Where should I start with the Arthurian legends?Give me the basic gestalt on this?Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juflBDJTbGA
the mabinogion
>>24116548read Chretiens De Troyes
>>24116548Basic guide:>Where to startThe Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck>Want moreSir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d'Arthur, The Quest of the Holy Grail, Lancelot: The Knight of the Cart>DeeperThe Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation, Perceval: The Story of the Grail, Amadís de Gaula, Parzival, Historia Brittonum, Historia Regum Britanniae >I actually enjoy this stuffPrince Arthur: An Heroick Poem in Ten Books, Idylls of the King, Alliterative Morte Arthure, The Vision of Sir Launfal, The Bridal of Triermain
>>24116548Everything except the first and last two of pic related. When I am sober in the morning — and if I remember — I will give a better response. Anglo authors are not your friends here. Seek out the French/Bretons.
>>24116643is the one by steinbeck actually good or does he massacre it? I started it and had an uneasy feeling. Does it cover the exact same ground as the book by Pyle?
>>24116924>Anglo authors are not your friends here>t. angloWhy are anglos like this?
>>24116924>and if I rememberOh my, please do.
>>24117243Basically you want to start with Chrétien de Troyes and his romances. He never writes about King Arthur, but the subjects are Knights in King Arthur's court, so Arthur is at the periphery. If you want to see a parody of Chrétien de Troyes romances, seek out the Roman de Fergus. It borrows heavily from Perceval, turning it upon its head, and from Erec et Enide, as well as Chrétien's other works.Now if you want to read about Arthur, you have two starting points: Robert de Boron or the Vulgate Cycle. Robert de Boron wrote Joseph d'Arimathie, which tells the story of how the Holy Grail travelled from Israel all the way to Britain, and he wrote a verse and prose Merlin, which tells Merlin's story, Arthur's birth, and Arthur's ascension to the throne. De Boron's verse works inspired the Vulgate Cycle. The Vulgate Cycle starts with Joseph of Arimathea goes on to Merlin, Arthur's birth, ascension to the throne, and his first deeds as King of Britain until Merlin's death. Then the Vulgate Cycle takes a left turn and tells Lancelot's story: his family history, his birth, how he was raised by the Lady of the Lake, his arrival at Arthur's court, how he adventures in the goal to be knighted by Queen Guinevere, and the many adventures he is called to go on as a Knight of Arthur's court. In Lancelot's story we follow other Knights as they get introduced to progress the story and adventures. When Lancelot's adventures come to an end, they are marked by Galahad's arrival at court and sitting in The Perilous Seat at the Round Table, the Quest for thr Grail begins. Lancelot drops out of the story after he learns he is not worthy to seek the Grail, that he is no longer the best Knight in the land. So it focused on Perceval and Galahad and Lancelot's cousin Boors. They are the only three worthy of the Quest for the Grail. So their story is told about how they find the Grail and return it to The Holy Land, as Arthur's Kingdom is no longer worthy of such a holy relic. With the Grail gone, Arthur's reign must end. So the story tells of how he ousts Lancelot for fucking Guinevere behind his back (but eventually Arthur stops believing this and wishes for Lancelot to come back), and with Lancelot gone Mordred makes his moves for power. Arthur is forced to fight the Romans because he hears they plan to invade Britain. He leaves Mordred in place as King while he is gone. Comes back and finds Mordred refuses to concede power back to Arthur. They fight a war between each other. All the knights die in this battle, in which Arthur kills Mordred, except for three knights and a mortally wounded Arthur. The three knights care for Arthur and Arthur directs them to take him towards the sea. A ship approaches, and off gets Morgana, and she takes Arthur to Avalon. His body is returned a few days later and officially buried. The Vulgate Cycle ends with Lancelot dying in obscurity as a penitent monk.
>>24116548Start with alfred the great
>>24118054King Arthur himself is the most boring character from the entire Arthurian corpus. Any other knight has an infinitely more interesting story than Arthur. So Chrétien de Troyes is based for ignoring Arthur.
>>24118054After the Vulgate Cycle you can read something called the Post-Vulgate Cycle. I am not really sure what's in it. Maybe the Prose Tristan, some Perceval/Grail continuations, and probably other peripherary tales related to Arthur's court.From Wikipedia>It is considered essentially a rewriting of the earlier and more popular Vulgate Cycle (also known as the Lancelot-Grail cycle), with much left out but also much added, including characters and scenes from the Prose TristanThe Verse and Prose Tristan are also necessary reads for Arthurian literature. They tell the love story between Tristan and Isolde. Secondary to this is a recently discovered and reconstituted romance called Ségurant. Ségurant and Tristan cross paths briefly and half of Ségurant's story is Arthur's Court seeking him out after he bested many of Arthur's knights, including Lancelot.Pic rel is a chart I made of some epigonal romances that you can read if you want more after reading the main Arthurian material. I think only Fergus is Arthurian.
>>24118070>he doesn't know about the 120 year old Arthur fighting in a war and besting all the knights he comes acrossGrim.
>>24116566REAL
