/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20009322]

What's your favorite Arthurian legend novel?

[Anonymous No.20009348]

Been digging The Once and Future King audiobook lately. A bit of a departure from the original story in some meaningful ways, but certainly a worthy listen/read nonetheless.

I've also been reading King Arthur and His Knights, a 1920's compilation of Le Morte D'Arthur from Sir Thomas Mallory, which is also the foundational text for The Once and Future King. It was compiled/arranged by Elizabeth Merchant. Published around 1927, this book stays quite true to the "original" text and lays out the whole thing very nicely with sumptuous illustrations. Would recommend

[Anonymous No.20009349]

probably the least kino but i really enjoyed La Morte d'Arthur due to Mordred's involvement, i've always loved Mordred.

[Anonymous No.20009360]

>>20009348
>I've also been reading King Arthur and His Knights, a 1920's compilation of Le Morte D'Arthur from Sir Thomas Mallory, which is also the foundational text for The Once and Future King. It was compiled/arranged by Elizabeth Merchant. Published around 1927, this book stays quite true to the "original" text and lays out the whole thing very nicely with sumptuous illustrations. Would recommend
Is this a novel/fiction or more of a scholarly discussion on the legend?

[Anonymous No.20009398]

>>20009322
Wolfram.

>It has done no harm to the development of the German spirit that poetry in the middle ages was nourished by the transcriptions of French courtly poetry: the inner depth of a Wolfram von Eschenbach created from the same substance, which in its original form we have preserved as a mere curiosity, eternal types of poetry.

[Anonymous No.20009420]

>>20009322
Lancelot

[Anonymous No.20009429]

>>20009360
It's basically just a modern English translation of Thomas Mallory's work. Not a nonfiction discussion of it or anything. It's the type of thing you might read to a young lord on his way to bed. Or to yourself if you're a college student I guess

[Anonymous No.20009432]

>>20009322
Does Green Knight count as a novel?

[Anonymous No.20010217]

>>20009322
Tristan and Isolde.

[Anonymous No.20011290]

>>20009348
>>20009322
I started reading/listening to Le Morte D'Arthur and Jesus Christ, if I knew how long it takes to get going I would have found something else.
I mean I don't know if the King of a Hundred Knights and the other nameless dudes that take the first half of the first book to get massacred ... I mean Arthur getting the sword takes like 10 pages then its 200 pages of nomadic kings slaughtering each other in forests and french chieftains gcoming and going over the sea.

[Anonymous No.20011535]

>>20009432
Close enough; it's my favorite Arthurian tale as well.
The back and forth between the hunts and the courting is comfy, and I liked the twist quite a bit.

[Anonymous No.20011699]

>>20009322
>What's your favorite Arthurian legend novel?
>Arthurian legend novel
>novel
The term is 'romance,' unless you are asking specifically for modern adaptations?

[Anonymous No.20011874]

>>20009322
Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

[Anonymous No.20011913]

only read some of 'a connecticut yankee' and parts were what they call 'cringe'

[Anonymous No.20012973]

>>20009322
>Not exclusively reading pre-galfridian mystical bardic poetry

[Anonymous No.20012990]

the green knight

[Anonymous No.20013013]

Fingal An Ancient Epic Poem is related to Arthur

[Anonymous No.20013056]

>>20012973
>pre-galfridian mystical bardic poetry
Only exists thanks to Skene saving books. One sniff of a match and poof all of it would have been gone

[Anonymous No.20013089]

Fate/Stay Night

[Anonymous No.20013871]

>>20009322

[Anonymous No.20014994]

>>20011290
Does it ever “get going”? I tried reading that and gave it like 200 pages before I skimmed forward and concluded that it was absolute dog shit.

[Anonymous No.20015007]

fuck off i don't believe that made up nonsense

[Anonymous No.20015013]

>>20011874
Steinbeck throws in on this? Damn this has to be the only good one

>>20013871
Not really Arthurian other then some aesthetics but holy shit is this kino. Did you read the chimera tein write up about this duology? Fucking amazing. Basically everything in this book is symbolic of able struggling in the womb of his mother before being born. Shit is so good.

[Anonymous No.20015069]

>>20015013
>Basically everything in this book is symbolic of able struggling in the womb of his mother before being born
No idea how that's supposed to make sense. I doubt it was much of a focus for Wolfe if it's even there at all.

[Anonymous No.20015727]

>>20014994
Not really. I am at page 500 and it's just no longer the pacification war in the north. but it still doesn't resemble anything I expected based on my knowledge of Arthurian Legend: Camelot, Merlin doing wizardry stuff, holy grail quests etc.

So if anyone can point me to a better telling of the story I might jump to that.

[Anonymous No.20016067]

>>20013871
what the fuck? is it any good. i think wolfe was an ok writer but he seemed annoying in real life

[Anonymous No.20016182]

>>20015727
I think Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson is a condensed retelling of arthurian legend. I can't speak to the quality of the entire book, but so far I read the chapter excerpt of the Holy Grail and really really loved it a lot. If you say Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur is kind of a slog (or at least starts off that way), I guess i'll start with "Idylls" instead for my introduction to Arthurian stories as I make my way through my to-do reading list, and get to Mallory another time. I have the hardback illustrated by Gustave Dore too, so thats another incentive.