arthurs

[drcpunk]

I remember writing out a list of the good Arthuriana I'd read, and then going through my disseration bibliography, and coming up with basically the same list. The ones I'm listing are all ones I think are good -- the Twain is the one I like least of this bunch.

Twain and Tennyson are the obvious 19th century picks.

Then we get into last century, which was, after all, when the disseration was written. The key works are White's Once and Future King, and MZB's Mists of Avalon. White is our Malory, that important. MZB had perfect timing, and, when I was working on my doctorate, it seemed to me that feminism was The issue for modern Arthuriana.

White comes in for a lot of criticism, especially for his treatment of Guinevere. I don't understand why. Yes, his Guinevere is a shrill, neurotic woman. His Lancelot is far more neurotic. And, like Lancelot, Guinevere is brave and noble. White's narrator said that she was what is known as a real person, and that it is difficult to write about those. I never saw the need to look further than that.

Now, White originally had 3 books, which were edited and combined with a fourth to make Once and Future King, aka OAFK. If you find these three in the old, hardback editions, look for White's illos. I love the one in the second book where the 2 knight in the fake questing beast outfit turn around to see the real one making gaga eyes at them.

But the edits were for the best, IMO. Book of Merlin is nowhere near as good. Also IMO.

So, figure White gives the basic template, while MZB gives the revisionist feminist pagan template.

Sanders Anne Laubenthal wrote Excalibur, set in her modern day Mobile, Alabama. The book also deals with pagan stuff in interesting ways. I'd wondered if MZB had read it before writing Mists. I gather MZB actually wrote Mists in the 50s -- but Laubenthal corresponded with other authors, and it might be that Bradley read it before final edits to Mists were made. I'm curious, but it doesn't much matter. Leonard Wibberly's Quest for Excalibur and Peter David's Knight Life are also good.

Before White and Bradley, if I've got my chronology correct, was Naomi Mitchison's To the Chapel Perilous, which is marvelous, and Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset, and The Lantern Bearers, set earlier.

Gillian Bradshaw's Gwalchmai trilogy was probably my favorite find. Hawk of May, Kingdom of Summer, In Winter's Shadow. Parke Godwin's Firelord was too overhyped to me, but rereads better -- first, the twists don't come as being intended to surprise, so I don't mind if they're not as stunning as the hype indicated. Second, I'm not reading it between 5 Arthurian books on each end. I don't like Beloved Exile, and it's fascinating looking at it and Firelord with gender politics in mind. I really don't like St. Patrick novel -- I think it's The Last Rainbow. The short fiction he did is quite good, though.

Fay Sampson's Daughter of Tintagel omnibus is definitely following MZB's tradition, while Joy Chant's The High Kings is more close to the earlier source materials. Both use elements that most modern authors ignore.

I also liked Lee Gold's unpublished Morgaine's Story, and Michael Cule's Dagonet story.

I think that's it. Anyway, mnemex says we have yummy desserts.

Comments

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

I would just like to add the White is worth reading aloud.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I wound up reading a lot of passages, White's and others, aloud, and tend to fall into that when looking over my disseration. All these wonderful, wonderful passages.

Bradshaw and Godwin also read aloud well.

[mneme]

Note that while Mists was initially written in ~1950, it was published 30 years later, long after Excalibur had been published, so MZB might very well have read and taken bits from it.

Of course, I've only read the first 1/4 or so of Excalibur, and never read Mists, so my opinions are suspect.