Comments | princeofcairo: A Lot Of Camelot

princeofcairo

A Lot Of Camelot

Jul 13, 2005 03:41

During a brief letup in wholesale Austerity, we found ourselves the other day in 57th Street Books. mollpeartree coveted Jared Diamond's Third Chimpanzee, so I had an opening and took it, buying Mike Ashley's Mammoth Book of King Arthur for the amazingly low price (for a 670-page book) of $13.50. I've had spotty luck with the Mammoth series before; some are ( Read more... )

book review, arthuriana

Comments 12

littlestkobold July 13 2005, 11:00:24 UTC

Is it broad enough to make a good introduction to the history behind the legend? Or is it a little shallow to do that? The first section sounds the most intriguing. We learnt a little about Lucius Artorius Castus in our Roman Britain lectures, and he was the basis for the recent King Arthur film, IIRC.

Quick (and somewhat facetious) question - Welsh Triads? Are they like ancient welsh gangsters?

princeofcairo July 13 2005, 20:14:05 UTC

It makes an excellent introduction to the history behind the legend, although other books will take you deeper.

The Welsh Triads are a poetic corpus, probably used as a mnemonic by court bards -- they take the form: "The Three Badass Giants: Gog who killed Brutus, Beanstalk who made gold, and Godzilla who breathed fire." (NOTE: Not A Real Triad.)

littlestkobold July 14 2005, 13:32:58 UTC

Although the idea of a secret criminal organization of Welsh giants has its own appeal.

sienamystic July 13 2005, 12:49:18 UTC

This sounds like exactly what I've been looking for.

*runs to Amazon.com to look for it*

I learned about Welsh Triads from Susan Cooper. Actually, I learned about a lot of stuff from Susan Cooper.

chromeraven July 14 2005, 23:55:47 UTC

I must say, I love your icon. Quite apropos for the subject matter...

sienamystic July 15 2005, 18:17:09 UTC

Thank you! It's one of the earliest, and simplest ones I made, and it's also one of my favorites. (And if you feel like swiping, please feel free.)

The Dark Is Rising Icons sienamystic July 16 2005, 04:33:40 UTC

Actually, I'd probably go for the first two lines in the poem, or the last two. Although, to be honest, the second poem (the one they got off the grail) always seemed more... poetic to me. The first is more, not doggrel, exactly, but simpler. But the second, well.

pauldrye July 13 2005, 16:23:58 UTC

Welsh Triads? "Nice herd of cattle you've got here. Be a shame if it were to...burn down."

tenzil July 13 2005, 17:35:56 UTC

The Third Chimpanzee is on my list as soon as I finish Collapse. I also note helpfully that PBS is doing a TV-ti-zation of Guns, Germs, and Steel that started just this week.

No, I'm not actually obsessed with Jared Diamond. Just coincidences.

ptevis July 13 2005, 22:04:07 UTC

Oh, so now you tell me about it. If only I'd known in, say, January.

Of course, the nice part about having done most my research already is that I have enough of an idea what you're talking about to determine that this is exactly the sort of book that I should have started with.