I'm not totally sure of my first Arthuriana -- mostly general pop culture osmosis, I think, and Disney's The Sword and the Stone somewhere along the line.
I know it wasn't Disney in my case because I disliked the film for the book's sake, but otherwise I have genuinely no idea. It could have been something out of the library I no longer remember. It's even conceivable it was Malory, since we had a book of him in the house illustrated by Arthur Rackham and then two different retellings by Sir James Knowles and Howard Pyle, the latter of whom definitely furnished my first images of Robin Hood. I remember other authors more vividly, but it's not like I have a chronological record. I can nail down Jane Yolen's "Merlin and the Dragons" (1991) only because it has a broadcast date—I haven't seen it since it aired as an episode of Long Ago and Far Away. Excuse me while I lose half an hour.
a book of Celtic tales that had things like Arthur and his knights all charging out hunting after a giant boar with a magic comb on his back, nary a love triangle in sight
Twrch Trwyth! Where did I read about him? I also have no idea. I got Culhwch and Olwen themselves from Lloyd Alexander, though.
Merlin son of Aurelius Ambrosius is the standard I judge all Merlins by, even today, which is a difficulty given that most Merlins are not in any way attempting to be him or even in the same mood-genre as him.
Elizabeth E. Wein is the closest in mood of Arthuriana I have encountered and she doesn't even include Merlin, so.
The other important thing to me about The Crystal Cave, actually, is its author's note, which marks the first time I can remember a writer discussing the register of language they chose, especially in a historical work—the conceit that the novel's English is really fifth-century Latin or Welsh, the conscious use of anachronism where efforts at authenticity might be more jarring or just not as much fun; other authors may have addressed the subject sooner, but she was the one I found talking about it first.
I read The Hollow Hills, but liked it less well because it had more incest and court politics, and then as the love triangle and general doom of Camelot hove into view in, as I recall, the start of The Last Enchantment, I closed the book and went back to reread The Crystal Cave again.
I wrote about the trilogy a little when Mary Stewart died and basically stand by that assessment, although the quasi-parenting angle in The Hollow Hills looks different now that I am old enough to have children in my life who could be but are not children of my body. It is difficult for me to evaluate The Last Enchantment because it was always my least favorite and I don't re-read it often. It's not like a Mary Renault's Funeral Games TPK, but it is both the closest retelling and the most depressing part of the story and there's just not much to do about that.
I've been meaning to reread the whole trilogy, and finish it this time, now that I'm an adult with at least slightly more patience with doomed love triangles rather than a teenager who really just wanted an entire trilogy of the first book, because I'm curious about how it all plays out.
I check out of the love triangle every time. Every time. I am not sure I have read a single version that makes it compelling to me in its own right as opposed to part of the machinery of the fall of Camelot. I understand now that there are far greater problems with The Mists of Avalon, but I will nonetheless never forgive it for solving the love triangle with poly and then re-breaking it because MZB couldn't work the tragedy without it. I think this showed a lack of imagination.
It all made later encounters with Arthuriana that owed more to Malory and White difficult, however, since I kept wanting them to be stories they emphatically were not: all numinousness and boars out of ancient legend, if you please, said younger I.
Well, I still think you were right. (I'm pretty sure this was the rationale for Robert Holdstock's entire oeuvre.)
And horrible and wonderful and layered and a weight under everything!
Reserve that last phrase for future employment! I appreciate the data point.
Here's hoping the epiphany will come for this kid as well.
Of course! He's in college and I told him frankly that it might just be his teachers.
no subject
I know it wasn't Disney in my case because I disliked the film for the book's sake, but otherwise I have genuinely no idea. It could have been something out of the library I no longer remember. It's even conceivable it was Malory, since we had a book of him in the house illustrated by Arthur Rackham and then two different retellings by Sir James Knowles and Howard Pyle, the latter of whom definitely furnished my first images of Robin Hood. I remember other authors more vividly, but it's not like I have a chronological record. I can nail down Jane Yolen's "Merlin and the Dragons" (1991) only because it has a broadcast date—I haven't seen it since it aired as an episode of Long Ago and Far Away. Excuse me while I lose half an hour.
a book of Celtic tales that had things like Arthur and his knights all charging out hunting after a giant boar with a magic comb on his back, nary a love triangle in sight
Twrch Trwyth! Where did I read about him? I also have no idea. I got Culhwch and Olwen themselves from Lloyd Alexander, though.
Merlin son of Aurelius Ambrosius is the standard I judge all Merlins by, even today, which is a difficulty given that most Merlins are not in any way attempting to be him or even in the same mood-genre as him.
Elizabeth E. Wein is the closest in mood of Arthuriana I have encountered and she doesn't even include Merlin, so.
The other important thing to me about The Crystal Cave, actually, is its author's note, which marks the first time I can remember a writer discussing the register of language they chose, especially in a historical work—the conceit that the novel's English is really fifth-century Latin or Welsh, the conscious use of anachronism where efforts at authenticity might be more jarring or just not as much fun; other authors may have addressed the subject sooner, but she was the one I found talking about it first.
I read The Hollow Hills, but liked it less well because it had more incest and court politics, and then as the love triangle and general doom of Camelot hove into view in, as I recall, the start of The Last Enchantment, I closed the book and went back to reread The Crystal Cave again.
I wrote about the trilogy a little when Mary Stewart died and basically stand by that assessment, although the quasi-parenting angle in The Hollow Hills looks different now that I am old enough to have children in my life who could be but are not children of my body. It is difficult for me to evaluate The Last Enchantment because it was always my least favorite and I don't re-read it often. It's not like a Mary Renault's Funeral Games TPK, but it is both the closest retelling and the most depressing part of the story and there's just not much to do about that.
I've been meaning to reread the whole trilogy, and finish it this time, now that I'm an adult with at least slightly more patience with doomed love triangles rather than a teenager who really just wanted an entire trilogy of the first book, because I'm curious about how it all plays out.
I check out of the love triangle every time. Every time. I am not sure I have read a single version that makes it compelling to me in its own right as opposed to part of the machinery of the fall of Camelot. I understand now that there are far greater problems with The Mists of Avalon, but I will nonetheless never forgive it for solving the love triangle with poly and then re-breaking it because MZB couldn't work the tragedy without it. I think this showed a lack of imagination.
It all made later encounters with Arthuriana that owed more to Malory and White difficult, however, since I kept wanting them to be stories they emphatically were not: all numinousness and boars out of ancient legend, if you please, said younger I.
Well, I still think you were right. (I'm pretty sure this was the rationale for Robert Holdstock's entire oeuvre.)
And horrible and wonderful and layered and a weight under everything!
Reserve that last phrase for future employment! I appreciate the data point.
Here's hoping the epiphany will come for this kid as well.
Of course! He's in college and I told him frankly that it might just be his teachers.