King Arthur type books?

[james-88]

What is the best book to read relating to the tale of king arthur and all of the arthurian legend type stuff?

 

[Haethurn]

I would suggest starting at the beginning.

Now, I haven't read any of these, but I know that they were the ones that helped to start the Arthurian legends more or less.

Lord Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur.
Some Guy's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Something by Chretien de Troyes.

Of course you can find many modern interpretations of the Arthurian legends, but I believe it's best to start from the ground up.

 

[Melter]

You could try Jo Walton, a fairly new author of Arthurian style fantasy.

You can read about her books and her home page here :
Jo Walton books
Jo Walton home page

 

[Wolf]

Once and Future King. Turned into a trilogy, and the later books are darker, but this is one of the greats in relation to King Arthur. Think Disney's Sword in the Stone, and you will get an idea of what the book is like.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

The only book I read was Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I saw Mists of Avalon but never read the book. I have heard that anything by Mallory is very good.

 

[phil_t]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - didnt Tolkien do a version??

Btw, there is a new King Arthur movie coming out soon!!! Stars Clive Owen as Arthur, Ioan Griffudd as Lancelot, and Keira Knightly <drools> as Guinevere - should rock!!

(Okay, so i saw the trailer and it looks pants, but who cares, its King Bloody Arthur, it'll still rock!!)

Phil

 

[chairmanmiaow]

A.A. Attanasio's The Dragon and the Unicorn , The Eagle and the Sword and of course Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave,The Hollow Hills,The last Enchantment and The Wicked Day.Finally Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur,that's the book that most influenced the movie Excalibur.

 

[Oponn]

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is the best King Arthur novel you can read. Simple.

 

[Skycat]

Goeffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain is the place to start. Then move on to Layamon and Wace's reworking of Geoffrey. Wace is the first to mention the round table.Then there are lots of anonymous medieval works, such as Quest for the Holy Grail, Lancelot du Lac, etc.

Malory's is probably the best all-round work on the subject. Shame he was such a vile character himself, imprisoned for rape and violence amongst other things.

 

[tugger]

I enjoyed the first three books of Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle, Taliesin, Merlin, and then Arthur.

Taliesin starts off a bit slow. In fact, at about page 50, I was about to toss it and move on. Then, it just CLICKED. I couldn't put it down. Merlin was probably my favorite and then Arthur was a nice follow.

 

[Ashlea]

Been glancing through Idylls of the King and am really enjoying it. Tennyson just rolls off the tongue, but I can't do too much at once, just a few pages or so.

 

[kskyhappy]

arthur

i read lawheads, i thought they were good though the atlantis thing was a bit off the beaten track but made sense. they caught the feel of the arthurian legend so i liked that. would recommend them.

i thought the cyrstal cave was very good too. Will be reading the once and future king once the girl has finished it.

ksky

 

[Cassandra]

The crystal cave etc... are fabulous and well worth reading. They start when Merlin was a child.