bookslayer’s Reviews > The Mabinogion > Status Update

I think that this isn`t the original Yvain story, but an adaptation from Chrestien de Troyes, since these stories circled back. The Bretagne-Britain circulation was pretty complex when these stories were collected (some 11-12th century, but rediscovered in the 19th). At last, that`s what I understood from the preface of my edition.

I like Yvain best after Lancelot. First time, it was a retelling. The original French version in courtly verse is a bit difficult to read today. Is very comprehensible, but it`s difficult to immerse in it, for me. Also, my cat is the Lion, since she always walk alongside me :D

I had hoped for some Celtic authenticity here, in the spirit of Norse mythology, I guess, or Scandinavian fairy-tales :'D

These stories are supposed to feel like something people read for fun, so I think I'm going to like Ruth Harwood Cline's translation of Perceval a lot. The Ukrainian translation of Lancelot isn't as *cute* but it's still closer to what it's supposed to be than the prose translations, which I admittedly had a lot of fun with as well, but they also have the vibe of something academics torture each other with lol

I think that some retellings are better than the original, for fun.

The Norse mythology is also a retelling, by the Christian bards-writers who took the legends of their ancestors that lived some 200 years before them. I assisted at two master classes, one about the Poetic Edda and the other on Volsunga Saga and is interesting how all these things interact: pagan inheritance, the aristocratic environment, the Christian ambiguities and so on.

Ironically, the oldest Germanic poem is Beowulf and the best version of it that I`ve read is retold by Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet who got the Nobel Prize. And in his approach, there is also the relationship of conquest and oppression involved, and how to take a tale and make a better version than the one told by the former imperial rules.

Back to the tales, yes, they don`t have the fairy feeling :D And no Lancelot, my hero.

I always have this "how much fun am I even allowed to have with the retelling? better to read the original and see what the source actually says!". It's not usually that hard. But the Arthurian mythology is like, "that's all we have, sorry, nothing else got through". The melancholy is integral.

Yes and I had the same feeling with de Troyes, Mallory, the Quest for Grail, Geoffrey of Monmouth and so on. I even read some in Old French and felt alike. I still like the stories, just not the writing :D

Maybe is like in some anime, people enjoyed the duels and the tournaments and ignored the rest. Though, Fate is great, the main ones.

I recently got Tainted Grail, The Fall of Avalon. I understood is pretty good.

How's Fate treating Lancelot? Is he even there? xD

He is a crazy airplane knight in Fate Zero :D

Airplane??

Yes, he is a fighter jet :D An out of control one, typical to the Berserker Class. It`s one of his magic skills.

Check on YT the Fate Zero 14 gilgamesh vs berserker video :) Also, the one called The Clashing Ideologies of Fate/Zero`s Kings.

AMAZING

will do, thanks :D

You're welcome :) Fate/Zero is one of my favs, especially Kiritsugu.