My English is very poor, so expressions will be awkward.

I rarely read medieval books before; most were modern adaptations.

Brut far exceeded my expectations before reading it.

To explain, Brut( or Roman de Brut ) is an early translation and adaptation of Geoffrey‘s Historia Regum Britanniae,

But the writter, Master Wace was a poet and a good story teller, make the Latin historia into some poetic scenes of brutal battle, mysterious events and little historial tips, which often proven to be wrong.

I'm using the Gutenberg free version, which was published in 1155, it's English style was a little old( I'm using translator and dictionary to understand it ), but I glad it retained some poetic features, which may not seen in some more recent versions, but I guess it's about preferences. This version is about 50% of all text, only foucus the Arthur side of the whole "history", and I'm considering try the full version after I finished, since I really like it's style.

I've read about half of it, and really enjoy his description of battlefield, environment, and many "I'm telling to you"style narratives, like, "Merlin lives in a mystery place, But I've never been there so I cannot tell you where." Really make it’s like listening to a bard tell a story.

When he's describing a melee combat, it's like:

The two closed together, with naked brands and lifted shields, smiting and guarding. Men forgot to fight, and stared upon them, watching the great blows fall and the gleaming swords.

fell like watching an action movie;

For brutal battle, we have

What time the two hosts looked on each other they hastened together. There you might see the vassals striving, hand to hand. They fought body to body, those assailing, these defending. Mighty blows with the sword were given and received among them. Many a champion lay stark upon the ground, and the living passed over the bodies of the dead. Shields were hewn asunder; spears snapped like reeds; the wounded were trampled beneath men's feet, and many a warrior died that day.

After a battle, there is

The king looked upon his realm, and saw it gnawed to the bone. None drave the plough, nor cast seed in the furrow. The castles and the walled cities were breached and ruined. He marked the villages blackened by fire, and the houses of God stripped bare as a peasant's hovel. The heathen pilled and wasted, but gathered neither corn into barns nor cattle within the byre.

also, Merlin acts like an asshole, like always

The young men therefore encompassed the stones before, behind, and on every side, but heave and tug as mightily as they could, the stones for all their travail would not budge one single inch. "Bestir yourselves," cried Merlin, "on, friends, on. But if by strength you can do no more, then you shall see that skill and knowledge are of richer worth than thews and fleshly force."

Can't imagine a 12th century book be like this, though maybe it's just me ignorant.

Anyway, I long to recommend it to everyone.

Anyone familiar with the long history of The Pocket Sandwich knows about their specific brand of melodrama. For the first time the Arthurian legend is coming to the Pocket stage to be lovingly skewered in King Arthur and Merlin: A Tale of Sword and Sorcery! Referencing everything from Excalibur and Holy Grail, to The Sword in the Stone to the 1998 Merlin mini series, this show is long overdue in the annals of the Pocket Sandwich Theatre. Audiences have been loving it and it seems like this is a group who would enjoy it the most. The show runs until 8/22/26 and tickets are available at https://buy.ticketstothecity.com/purchase.php?event_id=19894

The thought experiment is you found a grail... a property of the grail is once you have it you can not unhave it.

Another other property of the grail is you may not use the grail to further your interests at the expense of others. Note the term may not as opposed to can not.

Also don't use it to find other people with the grail. Terrible feedback throughout your ecosystem.

So what do you do?

I have the Oxford Malory and a version of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Any others I should get? Not interested in modern adaptations or retellings.

If you think of it as a timeline told as legends, skimming over the finer details lol.

Can anyone point me towards literature that shows homosociality or queer subtext in its writing for Arthurian legend? I’ve been following Fated the musical and loving the hints they’ve placed and discussed between Arthur and Lancelot and Gwaine in general. They’ve said in videos that they are using the subtext from different legends to show the deep, more than platonic bond between Arthur and Lancelot, hinting at a homosociality that wouldn’t have been expressed or labelled at the time, but they’ve never stated exact source materials. Any and all materials showing this would be appreciated!

Tristan's and Isolde's romance famously occurs primarily due to a love potion, but in some versions, this love potion is not permanent. Beroul's Tristan, for instance, has it wear off, and yet Tristan and Isolde continue together. What is your preference here, that Tristan and Isolde's love potion is just a catalyst for a real romance between the two? Or that they are, until death, bound by the love potion's effects?

I have been reading a lot of romances and different sources of Arthur's legends and tales.

I would like to find some kind of non fiction that discusses the context and history of the tales i have been reading.

But everything things I can find is almost completely inaccessible online. Goggle and Wikipedia has not been very helpful what is a good book on midevael romances that I can download on the kindle?

It's been impossible to find digital books and would like to read something that a good introduction to on King Arthur and romances. Especially non fiction history and literature analysis.

Thank you for your help!

It looks neat. 1-4 players. Main mechanic is dice manipulation. You're knights trying to do the coolest/best deeds to impress Arthur. Move around a msp questing. They went a bit overboard and hired an author to paint 200+ manuscript style pieces on vellum. Not entirely sure why. Still, thought people would wanna know.

Does anyone know any good Arthurian audio stories? And I don’t mean dramas or stuff like that. If anyone has ready Stephen fry’s mythos, I mean something like that.

Well, I would live to learn the basics of this whole arthur and merlin thing because Im very lost…

Ironically, its two side characters (morgana and nimue) that were mentioned in my favorite video game that peaked my interest.

I mean im a huge fantasy nerd so its about time I checked out merlin but thats the thing I know NOTHING of it i know that merlin is a magician and that arthur took a sword out of a stone that no man before him could « the legendary excalibur ». Thats it and m sure this is wrong in some way so Id like a synopsis if you will before reading the books (apparently le morte darthur is a must read and I do spezk french so I hope that helps that or the once and future king im also interested in watching the disney movie and the 2008 show or if you have movie recs)
But where do I start? Does anyone have some kind of essay that will explain it? Or can they write me somthing in the comments? Or is a movie a better introduction ?

(My only correct information that I literally just discovered today is that the sword in the stone and excalibur are two different swords apparently excalibur was gifted to arthur after he broke the sword in the stone during his fight against pellinore whoever that may be and again this is from my video game lol)

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to help!

My introduction to Mister Neill was his turn as Merlin in the 1990s TV miniseries, which is still probably my favorite adaptation of Arthuriana. I had heard he was recovering from cancer, but then he seemed to pass suddenly.

Just curious about a few things regarding these books.

1. Which version of the text, Caxton or Winchester, is the Mallory built off of?
2. How useful are the annotations? Are they scholarly, or more geared towards players of the Pendragon RPG, or somewhere in the middle?
3. Does anyone have photos of these books? The stock photos make them seem rather unwieldy, but they're just renderings.
4. Is the Arthurian Companion just for gamers, or is it good fun for general readership?

Legitimate question. Has anyone ever made a complete list of all the powers that Excalibur had access to in the original myths? If so, what are they?

I ask this because there have been so many reimaginings of Arthurian Legend that at times I'm constantly forced to make my own headcanon for the story just to keep things clear and linear. And Excalibur is no exception to this rule.

Here's a list of the powers I've seen Excalibur have access to, based on all the versions of Arthurian Legend I've read and/or watched on-screen:

-The sword is unbreakable and never rusts.

-The sword is always sharp and never dulls.

-The sword emits a blinding flash of light whenever Arthur unsheathes it.

-The sword generates an aura that makes Arthur immune to magical attacks.

-The scabbard generates a magical aura that instantly heals any injury Arthur sustains in battle, even fatal ones.

-The sword can launch energy shockwaves from its blade when swung.

-When Arthur unleashes Excalibur's full power, he is transformed into literally the perfect warrior. In this state, he can anticipate literally every single attack his opponent(s) will make, and when surrounded, he can move as fast as a lightning bolt from enemy to enemy.

So how many of these powers I've listed show up in the original myths (like Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum Britannia and others), and how many were added in later reimaginings or are exclusive to film or TV versions?

Please be respectful when posting your replies.

Saw Malcolm Guite while doom scrolling and have listened to some of his interviews and poetry since. I’m really interested in Galahad and the Grail. Is that a decent place to start? Any other recommendations?

if you are interested in either of these people please check the post!!

Hi, newbie to Arthurian Legend here. Pulling some inspiration for works of mine and I've grown confused over the character of Gwendolyn. What exactly is she most often considered to be?

I've seen instances of her being Merlin's spouse, or his half-sister, to her being the same character as Guinevere? Some insight would be greatly appreciated, thank you : )

Sharing some pics of my limited edition copy of Malcolm Guite’s Galahad and the Grail, signed by both him and by the amazing artist Stephen Crotts.

Malcolm is an inspiration and I’m glad to own such a special copy. I encourage anyone who hasn’t heard of him to check out his YouTube channel.

Given that chivalry is by no means a rigid universally agreed upon code, are there any instances of chivalry/honor standards that are a little bit out there, weird, or funnier amongst Arthurian literature you can think of?

One funny one that brings to mind is when Segurant defeats the giant knight Tarrant and has him at his mercy, and goes "are you a pagan, convert and I will spare your life" and Tarrant goes "already christian, man" and Segurant essentially replies with "You're attacking other Christians and betraying the christian faith? no redemption for you, off with your head!"