King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table

A children's book from the 1950's which remains evocative & relatively concise in its overview of the Arthurian myth cycle. Involving all the normal suspects & a few more, it deals with the main adventures of all the main protagonists in a somewhat dated style of writing. This, once, you've got used to it, does not detract from the pace of the narrative though, & can be quite enjoyable. Players of the RPG Pendragon will love this overviews & the breakdown of the story, I would imagine. Interesting, relatively well paced, & really quite a comprehensive beginning text for any new student of Arthurian legend, I'd say I liked this.

This was one of the books that I read aloud to Jefferson. But then someone else read him the last chapter and put it away, so I needed to go grab it and read the last chapter before I counted it. That actually happened months ago, but I didn't get around to that last chapter until just now.

Jefferson likes stories and games with knights and wizards, so I thought I should read him one of the originals. But when I started this with Jefferson, I thought I'd picked another miss, because it seemed so dry, and I thought I was going to have to put it away until he was older. But then he would ask some question that would prove he was paying careful attention, or he would leap up for a dramatic reenactment to prove that he was definitely show more captivated by the story.

So these stories weren't exactly what I was expecting, but Jefferson loved them. And I enjoyed becoming more familiar with the Arthurian legends. show less

I got this book because the author came highly recommended and I thought it would be a fun addition to our homeschool resources.

Then I started reading it aloud to my kids.

It was fine for the first few chapters, very familiar stuff related to Merlin and the Lady of the Lake, blah, blah, blah. The knights of the round table were assembled, the prose was really wonderful, and then everyone started going out on their adventures. It didn’t take very long for things to get really tedious - there tended to be repeating themes of some mix of chivalrous, if overly naive and trusting knights, knights who had no business representing chivalrous character or manners (but were never really called on it or had to deal with consequences for their show more idiocy/greed/rudeness/cowardice), and women who were either perfect, ideal, virtuous saints or wicked terrible sorceresses (the only exception being Guinevere, who, because of her choice which brought ruin to the kingdom, actually had a little depth to her character). The best part of the quest stories might have been that a lot of them reminded me of their counterparts in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Well done to the Python boys for staying relatively true to the source material.

The overall experience of the stories were a disappointment. I have seen/read lots of stories including King Arthur and his knights that were thrilling and full of heart. Because of that, I was looking forward to experiencing these classic stories themselves. Instead, I really had a hard time reading through all the stories (don’t tell my kids, I skipped a couple chapters before the quest for the Grail started) and I didn’t want to finish.

I don’t fault Roger Lancelyn Green, his writing was the best part of the book. And I’m not against reading other retellings of the stories, but I might just need a break to spend some time watching Merlin or maybe Monty Python again to help motivate me. show less

I read this in my school days and thoroughly enjoyed the rereading! A Puffin books version written in the 1950s for children. I found this version far superior to the Antonia Fraser volume from the 1960s which may be for a much younger audience, say children versus this effort by Green is more suited to the Young Adult audience.
This version is a great introduction to the Arthur myth in an easier to read language than say Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur, but still keeps very well to the traditional tale. That said modern readers might find the violence and less than sensitive treatment of various social issue a bit confronting these days.

I always read this first, in preparation for reading Charles Williams' Arthurian poetry, "Taliessin Through Logres" and "The Region of Summer Stars". However, Roger Lancelyn Green's book is great reading on its own account. Perhaps, it's because I'm a Christian--whatever the reason, Green's modern yet faithful accounts of these traditional stories affect me emotionally when I read them.
At which point, I suppose, I'm in the perfect mental state to work through Williams' complex and allusive poetry as I search for even more of the spiritual depth in the Arthurian saga.

A pretty basic re-telling of the Arthurian tales. Nicely organised in four sections:- The Coming of Arthur (his birth, the sword in the stone and the early days of his reign); The Knights of the Round Table (quests and so on); The Quest of the Holy Grail and The Departing of Arthur.

There is a very medieval feel to this re-telling. All the familiar characters are here and there are lovely woodcut-like illustrations by Lotte Reiniger which add to the feel. As a basic introduction to the Arthurian tales this is a good book but there is nothing spectacular about it.

I really loved this book - it was such a different writing style than what I normally read. Rather than telling it like an actual story, it was more like a telling of events.
My favorite character was definitely Arthur, though I did think that as King he should have been a little bit more active instead of watching all his knights do all the work.
The end was very sad, but interesting...
WARNING! SPOILERS!
I didn't understand why Lancelot and Guinevere didn't end up together. After fighting so much to be together, at the end they just give it all up, even when they've won, and go and become monk/nuns. Even if they are ashamed of such tragedy resulting in their love - they should have stayed together.
I was fascinated by the writing style at show more first but as the book wore on the reading got harder. It took me a while to finish it, because at the last few chapters I got very bored of the writing style and didn't pick up the book for another week or two.
Still, despite the writing style getting a little dry, this book is definitely recommended - the best account of King Arthur I've ever come across. show less