#the knights of the round table (gwen rowley)

[adhd-merlin]

Ever After

Fandom: Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot (Gwen Rowley) Relationship: King Arthur/Queen Guinevere Tags: Established Relationship, Sexual Repression, Miscommunication Words: 4800 Summary: A missing scene from Gwen Rowley's novel Lancelot. Since I didn't get the Arthur/Guinevere reconciliation scene I wanted, I wrote one myself.

Note: You can read Lancelot here—the entire book, or even just Chapter 38 (p. 222), of which this fic is a direct continuation. If you want to give this fic a go but can't be bothered with all that, I've summarised the Arthur/Guinevere subplot in the author's end notes on AO3. Many thanks to @queer-ragnelle for uploading and sharing this novel <3 You can find more books about Arthuriana on their blog, including Gawain, which is part of the same series and a fun retelling of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady (and can be read on its own.)

EXCERPT:

Arthur banged his fist on the door, with a force matching the pounding in his chest. “Guinevere!” The loudness of his own voice startled him, and he took a deep breath to calm himself. There were enough rumours going around already—the last thing they needed was for someone to overhear the king begging to be let into his wife's chamber.

“Guinevere,” he repeated, more quietly, but no less firmly. “I order you to open. We must talk.”

The door was yanked open so swiftly that Arthur almost lost his balance. He caught himself upon the doorframe before he could fall against Guinevere, who now stood in front of him, regarding him with an icy fury that would have made a man of lesser courage shrink in fear.

Arthur couldn’t think of any other occasion in which he had ordered Guinevere to do anything, and it was clear that she resented him for doing so now.

“What more is there to talk about, my lord?” she said, coldly. “I’ve confessed everything I’ve ever kept from you. There is no more to be said.”

She made as if to close the door again, but Arthur stopped it before she could slam it in his face. “I rather think there is. And I would hear it from you.”

READ ON AO3:

[queer-ragnelle]

Hi! I was wondering what's your personal favourite version of Lancelot (books tv movies etc) ?

Hi!! Ahhh yay Lancey<3 Let’s see…here’s all the media I recommend:

Books

The Marriage of Guenevere by Richard Hovey

The Story of The Champions of the Round Table, The Story of Launcelot and His Companions, The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur by Howard Pyle

The Book of Mordred by Peter Hanratty

The Chessboard Queen by Sharan Newman

Blessed Bastard by Ruth P M Lehmann

Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry

Lancelot by Gwen Rowley

Muppet King Arthur by Paul Benjamin

Spear by Nicola Griffith

TV [Watch here!]

The Adventures of Sir Galahad (1949)

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57)

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979)

Rising Impact (2024)

Movies [Watch here!]

Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Sword of Lancelot (1963)

Camelot (1967)

Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)

Excalibur (1981)

Merlin and The Sword (1985)

King Arthur (2004)

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)

Arthur & Merlin: Knights of Camelot (2020)

If I had to pick just my favorite Lancelot from each category….

Blessed Bastard by Ruth P M Lehmann

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57) (light-hearted)

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979) (tragedy)

Knights of the Round Table (1953) (family friendly)

Excalibur (1981) (NOT family friendly)

These provide a variety of interpretations but I think they’re all solid. They handle the situation with Elaine and Galahad sensitively, Lancelot is a good dude who suffers from some mental troubles, he loves Guinevere, Arthur, his son, and his friends Gawain and Gareth. Gave you two options for the shows/movies because the spectrum there is very wide, it’s understandable if you don’t want to watch something with rape in it, which BBC LoKA and Excalibur both have. Blessed Bastard cuts out all depiction, barely even fade to black, so the stuff with Elaine happens but it’s not an emotionally challenging read on that front. A great book.

Enjoy!!

[gawayne]

lance and his windows: a compilation

[gellavonhamster]

me: I tried reading comics and realized it’s not my cup of tea unless it’s standalone graphic novels or limited series, because I find such amount of canon, even when sticking to specific characters, too extensive and difficult to follow, and different stories/series are often contradictory, which is confusing

also me: already thinking which Arthurian texts to read next having barely finished reading Le Morte 🤡

(the list below was intended for personal use - I obviously cannot recommend things I haven’t read - but then I realized that some of these works are available online/can be downloaded for free because they are public domain, so if I add links, someone else might also find this useful)

Medieval texts:

The Mabinogion. I think I’ve read some individual stories from it at some point and enjoyed them. in any case, excited to see the knights of the Round Table with magic powers

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. don’t know how I still haven’t read this one (even though I know what it is about in general), shame on me

The Romance of Morien. heard good things about this one, also curious to see an Arthurian text with a Black man as the main character

Sir Gawain and the Lady of Lys. honestly, no idea what this one is about, but the full text is on Wiki and it’s pretty short, so I might as well give it a try

not losing hope to find Les Prophéties de Merlin in English because I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it in French. please, internet, just let me read about Morgan and her girl gang

Modern texts:

The Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr. everyone seems to love this one, and “Sir Kay solving a murder mystery” sounds pretty awesome

The Ballad of Sir Dinadan by Gerald Morris. it is Book 5 of The Squire’s Tales, but the description seems like I would be able to understand it without reading the previous installments. if I like it, might read some other books from this series (there is a novel about Lynet and a novel about Lunette, not sure if they aren’t combined into a single character but I like both of them anyway)

Gawain and possibly Lancelot by Gwen Rowley. saw a post recommending them, sounds like something I might enjoy

Tristan and Isolde: Restoring Palamede by John Erskine. probably??? do it for him (Palomides)

Non-fiction: 

King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition by Carolyne Larrington. looks extremely relevant to my interests

(to be continued?)

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

Do you know any Arthurian books (or other media) where Arthur and Guinevere have a good relationship (as opposed to her ending up with Lancelot)?

They are definitely the majority! Also, I am not adding the spoiler tag here because this is not about the ending of the book, but about the general relationship (as it being the main and positive romantic relationship for Guinevere and Arthur). (also I did not add some media where they do have a positive relationship but this is broken/ruined by the love for Lancelot)

Movies and tv:

Merlin and Arthur the Lion King

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (the 2017 cheap one with aliens!)

Kaamelott (tv)

Arthur et les enfantes de la table ronde (animated tv)

Cursed (tv)

Merlin BBC (tv)

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

Books:

Gwen Rowley’s Lancelot

Queen of Camelot by McKenzie

Woolley’s Guinevere trilogy

Godwin’s Firelord (sort of)

A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court

The Legend of Arturo King

These are the ones where the relationship is among the main ones or the focus, but there are many where they have a positive relationship but they are not the main ones!

[arthurian-mythia]

Knights of the Round Table: Gawain

The course of true love never does run smooth and for Aislyn in particular her course takes her over a waterfall. In the guise of the loathly lady, Ragnelle she saves the life King Arthur from Queen Morgause, and seeks out to embarrass her ex; Sir Gawain. So join us as we look at Knights of the Round Table Gawain by Gwen Rowley.

Music:

Arthurian Mythia Theme by Invictus Media Arthurian Mythia Techno Remix by Scop

Links:

Gawain (Knights of the Round Table) - Goodreads

Gwen Rowley - Goodreads

Gawain (Knights of the Round Table) - Amazon (US) (UK) (CA)

Geraint (Knights of the Round Table) - Goodreads

Lancelot (Knights of the Round Table) - Goodreads

Oisc of Kent - Wikipedia

Our Links:

Our novella, Ap Ector No.1: Cries in the Storm is out on Amazon Kindle.

Tumblr, Twitter, Redbubble Store, Twitch, Discord (Where we hang out it doesn't belong to us), Email: arthurian.mythia@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

[forthegothicheroine]

The best Lancelot I ever read was in Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot by Gwen Rowley.  I’m pretty sure it’s a direct response to Mists of Avalon, as he spends the whole book trying to recover from the trauma of being raised by fairies and having his memory played with.  What may be a dealbreaker to some is the romance with Elaine, who’s an amalgamation of Elaine of Corbenic and Elain of Astolot, but she’s a great character here and there are no love potions or trickery involved.  (He’s also not having an affair with Guinevere, but they do share a secret that could ruin her and I gasped when I found out what it was.)

[storytellerknight]

R/e Arthurian women. Where the women are not slut-shamed by the protagonists (e.g. Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy) or 'stuffed in fridges' or victimized to further the plot/motivate the male characters?

Okay, probably your best bet is Persia Woolley’s Guinevere Trilogy (Child of the Northern Spring, Queen of the Summer Stars, and Guinevere, the Legend in Autumn). Good series from Guinevere’s perspective, lots of female characters.

I quite liked the recently released “Guinevere Decption” by Kiersten White. Lots of great female characters in that one.

Anne Eliot Crompton’s “Merlin’s Harp” is good and while I haven’t read it, I’ve heard good things about the sequel “Gawain and Lady Green”.

All four books in Sarah Zettel’s Paths to Camelot series (In Camelot’s Shadow, for Camelot’s Honor, Under Camelot’s Banner, and By Camelot’s Blood).

It’s been a while since I read it, but I remember Jane Yolen’s “Sword of the Rightful King” having a great take on Guinevere.

Vivian Van Velde’s “Book of Mordred” is entirely from the perspective of female characters and they are all excellent.

Gerald Morris’ Squire’s Tales can be hit or miss, but for the most part I think he did an excellent job with his leading female characters (although based on your criteria, I would probably avoid the Ballad of Sir Dinadan and The Lioness and her Knight).

My understanding is the Gwen Rowley’s Knights of the Round Table series did a pretty good job with the female characters. I have only read “Gawain”, that one was excellent (and I’ve heard that Lancelot and Geraint aren’t as good story wise, but I think they did all right by their female characters).

Joan Wolf’s Road to Avalon. Been a while since I read it, but I remember it having an interesting and enjoyable take on Morgan.

K.M. Shea’s King Arthur and Her Knights series is great. The premise of a moddern day girl falling backwards in time to become King Arthur after the real Arthur runs off to marry a sheperdess sounds silly, but it’s so good. It was such a fun read.

Haven’t finished it, but Suzanne Weyn’s “The Night Dance”, but it should be good. It’s a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses Fairytale set in Arthurian times with Bedivere as the young man who takes up the father’s challenge.

I would also recommend asking @fuckyeaharthuriana for recs. Lucre has read a lot more than I have and a lot more of the more recently released stuff. But I hope this list helps, anon, and that you find something you enjoy.

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review... Gwen Rowley, “Knights of the Round Table: Gawain”

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: fantasy romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Knights of the Round Table #3 (of 3)

Summary: Loyal Sir Gawain pledges to marry a hideous crone in exchange for the answer to a riddle that will save King Arthur's life. But the loathly lady is actually the lovely Aislyn, former sorceress, in disguise, who is out to make Gawain pay for rejecting her in the past. Then Aislyn finds herself enchanted by the gallant knight.

***Full review under the cut.***

Overview: I’m currently reading a bunch of romance novels with a friend of mine as a way of getting more familiar with the genre, and I remember seeing this book recommended by another medieval enthusiast, so the two of us decided to give it a whirl. While the idea of retelling the story of Gawain and Ragnelle isn’t inherently a bad one, I felt like this book missed the mark in so many ways. There were some saving graces; the relationship between Arthur and Gawain was very well done, in my opinion. It just wasn’t enough to make up for the things that bothered me.

Trigger Warnings: violence, misogyny, rape

Writing: Rowley writes with a fairly straightforward prose style, but one that tells a lot rather than shows. It wasn’t the most irritating style I’ve encountered; it just made the book more skimmable, which I guess could be a good thing if you’re a reader who likes to get through books quickly. Some of the dialogue was humorous (by design), which made for a more light-hearted reading experience; it did feel very modern than what I would expect of medieval characters, aside from a few stray “yons” and “lemans” thrown in to make it feel more archaic. Honestly, I preferred the more modern style rather than the fake medieval-speak, since the medievalisms made the dialogue feel more wooden than natural. But overall, the I didn’t find the style unbearable - it just wasn’t interesting. The major flaw in the writing, for me, was the random insertion of characters’ memories and flashbacks. They occurred at random moments that interrupted the flow of the story - they sometimes interrupted a sentence that continued on after the memory was over! I would have preferred flashbacks be handled more deliberately, not thrown in whenever something in the plot vaguely reminded a character of something from their past.

Plot: As I mentioned above, the idea of retelling the story of Gawain and Ragnelle isn’t a bad one. I love authors who try to rework medieval tales to give women more agency and character. Unfortunately, Rowley decided to do so in a way that cut out a lot of the most interesting stuff from the original tale. We start with the end of the story, when Aislyn, disguised as a crone named Ragnelle, agrees to give Arthur the answer to his quest in exchange for Gawain’s hand in marriage. Rather than the curse being inflicted on her before the marriage, as it is in the medieval tale, the curse is inflicted after, when a character is trying to punish Aislyn for messing with Gawain (in the form of her using her crone form to torture him for a past slight). For me, this killed all the excitement and shifted the focus away from the original message of the tale (about female agency and sexual dynamics) to one about how love can overcome barriers. It would have been a good shift, but I didn’t get the sense that love was overcoming barriers by the end of the book - Gawain doesn’t seem to actually learn the lesson from the original tale, and Aislyn mostly struggles with whether or not to be obedient to Gawain. While I can understand wanting to make female characters more agentive from the beginning, I found this book’s reworking of the plot less interesting than the original medieval tale. The change in focus also made the plot drag a little bit. In the first 80 pages, all of the focus was on Gawain’s disgust at Ragnelle’s form or Aislyn’s/Ragnelle’s desire for revenge. We follow Gawain and Ragnelle as they explore married life, which isn’t as exciting as it sounds since Gawain is forever struggling with Ragnelle’s ugliness and Ragnelle/Aisling is always looking for ways to torment him. After Aislyn is formally cursed on pages 85-86, the plot has a goal, but nothing in the structure of the narrative seems to work towards that goal in a very efficient way. Events don’t seem to build on one another, so the plot didn’t feel like it had shape. There are also a few events that seem to be inserted to show conflict between Gawain and Lancelot, and some that showcase Gawain’s anguish over his past. While some of these things bring Ragnelle and Gawain closer together, the conflict with Lancelot and Gawain’s emotional pain definitely overshadowed the moments of tenderness between the characters. What I disliked the most, however, was that everyone - main characters and side characters alike - seemed to be in petty conflict with one another. There’s obvious tension between Gawain and Lancelot, and Aislyn’s inner thoughts about Guinevere and the other ladies of the court disappointed me (why can’t we have more medievaly stories in which women band together, I ask). Aside from these conflicts, everyone got on my nerves for treating Ragnelle as subhuman. While their treatment of her could have been the moral lesson of the book, it didn’t come through consistently; I did get the sense that the book was supposed to showcase how Camelot isn’t the paradise it is made out to be, but a lot of the mistreatment felt like drama or humor rather than a teaching tool. I did like, however, that Ragnelle’s purpose seemed to change so that she was at the center of a lot of conflicts between men - in this way, I think she exposed a lot of the underlying problems in a male homosocial society. However, as much as she pointed to a lot of the problems, she also perpetuated them.

Characters: I had an extremely hard time liking either Aislyn or Gawain for a large portion of this book. Aislyn, our heroine, is constantly thinking ill of other women or thinking herself better than them, except in incidents. She’s out for revenge, and while I get that being left by a man you loved is devastating, I personally find seeking revenge for that a little petty, especially when you can just use your words and clear up any misconceptions. She got better as the book progressed, standing up for other women and calling out injustice, but I still had a hard time with her, since she seemed to waver between being a strong-willed character and being a bully. Gawain, despite being one of the best knights in Arthurian lore, starts out as kind of a sexist jerk with a lot of emotional turmoil from his past. His sense of honor was admirable, and I want to make clear that I do think that aspect of him was well done, but he was so angsty that his main purpose was to be a wet blanket for most of the book. I also wasn’t wholly convinced he had changed in his ways by the end of the book. The villains of the piece weren’t even that interesting. Morgause is completely one-dimensional: a power-hungry seductress whose motives aren’t exactly clear and, based on her actions, poses next to no real threat to anyone. Somer Gromer Jour (or Launfal), Aislyn’s brother, could have been interesting if Morgause herself wasn’t so over-the-top and Launfal had more of a purpose other than to be Morgause’s victim. Lancelot and Guinevere are also turned into antagonists by the way they blatantly disrespect not only Ragnelle, but other knights of the Round Table. It was kind of a mess. But despite all that, I did like the relationship between Arthur and Gawain. They had some nice exchanges that showed how complex their dynamic was, with Arthur being both Gawain’s king and uncle. Gawain and Ragnelle also had some nice moments where they were honest with one another, and those bits were well done.

Other Romance: I honestly didn’t see much romantic chemistry between Aislyn and Gawain, perhaps because Aislyn was so antagonistic towards him for so long. Don’t get me wrong - I’m a fan of enemies-to-lovers tropes, but this novel didn’t really feel like it was really getting to the heart of the angst and pain between the characters and working on unraveling it. Instead, the conflict was easily cleared up by just talking (even if the characters didn’t act on it for a long time). Instead, their relationship felt more platonic, which wouldn’t be a problem if this book was marketed as a genre other than romance. Misogyny: I understand that a lot of authors writing about the Middle Ages will embed some sexism in their books, but I am still irritated when I see it. Rowley has Gawain start out as holding very misogynistic views, despite his medieval counterpart being one of the most courteous knights to women (and even in the book, Gawain wavers back and forth). The book also makes use of various tropes which  I dislike: Morgause is a seductress who (I think) rapes Launfal regularly, characters use words like “bitch” and “slut,” a male character views his wife as worthless for not bearing a son, etc. Poor Guinevere couldn’t catch a break since she was being portrayed as a cheating harlot the whole time, and Morgana popped in for all of 10 seconds to serve her part in the plot before moving on. Rowley also writes an episode where the Saxons blame the women for the peaceweaver system failing, which was utterly baffling to me. And Gawain still seems to hold his view that a wife should be obedient to her husband until the very last second - around page 307 of the book.

Moving on to Other Books in the Series? No.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re a romance reader or interested in Arthurian retellings.

[queer-ragnelle]

I'm coming from having fallen in love with the show bbc merlin and then reading roger lancelyn green, then howard pyle. I really loved green's way of presenting balin and balan, and the way they seal their own fates, and the dolorous stroke. (I also loved his gareth/beaumains! best part of the book in imo.) as for pyle, I loved his strange, wild magic adventures and the dialogue between arthur and merlin as merlin is tiredly asking him to please not fight every knight he sees. can you recommend anything with gareth, anything wonderfully tragic about balin and balan, anything that focuses on the magic and setting, or anything that just made you laugh to read?

Hi anon!

Welcome to Arthuriana. I loooove Howard Pyle. Have you read all 4 books? Highly recommend the whole series. Sounds to me as if you’re looking for more retellings, so that’s what I’ll give you.

As always, if the author is out of print or has passed, I’ll share a PDF. But if they’re alive, I link to goodreads so you can learn more about the book and decide if you want to purchase.

Gareth Beaumains

Books

Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry

Hunt of the Hart Royal by Cherith Baldry

Under Camelot's Banner by Sarah Zettel

Gareth and Lynette by Alfred Lord Tennyson

How Gareth Won His Spurs by Reverend James Yeames

The Savage Damsel and The Dwarf by Gerald Morris

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Movies & TV [Watch movies here!] [Watch TV Shows here!]

Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Sword of Lancelot (1963)

Arthur of the Britons (1972-73)

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979)

Kaamelott First Installment (2021)

Balin & Balan

Books

Balin and Balan by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Tale of Balen by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck

The Knight With the Two Swords by Edward M. Erdelac

Magic & Setting

Books

The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, & The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart

The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell

The Book of Mordred & The Last Knight of Albion by Peter Hanratty

Lancelot & Gawain by Gwen Rowley

The Squire's Tales Series by Gerald Morris

Tales From the Mabinogion by Gwyn Thomas, Kevin Crossley-Holland, & Margaret Jones

The Quest for Olwen by Gwyn Thomas, Kevin Crossley-Holland, & Margaret Jones

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight by Selina Hastings

Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady by Selina Hastings

Movies & TV [Watch movies here!] [Watch TV Shows here!]

The Adventures of Sir Galahad (1949)

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57)

Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Prince Valiant (1954)

The Sword in The Stone (1963)

Camelot (1967)

Arthur of the Britons (1972-73)

Gawain and The Green Knight (1973)

Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975)

BBC The Legend of King Arthur (1979)

Excalibur (1981)

Fire and Sword (1981)

Merlin and The Sword (1985)

Merlin (1998)

Kaamelott (2005-09)

Starz Camelot (2011)

Arthur & Merlin (2015)

Arthur & Merlin: Knights of Camelot (2020)

Kaamelott First Installment (2021)

Laugh Out Loud Funny to Read

Lancelot & Gawain by Gwen Rowley

The Squire's Tales Series by Gerald Morris

Muppet King Arthur by Paul Benjamin & Patrick Storick

Modern Arthur Series by Peter David

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Hope that gives you some stuff to chew on, anon. Have a great week!

[queer-ragnelle]

📚, 😤 and 🗡️ for the ask game please!

📚A Retelling/Modern Work You Like

Too many to list them all! But obviously Excalibur (1981) is up there as one of my favorite films, also love Merlin and the Sword (1985) and recently discovered New Adventures of a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1988). Starz Camelot (2011) is my favorite show and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-1957) as a close second. Books wise there's everything by Cherith Baldry but especially Exiled From Camelot, same with Phyllis Ann Karr but especially Idylls of the Queen. I love Gwen Rowley's books Lancelot and Gawain. John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights for that amazing Morgan and Ewain mother and son chaos. All of Howard Pyle's books I literally can't pick one they're all good: The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions, The Story of The Grail and The Passing of Arthur. Many of my faves are great here; Ragnelle of course, Gawaine and Ewaine, Percival and Lamorack, Elaine and Launcelot with a surprisingly charming Galahad. Speaking of whom, his best book is Blessed Bastard by Ruth Lehmann. No contest. It'll ruin your life /pos.

😤Your Most Specific Nitpick About Your Fave

Ragnelle doesn't die at the end and Gawain isn't a rapist. Period. The worst offender of this was a short story in an anthology which had both. She deserves better than that.

🗡️Who Are You Betting On In This Month's Tournament?

The Fair Unknown! Young blood here to unhorse these moldy oldies!

[queer-ragnelle]

I could talk about them all at length but I’ll just list!

Gawain

Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

The Queen of Summer Stars by Persia Woolley

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle

Gawain by Gwen Rowley

Squire’s Tales (1–10) by Gerald Morris

Knights of The Round Table 1953

Prince Valiant 1954

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot 1956

BBC The Legend of King Arthur 1979

Sword of Lancelot 1963

Merlin and The Sword 1985

Merlin 1998

King Arthur 2004

Starz Camelot 2011

Agravaine

Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr

Mordred, A Tragedy by Henry Newbolt

The Queen’s Knight by Marvin Borowsky

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger

Morgawse by Lavinia Collins

The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf

BBC The Legend of King Arthur 1979

Merlin and The Sword 1985

Gaheris

The Road to Avalon by Joan Wolf

The Savage Damsel and The Dwarf by Gerald Morris

Gareth

Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry

The Queen of Summer Stars by Persia Woolley

Knights of The Round Table 1953

BBC The Legend of King Arthur 1979

Mordred

Mordred, A Tragedy by Henry Newbolt

The Queen’s Knight by Marvin Borowsky

The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart

Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr

The Book of Mordred by Peter Hanratty

The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein

The Adventures of Sir Galahad 1949

Knights of The Round Table 1953

Sword of Lancelot 1963

Camelot 1967

Excalibur 1981

Merlin 1998

Tell me about the best modern characterization of your favorite Orkney brother(s).

Pick and choose from whatever adaptations or retellings you know of, they don’t all have to appear in the same story. No wrong answers. :^)

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

I went through your links and I couldn’t find it (though there’s a good chance I missed it) but do you have like a beginner’s guide to Arthurian legends? I have like a basic knowledge from like pop culture, a few movies, a wiki hole I went down at work a few weeks ago, but there’s just so much stuff I don’t know where to start.

My links are a bit of a mess, and I think I put some beginner guides around that I cannot even find myself, haha. 

I remember that when I started reading arthuriana I focused only on one character. I think that was easier for me because I was really obsessed with him (Mordred, of course!), and I think there are different routes to approach arthuriana (also, be mindful that for me, approaching arthuriana = hobby =/= academic study!).

1) Option one is to follow a character of choice. In this case feel free to ask for more character specific recs, otherwise I have here a list of books I’ve read tagged by main characters and secondary characters. The Arthurian list of everything also has old texts (pre 1850) tagged by character! I think for me this was the easy route because I ended up absorbing a lot of other arthurian stuff in my desperate quest for Mordred content.

2) Option 2 is following the chronological order for old texts (main texts)! You can click on the arthurian list of everything where I added both characters, dates and download links for old texts, or you can check this post which has less texts but I put in bold my favorite ones (they also have download links)!

Personally, when I started I did a mix of option 1 and option 3, which is mixing up texts, just because I love novels and I really wanted to mix up my old texts with some modern novels and movies/tv shows.

3) Option 3 is mixing it up! Let me explain a bit better!

I have here the old “How to start arthuriana” post with mixed up old and new texts (here is another “How to start”). To summarize it, I do think that the main “old texts” that people cite and use as references are  History of the Kings of Britain (Geoffrey of Monmouth),  Four Romances (Chrétien de Troyes) and  Le Morte d'Arthur Volume 1 + Volume 2 (Thomas Malory) (with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  and  The Wedding of sir Gawain and dame Ragnell if you are interested in Gawain).

Mixing them up with good novels for me was a plus, because I love seeing how stories are re-imagined. What helped me at the beginning was reading novels that encompass the whole of Arthur’s life, from his birth to his death, adding various re-interpretations within. This ended up putting in my mind a vague order of the main arthurian themes and elements that are used and re-used. Some examples are:

Sword at Sunset (Sutcliff), if you like historical novels

The Once and Future King (White)

Guinevere trilogy by Persia Woolley

Merlin trilogy by Mary Stewart + The Wicked Day (Mary Stewart)

The Pendragon (Catherine Christian)

Firelord (Godwin)

Warlord Chronicles (Bernard Cornwell), also historical

Any of Mike Ashley’s short stories collections

Some character specific good novels:

Arthur: Sword at Sunset (Sutcliff) or The Great Captains (Treece) which is Welsh inspired

Morgana: I am Morgan le Fay (Springer) or Morgana (Rio)

Guinevere: Persia Woolley’s trilogy or Queen of Camelot (McKenzie)

Bedivere: The Pendragon (Catherine Christian)

Kay: Exiled from Camelot (Baldry) and Idylls of the Queen (Karr)

Gawain: Down the Long Wind (Bradshaw)

Mordred: Idylls of the Queen (Karr) or The Winter Prince (Wein)

Lancelot: Guinevere novels tend to have good Lancelot, otherwise there’s Vansittart’s Lancelot or Lancelot by Gwen Rowley

Ragnelle: Gawain (Gwen Rowley)

Percival: Corbenic (Fisher)

Lady of the Lake: Here Lies Arthur (Reeves) or The Book of Mordred (Velde)

Merlin: Mary Stewart’s trilogy

Agravaine: Camelot’s Blood (Zettel)

Galahad: Blessed Bastard (Lehman) but it is hard to find!

Regarding tv shows and movies, I have written here a list of arthurian tv shows in order of my personal preference, with small explanation to why, but I do think for someone who is diving into arthuriana the classic tv shows and movies are:

The Legend of King Arthur (BBC) tv show

Camelot (musical, any version)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Excalibur (1981)

The Sword in the Stone (Disney)

The Knights of the Round Table (50s movie)

Merlin (1998) miniseries

The Mists of Avalon miniseries

Plus, here is a list of movies divided by character and a list of tv shows divided by character.

Other nice and fun arthurian things to start are:

This amazingly funny Legends summarized video

For any “Who is who???” Bruce’s dictionary is an amazing resource

I hope this helps! :D

[forthegothicheroine]

Arthurian fiction recommendations

Prompted by a conversation the other day!  I wanted to reblog my old post about this with additions, but tumblr isn’t letting me for some reason.  Oh well.

Favorites

The Squire’s Tales series by Gerald Morris.  The rise and fall of Camelot as seen though the eyes of Sir Gawain and his otherworldly squire Terrance.  Funny and sad, beautiful and heartbreaking.  They do take a while to get really going, though, so start at the beginning if you want to follow Terrance and his character arcs or skip straight to The Ballad of Sir Dinadan or The Princess the Crone and the Dung Cart Knight if you just want to read the best series entries.

Knights of the Round Table series by Gwen Rowley.  This sadly short series consists of romance novels about Lancelot, Gawain and Geraint, and they are perfect.  (Well, except the Geraint one, because he’s a dillweed and there’s only so much Rowley can do to un-dillweed him.)  The stories of Gawain and Ragnelle and Lancelot and Elaine (an amalgamation of his various Elaines) are great spins on the mythology, and I think Rowley singlehandedly turned around my dislike of Lancelot!  Her fairies are so creepy, too!

Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr.  It’s a murder mystery with Kay as the detective (he even gets to do a Poirot summation!)  When Queen Guinevere is framed for murder, Kay and Mordred have to find the real killer- and to unravel the older mystery of Morgause’s death.  Of books based directly on Malory, this is my favorite.  The characterization of Kay, Mordred, Gawain and Guinevere all just feel so spot-on, and Kay is an amazing narrator.

Arthur Dies at the End by Jeffrey Wikstrom.  If you want to read Malory but also kind of don’t want to read Malory, read these summations.  I had to keep stopping and reading portions aloud to my husband and roommate, I just had to share it.

The Once and Future King by T.H. White.  I didn’t love this as much as I was expecting to- the musical handles the love stories so much better- but it is fundamental in creating my vision of Arthur and who he is.  I think the first volume is my favorite, as young Arthur (”Wart”) has childhood adventures that teach him morality and political theory.

The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein.  This is the best sympathetic Mordred I’ve ever read, and it literally made me cry.  He’s trying to figure out who he is, between the influences of a good but distant father and a mother who has tried to destroy him body and soul.  And oh god, the ending!

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve.  This is not a happy story, and it’s not one that glorifies King Arthur at all, but it does present a reasonably plausible account of how some of the stories could have gotten started.  Our heroine is something of an apprentice con-artist to Myrdin the Bard as he tries to promote a young warlord who he believes will drive back the Saxons...at any cost.

Interesting

The Kingmaking by Helen Hollick.  This is an Arthurian bodice ripper that doesn’t want to admit it’s a bodice ripper.  But it totally is.  Arthur is a womanizing rogue and Guinevere is his fiesty true love, and if you can stomach cliches and often unlikeable characters it’s fun.  I didn’t like it enough to read the rest of the trilogy, but I’m glad I read it.

I am Morgan le Fay by Nancy Springer.  I loved this book as a child, and on rereading it was still pretty good, albeit not as good as I remembered.  Morgan is an angry teenage antiheroine, and the book is about charting her path to supervillainy.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain.  I’m putting this here rather than in favorites because I can never bring myself to read the ending.  But the fact that I can’t bear to do that is because I get so invested in the first part, with a moral but very much of-his-time Arthur, Morgan le Fay as Scarlett O’Hara without the glamor, and a bullheaded narrator sometimes ruining everything and sometimes being the only one who sees how wrong feudalism is.  But I can’t read the ending.

Child of the Northern Springs by Persia Wooley.  I have to read the rest of the Guinevere trilogy at some point.  This is a lovely book but not much happens in it if you’re looking for Arthurian stuff, probably because it’s the start of a bigger story.

Stuff on my to-read list (give me more stuff to read, please!)

Merlin series by Mary Stewart

Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliffe

Exiled from Camelot by Cherith Baldry

The High Kings by Joy Chant

The King’s Peace by Jo Walton

The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

The Forgotten Sister by Kieran Higgins

Enthroned by K.M. Shea

Once and Future by Amy Rose Capetta

Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (maybe?)

[forthegothicheroine]

I’m only now (that I’m reading the huge dissection of it) understanding how much Gwen Rowley’s Knights of the Round Table series is in dialogue with M*sts of Avalon.  On the one hand, Morgan worships a nonspecific Goddess of all womankind and Enid is a pagan warrior woman whose culture clashes with Geraint; on the other hand, Lancelot’s whole story is about him being traumatized by an abusive, gaslighting upbringing in Avalon and breaking away from it.

[forthegothicheroine]

My Top 10 Romance Novels

Goodreads says that it’s “romance week”, and who am I to argue?  I’ll be presenting my top 10 romance novels, but first I should explain my tastes: I like my romances pulpy and melodramatic.  I like my heroes dark and sneaky, but not so evil I want to throw them out of a plane.  My ideal romance novel period is in between old school and new school, where the plots are still over the top but the characters are more human.  I’m forever searching for a true gothic bodice ripper, and some day I will find one.

The big rule for this list: nothing that would be shelved as anything other than romance.  No Pride and Prejudice, no Outlander, no Kushiel’s Dart.  Just stuff that is bought and sold as romance.

So here we go!

1. The Windflower by Laura London.  This is the ultimate pirate romance, with espionage and dark backstories and danger-tinged bickering and a pet pig.  I love the characters, and the hero is just right there on the line of darkness where I still believe someone could live happily ever after with him.  There is attempted (but not completed) rape in this book, if that’s a dealbreaker for you, but I found the whole thing to be great fun.

2. For My Lady’s Heart by Laura Kinsale.  Princess Melanthe is probably my favorite romance novel heroine, in that she’s completely unexpected.  She’s the one who’s morally grey, not out of malice but simply because she’s ruthlessly trying to survive courts full of assassins, and is doing a delicate balance of protecting those she loves and staying alive.  (Melanthe could win the Game of Thrones.)  I’m a sucker for ‘knight and lady’ dynamics, too, and the hero was inspired by the Green Knight!

3. Strathgallant by Laura Black.  This is the closest thing I’ve found to a gothic bodice ripper, and also the closest thing I’ve found to a literary version of a reverse harem anime or otome game.  Perdita is about to come into a great fortune if she abides by the condition of marrying one of her foster cousins, whom she hasn’t seen since they were all children- but one of them wants her and that fortune a little too much and is prepared to kill off the competition!  It even has an ending that (possibly) implies a triad!

4. Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small.  If any item on this list is going to make people judge me, it’s this one.  Bertrice Small is the queen of the guilty pleasure, and Skye O’Malley is not your typical romance.  It’s a picaresque about a very stubborn, very lustful woman in the Elizabethan era who marries/sleeps/gets abducted/goes pirating across Europe and the Middle East, loses her memory, goes through husbands like kindling, and tells us that Robert Dudley has the longest genitalia she’s ever seen.  Nothing else in the world is like this book.  It may not be to your taste, but it must be respected.

5. Lothaire by Kresley Cole.  Now this is some dark stuff, warning you now, full of dubious consent.  A vampire lord has captured a woman for an evil goddess to possess, and she decides the only way to save her own life is to seduce her captor.  You may be shaking your head over me right now, but Cole totally drew me in with her hero-villain and self-proclaimed hillbilly heroine, and I need to read the rest of her Immortals After Dark series now.

6. The High Sheriff of Huntingdon by Anne Stuart.  I just love the audacity of this novella- Anne Stuart apparently liked Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham, so she wrote a romance story about him.  It’s great!  He’s villainous and terrible, and his unwilling bride never lets him forget that he’s terrible, and though the end kind of implies she’s going to be a Lady Godiva figure who gets him to be less terrible, the important thing to me was that she was happy.  And I was certainly very happy.

7. Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas.  Yeah, I like villainous heroes.  This one isn’t actually so bad- he’s a rake who committed one scandal too many for society, which makes him a good target for a girl seeking a marriage of convenience. It’s often held up as one of the best regency romances, and for good reason; the protagonists defrosting towards each other is super sweet and sexy. 

8. Lord of Danger by Anne Stuart.  If Anne Stuart based The High Sheriff of Huntingdon on the Sheriff of Nottingham, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one was based on some version of Rasputin.  The hero is a court wizard, relied upon but also feared and disdained, and the heroine ends up married to him after being summoned to the court of her abusive brother.  He may be spooky, but he’s the only one she can really trust- and the same is true the other way.

9. The Silver Devil by Teresa Denys.  Forget what I said about Lothaire, THIS is as dark a hero as I’ll go for.  He’s a Renaissance Italian nobleman, and unlike Princess Melanthe, there’s no excuse for the ruthless cruelty he displays.  So why do I like this?  I feel for the heroine, trapped as a preyed upon concubine, I find the “hero” unfortunately attractive, and it contains the best grovel scene I’ve ever read.  Plus it works as a straightforward historical political thriller, as well.

10. Knights of the Round Table: Gawain and Knights of the Round Table: Lancelot by Gwen Rowley.  What can I say, I gotta support my boys.  I’m cheating by including both of these in one entry, but I just want to say I really love how well Gwen Rowley plays with Arthurian legends, making loveable characters out of these classic archetypes.  I was especially surprised by how much I liked the Lancelot entry- I’m already in love with Gawain, so it took more to win me over for Lance and Elaine.  The last book for me to read in the trilogy is Geraint, who I thought was a dillweed in the Tennyson poem, so I can’t wait to see how she pulls it off!