Gerald Morris and King Arthur

I read the books back in January, but only now have got around to writing about it.

Here is the thing: I generally don’t like Arthurian myths very much. I know it is wrong, and one can find bits and pieces of it throughout all Western civilization, but Arthur’s story just depresses me so…

Well. Tristram and Iseult’s story doesn’t depress me, because I think they are too stupid to live, and their fate should be the lesson to all teenagers everywhere: watch what you drink, dude! But Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the whole Round table thing depress the hell out of me. They are so good and noble and doomed, it’s nauseating. I do love the Monty Python version. And the musical with Richard Harris and Vanessa Redgrave for the pretty abound.

Anyway, here is an author who writes retellings of stories about Knights of the Round Table as YA novels, and they are smart, and light and funny, serious and irreverent, and sparkly and I loved them. They have zero historical accuracy, and happen in that abstract medieval world of Arthurian myth – which is something the author is very upfront about. He admits that he is not trying to reconstruct Arthurian legends, but to retell stories and romances about King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. The only historically correct moments are that these stories were actually told – and at the end of each book Gerald Morris explains his sources (usually one or several romances), and which parts of his story he borrowed, which characters he created himself (usually the main point-of-view character), and which spellings he preferred. For Example The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady is based on the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf is based on one episode in Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur.

With some new characters in the mix, some inventive filling in the blanks, and some turning stereotypes on their heads the old stories feel like a very entertaining romp. Some tropes and situation are repeating over and over - but that is in the nature of those stories. Damsels end up not much in the need of saving, and some knights prefer farming to the swordplay and jousting, and though the stoires do have a happy end, it does not necessarily include the wedding of main protagonists. The language is mostly very modern - unless otherwise is necessary. On the background we have the main story of king Arthur is going on as well as the story of Sir Gawain and his squire, mostly invented by G.Morris.

So to sum up - I enjoyed the series as I never expected to. Plus, Tristram and Iseult are shown as blundering idiots, which is always a plus in my book. Here are the books in the right order:

1. The Squire's Tale


2. The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady


3. The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf


4. Parsifal's Page


5. The Ballad of Sir Dinadan


6. The Princess, the Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight


7. The Lioness and Her Knight


8. The Quest of the Fair Unknown