The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)

Written in the 1380s, The Canterbury Tales may be one of the earliest tales to popularize the Middle English vernacular (vs. Latin or French) in written form.  Thus, it's not surprising that some view the author, Chaucer, as a tremendously important figure in the development of our modern tongue.  To this end, GK Chesterton called him the father of the English language.  That's why it's important- but what is it about?

In The Canterbury Tales, a group of religious pilgrims from all walks of society (to include a knight, cook, nun, priest, merchant, reeve, and so on) gather outside London to do a pilgrimage to Canterbury, to the shrine of Thomas Becket.  The host of the inn where they gather decides that they should entertain each other with stories along the way, with the best storyteller being granted a free meal at journey's end.  After this introduction, we're taken right into the sequence of tales.  Originally, the host states that everyone in the party should tell two stories- one on the way out, and one on the way back- but the book ends without everyone telling even one tale (24 are told in total), and before arriving at Canterbury, for reasons I don't know.  Some of the tales went unfinished, so perhaps Chaucer didn't have time/desire to see it out.  Almost all of the tales are told in rhyming verse- impressive.

The tales themselves are pretty good.  Some are more interesting than others, which is to be expected when you have this number of "sub-stories" in a volume.  There's a nice mix of tragedy, cautionary tales, fables, comedy, etc.  The wisdom contained in some is decent and timeless.  Overall, they're entertaining.  I was a bit surprised by the raunchy nature of some of the tales, but I shouldn't have been.  Humans have always been inappropriate, no matter what stereotypes exist of a given age.

One final thought: reading a work over 600 years old means, even though it's in English, it's not really in English we can understand.  Thus, the translation becomes important.  I chose to read the "Oxford's World Classics" version (pictured).  I'm no expert on the different versions available, but I found this one excellent.  Where possible, the translator retains the original rhyming scheme, and modernizes the English.  Purists might get angry at this, and insist on reading a more literal, less readable translation- but I found this take fantastic.

Rating: B

Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)

I do sometimes wonder why certain things are considered classic . . . and that's the case with A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, published in 1926.  It's a collection of 10 tales about Pooh bear, a lovable "bear of little brain" who lives in the hundred-acre wood with his friends Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Eeyore (Tigger isn't mentioned in this, the first book in the series).  From the start, it's made clear that these characters are based on stuffed animals owned by the only child in the story, Christopher Robin (named for Milne's son), and it's equally clear that Milne got wrote some of the tales based on watching his boy play with his toy animals.  He probably copied some dialogue word-for-word, because there are parts of each story that just don't make any sense- and that's what bothered me.

I'm all for silly, crazy, and wild in any medium- but there needs to be a degree of coherence.  Most of the time, that exists here, but in each tale, there would be a series of dialogue that came out of nowhere, didn't make sense, and served only to distract.  Other than that, the tales are silly stories that a boy might make up, and mildly entertaining, generally involving pooh making some amusing mistake (like knocking at his own door and wondering why nobody's answering).  I remember enjoying the Disney cartoon as a child, and that series (from what I can recall) retains the spirit of the books, so it's not a pointless venture; it's just not all I thought it would be.

Rating: C+

Patton on Leadership (Alan Axelrod)

Love him or hate him, few will deny that General George Patton was an excellent leader.  Responsible for amazing victories in North Africa and Europe in WWII, he had a lot to say on leading men in all situations- especially in hostile environments.  In Patton on Leadership, Alan Axelrod selects 183 lessons or concepts from Patton directly or from the men who served under him, categorizes them, and expounds upon them.  As you'd expect with so many, there's overlap- and valuable concepts can be repeated.  But, that's never bad, and this book gives a lot of helpful advice on what it means to lead.  With so many lessons, it's choppy at times- good for reading a bit at a time, bad for overall cohesiveness- but it's valuable nevertheless.  Note that this is not a biography on Patton- each lesson presented puts Patton in a good light, and this may irk his detractors, who are quick to point out his very public flaws.  So, don't read it for history- read it for leadership lessons.

The leadership points presented here that resonated the most with me are presented below.  I took several similar lessons or quotations and put them together in a category.  I want to start doing this with every leadership book I read.  I won't expound on things below- they're just summaries to jog my memory.

Information
Get the facts.  "No decision is difficult to make if you get all of the facts."  Learn from the facts.  Face facts and be honest.  Firsthand information is always best.  Know, and don't neglect, the details.  Hit the books (of history- there's nothing new under the sun).  Demand difference of opinion.  Consider the source. 

Communication
Share Information.  "No man can do anything without knowing what he is doing . . . Generals and staff officers don't win wars!  Soldiers win wars!  The soldier must know what he is doing at all times.  He must know the objective."  Communication is key!

An Example
Always lead from the front.  Be an example.  Don't treat yourself better than your men.  Managers should not be invisible.  Loyalty must be mutual.  People are your business.  Everyone is expendable- train your replacement. 

Decisiveness
"A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances."  Fit plans to circumstances.  Know the letter of the objective- but lead based on the spirit, or intent, of the objective.  And, whatever you do, decide.  "When a decision has do be made, make it.  There is no totally right time for anything."  Wars are not won by defensive tactics.  Accent execution, not ideas.  "Victory in the next war will depend on execution not plans."  Always follow through.


Rating: A

The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson)

One way to get your annual book total up fast is to read 24-page children's books.  While most would agree this is deceptive, I felt The Gruffalo important enough to include in my reading list.  I've read dozens of books to my daughter, and the award-winning Gruffalo stands out as one of our all-time favorites.  It's a story of how a mouse evades the predators of the forest by warning them of the imminent arrival of a "gruffalo"- a horrible creature of the mouse's own devising (or so the mouse thinks).  Imagine its surprise when it meets just the creature it's been imagining!  Then, ingeniously, the mouse uses the presence of the creature to scare the other predators away, while making the gruffalo believe the other predators are in fact scared of the mouse, not the gruffalo.  In the end, mouse turns this second deception on the gruffalo itself, which flees in fear, leaving the mouse all alone to enjoy his meal, which is all he wanted.

The story, rhyming, and artwork are excellent here, and in general I really enjoy Julia Donaldson's stories.  When you read 3 stories or more to your child each day, you may as well enjoy them. 

Rating: A+

A Highland Christmas (M.C. Beaton)

 

Well, that wasn't what I was expecting.  One of the mystery writers on my British reading list is M.C. Beaton- a prolific writer who's penned over 80 books in her time.  I chose A Highland Christmas because it was short.  I didn't realize it would also be disappointing.

A Highland Christmas is a Hamish Macbeth mystery (about 29 have been written to date).  Hamish lives in the Highlands of Scotland, and is the police constable of a stereotypical, off-beat small Highland village.  In it, as you'd expect, are quirky highland folk, each with lovable, amusing, or annoying foibles.  I think most of the Hamish stories are murder mysteries, but not this one- this appears to be a "Christmas special" of sorts.  Here, a cat goes missing, a tree is stolen, and some misers learn to "lighten up" and have fun on Christmas.  How dreadful.

At 131 pages, this is a quick one-sitting read, but it's one you can skip.  Beaton is not a mystery writer in the Agatha Christie vein- she's more focused on the lives of the villagers than the mystery itself.  I pictured this as being one episode of a standard, 30-minute TV lighthearted "dramedy," perhaps in the Due South or Northern Exposure veins, for those who remember those shows.  It's like a light soap opera, in a way.  Things happen at lightning speed- so there's little room for good dialogue or character development.  Folks that have been set in their ways for decades suddenly have changes of heart, and everything is magically happy at the end- boring.  Anyway, it's not your typical mystery book, and for the unspeakable disappointment I felt as a result I'm forced to give it a poor rating.

Rating: C-

Droppin' Like Flies

You can't read 'em all- and frankly, you probably don't want to.  That, at least, is my conclusion as I decided to chop seven books off my reading list.  I always hate doing that- I feel as though I'm reneging on a commitment- but in each case, I started the book but couldn't get into it enough for it to be worth continuing.
  While I no longer plan on reading them at this time, I think it is important for me to at least be aware of them, and have a summary in my mind.  After all, I put them on the list in the first place for a reason- they're viewed as classics in their respective genres, and some of them radically changed the world.  As I'm quickly finding out, though, just because they were earth-shaking doesn't mean they're page-turners, or even desirable reads in some cases.

That said, below I present the works I chopped off the list, a brief summary of each, and why they got the axe.

Literature
George Eliot: Silas Marner
A weaver learns that loving people is better than hording wealth when a single man finds a child left at his doorstep and raises her as his own.  The story itself seems good, but for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into Silas Marner.  Many find it (and other Eliot works) highly valuable, but not me.

Religion
John Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress
John Milton: Paradise Lost
Two classics of old (published in the late 1600s), these were fabulously popular religious works in their time (and since).  Pilgrim's Progress is a Christian's journey through their walk with the Lord- through the highs and lows, the ups and downs.  Paradise Lost recounts (and expounds upon) the fall of man in Genesis.  I had the same problem with these two that I did with Shakespeare- I didn't want to invest the time to hack through ye olde English.  I tried- I really did- but I failed.  I may read a modern English translation of Bunyan's famed work at some point . . . but not now.

Science
Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species
Isaac Newton: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
These are perhaps the two most influential scientific works produced in Britain.  Darwin's account famously postulates ideas like natural selection and evolution, while Newton's classic sets forth calculus and other groundbreaking mathematical concepts.  For the former, I tried to read it, but lost interest.  Thankfully, the last 20-page chapter summarizes the entire book, so I'll read that and call it good.  For the latter, I may read it some day, but not now.  That's almost 1000 pages of mathematical proofs, etc, so it's not a quick or easy journey.


Fantasy
Mervyn Peake: The Ghormenghast Trilogy
Evangeline Walton: The Mabinogion Tetralogy
Peake's work has been called a fantasy of manners.  Set inside a huge castle, the Ghormenghast books focus largely on the interaction between the characters of differing social status.  Meh- I gave up after a chapter or two.  Walton's tetralogy is a re-telling of the Mabinogion- the famous Welsh mythological work.  She tries to bring the original tradition to life by fleshing out the prose.  The bit I read was okay, but just not for me.  In both cases, these authors are considered to rank with Tolkien in the fantasy realm, so some may really enjoy these.  Me, I'll stick with A Game of Thrones or The Wheel of Time series for my next fantasy selections.

Gimme Gimme

Among the many reasons children are blessings are the lessons they teach us.  We, the experienced, should know better, but sometimes it takes the insanity of the young to show us our follies.  Today, as I gave my children a bath, my son Luke gave me just such a valuable life lesson.  As he sat in the water, he spied a rubber ducky- and grabbed it.  He saw another, and took that in his other hand.  He then laid eyes on a toy turtle, and managed to pick that up by wedging it between the two ducks in his hands.  He then sat there for the rest of the bath, doing absolutely nothing other than trying to maintain his hold on what he had, and greedily try to grasp more toys floating in the water.  I couldn't believe it- he was missing out on any sort of enjoyment due to his greed- his insatiable desire for more.  While I chewed on that in my mind, I couldn't help but be convicted of the many ways I'm guilty of just the same thing.

Anyone who follows this blog* knows that I think about materialism in its different forms rather frequently.  That's mainly because I struggle with it so much.  Not just the physical stuff, but the experiences, too- the traveling, the local events, the opportunities life has to offer- it's so easy for me to get caught up in it.  And,  in the last few months, I've become increasingly convinced of just how wrong, yet pervasive, it is.

Our culture is a "collecting" one.  Books, movies, electronics, games, toys, food, and other material things roll into our households all the time.  Some fight back- and perhaps you've seen the "collect memories, not things" slogans circulating on the Internet- but even then, when you dwell on that, you see how our tendency to horde has seeped into such good intentions.  Collect memories- get as many as you can.  See as many places as you can.  Hang out with as many people.  Do as much as you can.  Do, do, do.  Gimme, gimme, gimme.  We are (or at least I am) those people sitting in the tub, hording the toys and enjoying none of them. 

After watching my son and his ridiculous act, I was humbled.  I looked at the games that I own- and realized that I play only 10 of the (probably 30) that we own.  I looked at my books- and see works that have sat on the shelf for 10+ years, while I've purchased others (I own 90 that I haven't yet read).  I looked at my movies, and see dozens that I own because "they were on sale" and "it's nice to watch them now and then," which means I'll see them probably once a decade- and I noticed that I own about 20 that I haven't ever watched, planning to "get around to it one of these days."  Then I looked at my kids' toys- I won't bother elaborating on that mess.  I turned from stuff to experiences, and I saw the same.  We've done so much that it's not uncommon to see a picture and have to think about what country it was taken in.  I think on what we've done in the last two months and hardly remember, because our time is so jam-packed with activities that our existence becomes one of running from one event to the next, with no time to process.  The bottom line is, I'm the one with the rubber duckies.  Holding them, hording them, stressed out because "there's so much to do," while doing nothing for fear of dropping one.  In short, I'm nuts- God be merciful, and strengthen me to live life as I ought.  I can't have (or do) it all, so help me have (and do) what matters.

*if that's true of anyone in this world

Unholy Night (Seth Grahame-Smith)

It's been a long time since I read a (standard-length) book in one day.  But, the 381 pages flew by today, and I thus conclude that Unholy Night is another winner by Seth Grahame-Smith, who produces another enjoyable, fast-paced thriller on the heels of his bestselling Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Like the book on Abe, Unholy Night is a "factasy"- a fact-filled fantasy tale- a blend of historical fiction, fantasy, horror, biography, even religion in this case.  As before, Grahame-Smith takes a historical event and throws in an obvious fantasy twist.  In Unholy Night, three men barge in on Joseph and Mary shortly after the birth of Jesus.  But, unlike the Biblical accounts, these men aren't wise men- they're robbers on the run.  After seeing the fruits of Herod's edict to kill all male babies in the region, these criminals sympathize with the young couple, and decide to aid them in their flight to Egypt to save the baby's life.  Along the way, they must evade pursuing Romans and an increasingly incensed Herod, but somehow miracles keep occurring that deliver them.  It's almost enough to make one of the criminals- who keeps having visions in addition to witnessing these miracles- believe.

While I enjoyed his previous tale immensely, I approached Grahame-Smith's Unholy Night with a touch of trepidation, for two reasons:
1) The story concerns the birth of Christ, which can be a flashpoint for controversy
2) I'm much more familiar with this historical event than I was with Abraham Lincoln's life; thus, I feared finding a bunch of historical errors (fantasy element aside) that would lessen my enjoyment of the yarn. 

I must admit, my fears were largely ill-founded.  The author impressively manages to avoid offending Christians- I don't think he's a believer, but Christ is not derided here- and he gets most of the story correct, according to Biblical accounts.  Certainly some things are altered- and some points of history are erroneously claimed- but he gets the most important elements correct (in spirit, at least).  You come away with the idea that this child is special, He's protected by supernatural means, and His arrival will shake the world to its core and change lives.  As a Christian, I couldn't ask for more when reading a tale of this nature.  In fact, I enjoyed the historical fiction element of this- contemplating what those first weeks must have been like, fleeing Herod's edict through a vast, harsh desert.  I also enjoyed the fantasy element here- though it can be a bit gory and heart-wrenching at times. 

All in all, this is a tale worth reading.

Rating: A

Bath, Lacock, Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Oxford

The 4th of July holiday gave many Americans a long weekend, and we decided to take a mini road trip "down south."  It ended up being even shorter than we anticipated- more on that in a moment- but it was fun.  The overall route looked as shown below:

The Ground Covered

Day 1
We left Yorkshire in the afternoon and drove to Cheltenham, to meet friends for dinner.  Cheltenham is a nice town, for those who haven't been, but our itinerary allowed only a quick stop here, so after the meal we went on to our B&B outside of Bath, where we retired for the evening.

Day 2
The main tourism objective of the day was Bath.  An old Roman town, Bath is home to the Roman baths, an abbey, and pretty downtown riverfront area.  It also boasts a circus and royal crescent (homes laid out in a circular pattern).  I may just be jaded from constant travel, but you can see everything worthwhile in Bath in a half day.  A pretty town, to be sure.

Bath: The Royal Crescent

Bath: Abbey

Bath: The Circus

Bath: River View

Bath: Roman Baths

Bath: Town Center

Having done Bath in a half day, we didn't know quite what to do with our afternoon.  Thankfully, my wife remembered someone recommending Lacock- a quaint village and abbey just 13 miles east of Bath. We headed there, and were glad we did.  Lacock Abbey is an anomaly- a former abbey turned into a manor home.  Part of the building felt like a standard abbey tour- and then suddenly you were in a residence.  It was quite nice, and as an aside, Harry Potter film fans will recognize a room or two.  Outside of the Abbey, Lacock is a very small village- four streets- but quaint and often used for period films in the Jane Austen vein.  If you're in the Bath area, Lacock is a recommended stop.

Lacock Abbey from a Distance

Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey

Lacock Abbey

Lacock

Our day two ended unexpectedly.  We had a minor emergency that left us stuck with little local currency, so we decided to cut our trip short and head home the next day, after seeing a few things.  It would cut two nights off our trip, but such is life.

Day 3
We checked out of our Bath B&B and headed south, knowing that a long day was ahead of us.  First up: Stonehenge, one of the most touristy, and underwhelming, sites you'll see in the UK.  It wasn't bad, by any stretch . . . it just wasn't amazing.  Crowded beyond all get-out, it's something you look at for 15-20 minutes, say "huh," and go.  A succinct summary of Stonehenge: it's old, and nobody knows exactly what it was used for, but it lines up with the sun on the solstices.  There.  Okay, now on to Salisbury.

Stonehenge

Just a 20 minute drive south of Stonehenge is Salisbury, with its stunning Cathedral.  Ken Follett, author of the masterful Pillars of the Earth, modeled the fictional cathedral in his bestseller after the one in Salisbury.  Built amazingly quickly for a cathedral (it was completed in just 38 years- 1220-1258), its uniform gothic architecture is beautiful to behold.  It also houses one of the few surviving original copies of the Magna Carta.  The town of Salisbury is nice, but being used to European "nice towns," we saw the cathedral, enjoyed lunch, and left.

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury "Front Doors"

Our original trip itinerary had us spending the evening in Salisbury.  Had we done so, we may have swung by nearby Wardour Castle ruins (17 miles west of the town).  As it stood, though, we started the long drive home (250 miles to our home in Yorkshire). I was a little bummed about cutting two nights off of our trip, but the only thing left on our itinerary was Oxford, so we were "missing out" on only one thing . . . or were we?

Right on the way home, about 70 miles north of Salisbury, is Oxford, and we decided to stop in.  We arrived about 3:30pm, so we didn't have long, but frankly, it was enough.  Here's what I wanted to accomplish in Oxford:
1) Stop by the Eagle and Child, the pub where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and others meet to discuss their works-in-progress.  A very confined place, it was fun to swing in for a pic.  I couldn't have a pint . . . there was still 180 miles to drive.
2) Stop in the Oxford University Press bookstore (website here).  I enjoy the Oxford editions of many classics I read, and I wanted to stop in the "mother store" and see if I could soak in some wisdom.  It turns out I couldn't, but I could take advantage of the 3 for 2 deals on all Oxford World Classics . . aww yeah.
3) Walk around the various colleges.  Like Cambridge, Oxford features numerous colleges, many with beautiful architecture and charm.  We huffed it around a few of them, marveling at how "urban" Oxford seemed compared to Cambridge.  It wasn't bad . . . but, frankly, it wasn't as nice as Cambridge.

Oxford

Oxford

Oxford

Oxford: The "Famous" Eagle and Child

Oxford

Oxford

After our whirlwind tour of Oxford (we were there about 3 hours, including dinner), we made the long drive home, stopping at just about every rest stop because of my daughter (who's potty training) and my son (who decided to have a bowel movement every 30 miles).  We eventually made it home, though, and in one of life's enjoyable twists, we decided that we were happy the trip got cut short.  We saw what we wanted and spent only two nights (vs four) in hotels. 

Final Thoughts
This trip ended up being a "blitz" tour experience for us, and frankly, we didn't mind.  Everything we saw was nice, but nothing wowed us . . . which is becoming increasingly true the more we travel.  As a friend said to me recently (who's also lived in Europe for 5+ years), "the awe is gone."  Not because things aren't beautiful- but because we get so used to beauty that it loses its impact on us.  Shame on us.

Area Rating: A

Death or Victory: Tales of the Clan Maclean (Fiona Maclean)

I'm one of many Americans who claim Scottish/Irish ancestry, and so my curiosity regarding family history has been piqued while living in the UK.  I have Maclean blood in me, and so that clan is of particular interest.  To that end, Fiona Maclean's Death or Victory: Tales of the Clan Maclean is right up my alley.  A quick read (99 pages with many sketches), it recalls some tales of interest pertaining to the history of the clan- from its founder (Gillean of the Battle-Axe) to present day.  Written with a younger audience in mind, it's difficult to know fact from legend here, but it's entertaining nonetheless.  Recommended for all of Maclean descent, you can order it here.

Rating: B

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)

On many "Top 100" lists, Heart of Darkness is a tale of Africa and the darkness one man finds in it.  The story is told by Marlow, a former steamboat captain who had worked on a river in Africa for an ivory trading company.  He's since moved on, and is recounting his Africa experience with his current crew members.  In his time on the river, he was exposed to the horrors of the African interior- the darkness within- evil white traders exploiting the natives, cannibalistic local tribes, etc.  Most of the book involves his quest to find Mr. Kurtz, a legendary ivory trader who's posted a few hundred miles upriver, and has fallen ill.  Marlow & co. take two months, but finally find him, surrounded by 'savages,' as Marlow puts it, and they take Kurtz back downriver, but he passes away on the journey.  Kurtz gives Marlow some papers to deliver to his fiancee, and his last words are the famous "The horror!  The horror!"  lines, which pretty much sums it up.

I thought this was okay, but not nearly the classic people make it out to be.  Some worthy topics are explored, like the human darkness and savagery within, but they're not really fleshed out- just touched on and accepted in a fatalistic way.  Chinua Achebe (author of Things Fall Apart) didn't like how Conrad portrayed the natives as savages without principles, and I see his point, although to Marlow, they probably appeared as such.  All in all, there are better works that relate the horrors of the colonial conquest of Africa.

Rating: C

Photographer's Guide to the Canon PowerShot S95 (Alexander White)

This is a rather odd review, but here's a fact: we have no idea just how powerful our personal electronics are nowadays.  Smartphones, cameras, iPods, etc  . . . each are capable of amazing things, but if you're like me, you rarely take the time to learn them above what you need for your daily routine.  I decided to change that when I recently purchased a Canon S95 point-and-shoot camera, so I purchased this guide by Alexander White on how to get the most out of my device.

In this book, White walks you through each menu on the camera, and explains each choice as he goes.  It all seemed rather informal, in a way- almost like a friend was walking you, menu-by-menu, through your new camera, explaining some background as he goes- and I enjoyed that tone.  It's a good supplement to the official instruction manual, which is very informative but dry.  White throws in his personal preferences, too, like a friend would- telling you which options he finds the most (and least) useful.  You don't have to read it all the way through- just pick and choose sections that are relevant to you.

While this particular book will interest very few of you, I'd encourage you to "read up" on your camera (or other electronic device) to learn more about what it can do.  You might be surprised how powerful it is- and you may just appreciate it that much more as a result (not to mention, you may get better pictures).  After reading, I learned a few tips that made me enjoy (and get better use of) my camera.  All in all, it was worth it.

Rating: B

Yorkshire: A Very Peculiar History (John Malam)

Walk into any popular tourist attraction in North Yorkshire, and chances are you'll see Yorkshire: A Very Peculiar History for sale.  In 180 quick pages, John Malam gives the layperson an introduction to this historic and scenic part of England.  He covers prehistoric, Roman, Viking, and Norman peoples, discusses major events like the War of the Roses and Dissolution of the Monasteries, and finishes with a Yorkshire miscellany.  As the title implies, the book is extremely Yorkshire-focused; so, for example, the War of the Roses covers only the battles that were fought in Yorkshire.

If you live in Yorkshire, or plan an extended visit here, I'd recommend this book.  It's an amazingly fast read, and gives a good overview of things.  Anyone familiar with history won't find much new here, but the Yorkshire focus may bring a few things to light that seasoned history enthusiasts didn't know, and at the very least it may give a better awareness of the myriad of local sites.

Rating: B-

Arthurian Reading Suggestions

Some time ago, I posted on the world of Arthurian literature (link here).  There, I briefly discuss the legend of King Arthur, and hint at its various re-tellings over the centuries.  This post is a more thorough treatment of the subject.

The King Arthur legend, being centuries old, has taken on various forms in various ages.  From his initial mention in writing in the 800s, his legend has grown to mythical proportions.  The most popular takes on him have him as English, standing for Christian ideals at his round table in Camelot, as he rules his land with truth and justice, only to be betrayed by his wife Guinevere and knight Lancelot, and eventually fall in battle with Mordred, his relative.  Over the years, many authors have weaved their own takes on the legend- there are hundreds of Arthurian books out there (300 choices for you are here).  But, at its core, we know almost nothing about him.  This begs the question: how did this all come about?  Why such attraction to a man about whom so little is known?  And, are the few depictions we have accurate?

A brief history lesson on Arthurian literature is as follows.  Nennius, around 800 AD, mentioned an Arthur in his work Historia Brittonum.  After 300 years of silence, we see him again in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136).  We get a lot more background in Geoffrey's pseudo-historical work, and that's believed to be the basis of popularity.  Things really take off, and gain a romantic element, with Chrétien de Troyes, a Frenchmen who penned Four Arthurian Romances in the 1170s.  This is probably the foundation of the modern Arthurian romance, though Mallory (mentioned shortly) gets more credit.  An unknown author released Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the late 1300s, and around 1400 we have the alliterative Le' morte d'Arthur.  But what gets the most publicity, and is used most frequently as the basis for subsequent works, was Sir Thomas Mallory's Le’ morte d'Arthur (1485).  Interest waned in the post-Medieval world, but in the mid-late 1800s, Alfred, Lord Tennyson rekindled interest when he published his epic verse The Idylls of the King. In the 1900s, there's been an explosion of Arthurian literature, everything from Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903) to T.H. White's The Once and Future King (1940s) to the last thirty years, where Arthurian literature has grown beyond easy cataloging. 

Since Arthur works are so prevalent, several guides have been written to help navigate the field.  If you are a moderate Arthurian enthusiast, Alan Lupack's The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend is a good book to reference.  If you're a fanatic, and you believe you exist solely to study Arthur, The Arthurian Annals (by Nastali & Boardman) is for you.  The latter is a two-volume set that looks at everything written in English about Arthur from 1250-2000, and can set you back £150 if you buy it straight from Oxford here.

Which depictions of Arthur are accurate?  Did he even exist?  And, if so, who was he?  Military leader, great king, minor lord?  There are many things we don't know, and never will.  Still, historians have been able to conclude some things, and most agree that if there was an Arthur, he existed in the 480s-500s timeframe, when the Romans had left Britain, and the Anglo-Saxon tribes were invading.  Unlike most legends, then, Arthur was not Christian, and most decidedly not English- he was a Briton in the "native, tribal" sense- effectively, the current Welsh.  There would have been no shining armor, and few (if any) castles.  This image of Arthur is very different than the prevailing tales of the man today.

Some, however, claim that all historical attempts to find Arthur are hogwash.  Noted historian Marc Morris says, in his book on King Edward I (review), that "Arthur himself never existed.  Beyond any reasonable doubt, the legendary 'king' began life as an elemental figure or demi-god - a sort of low-grade Thor or Wodin . . . Arthur was not historic, but had been 'historicised.'  That is to say, a number of earlier medieval writers, at different times and for different reasons, had taken the legenday or god-like figure and written about him as if he had been a real person."  Morris blames Geoffrey of Monmouth more than any, calling his work (mentioned above and listed below) "the most brilliant and audacious literary hoax of the Middle Ages."

Whether or not Arthur existed is perhaps not as relevant as who he has become in our culture.  He is the image of the ideal earthly king- bound to honor and justice, capable of glorious feats, tortured by intimate betrayals.  He is both above us and one of us- ideal and real.  To that end, many Arthurian works have been and will continue to be produced, as humanity grasps for examples worthy of emulation.

Update (from June 2017): originally, I concluded this post with a list of Arthurian works.  I've moved that to my main Arthur page.