Arthur av Albion

by John Matthews, Pavel Tatarnikov (Illustrator), Marianne Uthaug (Translator)

The ultimate book on King Arthur! Combining the best-known sotries about Arthur and his court with tfascination research on who Arthur really was and where Camelot was built, and the relationships between the main characters in the legends, the magnificent edition has been designed and illustrated to the highest standards.

Genres: Arthurian, Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

John Matthews is an historian, folklorist and author. He has been a full time writer since 1980 and has produced over ninety books on the Arthurian Legends and Grail Studies, as well as short stories and a volume of poetry. He has devoted much of the past thirty years to the study of Arthurian Traditions and myth in general. His best known and most widely read works are ‘Pirates’ (Carlton/Atheneum), No 1 children’s book on the New York Times Review best-seller list for 22 weeks in 2006, ‘The Grail, Quest for Eternal Life’ (Thames & Hudson, 1981) ‘The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom’ (Element, 1994) and ‘The Winter Solstice’ (Quest Books, 1999) which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for that year. His book ‘Celtic Warrior Chiefs’ was a New York Public Library recommended title for young people.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Matthews is a well-known Arthurian scholar, with many publications on the legendary king to his name. Pavel Tatarnikov is an artist from Belarus. Together they have created a beautiful introduction to the myths of King Arthur, aimed at children but suitable for anyone.

One must remember that this is merely an overview book, and not designed to be a detailed re-telling of the stories. There are parts of the book that are more of an encyclopaedia - for example, the section on magical creatures, or the pages on the Ladies of the Lake. One of two of the standard stories (such as the pulling of the sword from the stone) are re-told in more detail. But if you are looking for a detailed book on Arthurian legends, you should look elsewhere. What marks out this book are the high production values, and the gorgeous illustrations.

[Atharva Shah · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Arthur of Albion* A retelling of the Arthurian Legend by John Matthews.
This gave me a much needed recap, very brief and superficial but like still potent, about the much loved Arthurian legend. Spanning over 130 pages with landscape illustrations at regular intervals with Merlin, Lancelot, Arthur and the adventures of the Knights of the round table depicted are a pleasure to the eye. As far as I know, the story was brief, to the point and aracterized by the essential Arthurian Spirit that s reminiscent in the modern age. The entiriety of the life of King Arthur is divided into seven chapters with two of them focusing on secondary characters like Lancelot, Percival (or Percivale) as he's called in this book and Galahad. I read this book and enjoyed it but the pure motive behind this as to catch up witht he forgoteen key details surrounding the life and legend of King Arthur. This is an all agefriendly book that I'll certainly recommend for children thanks to it's unspoilt and to the point narrative. The font, illustrations and introduction was set up very well and the overall appeal of the book itelf amazed me. Deserves to be read in one sitting. Nice Reading!

[Sandrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pour une fois, je triche un peu en mettant comme lu un ouvrage que j'ai en partie parcouru. La raison ? Je le lirai de temps à autre. Et ce à cause du texte. Si j'ai mis cette note c'est surtout pour le travail époustouflant de l'illustrateur Pavel Tartanikov qui donne une âme à cet ouvrage. Le travail éditorial est également à avoir applaudir. Mais pour ce qui est du texte... Je ne sais trop où j'ai mis les pieds.
Ma première réaction : c'est quoi ça ? Du descriptif sans histoire au sens du story telling. On me plaque des faits. Sans lien les uns avec les autres.
Et puis j'ai pensé à mes vieilles études de littérature, aux récits du moyen âge et, surtout, aux nombreuses lignes que j'ai dû traduire de l'ancien français. Ils étaient souvent descriptifs et creux. Comme ici en fait.
Alors oui, certains textes ont pris de la chair, du muscle et de l'émotion grâce aux nombreux ajouts de moines copistes créatifs et romantiques. Ceux-là ont traversé les siècles grâce aux multiples passages enrichis d'amour courtois (Coucou Tristan, Lancelot...) Mais sinon, la Littérature médiévale, c'était pas la joie.
Alors est-ce que l'auteur a voulu reprendre le style ? Peut-être... En tout cas, j'aurais bien aimé un peu plus de corps et de cœur dans ce texte.
L'ouvrage est magnifique mais comme vous l'aurez compris, le corps du texte est un peu trop indigeste pour une lecture en une fois .. alors oui, je confesse, je triche 😉

[pennyg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Legends of king Authur and his knights with lovely color illustrations written by a wonderful Autherian author, John Matthews and beautifully illustrated by Pavel Tatarnikov of Belarus. Under 150 pages, it's great for Children to read or be read to or interesting enough and entertaining enough for old folks like me who like good stories about knights and maidens and good and evil and are still waiting for Authur's return from Avalon.

[Cosima Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Het boek waar mijn mama uit las voor het slapen gaan.

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5. Nice entry point into the Arthurian legends and tales. The illustration are good and the writing is fine, good enough to be worthy and simple enough to make it easy to read even for younger reader. I would recommend it to younger reader who are just starting to be interested in this subject and want an overview of it all.

[Lindsay Smith-Munoz]

This made it into the real-aloud pile and managed to supplant the greatly loved and often read D'Aullaires' Norse Myths. Did not hurt that we watched "The Sword in the Stone" Disney video and a Ted Ed video about the Arthur legends before we dug into this. The stories are abridged, and the prose is understandable for a child, but these are not modernized or expurgated versions of the stories. This fidelity to the original versions of the stories was a high selling point for me, but there are plenty of slaying, though not gore. Guinevere is sentence to be burned at the stake for adultery before being narrowly rescued by Lancelot. The illustrations [in trade paperback] were not as numerous as I had hoped, but lovely and fascinating nonetheless.

[Meow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. It was fantastic.

[Chris Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful illustrations and a map poster as a bonus, depicting the mediæval/mythical image of Britain as Albion. The stories are simplified for children, yes, but these are not the purely Malory-derived versions you might expect. John Matthews also weaves in material from the more færie inflected earlier tales of Arthur. This is a great book and a random find, I was Googling the illustrator when I came across it.

[Enikő · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read after a somewhat tiring day and week. I always enjoy reading about Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, and this was no different. Although written for children, so the events succeed each other quite quickly, there were enough new elements in each story to keep me guessing and interested.

[SA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, thoughtful, and great for a middle reader. I appreciated Matthews' care for including the many women of the Arthurian mythos -- not merely as props to the stories of the male figures but as characters with motivations in their own right. Super medieval, though, very much describing the romances of Arthur and the Matter of Britain.

[Inge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the little stories in between but they are always interrupted with two pages of dull facts/myths.
I would have loved to had a more coherent story but it were all short stories. Short being the keyword.
Some where nice and surprising but sadly way too short. Could have been a great book at this moment at best mediocre.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthews organizes the legends about King Arthur and his knights ion way that is useful for quick reference.
The art work of Pavel Taternikov has a medieval quality. Some of the images take up a full two page layout.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend for slightly younger readers. Interesting stories and I enjoyed the format. Most of the book is stories told before dinner in Arthur's court.

[Emily Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very engaging collection of Arthurian legends. These stories reminded me of my love for King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, and Merlin.

[jennifer]

The illustrations are beyond.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although aimed at children, this lovely illustrated book of Arthurian stories is a pleasure to read at any age.

[Shayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great.

Arthurian legend is awesome to me, I just love it. This book is a gorgeous sort of story book that does a great job of telling many of the main stories from Arthurian legend in a brief but highly informative way. I liked the format a lot because it would have 2 pages of brief descriptions of smaller things like Argante or Merlin's prophecies or the Round Table and then the next maybe 10 pages would just be a story like how Arthur got Excalibur or Gawaine and the Green Knight.

The illustrations were gorgeous and so fun to look at and I enjoyed the simplistic storytelling that still managed to be very magical and make me wish the stories were true.

Merlin's own end is as uncertain as his beginning. Some say that he fell in love with a beautiful fairy woman, Nimue, one of the Nine Ladies of the Lake, and that she placed spells around him and kept him in an enchanted place forever. But others tell it differently: that he grew tired of the follies of men and returned to the Golden Wood, where he built a house of glass with seventy doors and windows. There he is still, watching the stars turn across the heavens, and waiting for King Arthur to come again.

I mean that is just plain awesome.

I think this book works as a great introduction to the legend of King Arthur and I'm tempted to buy a copy to keep at home.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: I love the old Arthurian Tales of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Which this book is. FYI, I'm not so fond of modern retellings, only if they involve Arthur as a boy or focus on Merlin as the main character.

This book was published a couple years ago in an oversized picture book format which I am sure is simply breath taking and would be the edition you would want if you want to read this aloud to younger children or even a group of children. This edition I have has been reduced into a trade paperback chapter book edition, meant to be read alone. (but of course you can read it aloud too!) I've come to realize now that Barefoot Books produce quality books and Arthur, by example, is covered with thick stock card covers that have flaps and the inside pages are of the same thick quality, found in their hardcovers, not used by many publishers for softcovers.

The paintings by Tartarnikov are exquisite medieval representations of the scenes he has chosen to illustrate. Hi paintings are 3 dimensional but he does leave a small 2 dimensional aspect remindful of the artwork from the original time period. The paintings have a mystical, dreamy quality to them as he combines the magical with the reality of the then knights in all their splendiferous glory. A perfect illustrator for this text.

The book itself concentrates on retelling several stories from the multitude available. The stories start logically with the sword in the stone and end with the quest for the holy grail, but in between the tales are a various selection, of no particular order, mainly those featuring chivalry, saving maidens and fighting brutish knights. Of course, everyone is sent back to Arthur to tell his tale and this is the one constant through the flow of the individual tales. The author has managed to keep a sense of time and place in his choice of vocabulary making the book seem authentic to its medieval setting. This does make the book better suited to being read by the middle grades and up, though. None of the steamier storylines are introduced here, even though those characters are present, leaving only the convictions against Guinevere to be suggested. A lovely introduction to the Arthurian literary world.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book with my son who enjoys King Arthur legends. The book's format alternates b/t descriptions of the elements of different lengands, such as small write-ups of the more famous knight or other characters, and the actual legends.

The pictures in the book are magnificent and their style fits the legends perfectly. The stories were a little tough for my five year old to understand and required a lot of explaining so it is better suited for older fans of Arthur. Still, a lovely book.

My son also LOVED the map of the island and looking at the various castles and locations in comparison with each other.

[Amy Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe the hardback version is better, with more poetry, info, and the beautiful illustrations would be easier to see and enjoy. They are lavish. The tales are succinctly told. As a whole, the story of King Arthur and his knights is sad and at times, non-sensical. This version includes some of the favorite tales, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. fine for children, not scary. A strong third grade reader could attempt it, but some of the vocabulary might be difficult.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barefoot Books has done it again! John Matthews retells classic Arthurian lore in this comprehensive but fully digestible collection of tales and poems alongside some incredible artwork. As always, you can find this and other Barefoot Books on my website.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this is a read for a younger audience, this is one of the only books I have read and reread countless times. It’s written well and has wonderful illustrations- this book shaped my childhood and my interest for history. I highly recommend.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text was a bit stilted, but the illustrations were absolutely exquisite. Make sure you get the full-size hard cover version! The pictures are fewer & harder to see in the paperback.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book with lovely illustrations and brilliant stories, it's meant for children and would be great for reading aloud to slightly older kids.

[Catapimba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bem escrito e conta as lendas de um modo bem interessante.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated and a joy to read.

[Dr. Cheryl S. Vanatti]

Read my thoughts over on Reading Rumpus: https://www.readingrumpus.com/2008/11...