A selection of Arthurian and related titles
Over the years I’ve reviewed quite a few Arthurian titles, several of which will be added to in this blog. These Arthurian books range from historical and archaeological studies to counterfactual narratives, from literary commentaries to modern fiction, from personages to places and things.
This will be a good point to declare that I’m agnostic where ‘King Arthur’ is concerned. The conception of a Dark Age warlord that was prevalent and partly (but not universally) accepted in the sixties was one I subscribed to as a possibility then, but the more I study it (and I’ve been doing so for nearly 50 years) the more I’m inclined to suspect that the concept is a combination of historical fabrication, paucity of evidence and wishful thinking. That doesn’t make it any less fascinating as a process, which is my apology for continuing to pursue it!
Worthwhile non-fiction titles
Worth consulting, even if well over forty years: old http://wp.me/s2oNj1-questing
A seminal work: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-avalon
A reliable overview: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-hero
Historical and archaeological background to an age in transition: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-civitas
Personal items in the Dark Ages: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-end
Literature and texts
Translation of key Arthurian texts: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-keytexts
Translations of key texts of ‘mythstory’, including Arthuriana: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-myths
A key medieval Arthurian poet: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-chretien
Interrogating the documentary evidence: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-concepts
Popular culture
The cult of Arthuriana in the Middle Ages: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-relics
Material evidence for the medieval fascination with the legend: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-roundtable
Victorian fascination with the legend: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-quest
20th-century fascination with the legend: http://wp.me/p2oNj1-mq
Pseudohistorical Arthurs
A Scottish Arthur: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-lost
A North Walian Arthur: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-gullible
A West Country Arthur: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-misguided
A Central Asian Arthur: http://wp.me/s2oNj1-dragon-king
Hi,
I followed you back from mine. I’ve reviewed Armitage’s Gawain and the Green Knight and Ackroyd’s Death of Arthur (http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/category/arthurian-myth/) – I’d be interested in your thoughts on both as frankly it sounds like you’re better versed in the myth than I am.
I have reviewed the Armitage book elsewhere, and will have to put a revised version of it online soon! The Ackroyd though I haven’t read as yet, but you’ve got me thinking about them both…
I agree with your pithy summary! What makes me sad, and sometimes cross, is that the hunt for Arthur means that people who lived real lives in hazardous times are brushed aside when any objective analysis should make them ‘heroes’ or at least, influential figures, even though they have the audacity not to be Arthur.
It’s all too true. Especially so, as you’re all too aware, in the case of Cumbria, with its legacy from historical Rheged and all those celebrated names with their fragmented stories from the post-Roman period.
Exactly! I do wish Cumbrian children were brought up on stories of Urien and co, even if plenty of historians aren’t happy about the placement of Rheged.
So do you think it’s spread between Wigtownshire and Cumbria, or more limited than that?
Yes to the first, but I leave it to people who know far more than me to debate the details. If it was easy, we’d all understand it, but it isn’t and we don’t.
Hey, I’ve nominated you for a Liebster Blog Award! Check out the rules on my blog here: http://getexcitedmakethings.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/thanks-for-the-liebster-blogging-award-and-11-more-blogs-you-should-check-out/
Please don’t be offended but some of the questions are a bit intrusive for my taste; and as I’d rather spend time blogging posts I’ve instigated than answer the questions I regret that I shall be declining the invitation. But thanks for considering me in your list of bloggers for this award, and good luck with responses from other bloggers.
Sorry I didn’t mean to be intrusive! Happy blogging.