in Guy Gavriel Kays Fionavar tapestry... Why? I love that story - i would have made it nicely withouth the arthurian bit I believe there was a period in fantasy history (late 80ies? ) when the arthurian stuff was just too popular - it was like a pop-song nowadays: if you dont have some rap and some voice distorsion - it just wont do...

Oh, yeah. I didn't like the Arthurian stuff in Fionavar either, it was really incongruous. (I could've bought it if Fionavar had been stuffed full of figures out of dark age history and legend, but having just Arthur didn't really make sense.)

On the other hand, I've read and enjoyed a few books which introduce Arthurian stuff in other ways - more often in modern settings. In C. S. Lewis' That hideous strength (the third and final part of his science fiction trilogy, written before the Narnia books) the bad guys try to resurrect Merlin the Wizard to use his magic for their schemes, and he does come back although things turn out unexpectedly. This Merlin is a pretty cool, although (intentionally) really weird, character. The book contains some more Arthurian bits, too - notably the Fisher King and the mythical Logres/Britain, and one of the characters is apparently the new Pendragon.

Even more obscurely, War in heaven by Charles Williams (who was an influence on the previous-mentioned book) starts out as a detective story, but it soon turns out that the villains are really after the Holy Grail, which mysteriously appears in an English country church.

Theo

Theo

I can heartily recommend The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead, beginning with Taliesin. Taliesin is probably the slowest of the books, but persist...the subsequent books make it all worthwhile. The Cycle also features my favourite Merlin to date - Myrddin Emrys...he's great

The installments are as follows:

Taliesin
Merlin
Arthur
Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is among my favorite films. I thought Excalibur was nearly a masterpiece. The Merlin mini series was well done and Sam Neil's Merlin was terrific. I suppose I need to read some of the books to get a more in depth understanding of the Legends but based on the numerous examples in film I genuinely enjoy it all.

No one has mentioned the two most realistic interpretations of the Arthur tale, Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles and Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles.

Both of these authors proceed from the assumption that there WAS an Arthur of some sort, who fought the Saxons in the fifth century. There is very little magic in these tales, as the writers concentrate on historical realism, but they do manage to explain all the legends, like the sword in the stone, etc.

Whyte's saga is extremely detailed. For instance, the first two novels deal with the GRANDPARENTS of Arthur and Merlin, both Roman soldiers who try to maintain Roman ideals and values after Rome pulls out of Britain. We don't see the appearance of Merlin as the protagonist until the third volume, and Arthur enters the story in the fourth.

I haven't read either one of these works yet in its entirety, but from what I've read so far, I would highly recommend both, if you like historical fiction and you like the concept that maybe somehow, someway, Arthur and company did exist.

One of the best Arthurian books I have ever read is "The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights" by John Steinbeck. It's as near as bedamned a translation of the French Mallory texts, it's modernised only in the spelling of the words - the metier and construct of the novel is left virtually unchanged. It's tough going, but it's definitely worth it.

John Steinback the naturalist? I had no idea he wrote an arthurian legend based novel.