My first Arthurian book

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

I still remember years and years ago, when I was in elementary: I found a very simplified Arthurian book for children. The book was originally published in 1979, and my father had bought it when he was learning English.

It helped me learn English too; and it had set me in what I now can call a life-long journey in the world of Arthurian legends and traditions.



As well as the usual 'Arthur gets Excalibur, Arthur tells Bedivere to throw Excalibur back into the lake in the end', the book also contains the story of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (minus the story of how the wife of the Green Knight tried to seduce him), The Gallahad's Tradition, and Sir Uwaine and the Lady of the Fountaine.


And no explanation was given as to the causation of the last great war. It would be hard to explain about Mordred to children, wouldn't it?


This book is a treasure for me, and I'm glad I still have it with me.

And what was your first experience with Arthurian legend? Do tell! :)

Comments

[the-rushes-o.livejournal.com]

Mine was "The Sword in the Stone" - first the Disney movie, then the T.H. White book, which led inevitably to The Once and Future King andd thence to Malory. :)

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

I read 'The Sword in the Stone' many years later, I watched the film first. I watched the film perhaps at around the same time when I read this Oxford book for the first time. As far as I remember, I read Malory first before that. While 'The Once and Future King', I have never laid my eyes upon.

[scarfman]

I had a book about King Arthur when I was a kid; my brother had one from the same line about Robin Hood. I remember nothing of it now.

When I was about twelve we had the soundtrack recording LP of Camelot and I did a puppet routine with I Wonder What The King Is Doing Tonight? When I listened to Take Me To The Fair I'd think, "She's setting all those knights up to take a fall," not being familiar enough with the show to know the song's from when Guenevere is as ignorant of Lancelot's prowess as the other knights are.

In the tenth grade we read Idylls of the King. I began to see something attractive in the story I hadn't before, and my mother mentioned that Camelot was based on The Once and Future King. The rest is history. Well, webcomics history anyway. I hope.

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

Whoaaaa!! I'm so checking up your comic! I'm recommending it to friends! :)

[scarfman]

Thanks for reading.

[huntersandkings.livejournal.com]

I meant 'checking out', sorry.. I like your comic, it's funny! :)

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

I used to own that book of yours! It may have been my first introduction to the Arthurian legend, too. If not, though, it would be when I first read Susan Cooper's The Grey King when I was eleven. At that point, I didn't even know the Dark is Rising sequence had four other books (Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; and Silver on the Tree; The Grey King goes between Greenwitch and Silver on the Tree), but once I discovered them (sometime around my sophomore year of high school, I'm guessing), the Sequence became my favourite set of books ever. (And Susan Cooper is now my favourite author, after reading The Boggart and Victory and Dawn of Fear, for that matter. I still need to track down King of Shadows, Green Boy, Seaward, The Boggart and the Monster, The Magician's Boy, and Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children.)

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

Wow! You had this book too? It's great! :D

I've only read The Dark Is Rising, and I really, really love it. I've been wanting to read the whole sequence - and now because of you, I'm really curious about The Grey King! :) Thanks!

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

*nods*

It is a great book. I don't know if I still have it--my book collection is rather...um...disorganized, at the moment--but I remember greatly liking it.

The whole Dark is Rising sequence is wonderful; as I said, they're my favourite books, ever. The Grey King is my very favourite, but all of them are really good, and I highly recommend them to pretty much everyone.

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

Today I ordered The Grey King. Your recommendation made me really interested in it :)

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I hope you get it soon, and that you like it. I adore it, myself (as I'm sure you've noticed!). I just got the unabridged audio book (as well as for The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, and Silver on the Tree; still waiting for Over Sea, Under Stone to arrive), and am loving the audio version, as well.

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

You know what? I think I'm going to order the whole sequence! (Well, although I've owned The Dark Is Rising - but I can always share the beauty to someone else!) :)

[finnyb.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan to me!

[noah-sila.livejournal.com]

I had heard and read about the arthurian legend as a teenager, either for school or out of personal interest, but I think that what truly did the trick for me was Avalon, a movie by Mamoru Oshii.

It's not about the arthurian legend proper: it is set in some near-future, and takes place in some kind of decadent, cyber-punk city, where many people earn a living by playing an illegal video game called Avalon. One particular player, an unreadable woman named Ash, hears that there might be a secret level to that game, and decides to find it. Game and reality start to blend (not unlike what happens in the movie Existenz, for those of you who have seen it), and the film unfolds like a slow voyage to this blurry and uncertain hidden level, and to me this was a rewriting of the famous boat ride to Avalon, among the mists, on a plane of existence that's neither reality nor dream.

So that was it for me, this movie called so much into question that I began to obsessively research anything Avalon-related, and then I fell into the arthurian legend itself head first.

(http://www.ninesisters.org/ --> very interesting site about the movie, analyzing every nook and cranny.)

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

wow... I've heard of that Mamoru Oshii's film, but I never knew that it's the rewriting of the boat ride to Avalon... what an interesting way to get into Arthurian legends! :)
thanks for the link!

[lucre-noin.livejournal.com]

Mine was the disnet cartoon 'The sword in the stone' when I was only a little child. When I was 13 I read a book about the Saint Graal and the knights who looked for it and I loved it.
But I always had an obsession with ladies and knights : D

[access-identity.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love that animation by Disney too, although I wish Kay is portrayed more like in the book :)

[lucre-noin.livejournal.com]

Me too ;_; sir Kay is one of my favourite characters

[parisiennepen.livejournal.com]

I think my first introduction to the Arthurian legends, like that of many people here, was the Disney version of The Sword in the Stone (actually, I had a tape of various Disney movie songs and "That's what makes the world go round" was on it; that was probably my first taste of the movie in the first place :)). Then, like finnyb, I got into The Dark is Rising Sequence. Then an episode of the short-lived Canadian TV show MythQuest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythQuest) - "Sir Caradoc at the Round Table" - piqued my interest further. But the clincher came when when I was doing research for a term paper that I wrote recently. Having not read the legends before, I read a TON of background material that was really fascinating and that drew me in. Since then, I've been completely hooked. :)