Book Talk: Same Story, Different Telling — Arthurian Legend and other Stories

So, I haven’t done a Friday Reads post in a while, unfortunately.

But I’ve just been burning through books based on Arthurian month for the past month or more. From the slightly more fantastical Hawk of May (and its sequel Kingdom of Summer) by Gillian Brashaw to the exceptionally realized Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell.

I’ve posted before about how throughout time we reinvent and reimagine stories and create deeper worlds. We take these classic stories that we love and we can’t help but keep telling stories about them, hundreds and hundreds of years after their inception.

I’d expected a certain amount of diminishing returns after finishing a ton of Arthur tales in a row. I mean, you can only read about a guy accidentally sleeping with his step-sister or pulling a sword from a stone so many times, right? But to my surprise, I haven’t gotten tired of the story yet. Reading several tellings in a row, the myths become a sort of framing device telling a familiar story on which all the details can be hung.

It reminds me of comic books. We go through endless cycles of characters–dying, being reborn, suffering, rejoicing. Everything stays the same, except the lens we view it through, provided by the author. It keeps these stories and characters alive, and it creates an incredibly vivid picture of a character or characters that we can see from multiple angles and points of view.

Even if sometimes you don’t agree with the route taken for characters in these retellings, it always, always gives you something to think about. It’s that what if that’s addicting–the what if that you look for in any good book.

I’m on the second book of the Warlord Chronicles (Enemy of God) by Bernard Cornwell, now. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I’m a huge fan of Cornwell, and his Arthur books might be some of my favorite novels from him so far–possibly even my favorite books about Arthur as well.

Cornwell takes a character we all know from the stories, a man that has become a legend and an archetype all in his own, and he turns him–pinocchio-like–into a real, living man. He’s still a just, honest man dedicated to what he believes to be a true path, but he’s also a warrior (with all of the anger issues that entails), and a conflicted man living in hard times. He’s not especially good looking, but he’s charming. He’s real.

So, what do you guys say. Are there any stories you can’t help but read every possible retelling of? Any mythos you have a particular weakness for?