King Arthur In Legend and History

by Richard White

In this volume, Richard White has collected a diverse selection of medieval Arthurian literature and history, culling from Latin, English, Welsh, French and German sources, presenting many passages translated into English for the first time. White's selections enable the reader to understand how the rich Arthurian tapestry evolved over a period of more than 500 years, King Arthur in Legend and History also includes a chronology of key Arthurian texts, maps, an appendix of Arthurian Courts, a list of sources, suggestions for further reading and a bibliography.

Genres: Arthurian, History, Nonfiction, Medieval

604 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is often stated that to explore the entire range of Medieval Arthurian Literature, the reader would need more than one lifetime. While this collection doesn't contain the entire corpus of Arthurian literature, it does contain a pretty good selection of texts, meaning that the reader can sample various versions of the legend and a bibliography to fuller sources, meaning the reader can decide whether or not they wish to pursue one of the selections further.

The collection begins by giving selections from material that is often used by scholars interested in the so called Historical Arthur. Texts include selections from Gildas, Nenius and many more.

Having no desire to pursue this Historical Arthur subject, I found the rest of the work more interesting. This is taken up by representative selection from the more literary polished Romance Traditions. Texts translated come from France, Germany, England and more besides. Lesser known authors include Layamon and John Hardyng, alongside family favourites like Malory.

This is an excellent collection for those curious about Arthurian Literature. My only gripe about this book is that it would've benefited from the inclusion of some of the Welsh poems that mention Arthur. That aside, this is a great collection of Arthurian Literature.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1930s a scholar such as E K Chambers could bring out a study of Arthurian matters and, while inter alia translating or paraphrasing key passages in his discussion, would quote the original medieval texts in Latin on the supposition that his readers would be able to read and understand them. More than half a century on knowledge of Latin is not, if you pardon the irony, a sine qua non of the average reader, so we must all be grateful to Richard White for including not just a translation of most of Chambers' extracts but of a large number of other key Arthurian texts, not all of them in Latin.

Add to that intelligent introductions to not simply the whole collection but to each extract and this becomes a ready reference for those interested not just in Arthurian history and legend but also folklore and literature up to the late Middle Ages. And despite the magnitude of the available texts this volume is no more unwieldy than the one-volume paperback editions of The Lord of the Rings, so really the Arthurian enthusiast has no excuse for not obtaining and enjoying it!

[Brianna]

I didn't /quite/ finish this one. I absolutely loved the Brute Chronical parts (especially the middle English poems), but stalled out on the early French romances. I don't know if it was the translation quality or the actual original authors, but I couldn't get through the writing. I'm inclineTTd towards the former, since the occasional translation of more difficult middle English words was terrible in the first bit. "kenn muckle of gyle" does not mean "knew a lot of tricks"

Anyway, translation problems aside, this was a fantastic resource for what I needed it for, and the introduction and basic over view of Arthurian literature gave me a spring board for digging into more primary sources.

[Linda Malcor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like it as well as the classic book by Brengle, but it is more modern. I suspect that if I taught another class on Arthurian literature, I would use it, but I would use supplemental sources.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection of snippets of Arthurian literature, both standard and obscure.