The History of the Arthurian Legends in Ten Easy Steps (with Recommended Reading)

[zahrawithaz]

There is no set canon. There never has been.

Unlike many other legends that have been retold repeatedly, there’s no unified original text for the stories about Arthur and his associates. Bear in mind that for most of their history, the Arthurian legends circulated orally and through manuscripts; just as oral traditions can vary over time, different

Comments

[zahrawithaz]

You're welcome

[zahrawithaz]

Sorry--I'm actually working on Part 2 of my reply. Alas, I'm not at home at the moment and can't access some of my bookshelf, but I do have some ideas for you. I might not be able to pull everything together until tomorrow.

But it's a GREAT question and I'm thinking hard on it. I think you're onto something with the recent revisionist novels, which do tend to try to "redeem" one female character by pitting her against others--The Mists of Avalon is a classic example of this. (I think there are supposed to be friendships between Nimue & Vivian & Morgan et al in that book, but I don't remember that coming across with much conviction.) I haven't read Rosalind Miles, but my impression is that it's similar; and Diana L. Paxson's The White Raven takes a medieval relationship between women--Isolde & her loyal servant Branwen--and makes them competitors.

So one place to start would be with Isolde, actually. More later!

[tielan]

Awesome summary and thank you for doing it!

[kathyh]

Wonderful summary. I find the longevity of these stories and the way they are retold slightly differently through the years absolutely fascinating.

Most retellings that followed echoed Sutcliff’s themes and plot choices, though few have had her inclusive vision

I'm a huge fan of "Sword at Sunset" and first read it when I was quite young. Because Rosemary Sutcliff was a popular children's author the version I read, published by a subsidiary of Penguin, had the sexual references taken out, including the same sex couple! I can't quite imagine that happening today. Interestingly when I did read the full version nothing was there that I hadn't managed to infer, so bowdlerising it was a pretty pointless exercise.

[mojitochica]

This was very informative considering prior to Merlin my Arthurian knowledge came from the Disney's Sword in the Stone and watching half of the TNT miniseries the Mists of Avalon, lol!

[dianadisaster]

Thank you for compiling this! I found it very interesting.