/lit/ - Literature

Anyone here read Idylls of the King? It's absolutely criminal how little this KINO gets mentioned even when the Matter of Britain does come up here. I don't even normally like poetry but it's just beautifully written.

Anyway, ITT, discuss anything and everything related to King Arthur, the Grail, and the works about them.

>>10341452
>King am I, whatsoever be their cry
>And one last act of kinghood shalt thou see

22
>Dostoevsky
For his major works, especially The Idiot and Crime & Punishment. Excited to re-read The Brothers Karamazov this year.
>Homer
Primarily for the Iliad, but the Odyssey is wonderful too.
>Sophocles
For the Oedipus trilogy, especially Oedipus Rex. Ajax is also great, and Electra is good.
>Tennyson
Exclusively for Idylls of the King. Incredible poem and very moving. Looking into the rest of his poetry very soon, and most excited for his In Memoriam A.H.H.
>Toss-up between Turgenev for Fathers and Sons, and Cervantes for Don Quixote. Leaning towards Turgenev, but recognize that Don Quixote is the superior novel.

>>7853324
https://youtu.be/BHoAQW_DBI4?t=2m38s

Hi /lit/ I come from non-English speaking country so I have little knowledge of King Arthur mythos? What are essential reading about him besides Le Morte d'Arthur and Once and Future King? Especially academic books about him.

Has anyone here read Idylls of the King? what do you think of it?

I have dipped into Le Morte d'Arthur a fair amount and read other incarnations of arthurian legend here and there, but never this.

I want to become more versed in Arthuriana (that's gotta be a word) but I'm only just beginning.

ANyone here read Malory?

I'm trying to disentangle what his personal "touch" to Arthurian legend was. I mean his main claim to fame is as someone who translated a ton of disparate, mostly French legends and tied them into one extremely long narrative, but he DID edit his sources a fair amount and I'm wondering how his editing reflects his life, how it differs from the perspective of the French writings he used, etc. Since Malory is the major source for Tennyson, White, etc, this is indeed a relevant question.

Originally I was thinking about what he had to say about human sin. You could see the whole work as a critique of chivalry and the idea of the just state. Then I realized that that goes as much for his sources as it does for him.

So one place to seek Malory's originality would be in how, exactly, he weaves these legends together. Unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with all the French romances to say anything intelligent about this, ergo asking what you think.

Of course there's the fact that he emphasizes Arthur as a paragon of political stability, reflecting his concerns as a soldier in the Wars of the Roses, but I'm looking for more than that since that's kind of obvious.

He does seem to have a lot more raep in his stories than the French did and he draws out raep sections for longer - i.e. the knighting of Sir Torre would be the classic example. Interestingly, the real Sir Thomas Malory may have himself been a rapist. I don't know what the actual SIGNIFICANCE of his rape-emphasis is, though, I just know that it's there. Again, asking for your thoughts.

So basically ITT we criticize Le Morte D'Arthur, specifically the ways in which it is unique, though general Arthurian stuff is fine too.