Arthurian Legends

[Sethomas]

I was a huge fan of Arthurian legends back in middle school. Right now that I'm always whimsing about stories I'd like to write, I find myself regressing to the style of writing employed by Malory and Chretiens de Troyes. So, I've been from time to time wikipedia-ing various legends I vaguely remember, and I really really miss having known them all by heart. I remember my favorites were always the Hunt for Twrch Trwyth (hence my remark in GB about my hating Gaelic spelling), Arthur's war on Rome (which taught me the Middle English word "genytours" when Arthur castrated a giant), Gawaine and the Green Knight, and of course the Battle of Camlann.

Anybody else ever been under its spell?

[Grislygus]

I wanted to like them, but I was just never got into it.

I'm a philistine, I'm afraid.

[Sethomas]

I started reading, on a whim, an online text of Gawain and the Green Knight. Even though contemporaneous to Chaucer, I found it hard to translate (being in a vastly different dialect of Middle English) but the meter is beautiful. The whole style of story-telling, I just love it. The stories are good in themselves, but the presentation is everything. I could never tolerate reading The Once and Future King because I just failed to see the point. I don't care if it's a modern classic, it sucked.

[Grislygus]

I didn't like the Once and Future King because it was inconsistent. It starts off almost like a fricking parody, and then just changes it's mind and turns into a retelling.

[Sethomas]

That and it FUCKING SUCKS because it's just a lame-ass modernist attempt to improve upon perfection.

[executioneer]

isn't that the one disney turned into Sword in the Stone :( MAD MADAM MIMM :(

[Grislygus]

Yes, indeed it was, but it differs in that it was good, and it used more disney humor than what's his face, the author's.