Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #653132 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Notes and Queries
"Learned and entertaining . . . Any scholar not already familiar with the Welsh material will find it an admirable introduction."

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.