# What is your favourite version of the Arthurian legend?



## Lacedaemonian (Apr 13, 2005)

King Arthur has been covered by so many different authors.  What I want to know is what is your favourite version and why?  

This link highlights most of the works of fiction that are concerned with Arthurian legend:  *http://www.io.com/~tittle/books/arthurian.html#fic*


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## Amber (Apr 13, 2005)

I'm an old fashioned typa girl. I've read a fair few of those versions, but I do love my Morte D'Arthur, and the original ones I read. The first one I read, was a beautiful old fashioned book, with wonderful line drawings of Vivian, it was absolutely true to the original legends and written in a wonderful way- full of old fashioned language.

Though to be fair The Past and Present King was rather good- especially the Lancelot part. What about you?


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## The Master™ (Apr 13, 2005)

I don't think I've ever read an Arthurian legend I truly liked... There are too many aspects of the epic legend that make it difficult to fully appreciate one or the other...

Guess I just like the Characters... Merlin - travelling backwards in time, that is how he is able to see the future and his imprisonment for his love of Nimh(?)... Battle between Arthur and his nephew Mordred for dominance... The fact that the King is one with the land... The love between Lancelot and Guinevere that threatens to cause upheval within Camelot - the betrayal!!!

All the knights - Bors, Gawain, Galahad, Percival, Tristan, etc...

The idea of the Round Table...

It is all good...


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## dwndrgn (Apr 13, 2005)

I like them all.  Those that I've read, that is!  They are like cookies, they all have their plusses and minuses but they all taste good going down  

I think my first was the Mary Stewart versions.  I enjoyed the scifi twist of the Simon Green version as well.

There are tons there I've never even heard of, much less read.  I may have to amend my 'to read' list again.  Darn you people!


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## Teresa Edgerton (Apr 13, 2005)

Oh, what a good idea for a topic!

I've read quite a few of the books on that list.  There was a time when I thought if I ever read another Arthurian epic I'd go stark staring mad.  Wouldn't touch one for five or six years.  But then I realized that somehow during that time my interest had revived.  (Which was a good thing, because people kept on writing them during that time in spite of me.)

But how to choose a favorite?  It's probably a tie between the T.H. White and the Mary Stewart versions, because those are the two that seem to stay with me.  Although _The Grail of Hearts_ is an awesome book, and so is _The War in Heaven_.

And I'll read any version of _Gawain and the Green Knight_ that I can get my hands on.  I love that story.


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## Ailanna (Apr 13, 2005)

Le Morte d'Arthur is so splendid-- after reading it last year, it began to surprise me that anyone would want to retell something that had already been done so brilliantly.  The final books are amazing, and I consistently find myself a bit teary when finishing them.  The ending is perfect.

Anyway, that said, I like a number of the retellings.  Gerald Morris's YA spoofs on Arthuriana are anachronistic, clever, and often laugh out loud funny (particularly if you've read the medieval works they're based on; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gets a redo, as do Malory and Chretien de Troy episodes).  The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf is my favorite; it takes the less popular episode with Beaumains (Gaheris, properly, I think?) and Lyonet and Lyonesse.  None of them are particularly profound, but they are a lot of fun.  I also like The Once and Future King, though it was required reading during high school, which dampened my appreciation of it.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Apr 13, 2005)

Beaumains was Gareth.  His story is another one of the old ones I love.  Also _Sir Gawaine and the Loathely Lady_.  I just have a soft place in my heart for those boys from Orkney.


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## Lacedaemonian (Apr 13, 2005)

I like so many people have read an unbelievable amount of Arthurian fiction. _Le Morte d'Arthur_ is excellent and I enjoyed this one the most as a child. However, _Le Morte d'Arthur_ is too much the fairy tale and becomes more disappointing the more you realise that it has no basis in fact. Still a great book though. 

For some reason I could never get away with _The Once and Future King_, but I can not recall exactly why. If I remember there was a reference to Robin Hood near the start of the novel which killed it for me. 

David Gemmell's _Ghost King_ and _Last Sword of Power_ were good but do not rank highly against other works of Arthurian fiction. 

I have to say that the best version I have ever read is the one I am currently reading. Bernard Cornwell in his _Warlord Chronicles Trilogy _creates a plausible Arthurian legend, with plausible characters and plausible events. With this in mind Cornwell's world remains fantastical, and none of his character are found lacking. I despise Cornwell's Lancelot and love his Nimue. If you love Arthurian legend then these books are a must read. 

Stephen Lawhead's Arthurian books did not achieve anything for me, he merely cashed in in what is clearly a popular market. 

I vaguely remember reading the Rosemary Sutcliff books as child and enjoying them immensley. These books are however very childish, but I guess that is their design. 

I think that I have liked all of the Arthurian poetry that I have read.


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## Ailanna (Apr 14, 2005)

Ah, yes!  I get a bit confused with names of the Orkney princes.  Too many of them start with Ga--!  Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, and...Agravaine.  I recently came across a wonderful illustrated version of Gareth's story called _The Kitchen Knight_.  The illustrations are done by Trina Schart Hyman, who is one of my favorite contemporary illustrators.

I blanked when I was writing my earlier post.  Most of the Arthurians I've read have been YA; but I remember liking Elizabeth Wein's rather dark, sophisticated _Winter Prince_ and Nancy Springer's _I Am Morgan Le Fay_.  Jane Yolen's recent _Sword of the Rightful King _was also interesting, though her Arthur is not particularly appealing.  Anne McCaffrey's _Black Horses for the King_ is a well researched historical version which is primarily interested in, well, horses.  I haven't read it for several years, but I do remember enjoying it.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Apr 14, 2005)

I liked _Winter Prince_, too.  

And Trina Schart Hyman is a wonderful illustrator.


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## a|one (Apr 14, 2005)

Mary Stewart, no contest.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Apr 14, 2005)

Arthurian legend. Ah.


I really enjoyed Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian romances. It was like stepping back in time, to a different world-view and a different way of story telling. 

The only contemporary take on the legend I have any time for is Nikolai Tolstoy's The Coming of the King, a chaotic, vivid and truly mythopoeic look at Merlin. Merlin not as a sanitised post-Gandalfian mage, but as he may really have been. 

And yes, he turns into a fish at some point. 

Patricia Keneally did do some interesting things with the idea of Arthur in space in her Keltiad books - worth a look.


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## smeg (Apr 16, 2005)

I remember reading one book when i was a child in which the pov was a boy who gets taken with arthur and helps gather horses from arabia and you only view arthur at a distance, it was well written but i can't recall the title or the author, anyway my current favourite take on the Arthurian legend would have to be 'the last legion' by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, though it takes you a while to realise where it is leading.


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## Lacedaemonian (Apr 16, 2005)

I like Valerio Massimo Manfredi's earlier work.  His most recent work has become repetitive and quite dull.  I enjoyed The Last Legion but his best work today is his Alexander trilogy and The Spartan.


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## Amber (Apr 16, 2005)

I liked the 2nd and 3rd parts of T.H. White's books, not the part with Arthuer as Wart which was just creepy...


You have nice taste Ailanna... liking le Morte d'Arthur, and the other person who likes Gawain and the Green Knight. 

Anyone else dislike Guinevere?


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## Lacedaemonian (Apr 16, 2005)

I hate her in every version that I have read.  I despise her.  All the other female characters are tremendous, though I hate Morgan in some versions of this tale.  Elaine, Nimue and Isolt are fantastic.  Nimue is perhaps my favourite female character of all time, from any work of fiction.  I hated her when I was a child for what she did to Merlin but you realise with age that Merlin had it cominjg to him.  I also despise Lancelot in many versions of the Arthurian legend, though he quite often redeems himself in most versions.


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## Fourth Hunter (Feb 16, 2007)

I absolutely loved the Once and Future King.  It was the way he developed the relationships between Lancelot and Gareth as well as Arthur and Mordred that caused my love with the book.  He really made me care what happened to the characters.


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## jackokent (Feb 16, 2007)

Fourth Hunter said:


> I absolutely loved the Once and Future King. It was the way he developed the relationships between Lancelot and Gareth as well as Arthur and Mordred that caused my love with the book. He really made me care what happened to the characters.


 
This is one of my favourite books.  I know exactly what you mean about making you care

I also liked Marion Zimmer Bradlys Mists of Avalon.


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## chrispenycate (Feb 16, 2007)

I had "The sword in the stone"read to me whenI was too young  to read it myself (good lord, that was a while ago), and still find some of the scenes better than the rewritten version in "Once and future king"
Still, it doesn't even pretend to be accurate (plate armour, Robin 'ood and jousting) and my most used image is the Mary Stewart "Crystal cave" series.
Still, that list is not all that recent; I've read a couple of Arthurians that weren't on it.


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## Talysia (Feb 17, 2007)

I love the old tales, but I think the last and best one I read was Gawain and the Green Knight.


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## vamperio (Mar 6, 2007)

I enjoyed Bernard Cornwell's take on the Arthur story.


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## Fourth Hunter (Mar 9, 2007)

I know that name, Cornwell, Archers Tale?  I loved that series, and i wasn't aware of the fact that he had written a version of the Arthurian legend.


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## vamperio (Mar 13, 2007)

Yeah, it's call the Warlord Chronicles, a trilogy consisting of The Winter King, Enemey of God, and Excalibur.  Its a pretty good read, and definitely not a fairy tale type of story.


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## Fourth Hunter (Mar 13, 2007)

Thanks for the info, I think I'll read it.


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## gigantes (Mar 13, 2007)

*What I want to know is what is your favourite version and why?*

i always liked mallory's version.  it's quite dry, admittedly, but that never turned me off.  my dream is that the people who made "excalibur" could have turned it into a mini-series that covered every single mallory episode.  i prolly would have worn out 10 VCR's if that had happened.

other than that, this is a rare case where fantasy is more interesting than real life.  the actual britannic-roman general the legends are based on is apparently a rather humdrum figure.  but his story was apparently bundled into other myths (celtic IIRC) to create the larger-than-life personna that we all admire.


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## Melisende (Jul 26, 2007)

"Le Morte d'Arthur" - but I also love Tennyson's "Idylls of the King"


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## Nesacat (Jul 26, 2007)

The first books I'd read were Mary Stewart's trilogy and then set me of on reading others. I loved her books.

Morte de Arthur was an experience if only for the sheer size of the book. Mine is gilt edged with the black and white drawings. Just reading it was pleasure. I liked the fact that the tale was told in verse the old-fashioned way and this is the same reason I like Idylls Of The King.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon is another favourite for having told the tale from a different point of view and giving more shape and definition to many characters not previously clearly painted.

TH White's Once and Future King will always be a favourite because, as has been said, it made me care for the players in the tale as real people I could feel for.

For more recent works, it has to be Bernard Cornwell's books, which I read recently. The books are well written and give a lot of details of the times they are set in.

Am not too fond of Guinevere either. I tried to read the Guenevere Novels by Rosalind Miles. The books are well written but her story does not absorb me as much as the others. I like the other women in the Arthurian tales. Vivian, Morgan e Fay, even Nimue, Elaine, Isolt.

And one of my favourite poems is The Lady of Shallot, where the mirror cracked from side to side.


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## Thessaly (Aug 18, 2007)

I study, and absolutely love, old French Arthurian literature, so I had to add my two cents worth! My favourite versions of the legends include the Chretien de Troyes romances, and the Lancelot-Grail/Vulgate cycle, which Mallory would certainly have been familiar with, as his Morte d'Arthur is influenced from this earlier cycle. I find it beautifully written (in medieval terms, which of course are a bit different to how we view narratives now) and very engaging. Le Mort le Roi Artu has such a tragic inevitability about it, I'd recommend the excellent Penguin translation to read one of the first prose treatments of Arthur's final years and death.

As far as modern retellings go, I really like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon, purely because she incorporates so many of the figures and events of the medieval tradition, and tells the tales from a feminine slant. As a child, I loved reading my dad's copy of John Steinbeck's 'Acts of King Arthur and his noble knights'; a fantastic retelling of Mallory which doesn't seem to get much press.


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## Mary Hoffman (Aug 18, 2007)

Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur every time, though the French sources are very interesting too.

I agree with whoever said that the legendary king is more fascinating than the historical war leader but I would put in a plea for Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset, which is a wonderful, heartbreaking book.

I'm not that keen on Marion Zimmer Bradley, to be honest. 

I did write my own "Arthur book" for younger readers. It is called "Women of Camelot: Queens and enchantresses at the court of King Arthur", published by Frances Lincoln. Guinevere does get two chapters, but the stories warrant it. 

And I too love Nimue best.(It was a good chance to include the "loathly lady" (not in Malory).

Mary


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## svalbard (Aug 20, 2007)

Sword at Sunset is a marvelous book. I would also recommend the prequel, The Lantern Bearers. That was an even better book, in my opinion.


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## Thessaly (Sep 4, 2007)

This could really be in a new topic since it exists independently of the Arthurian tradition, but what do you think of the legend of Tristan and Isolde?

I'm curious to see which - if any - versions of the story are popular with readers now, as I'm currently slaving away on my masters dissertation, on the old French tradition of Tristan and Iseut, and because this tale was one of the most widely transmitted of the Middle Ages, whether the same elements which made it so popular during the 12th century still appeal to us today (in my case, of course, they certainly do).

I also haven't read many modern retellings of the legend, apart from what has appeared of the legend in modern Arthurian works, so for the modern re-presentations, I'm a bit more familiar with films (namely Tristan and Isolde, L'Eternel Retour), Wagner's opera and some of the fine art inspired by the story, so any recommendations of modern novels would also be nice! I've been tempted to think about writing one myself, but doing my research for a year has put me right off delving straight into fiction on the same topic!


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## Wiglaf (Oct 22, 2007)

Mallory integrated most of the romances into a single whole, but he is not a good read.  Try a real King Arthur story.  _The History of the Kings of Britain_ (originally _Historia Regum Britanniae_) by Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Better storytelling, less stupidity, and an invasion of France (Gaul).  Defeating Saxons to please the Cymry and Normans.  Conquering France to pleace Normans who had to submit to a practically landless French monarch when they controlled half of France.


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## Vladd67 (Oct 25, 2007)

I too enjoyed the Bernard Cornwell version, the Arthur story told from the point of view of an aging monk who in his youth was one of Arthurs warriors, the Arthur legend minus the fantasy elements. I seem to remember that even Merlin was just an old Druid type priest. I have never been fond of the Lancelot character, and these books he was portrayed as an arrogant strutting coward, who just happens to get the credit for other warriors bravery.


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## nixie (Oct 25, 2007)

My Favourite has to be Bernard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy although I adored Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradford. I've started A.A. Attanasio's Dragon and the Unicorn today, and finding difficult to get into. The prelude is rather long. 

I recently read the Rosalind Miles, Guinvere books although enjoyable I found Guinvere rather boring.


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## Pyan (Oct 25, 2007)

*The Once And Future King *- T.H.White. - no contest. 
Splendid book, and as the Cat said, they seem like real people.


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