Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1001732 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Review
"Few scholars could have undertaken the present work with more success. The volume has the distinction of imposing order on enormously diverse texts, genres, and periods and is additionally controlled by Padel's judgement and fluid prose. It is never an entirely easy task for an expert in any field to change tone and level in order to write a book for non-experts. Padel has done so admirably in a work that is assured, accurate and eminently readable" -Zeitschrift fr celtische Philologie

Customer Reviews

A different Arthur
Most English-speaking readers of the Arthurian legend are familiar with the character portrayed in the French romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as filtered by Malory's fifteenth century redaction, or as idealised by Tennyson's Victorian bowdlerisation. To discover the original figure of Arthur one does not go to Hollywood (pace Clive Owen), but to Wales, where the earliest mythical and folkloric stories have survived in place names and poems as well as in romances influenced by the French versions. Some readers may be surprised by the author's assertion that Arthur "had an undignified, slow-witted side to his character" but may be pleasantly intrigued by the more humorous Arthur who preceded the imperial hero of Geoffrey of Monmouth. This book is an enlightening introduction to the Welsh material which should be read alongside the Mabinogion.