Legends of Arthur

by Richard Barber

The image of Arthur has haunted the poets and writers of western Europe for nearly nine centuries, and there is no sign of an end to the reign of the 'once and future king' in the world of literature. The Arthurian epic is as popular a subject now as it was when it was first fashioned, and the stories about Arthur and the heroes associated with him come in a bewildering number of guises. The sheer variety of the legends, both in style and content, is extraordinary; and this collection attempts to present, in a small space, something of this diversity. Sir Thomas Malory, half a millennium ago, plundered a whole range of sources to create his masterpiece, Le Morte Darthur; but he did so to weld them together within the framework of Arthur's own career. Legends of King Arthur draws on different sources, but emphasises the way in which writers have created new stories around the great heroes, or have told the stories in different ways. So there are two versions of each hero's exploits. Arthur is shown as emperor and warlord, and as the triumphant and tragic king of the romances, betrayed by Lancelot and Guinevere. Gawain is the central figure of the wonderful adventures of a Dutch romance, and the courtly and subtle hero of the English masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tristan appears as the single-minded lover of Iseult in the original version of his story, and then as a knight of the Round Table whose devotion to chivalry is almost as great as his passion for his beloved. In these differing versions, we can see how the Arthurian romances held the medieval world spellbound for so long, in all their colour and variety.

RICHARD BARBER's books on Arthur include Arthurian Legends: An Illustrated Anthology, King Arthur: Hero and Legend and Myths and Legends of the British Isles.

Genres: Mythology, Arthurian, Fiction, Folklore, Fantasy, Classics

459 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Richard William Barber is a prominent British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in the Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion, in 1961, which is still in print in a revised edition. His other major interest is historical biography; he has published on Henry Plantagenet (1964) and among his other books is the standard biography of Edward the Black Prince, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. The interplay between history and literature was the theme of The Knight and Chivalry, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1971 and he returned to this in The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004); this was widely praised in the UK press, and had major reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

His other career has been as a publisher. In 1969 he helped to found The Boydell Press, which later became Boydell & Brewer Ltd, one of the leading publishers in medieval studies, and he is currently group managing director. In 1989, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, in association with the University of Rochester, started the University of Rochester Press in upstate New York. The group currently publishes over 200 titles a year.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of books!

[Clark Hays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur: Once and Future King of Dissonance

This is a solid collection of multiple historical manuscripts offering a look at the Arthurian legends — his rise and fall and the epic adventures, and doomed romances, of his Knights. The stories include the origins of Arthur, his success as a military strategist and his ultimate downfall at the hands of Mordred (and wounded return to mythical Avalon); the romance (and betrayal) of Lancelot and Guinevere; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, along with another elaborate Gawain adventure featuring a flying chessboard, a talking fox and a sword that kills those who lack perfect virtue; and, the doomed romance of Tristan and Iseult.

So many of the elements from these stories have lodged — like a poisoned shard from a shattered sword — in our collective psyches that reading them feels like a constant rediscovery of precious things once thought lost forever: the sword in the stone, mysterious Merlin, the sorrowful Lady of the Lake. So why do we still find so meaningful and moving these tall tales of knights and ladies, of kings and magicians from the almost-forgotten mists of time? My completely unprovable theory is that the longevity of Arthurian legends is due to the tension, the dissonance between so many pairs of opposite ideals and concepts — between destiny and self-determination, between magic and muscle, between chivalry and savagery, between fidelity and lust and between history and myth. That power to make sense of and navigate extremes makes these stories a reliable map to the human experience in a world of competing extremes, even if the trappings — tournaments and armor and jousting and fainting well-born ladies — are wildly out of date.

Some of my favorite lines:

"In our blindness we have reared a viper for a nightingale, and ground corn for the raven that was mean for the dove."

"...in an instant that arch-disturber of tranquility was there: Love..."

"Now a woman's wrath is a fearful thing, and all men fear it, for according to her love, so will her vengeance be."

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur, the ficticious king who was only ever mentioned in 1 document but not as a king. Made famous in around 1100ad by a french poet who started what was to become king Arthur and the knights of the round table. This book blew my mind. It was such brilliant fantasy. I was hooked and reading this was an absolute pleasure. I have it on my bookshelf for one day returning too giving to my son. All the tales in this work capulating and thoroughly pleasing to the eyes and mind :) Loved it!!

[Harald · Rating 3 out of 5]

The legends of King Arthur and his time are so numerous that Richard Barber has found it necessary to collect and edit them strictly. Nevertheless, he has chosen to reproduce different, partly contradictory versions of the king's mythical life.

The first part is dedicated to the warrior king who will stop the Saxons' conquest of England and the Roman Empire's attempt to regain political control. The second part is about the amusements and intrigues at the Round Table with an emphasis on Sir Lancelot's affair with Queen Guinevere. The text lacks Snorri's boldness, but occasionally there are moments that are portrayed with either a naivety or a dark humor that must have inspired Monty Python and other parodies of the age of chivalry.

[Hans Otterson]

The bulk is a retread of Malory, just rewritten a little clearer, and it's good where Malory is good and boring where he is. The Tristan volume was nearly entirely new to me, and the best of the lot in terms of a compelling story from start to finish. The first half of the Perceval story was excellent, as well, but went off the rails after that (apparently finished by others than Chretien de Troyes, the original writer).

For someone who's been in and out of Arthurian legend pretty deeply for the last two years, it's a B.

8W

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an odd choice to have multiple versions of the same story in the same book. On the one hand it was a good way of illustrating the different takes on the stories, but on the other it made it hard to divide the versions mentally, and it meant the style varied wildly between versions.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, well researched and introduced, and thoroughly entertaining. Nice to go back to the roots while maintaining an action packed plot in a more modern style.

[AJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure was a lot of manly fainting and crying way back when

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this set

[Jim B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of early writings about Arthur, uneven in quality -- the first document is similar to Caesar's Gallic Wars -- all dull numbers and names and places of battles. The second document, more magical (literally) and narrative, sometimes touches some of the same incidents in the other document, but makes you wonder about the truth behind the legends of Arthur and his queen Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawain and the others.

I can see why someone would take a course on the legend of King Arthur. The legend puzzles me. It seems to be less about a wise and good king, and more about the stupidity and destructiveness that adultery brought to Arthur's kingdom, destroying everything good and everyone wise and loyal, including Arthur.

I can understand the power for a monarchy and for a nation to learn that the inscription on Arthur's tomb was said to be "The Once and Future King." What a promise that Camelot and the society of the Round Table might some day flourish again. But aside from that little detail, the Legend of Arthur seemed a Shakespearean cautionary tale about being drawn into adultery (or taking sides over an adultery) than about the glories of a kingdom where all the king's men were equals in a noble society.

The Introduction to the book gives valuable information about the lack of historical evidence around Arthur, and the development of the legend.

This is just the first of the three books in the Folio set. The other volumes include "Tristan" and "The Holy Grail."

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to read some 'more original' stories that have been as influential and lasted as long as they have. However, reading it can be a fairly dry and dull experience, it can be hard to believe that anybody ever found them as exciting as they apparently did! Also interesting (but annoying) to see how different social attitudes were.

[David Mosley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book which is really just a collection of medieval Arthurian tales is an excellent starting place for anyone broadly interested in reading the Arthurian mythos but are unsure where to turn first.