What Started My Lifelong Interest(*) in the Arthurian Legends

(*)That would be "interest" spelled "o-b-s-e-s-s-i-o-n"!

This post is going to date me, but those of you who have known me through Facebook and (gasp!) the Real World can tell you I couldn't care less about that sort of thing. Life is too short to fuss over appearances.

The movie Camelot, starring Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave, was released by Warner Brothers on October 25th, 1967, a mere two days before my 8th birthday. My parents took me to see it on opening day, and we would later view it several times during its theatrical run. The action, the romance, the splendor, the triumph, the tragedy: I was hooked for life.

I began begging my parents for books about this fascinating tale, and they bought me the 1962 edition of Le Morte d'Arthur, translated by Keith Baines -- which I still own. I read it cover-to-cover at the tender age of 9. I won't claim to have understood every element of this multifaceted chronicle during that first reading, but it did inspire me to begin writing my own version of the timeless tales.

That first juvenile foray into creating Arthurian literature is now lost, and thankfully so. The esteemed corpus does not need yet another mediocre Malory rehash.

My present endeavors -- while paying homage to many aspects of the Legends -- are far more creative, unique, and significant, if I do say so myself. :)

Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table