Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 25 December 2010
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The Arthurian Saga 02 - The Hollow Hills
Keeping watch over the young Arthur Pendragon, the prince and prophet Merlin Ambrosius is haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, which has been hidden for centuries. When Uther Pendragon is killed in battle, the time of destiny is at hand, and Arthur must claim the fabled sword to become the true High King of Britain.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 25 December 2010
5
The Arthurian Saga 03 - The Last Enchantment
Arthur Pendragon is King! Unchallenged on the battlefield, he melds the country together in a time of promise. But sinister powers plot to destroy Camelot, and when the witch-queen Morgause -- Arthur's own half sister -- ensnares him in an incestuous liaison, a fatal web of love, betrayal, and bloody vengeance is woven.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 25 December 2010
4
The Arthurian Saga 04 - The Wicked Day
Born of an incestuous relationship between King Arthur and his half sister, the evil sorceress Morgause, the bastard Mordred is reared in secrecy. Called to Camelot by events he cannot deny, Mordred becomes Arthur’s most trusted counselor -- a fateful act that leads to the "wicked day of destiny" when father and son must face each other in battle.
(Robert John) Wace (c. 1100 - c. 1174) was an Anglo-Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy. Roman de Brut (c. 1155) was based on the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Its popularity is explained by the new accessibility to a wider public of the Arthur legend in a vernacular language. Wace was the first to mention the legend of King Arthur's Round Table and ascribe the name Excalibur to Arthur's sword, although he on the whole adds only minor details to Geoffrey's text. The Roman de Brut became the basis, in turn, for Layamon's Brut, an alliterative Middle English poem, and Piers Langtoft's Chronicle.
The essays in this latest volume have a particularly strong focus on English material; they include explorations of Malory's presentation of Sir Dinadan, the connections between ballads and popular romance, and, moving beyond the medieval period, Thomas Love Peacock's The Misfortunes of Elphin. They are complemented by articles on French sources (L'Atre perilleux, the Queste del Saint Graal, and the Perlesvaus), and with an overview of the idea of cowardice and Arthurian narrative
