King Arthur Fans

[tnh]

It's peculiarly difficult to find an unmodernized edition of Mallory.

[tapsi]

I have a facsimile edition of the one with Aubrey Beardsley's designs, it's the most beautiful book I own...

Le Morte D'Arthur was the only book my dad ever banned me from. To his defence, he found me reading it when I wasn't even seven, and he thought that maybe I was too young for all the incest and violence (the Hungarian translation has a slightly archaic tone, but it's more accessible than the original). He even hid the book for a few years!

[tnh]

Tapsi: There aren't many books I'd consider hiding from kids until they were older, but now that you mention it, the unexpurgated Mallory would be one of them.

You read Hungarian? Cool.

[Doc Savage]

I also recommend Percival by Chretien de Troyes. It is by far my favorite book associated with King Arthur, though it isn't about him.

[anthonypero]

Percival was great.

[tapsi]

Tapsi: There aren't many books I'd consider hiding from kids until they were older, but now that you mention it, the unexpurgated Mallory would be one of them.

You read Hungarian? Cool.

one of the relatively few perks of being a Hungarian what i really wanted to say was that i doubt i would've found Mallory that interesting or even comprehensible if the Hungarioan translation had been as difficult as the English original

when i was a teenager, i enjoyed Marion Bradley's Mists of Avalon a lot, it was a really empowering read for a geek girl like me

[tnh]

Tapsi, did anyone warn you in advance that Mallory (properly Malory) wasn't really writing in Modern English? Most English editions modernize the spelling, but it's still full of words whose meaning has shifted, and implications that have become inobvious. A good translation is probably more readable to those who speak its language than the respelled English version is to most English speakers.

Le Morte Darthur belongs on the other side of the great divide between literature written to be read aloud, and literature meant to be read silently on the page. You can see that in its scant punctuation: Why bother with special marks indicating the beginning and end of dialogue? If you're reading it aloud, it will be obvious who's speaking. Whichever way you read it, it's best read slowly. It's like the stories in the Old Testament: if you read it at the speed of modern prose, you'll miss most of the good stuff.