# What's your favorite Arthurian story?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 22, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385 "2002-06-22T03:56:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/1 "2002-06-22T03:56:13Z")
Does anybody else dig King Arthur et al.? What’s your favorite thing to read about the Knights of the Round Table?
Mine is **The Once and Future King** (and its sequel/s) by T.H. White. I also loved **The Mists of Avalon** although it didn’t really happen that way. 😉
On the more academic side I have Malory’s **Le Morte D’Arthur** both in the beautiful Caxton/Everyman’s Library edition and in a nice translation by Keith Baines. Also _La Mort le Roi Artu_ (The Death of King Arthur) translated by James Cable.
My mom sent me the Mary Stewart series ( **The Crystal Cave** , etc.) Sad to say, I can’t get through the first one. I just don’t care what happens to Merlin anymore. I don’t think the writing is all that great either.
So what else? Tell me about this Tennyson guy…
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### Author:  [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/2 "2002-06-22T04:00:09Z")
The Invincible Iron Man #150. Dr. Doom and Iron Man get sent back in time to the Arthurian age…which pisses off Iron Man to no end, because there’s no technology. (Although he’s quite happy with Camelot’s custom of providing female “companionship” to overnight guests.)
…probably not what you had in mind. Hey, it’s the only Arthurian story I’ve read. 🙂
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/3 "2002-06-22T04:16:21Z")
I can sum it up in six words:
_Anall Nathrach
Uthvah Spethad
Dochiel Dienve!_
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### Author:  [@TheTailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTailor)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/4 "2002-06-22T04:38:54Z")
I had to read a version called “King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table” by Roger Lancelyn Green… I liked it very, very much… It’s what got my obsession with arthurian legend started… best retelling of Gawain & the Green Knight to this day… enjoy!
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/5 "2002-06-22T04:40:04Z")
What Tracer said.
Ok, and also Roger Zelazny’s short story _The Last Defender of Camelot_. Sir Launcelot du Lac, old but still undefeated in battle, is wandering an unnamed 20th-century city, when he suddenly finds Mirgan le Fay reading palms as a storefront psychic… and then it starts getting starnge.
“_Any horse in a storm, and I am Camelot’s last defender._”
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/6 "2002-06-22T05:22:13Z")
_Monty Python and the Holy Grail_
- “He must be the king.”
- “How do you know?”
- “He hasn’t got shit all over him.”
🙂
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/7 "2002-06-22T07:53:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by tracer \*
> \*\*I can sum it up in six words:
>
> _Anall Nathrach
> Uthvah Spethad
> Dochiel Dienve!_ \*\*
Wow, I’m having images of men in plate mail shagging women who aren’t their wives!!!
Marc
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### Author:  [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/8 "2002-06-22T08:07:32Z")
1. _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_
2. The Once and Future King
3. The Passing of Arthur
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/9 "2002-06-22T15:37:25Z")
Malory is awesome, especially “The Tale of Gareth” (I’m a sucker for _happy_ stories.) I also like Marie de France’s “Lanval” and Chretien de Troyes’ _Yvain_ for much the same reason. The last two books of Malory are lovely, but too sad to read very often.
I like _The Once and Future King_ too, but I really wish I had read Malory first, because it’s hard to get T. H. White’s ideas of the characters out of your head once you’ve read it.
> [@](#):
>
> Tell me about this Tennyson guy…
Not one of my favorites – his version of Arthur is just too squeaky-clean for my tastes, and he spends too much time moralizing about how Fallen Women Are the Root of All Evil. My favorite piece of Victorian Arthuriana is William Morris’ “Defence of Guenevere,” which makes her out to be a _much_ more sympathetic character.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/10 "2002-06-22T15:52:54Z")
And let’s not forget that episode of _Babylon 5_ in which Michael York thinks he’s King Arthur.
(When, in reality, he was a Sandman hunting Runners in the domed City. 😉 )
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### Author:  [@Spudo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spudo)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/11 "2002-06-22T15:54:11Z")
1. The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
2. Monty Python: Search For The Holy Grail
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### Author:  [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/12 "2002-06-22T17:27:30Z")
Loved T.H. White.
I quite enjoyed Mary Stewart’s series; I think she did a good job of painting both a picture of that time, and enlivening it with characters who really seemed like real people. I like her sense of humor, too.
The Mists of Avalon was okay.
Jack Whyte did a completely different take on the Arthurian legend. His series presents the story much as it might have happened in real life. Lots of interesting Romans-invading-Britain stuff. I liked the first two novels, but then things seemed to bog down a bit for me.
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### Author:  [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/13 "2002-06-22T18:38:05Z")
Let’s not forget Terry Gilliam’s “The Fisher King”, a quite nice modern retelling of the grail quest.
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### Author:  [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/14 "2002-06-22T20:16:06Z")
I haven’t read any of these since high school, but I would list _Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_ by John Steinbeck, and _Arthur Rex_ by Thomas Berger. The latter is also one of my all time favorite books, very highly recommended.
Unfortunately, the only one of these I currently own a copy of is Iron Man #150. I would much rather have found Arthur Rex in the 25 cent bin.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/15 "2002-06-23T01:20:32Z")
I hated _Mists of Avalon_-for a book from a feminist point of view, the women certainly were annoying-Guinevere was a prissy, fundy prude, Morgan was a holier than thou pagan, Vivian was an interfering busybody, etc.
I myself loved Sharan Newman’s Guinevere trilogy:
_Guinevere_
_The Chessboard Queen_
_Guinevere Evermore_
They’re funny, and neat, and they end happier than the others.
Also, Persia Woolley’s Guinevere trilogy wasn’t bad:
_Child of the Northern Spring_
_Queen of the Summer Stars_
_Guinevere: the Legend in Autumn_.
ANd yes, I LOVED _The Once and Future King_.
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### Author:  [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/16 "2002-06-23T15:44:46Z")
_That Hideous Strength_, C.S. Lewis. Okay, so it’s not exactly Arthurian, quite. But it does have Merlin in it! And the Pendragon!
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/17 "2002-06-23T16:31:08Z")
MGibson wrote, re the Charm of Making:
> [@](#):
>
> Wow, I’m having images of men in plate mail shagging women who aren’t their wives!!!
\
The suits of armor they were wearing in the movie _Excalibur_ were the high Gothic suits of interlocking metal plates with no mail in them at all. They were typically called “plate armor” – with our old friend, the _AD&D_ rules, subdividing this category into “field plate armor” and “full plate armor”.
\
(What was really amazing, though, was that the knights in _Excalibur_ managed to keep their armor shiny all the time. I hate to break the news to these people, but in the Middle Ages, stainless steel hadn’t been invented yet. Suits of armor were typically made out of iron, and were so susceptible to garnering an outer coating of rust that they were frequently painted with pretty patterns to hide their blemishes.
Maybe Merlin had invented the secret art of Chrome-Plating or something.)
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### Author:  [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/18 "2002-06-23T18:30:07Z")
Has anyone else read the A.A. Milne poem _“The Knight Whose Armour Didn’t Squeak”_? **tracer’s** post just reminded me of it.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/19 "2002-06-23T19:09:40Z")
_… Sir Hugh was singing, hand on hip,
When something came along
And caught him a terrific blip
Right in the middle of his song.
“A thunderstorm!” he said, “Of course!”
And toppled gently off his horse…_
Yeah, I might’ve read it a few times.
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### Author:  [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-arthurian-story/115385/20 "2002-06-23T22:57:56Z")
_Once and Future King_ rocks my world. Though parts of it make me think T.H. White had issues…
And, as I’m the type to go in for that sort of thing, I really love what I’ve read of Malory (bits and pieces, both translated and untranslated. Malory untranslated isn’t that hard if you get an edition with modernized spelling). And of course _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_ – oh, and the alliterative Morte d’Arthur is pretty cool (though I skimmed that one because I didn’t take the class in which I read the thing for credit and it was due the same day as a paper or something). Alas, I have read neither in Middle English, though they’re both on my list.
And yes, I too enjoy _Monty Python and the Holy Grail._
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