Arthuriana

[Gwalchmai]

Hey is that that crazy series where when they gather around the round table and yell out stuff, their emblems fly down and then they get these crazy motor bikes or whatever and then ride into battle? Cause if it is, I NEED to buy it. I remmeber watching something along those lines but I could never remember the name.

[dinadan]

Yes, I this is the series you are thinking about. Unfortunately, it isn't being sold in the US at present, but you can order a European dvd of the first season from www.choicesdirect.co.uk

Beware, though, that the dvds they sell are coded for Region 2 (Europe) and and PAL formatted (as opposed to the NTSC standard for the US), so it most likely won't be playable on your tv--but your computer should be able to handle it.

[Janikz Rex]

I thought King Arthur the movie was great ... but maybe thats cuz i dig beautiful women in war paint arching... I fell in love instantly

[dinadan]

Well, it's been a while since this topic has been active, so I was thinking--let's revive it.

I've read The Drawing of the Dark here recently, which is a return-of-Arthur novel (although, funnily enough, that isn't the primary focus of the book). I enjoyed it, as I do most of Powers' books, because his concepts are pretty novel (hehe--wow, bad pun).

At any rate, as many of you know, I compulsively read Arthuriana...and am particularly fascinated by more modern incarnations of the tales. I could, maybe, make this into a professional interest, but most likely that'd be like signing myself up for anathema. But I'm wondering...what other (Lawhead aside) Authrian books/series do any of you follow?

[Gwalchmai]

Well theres this comic series that I try to follow as best I can. Its out of print now so its a trial to get any issues but anyways, here it is. It's called "Lady Pendragon" and basically it goes into the aftermath of Arthur's final battle. Guenivere recovers Excalibur and continues to rule in Arthur's stead. Later on they us the character in a mordern setting as a reincarnation and she once more recovers Excalibur. However, in doing so, brings magic back into the world which short circuts the whole electricity concept throwing the world into chaos. And best of all, it awakens the Dragons who until then had slept peacefully on Mars.

Its quite a story and loads of fun to read. So next time you find yourself in a comic book store, try and look it up.

But besides that, I've had a tough time of looking up new Arthurian books to sooth my passion. Just don't have the time I used too.

[dinadan]

It occurs to me, Gwalchmai, as I read through this topic and the other Pendragon-based ones, again, how much it scares me that your passion for Arthurian things may exceed my own.

It also makes me wonder if you wouldn't be a good test reader for my poem cycle.

[Gwalchmai]

I don't know if I would "exceed" you. But I think you've read a bit more of some of the base works on Arthur than I have. Most of the stuff I've read is contemperary mostly... give me a bit and I'll compile a list for you. But either way, I'd love to read anything you'd want my comments on.
Books I've Read:

AA Attanasio
The Dragon and the Unicorn
The Eagle and the Sword
The Wolf and the Crown
The Serpent and the Grail

Evangeline Walton
The Prince of Annwn
The Children of Llyr
The Song of Rhiannon
The Island of the Mighty

Bernard Cornwell
The Winter King
Enemy of God
Excalibur

Gillian-Bradshaw
Hawk of May
Kingdom of Summer
Winter Shadow

Richard Monaco
Parsival

Mary Stewart
The Crystal Cave
The Hallow Hills
The Last Enchantment
The Wicked Day

Sidney Lanier
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table

Howard Pyle
The Story of King Arthur and his Knights

Jane Yolen
Sword of the Rightful King
The Dragon's Boy

Anne McCaffrey
Black Horses for the King

Jack Whyte
The Skystone
The Singing Sword
The Eagle's Brood
The Saxon Shore
The Fort at the River's Bend
The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis
Uther
The Lance Thrower

Stephen R Lawhead
Taliesin
Merlin
Arthur
Pendragon
Grail
Avalon

John Matthews
The Song of Taliesin

Mike Ashley
The Mammouth Book of Arturian Legends

Richard Barber
Myths and Legends of the British Isles

Joy Chant
The High Kings

David Day
The Search for King Arthur

Andrea Hopkins
Chronicles of King Arthur

Lady Carlotte E Guest
The Mabinogion

TH White
The Once and Future King
The Book of Merlyn

Ok... thats most of what I've read directly concerning Arthur... that I have on my selves. I'm pretty sure I've read some of TA Baron's stuff on Merlin and I think some more by Jane Yolen. And I'm sure theres some I'm forgetting. Of course there about a... dozen books I havn't finished yet but I own... and a couple dozen other material that don't directly involve Arthur like Celtic legends of works on Ireland and Scotland. Sort of for an outside reference to compare and contrast. I also have this wonderful essay somewhere in my email where the person talks about what the "real" Arthur really did and what not. What can I say... theres just something about this story...

[dinadan]

Wow, that's an impressive list. I'm familiar with most of those authors, but some of them I haven't read much by. There's no way I could list all the books I've read on the subject over the years, but I'd say that you do far exceed me with contemporary interpretations.

Have you ready an of Mike Dixon-Kennedy's books? They are mostly studies/compendiums of the vast corpus of Arthurian lore over the years (and SRL variants get included and referened in the bibliography!). You would probably be the only other person interested in them that I've ever come across.

[Gwalchmai]

Yea, that does acctually sound pretty cool. I'll try to hunt up those in the next week or so. Have to finish up what I've got before I go get more

[Gwalchmai]

Well I was thinking about what you said... and I browsed through some of my past postings... and I have no idea how you got the impression that my Arthurian hobby exceeds your own. I could use some help in trying to track down some of the more core works though... for some reason, I have the hardest time in finding some of these things. For instance, the Triads. I think I found it on a site once... but I lost the link. In fact, most of those books I only read to try and find some portion of those base works. Like the Battle of the Trees, you have no idea how long I looked for that and finally got a copy of the story in The Song of Taliesin.

[dinadan]

Maybe I'm just jealous that you have the time to indulge yourself in the addiction .

www.sacred-texts.com has many of the texts you might be looking for.

As a matter of fact, you can order a CD with everything in their library on it for $50. I've been thinking for a while about doing that. Some of the stuff they have electronic copies of are impossible to locate in print (having been out of print, in some cases, for almost two centuries). In the mean time, you can access anything you want for free via their website.

Hope this helps.

[dgan]

Trying to be thoughtful to my wife, I have forced myself to plunge through half of it - but I CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE!!! My wife bought me as a gift Queen of Camelot, Nancy McKenzie. Maybe this is the type of book a woman can relate to and enjoy, but I just can't finish it. It is awful!

So two questions. Has anyone else read this (or tried to) and shares in my suffering? And, how do you tell someone, especially a spouse, that the book they got you is awful and you cannot bear to read it any longer? (I hate to lie and tell her I read it, cuz then she's going to ask if I liked it, and then I would have to lie again...)

I don't know if I have the intestinal fortitude to describe all that is horribly wrong with this book. But if anyone really wants to know, I'll do my best if it will discourage you from thinking about causing yourself so much pain.

And I'm not exaggerating...it is really as bad as I'm making it sound.

[Child of Immanuel]

Describe. (please)

[dgan]

OK. Well, I will give her a pass on the way she decides to develop the story. It is fiction after all, so she can tell the story however she chooses. A quick background of her version.

It is written from the perspective of Guinevere who grows up a foster child in Wales. Her best friend during childhood is Elaine, who is her foster sister. Elaine grows up infatuated with the idea of marrying the young King Arthur. Elaine is spiteful of "Gwen", as they call her, although Gwen is obnoxiously oblivious to this for a long time. Elaine refuses to accept any suitors, because of her ridiculous obsession of becoming High Queen.

Eventually, through strange circumstances, the High King decides to marry Gwen. He sends Lancelot to escort her to Camelot, and Gwen and Lancelot have a whole "love at first sight" ordeal which turns my stomach. But since they are both more loyal to the King, they forsake each other and she becomes High Queen. Of course, Lancelot is always around so there is a permanent uncomfortable situation which laboriously continues.

Eventually, Elaine hatches a plot, drugs Lancelot and becomes pregnant by him. This is to spite Gwen for marrying the High King. Gwen then tells Arthur to bring home is bastard son to be raised as heir. That's about as far as I got, but since she tells the end of the story first, I know that all hell breaks loose, both Arthur and Mordred (his son) die fighting each other, and Lancelot and Gwen or forced to spend the rest of their lives in hiding away from each other. So basically, a 600 page ongoing tragedy.

Alright, so that is the storyline. If you thought that was painful, you haven't heard anything yet!

- As I said, Gwen grows up inexplicably unaware that Elaine is out to get her. This becomes entirely frustrating.

- Gwen is a tomboy. That is ok to a point, except the author spends all her time describing it. She'll spend two chapters describing how she loves riding horses in a most unlady-like manner, and then spend two sentences mentioning that Arthur won the battle at Baedun Hill. It's absurd.

- The author apparently went into writing this without a clue what type of language she wanted to use. She'll say something like, "if there is anything you aught, my lady" and then follow that up with, "No I am fine. I do not need anything, but thanks." Huh? Going back and forth between 18th and 21st century English is like fingernails on a chalkboard.

- Bedwyr is a poet. That's all that needs to be said about that.

- The Lancelot thing is handled like the emotions of a 10 year old. I just want to say half the time to grow up. And Lancelot's character is not believable in the least. Men just simply to not attach themselves that way to a woman. Ever. It's crazy...or womanly fantasy.

- Trying to say this without offending any of the females here. Gwen's emotions are too much for a man like me to handle. Again, maybe women would relate to this and get something out of it, but it just makes me grind my teeth. Excellent example - in fact, this was the last straw that made me put down the book for good. Arthur is married to Gwen for 5 years, and never once mentions his desire to bring his bastard son home. He doesn't want to hurt her feelings, since she hasn't been able to get pregnant and provide him an heir. After 5 years, SHE tells him that she WANTS him to bring the boy home so they can raise him. Arthur is ecstatic and asks several times if she is absolutely sure she wants to do that. She says it is the only way she'll be happy, as she will live in misery if she spends her whole life unable to give him an heir.

The second - I mean THE SECOND the boy shows up, she goes to her Queen's aid and bursts into tears how she is hateful of the King, resents that the boy lives, regrets she brought him there, etc... Good golly, woman! Why can't you anticipate you are going to feel that way! Argh! It is enough to...to....ARGH!!!

- Merlin is mysterious. That's it. No major role. Is "disappeared" for 99% of the book. What a waste of a good character.

I could go on and on, but is just plain unbearable. I can't take it.

[Gwalchmai]

It's quite simple really. Just say you where really excited when you got the book but unfortunatly, the further on in the book you got, the worse it became. You did your best to stick it out but it was to no avail. Make sure you appreciate the gesture and I see no problems.

And thanks for the heads up, I've been eyeing that book for a while, but now I know not to get it