Reviews for Legends of Arthur

The average rating for Legends of Arthur based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-09 00:00:00 Molly Mills I bought this beautiful leather bound edition while visiting Salt Spring Island and finally finished it. This is an edited collection of stories covering the tales of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde and the quest for the Holy Grail. I am fascinated by the hero archetype as it shifts from the classic emphasis on courage and martial exploits and comes to integrate the Christian ideals of restraint, mercy, redemption and healing. The early stories can at times be tedious with their repetitive stories of the infallible hero and his tireless appetite for jousting and chivalry. There is much humour in the fools tale of Perceval as he follows his call to adventure. The later mystical elements of the Holy Grail as Christian Relic and philosophers stone are dreamlike and mesmerizing.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-10-15 00:00:00 Chris Carver I got this more to flick through than to read in full -- ah, second hand books. It contains two retellings each of the stories of Arthur, Gawain and Tristan, which endears it to me somewhat. It has a story of the more imperial Arthur and then one of his Round Table; the first from Geoffrey of Monmouth, with an extended section on Arthur's death, and then one from Malory and the Vulgate Cycle. After that, it has a poetic translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and a prose translation/retelling (not certain which, without the original to compare) of, I think, the Dutch Gawain romance, Roman van Walewein. The translations are not the most sparkling I've encountered, if translations they are, and they make singularly flat retellings, too. The Tristan stories, I'm less familiar with, and the introduction is not very clear about exactly where they're drawn from. I think, to be honest, all of these books are best encountered in their own editions, with the accompanying notes and introductions and fully realised translations. Even for a casual reader, but especially for a scholar.