A list of Frequently asked questions!
Not because I don’t want to answer to your questions and asks (not at all! Please, keep asking me stuff, I always enjoy answering to arthurian related questions) but just to keep things organized.
1) What are the original arthurian legends?
The good thing is that there are not original arthurian legends! There are many texts that were written from 6th century until now and usually people refer to the older texts as ‘original’ legends. You can find a list of ancient arthurian texts to download at this post. And I think that these texts are particularly important (in chronological order): Annales Cambriae, Historia Brittonum (Nennius), History of the Kings of Britain (Geoffrey of Monmouth), Vita Merlini (Geoffrey of Monmouth), Four Romances (Chrétien de Troyes), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d’Arthur Volume 1 and Volume 2 (Thomas Malory) and The Wedding of sir Gawain and dame Ragnell.
Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate-Cycle) and Post-Vulgate are both some excellent texts but they are almost impossible to find because the only English translation is very pricey.
2) How do I use this site?
I try to keep things organized! I use a lot of tags and you can find all of them here. I am also trying to create an arthurian site with all the sources and books.
3) Can you recommend me some arthurian novel?
Yes! Gladly! I have created a list of arthurian novels at this post (which I try to update as much as possible) and I’ve rated the novels I’ve read here.
And this might be an old post but years ago I’ve made a post to explain why I chose these 10 as my favourite novels: “The 10 must read novels”.
I also made a list of different kinds of books (for example books about Morgana or LGBTQ etc.) with a post for LGBTQ books and what characters are queer. Plus this is the old page. You can still ask me for some recs for specific books! For example if you want to read only books about Guinevere (or some other character or theme) you can ask me and I will answer as best as I can. I always publish the answer so that other people (probably more capable than me!) can send you their own personal recs.
4) How can I start reading about arthurian legends? Where should I start?
HERE
5) What are the best arthurian movies and tv shows?
An incredibly tricky and difficult question. I can only write down my favourite ones but if you are interested in a longer answer with links you can go here or here for a more recent post. Plus here’s two lists for MOVIES and TV SHOWS I know of.
My favourite movie is Camelot (the musical) especially the version with Vanessa Redgrave. It is centered on Lancelot/Guinevere which I usually don’t like but in this version I quite enjoyed their love (and their characters). I loved Monty Python and the Holy Grail (and the musical Spamalot) which is all about parody and incredibly funny.
I am not a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book but I think the miniserie The Mists of Avalon is really well done.
About tv shows I actually enjoyed a lot Kaamelott, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and also Camelot (Starz).
Kaamelott is mostly in French (only the seasons post s3 are with English subtitles) and it is composed of very short episodes (5 minutes. More or less?) and it is parodic.
The Adventures of sir Lancelot is also on a humorous note and it’s an classic tv show centered of Lancelot and his adventures. There is no love story between Lancelot and Guinevere.
And Camelot (starz) was quite interesting. There were many things I didn’t like about it (and soon I’ll have a rewatch with comments) but Morgana, Kay, Merlin, Gawain and Igraine were all very well done characters.
And I wrote this some time ago: 10 + 2 movies to watch.
6) Why do you hate Merlin BBC/Why do you watch Merlin BBC if you don’t like it?
I don’t hate Merlin BBC! I mean, I don’t love it and probably I don’t even like the fourth and fifith seasons but 'hate’ is a strong word.
I used to love the first season. I was a bit irritated by the fact that another arthurian tv show was simply deleting all my favourite stuff from the legends but I still liked it. I liked Gwen, her relationship with Merlin, Morgana etc. The second season was fine- but during the third season I started noticing contraddictions, incoherences, as if the writers of the tv shows were ignoring the characterizations of the characters just to have some major arthurian points (I am mostly referring to Morgana’s suddenly change).
And I still think that it is possible to like a tv show and criticize it.
I’ve written more on Merlin BBC here.
Other questions tagged on QUESTION/QUESTIONS.
