Who does it best?

[Michele]

What's your favorite retelling(s) of the Arthur myth and why? White's The Once and Future King? Guy Gavriel Kay's take on it in the Fionavar Tapestry?

[SarahC]

I havent read Fionvar --it is on my shelf -- so I cant comment on it. I have heard -- and I know you agreed in the other post -- that it is a great retelling.

I have read One and Future King. Isn't it amazing? It almost creates its own genre within the genre. His work probably was most responsible for bringing the legend into the 20th century with such a bang.

Look at the interesting chain it makes also -- From Thomas Malory (Malory was his main influence I think) -- to T. H. White -- to Disney and also Lerner & Lowe's Camelot. The legend goes right into modern media of the 20th century. I love that evolution. I guess I am just proud that the century in which I was born could recognize and adapt a 1500 year old legend.

Back to White though -- it is amazing writing and storytelling for any genre. The dialog never stops, the quirky humor balanced with human frailty, revenge, and those modern anachronistic comments from White the narrator.

You cannot pick the book off the shelf and open it without some interesting passage catching your eye. I started to trade my copy in once and just opened it and thought "how can I possibly get ride of this."

It is very enjoyable and really hard to describe to someone who hasn't read it.

[Rora]

My favorites are Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and the Merlin books by Mary Stewart. I've lost track of how often I've re-read them.

[[deleted user]]

It's not a complete retelling, but Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady features lovely text and pictures.

[Mark]

From a certain point of view, Malory's book itself is a retelling, since he was adapting prose French works from about 250 years previously. That being the case, I'd have to say Malory, Chretien de Troyes, and the Mabinogion.

It's a little more difficult if I have to restrict myself to twentieth and twenty-first century retellings. Then I'd have to agree that The Once and Future King is the best. I read it a very long time ago, wrote my MA thesis on it, and taught it a couple of times. I'm afraid I find it a little naive now, but perhaps that's just because I've been over-exposed to it.

Cheers,
Mark Adderley,
The Hawk and the Wolf

[Victoria]

I've just bought the Once and Future King but haven't had the chance to read it yet.

[Ron]

What surprised me about White take was the change in tone from initial (almost YA) light-heartedness and optimism--easy for Disney to make into a cartoon--through the brooding inevitability of the closing.

Perhaps the Arthur legend still resonates because it touches on such universal themes, as did the Greek dramas, Bible stories and (later) Shakespeare which speak anew to each generation.

[Phair]

The two versions that have stuck in my mind the most have been the Sharan Newman Guinevere series and the Dragon's Heirs series by Courtway Jones. Been a long time since I read them. I seem to have gone off the Arthurian stuff in recent years so have not read a lot of the newer ones nor many of the 'classics' like Stewart (shamed hanging of head) but I still maintain an interest in 'all things King Arthur' and keep a BIG list of to-be-reads for when the mood returns.
There's a new 'Arthurian mystery': The killing way by Tony Hays that looks intriguing.

[Annette]

Thomas wrote: "It's not a complete retelling, but Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady features lovely text and pictures. "

I love this version too - really beautiful illustrations - and this is one of my favourite Arthurian stories.

[Terence]

I may be in the minority here but for sheer bloody-minded good fun, I've always liked Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex.

And I have fond memories of Phyllis Karr's Idylls of the Queen.

And though he runs out of steam in the later books, A.A. Attanasio's The Dragon and the Unicorn Arthor Book 1 is good.

As for the "classics," Mary Stewart and T.H. White have to top my list.

And then there are the modern continuations: Lawhead's Avalon:: The Return of King Arthur and Mike Barr's Camelot 3000 DC Comics Series.

I haven't reread any of these in years so I can't be terribly specific about what made them "good" but I think that they all dealt with, in whole or in part, the great themes of the Arthurian legend - loyalty, love, good v. evil, justice, etc. - in interesting ways.

[Veronica]

(delurking!)

Gillian Bradshaw rarely seems to get a mention (or maybe I've missed them). I'm a huge fan of her historical fiction (most of it set in late Roman times) -- it's not great literature, but she is a good story-teller who manages to weave modern concerns into historical storylines without them seeming out of place.

Anyway, she wrote the Hawk of May trilogy which I find a wonderful mixture of magic and realism. It focuses on Gwalchmai/Gawain and draws heavily on Welsh sources I think. Has anyone else here read it?

[Annette]

Veronica wrote: "(delurking!)

Gillian Bradshaw rarely seems to get a mention (or maybe I've missed them). I'm a huge fan of her historical fiction (most of it set in late Roman times) -- it's not ..."

I haven't read it but it definitly sounds interesting as I'm intrigued by the character of Gawain.

[Old-Barbarossa]

Terence wrote: "I may be in the minority here but for sheer bloody-minded good fun, I've always liked Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex..."

The author of Little Big Man?
Didn't know he had done an Arthurian tale.
Will be looking out for it...thanks for the heads up.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears]

Parke Godwin's Firelord and Beloved Exile are one of the best retellings of the Arthurian story out there. I like the grittiness and human-ness of the characters, especially Arthur.

[Bryn]

Vixenne wrote: "Parke Godwin's Firelord and Beloved Exile are one of the best retellings of the Arthurian story out there. I like the grittiness and human-ness of the characters, especially Arthur."

Out of print, I see? Time to be ebooked I feel.

[Chris]

Vixenne wrote: "Parke Godwin's Firelord and Beloved Exile are one of the best retellings of the Arthurian story out there. I like the grittiness and human-ness of the characters, especially Arthur."

Luckily a friend passed on both these paperbacks, so they're lurking on a shelf in the loft...

My favourite Arthurian tale is Culhwch and Olwen, simply because it's the earliest lengthy fiction that we possess concerning Arthur (from about 1100) and preserves both an authentic historical as well as a mythical feel (though of course it's not history at all). A good translation is in Sioned Davies' The Mabinogion, with explanatory notes.

[Old-Barbarossa]

Chris wrote: "A good translation is in Sioned Davies' The Mabinogion, with explanatory notes..."

Aye, that's the best trans I've read...well, most enjoyable...I don't know how accurate the trans is. Good notes too.
Didn't like the Jeffrey Gantz as much.

[J.P.]

I too like FIRELORD by Parke Godwin...one of the two books that ever brought a tear to my eye at the end. Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset is another favourite.