Essential Arthuriana?
the arthurian parts of geoffrey of monmoutheverything by chretien de troyes.
Mallory's Mort D'Arthur is probably the most essential to modern media. By the way, the reason Shakespeare didn't write an Arthur tragedy is because the legend of Arthur wasn't a tragedy until the post-WWII revision where he conceives only Mordred with Morgana LaFey. In the real story, as preserved by the Welsh version, Morgana was a faerie queen not a witch, and Arthur had five sons with Guinevere, the firstborn of whom was Amer.
>>25231841Read Wolfram of Eschenbach's Parzival, after that watch Wagner's Parsifal opera, then read Roger Scruton's book Wagner's Parsifal: The Music of Redemption. You're welcome!
I didn't do any research about translations of Gawain and the Green Knight, I just bought Tolkien's and loved it. Are there other translations that are just as good but more up-to-date, language-wise or scholarship-wise?Also I can't believe there is no facing-page edition of Tolkien's Middle English edition of Gawain next to his translation. Seems like a huge missed opportunity.
>>25231841Start with The Once and Future King, by TH White. The first part is very kiddie, but it gets dark pretty fast. It's the best introduction into the Matter of Britain and will help you to get the basics
>>25231841Tangential but does Roland aka Orlando have good stuff? I liked Song of Roland but Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso didn't really do much for me (aside giving me a greater appreciation of Don Quixote)
>Walter Kayo sat at his desk in the scriptorium, the cold chill of winter half broken by a flickering fire in the hearth. Suddenly, Three burly men strode in bearing armour and arms, their white mantles emblazoned with large splayed red crosses. They introduced themselves as being ambassadors of King Baldwin of Jerusalem, and deposited a large manuscript on his desk.>Kayo hefted the manuscript open and started to slowly read. But the text was old, tattered, often illegible, and in Aramaic, which was not his favourite language. Half way down the page his eyes started to widen and his jaw took it upon itself to drop down. He looked up bearing an expression that clearly stated: “what the hell is this!”>The officer approached more closely, disturbing some sheaves on the desk and creating another cloud of dust. He lowered his voice to a whisper and said: “King Baldwin wants you to turn this into an interesting story.” Kayo’s jaw was now beyond control, but he managed a small nod in acknowledgement.
