Arthurian Legends of the Middle Ages

by George W. Cox, Eustace Hinton Jones

The romances of the Knights of the Round Table bring to life a rich and mythical age, a time of chivalry and magic long before our careworn times--an age in which the Vale of Avalon, shrouded in mist, was home to the 'once and future king.'

Arthurian Legends of the Middle Ages retells the Arthurian romances, the legends of Camelot and the Quest for the Holy Grail, and examines their early origins. George Cox's superb introduction provides a fascinating overview of Arthurian England that sets these fabulous romances in their context.

In addition to the legends of the Round Table, this volume contains an absorbing collection of tales from this bygone age--those of Merlin, Sir Tristrem and Roland--as well as the mythic Beowulf from the celebrated cycle of Norse Sagas. This is undoubtedly a book that will interest anyone intrigued by early England's semi-mythic past.

Genres: Arthurian

410 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1871

About the author

Sir George William Cox (M.A., Trinity College, Oxford, 1859) was a curate of the Anglican Church, biographer, and historian noted for analyzing several Greek and world myths as idealizations of solar phenomena.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how highly to rate this book. If you're a 14-year-old kid in rural Alberta who loves Arthuriana and whose whole family is involved in the local production of the musical Camelot, this is a 5-star book. I loved it when I was 14 -- and it's definitely pitched at adults.

24 years later, I haven't reread it.

Nonetheless, I will say this. It gave me a great framework for all the Arthuriana that has come since, and I enjoyed it tremendously. All the major stories are there, so all the famous knights and adventures you have some inkling about. But it takes way less time than actually reading a medieval romance, and it also saves you the angst and bad history of modern novelisations. What this book has provided me over the long term is the references necessary for slipping the romances and modern novels into place, sort of like reading a general history of Rome before moving on to Suetonius or a modern historian like Richard Burgess. Something like this, then, should be on every Arthur reader's shelf.

But whether this particular volume is the one for anyone else, I have no idea.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is thorough and well-informed, but it is incredibly old-fashioned and long winded, often with incredibly outdated attitudes and statements.