A Companion to Arthurian Literature

摘要

Perhaps it is my own interest in the subject matter, or perhaps the subject matter itself, but of a fair number of these Companion volumes I have now reviewed I found this one about the most readable of them all. I first came across the Arthurian tales in the Saturday morning children's cinema in the 1950s and continued the fascination with them through Malory and many later retellings by a range of modern novelists (succinctly covered in chapter 30 of this book). This took me also into the historical and archaeological discussions, principally of Leslie Alcock. I have managed to avoid the lunatic fringe: there is fascination enough in the stories themselves.rnThe legends have so caught the imagination throughout centuries, have such myriad sources and associations, and lead to such historical and archaeological controversy that they offer matter for a whole series. That so much is covered so widely and so well in a single volume is a task fit almost for Merlin himself. In thirty-five chapters arranged in seven sections the whole subject is reviewed from the fifth century to the present day, from oral tales to computer games.