Spear as the future of Arthurian retellings

I just encountered an astounding (and long—nearly four hours!) exploration by Raf Blutaxt of Arthurian retellings through time. To give you an idea of it’s remarkable breadth and depth, here’s the YouTube listing:

How does one legend change through the ages? What do different authors do with a well-known story when they retell it? I may not have the exhaustive answer but certainly an exhausting look at the stories around King Arthur all the way back from their origins to last year’s brilliant “Spear” by Nicola Griffith.

Individual book discussions are spoilery but I have put timestamps below so you skip the ones you don’t want to know about.

00:00:00 – Intro 00:04:12 The Arthurian Extended Universe And Its Themes 00:21:08 The Different Traditions Of Arthurian Literature 00:45:36 A Quick Look At 1000 Years Of Arthurian Literature 01:36:15 Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court” 01:59:57 T. H. White’s “The Once And Future King” 02:21:35 Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists Of Avalon” 02:47:41 Bernard Cornwell’s “The Warlord Chronicles” 03:07:29 Lavie Tidhar’s “By Force Alone” 03:28:05 Nicola Griffith’s “Spear” 03:45:37 Outro

I can heartily recommend it, not just because Raf loves Spear (though he does; I set the embedded video to start playing on the Spear segment if you want to hear it) but because he is smart and articulate about the various constructions and deconstructions of the legend over the last fifteen hundred years. (Also he likes beer.)

Seriously, if you’re an Arthurian scholar or teacher or student, or as a writer are planning to dip your toes in the Arthurian pond anytime soon, this is a very good place to begin. It would make four or five excellent lectures. You should watch it two or three segments at a time. That’s what I did, starting with Cornwell then Tidhar and ending with Spear—almost exactly an hour—and found myself agreeing with a lot of his analysis. Good stuff.

Cheers!