August TIOLI #3 - Arthurian Books

The legend of King Arthur has been told and retold many times. I'm sure there are many different aspects to the story that can be talked about.

I think some of the things that could be talked about are:-

How do different versions reinvent the story?

Have you got a favourite version?

Who is your favourite character?

and so on ...

Edit to add way back to the main thread

Take It or Leave It Challenge - August 2011 - Page 1

http://www.librarything.com/topic/121262

I am not sure how many I will manage to read, but I have several books with Arthurian themes in the TBR pile, so I shall try to get to at least one of them during August. :)

I've got so many that I set up an 11/11 Category for them ... and then they keep getting bumped down the TBR piles because I can't fit them into TIOLI challenges:)

Hopefully (as long as I don't get too focused on other challenges) I'll be able to get a few read in August.

and then they keep getting bumped down the TBR piles because I can't fit them into TIOLI challenges

...which is a great reason to make them *into* a TIOLI challenge! :)

Yay! Lots of my favourite books are Arthurian, and I even took an entire university course on it. This is the perfect excuse to reread The Mists of Avalon, which I have been wanting to do for some time.

A great idea for a challenge. This might be a good excuse to do some re-reading, as well as get round to some recently-acquired Arthurian themed books. I've never read The Mists of Avalon but have a copy now; I also bought earlier this year the new retelling of Malory by Peter Ackroyd so that may be on the list too.

I attended some lectures on Arthurian themes in 20th century literature, many, many years ago - I must have been dedicated because the lectures were at 9 am and I never usually attended anything that early in the morning as an undergraduate! That course alerted me to some of the more obscure Arthurian-inspired writings which I might not have discovered so soon, including the poet David Jones and the novels and poetry of Charles Williams (I still haven't got round to tackling his poetry though).

I'm looking forward to seeing what reading others do in this challenge and getting some new ideas for my TBR pile (not that I need them!).

I used to read a lot of Arthurian books, but burned out. That said, a while back a family member encouraged me to read The Last Legion which fits, although the connection is something of a spoiler....it will also fit one of my 11 in 11 categories as a work in translation.

I've already requested it from the library!

Great challenge as I was also planning to read some Arthurian books this year. Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave has come highly recommended and I also have Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead and The Drawing of the Dark in my TBR pile.

I'm also tempted by a reread of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence and Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur

Reread of The Dark is Rising sounds good; The Crystal Cave is also one I'd be interested in re-reading as it was at least 30 years ago I first read that! I did read Taliesin too but did not enjoy that so much.

Great challenge!

I've added King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles, an old children's version of the story, that I've been meaning to get to for a long time. Since it predates the modern retellings, I'm curious about this version.

I also added Glastonbury by Donna Fletcher Crow, another book that I've been meaning to read for a year or more. I hope it qualifies, since it's supposed to include the story of Arthur. But it's more inclusive than that, going back to the legends of Joseph of Arimathea, and past the Arthurian period, I think. If it's not okay for this challenge, please let me know!

Wow - there are a lot of Arthurian fans out there. I might be able to match reads with some of you - I've got Mists of Avalon; the Mary Stewart trilogy and the Lawhead series. I know I won't get to them all but I'll see what I can do:) The first one I've put on the wiki is Enemy of God the second in Bernard Cornwell's trilogy as I read the first earlier this year.

ivyd - Any book covering the period both before and after Arthur definitely fits.

In fact any kind of Arthurian connection, however slight, is fine by me. So books about the Holy Grail, minor characters or any kind of reinvention of the story goes:)

It's been a while since I read any Arthur books, but I'm sort of energized now since I just saw Camelot for the first time today! Perfect timing. I'll try to fit in at least one book for this challenge next month.

>12 _Zoe_: - Zoe, did you watch the movie, or did you see it live? I saw the Stratford, ON, production this year, and it definitely was not the Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, etc., that I love so much! Lancelot, in particular, is just the worst character ever. Normally he is one of my favourite Arthurian characters - so dark, so tortured! - but the Lerner/Lowe Lancelot is over-pious, pompous, and just plain annoying.

I'm in the middle of The Mists of Avalon right now - a reread - and I have to say that while Bradley's writing can be a tad overblown sometimes, this really is my definitive version of the Arthurian legend. I love her portrayal of Morgan le Fay as a person, rather than some evil being, and I think her focus on the struggle between Christianity and Goddess-worship is fascinating.

Anyone else reading an Arthur book right now?

Actually, Conspiracies by Lackey and Edghill has an Arthurian theme. So far Merlin, the Grail and Mordred have gotten mentions.

I finished King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles, and I enjoyed it very much. I had thought it was a children's book, but shortly into it, I realized that he intended it for a general audience. I think it would appeal to children, though, particularly if it were read aloud, and there is nothing in it inappropriate for children. My review is on my thread http://www.librarything.com/topic/118948, msg 90.

I've also been reading and studying the pictures in Exploring King Arthur's Britain by Denise Strobie. A coffee-table type book, the photographs are lovely (particularly of Glastonbury Tor) and it's a wonderful accompaniment to any Arthurian book. I've had the book for quite some time, and looked at the pictures a number of times, but hadn't ever read the text. I'm finding that, although brief, the text is packed with information about local legends, competing locations for events, and archeological discoveries. Ms Strobie also mentions differing versions of the tales and references the Welsh triads and other non-Malory references to King Arthur. I may finish it tonight and if so, I'll add it to the wiki, but I'm scheduled to babysit my granddaughters this afternoon and evening, so I may not finish by midnight.

I removed Glastonbury from the wiki, since I know I won't finish it today. I'm about 1/3 through it (which means I haven't gotten to Arthur yet), and liking it very much.

Thanks, calm, for posting this TIOLI challenge! Once I get started on Arthur, I just can't get enough, and I've also started Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance and The Golden Bough, which apparently inspired Ms Weston's book -- sources for T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." And just yesterday, I got a copy of Tennyson's Idylls of the King, which I've not read in its entirety.

Wow Ivy - you really got into it - though I also find Arthurian reading addictive. Exploring King Arthur's Britain by Denise Strobie sounds really interesting and I'll have to keep my eyes open and try to find a copy.

I managed three books for the challenge The Circle Cast by Alex Epstein, about Morgan le Fay's early life; King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green and the second book in Bernard Cornwell's Warlord triogy Enemy of God. They were all very different reinterpretations of Arthurian myth with the Green being the most "traditional" - with a medieval feel to the story telling. My favourite was the Cornwell which read more like historical fiction and I thought that the Epstein was a promising debut and I hope he continues Morgan's story.

I've got the third of Cornwell's trilogy to read and should get to it this month.

>16 calm: I did finish Exploring King Arthur's Britain before midnight. It's apparently out of print, but Amazon has a number of used copies -- for 1 cent! (How can it be worth a bookseller's time and effort to sell a book for 1 cent? Maybe they make a dollar or two on postage, but still...) And I found that she has another book, Exploring Celtic Britain, which might be interesting.

I read Roger Lancelyn Green's book some time ago, and pulled it out to compare when I was reading the Knowles version. They're pretty similar in their choice of tales but have arranged them a bit differently and Green's language is more modern.

I thought I'd read part of Cornwell's trilogy, but now I'm not so sure... maybe just intended to and never got to it. I'd not heard of Epstein's book, but it sounds interesting.

Ivy - Yes there do seem to be some reasonably priced copies of the Strobie available on-line but I'm old-fashioned and don't buy on-line - I like to see the condition of the book before I buy it. Maybe I'll have to break down and start one day but there are still some great places around here to buy second-hand books - so I'll check those out first (library doesn't have any of her books though it does have a fair selection of Arthurian books)

Yes some of those collections are pretty similar. I haven't read the Knowles - probably another one to add to the collection someday.

There are so many Arthurian books out there ... not so surprising to be not so sure about reading any one version.

The Epstein was a recent ER - a very kind LTer sent me their copy and I've already passed it on to someone else - well it's in the mail:) The ER description made it sound a bit too YA for my taste but I think it works very well for a debut novel and shouldn't be marketed as YA, it's a nice mix of historical fiction, coming of age story and magic.