| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
NON-Fiction Book Reviews From our Archives |
January 2005 |
Before Malory, Reading Arthur in Later Medieval England by Richard J. Moll, University of Toronto Press, 368 pages, hardcover, $63.00, ISBN 0-820-3722-4
By Alidė Kohlhaas
Just where do the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table come from, and how were these legends passed on through the ages? This is a questions we may never really be able to answer, but Richard J. Moll, an assistant professor of English at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, attempts to give us at least some answers in his book, Before Malory - Reading Arthur in Late Medieval England.
King Arthur brings to mind instant images of romance and chivalry. Today, the worthy king, the seeker of the Holy Grail, is mostly known through the stories passed down to us from the 19th century by writers such as Sir James Knowles. He dedicated his Legends of King Arthur and his Knights to the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1862, at the height of the Victorian Age. Tennyson, of course, had by then already become famous for a series of poems based on the legends, the first of which were published in 1859 under the heading of Idyll's of the King. That series was not completed until 1885. Algernon Charles Swinburne, who thought Tennyson's look at the legends as being too moralistic, published his passionate Arthurian classic, Tristram of Lyonesse, in 1882. It is now seen as one of the great classics of the Victorian era about the Arthurian legends.
It is not the Tennyson and Swinburne versions that have influenced our imaginations, but the prose form produced by Knowles. It seems, almost all versions of the stories now published evolved from this romantic look at the ancient legends. What were once adult stories of chivalry and honor, of lust, of betrayal, have been turned into various children's books by adapting Knowles's story in a suitable fashion. And, of course, we . . .
To Read the full article, go to our ABOUT US page and click on Contact to request the item.
Copyright © 2005-10 CamKohl Arts Productions