"Best Arthur Series" Topic

About two months ago I read Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Series for the first time. These books came out about 10 years ago but I never read them being more interested in Sharpe. Well I have to say they are his best.

When I was young I read the first two of Mary Stewart's books; the Hollow Hills and Crystal Cave. I never got around to the 'Last Enchantment'.

I have also read Jack Whyte's books and finished the last one 'Eagle' last year. I have began re-reading the series starting with The Sky Stone.

Cornwell, Stewart and Whyte are the big three right now. I was wondering what other people think about which authoe/series was the best. Or are there other books out there just as good?

cheers
Edward

I read all 3 of those series and enjoyed them a lot. For something a little different, try the sunday comic strip Prince Valient by Hal Foster. Fantagraphic Books put out his entire series a few years ago.

TH White's "The Once and Future King" is the best.

I prefer the original – Le Morte d'Artur by Mallory. Depending on the translation, makes for good reading. Of course, I like reading the Saga too. Just finished Burnt Njal the other day.

Stephen Lawhead did a series, but I never got around to them.

I just finished the second of the Lawhead series and have really liked the first two.

Of the "realistic" Arthur retellings, I like Mary Stewart's the best. The Last Enchantment and the parallel book The Wicked Day (told from the view of Mordred) are excellent takes on the Mordred legend, going back to the lone entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that actually names Mordred (Mordraut). All it says is that at the Battle of Camlann, both Arthur and Mordraut were killed. It doesn't indicate what their relationship was or whether they fought each other. Her spin makes for a refreshing and fascinating look that still fits with the traditional tale.

Of the fanciful Arthurs, Mallory is of course required. Other ancient works worth reading are:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (try to find a translation that also includes the original Middle-English dialect text; with some work you can read that and understand.) Tolkien's translation is a good one.
Look also for Chretien de Troyes's Arthurian Romances and Wilhelm Von Eschenbach's brilliant Parzival. (Yep, that's where I got the name.)
The Mabinogian can be tough going, but it may well be the earliest source of Arthurian tales. Wierd folks, those Welsh.
And you can go to Mallory's source text: Geoffrey of Monmouth's delightfully imaginative fraudulent-history, The History of the Kings of Britain, which includes not only Arthur but old King Coel (Cole)!

As for more modern fantasists, look for The Once and Future King by T.H. White, and the excellent delayed sequel, The Book of Merlin, which places the haunting goose story in its proper context.

Don't bother with The Mists of Avalon, which is nothing but over-rated misanthrophic dreck. But that's just my opinion.

For an excellent fictional take on a possible "real" Arthur, read Rosemary Sutcliff's masterpiece The Lantern Bearers, set in Post-Roman Britain. (Arthur is actually a relatively minor character in this book, but the set-up for who-he-may-have-been is well done). I'm still trying to locate the sequel, The Sword at Sunset, which I believe deals more directly with Arthur himself. One of the great things about Sutcliff's books is that while the books themselves are entirely separate, she maintains continuity among the books through various artifacts and minor details that pop-up; clues that her central characters are essentially all from the same family, undergoing the twists and changes wrought by history, sometimes not even aware of the happenings of the distant past. Great stuff!

And don't forget your Tennyson! The Idylls of the King are a must-read!

I really like the Arthur series by Lawhead – Talisien is my favorite of the three.

/ali

Helen Hollick did a series. Not too bad, if a bit more focused on the relationships than the battles.

I enjoyed Rosemary Sutcliff's "Sword at Sunset".

Rosemary Sutcliffe's books are outstanding.

I'll quote myself from an earlier thread:

"Bernard Cornwell's books inspired me to start painting my Arthurian armies 10 years ago and the hosts have grown and grown…

After all these years I "love the books to the point that I still think he did not write them himself! ;-)"

In my opinion all his stuff prior to the Warlord Chronicles and what has been written since, just does not compete. I wonder why?

The Archer's Tale trilogy, especially Book III is especially poor. Read, if you dare, at your own risk.

Here's another vote for Rosemary Sutcliffe, "The Lantern Bearers" and it's sequel "Sword at Sunset".

Lantern Bearers features a young Arthur as a peripheral foreshadowing walk on part, while Sword at Sunset follows straight on chronologically, but with him now as the main character. Sword at Sunset is the most realistic feeling life story of Arthur/Artos that I've ever read, (with the son and grandson of the hero of Lantern Bearers now as supporting cast). I heartily reccomend it.

Oops. There's no e at the end of Rosemary Sutcliff. Sorry.

Quebecnordiques

Interesting

IMHO Cornwell is a better writer in the first person. If you read his Anglo-Saxon stories they also seem better writen then the Sharpes, Red Coat, Starbuck, etc.

Lawhead is good but I think the Cornwell books are slightly better. I bought Excalibur in the airport and spent a romantic weekend in Paris brooding about the fate of Derfel and Arthurian Britain.
Also have a soft spot for David Gemmel since meeting the great man in a bookshop in Folkestone. So would like to nominate his take on the Arthurian era. Ghost king and the last sword of power.

Another vote for Helen Hollicks triligy "Pendragon's Banner". All very much based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, but very entertaining.

I also really like Jack Whyte's stuff, especially the earlier novels, and Bernard Cornwell is what started it all off for me. "The Winter King" is, for me, head and shoulders above "Enemy of God" and "Excalibur" however, but lets face it, no story of Arthur has a happy ending…

Opps, I thought it read "Bea Arthur".

Louisbourg Grenadiers

With reference to your comments "IMHO Cornwell is a better writer in the first person. If you read his Anglo-Saxon stories they also seem better writen then the Sharpes, Red Coat, Starbuck, etc.",

You are right, his Anglo-Saxon stories are not that bad, though I do not whether to attribute that to his first-person narrative or not. I just think it is a question of inspiration…

…having said that, I'd like to ask, If anyone here has read something as comparably bad as that trilogy on the archer.

We have two threads currently that touch on your question…

At the risk of being pedantic and late, Aneirin's Eulogies are normally considered the first written mention of Arthur. Most enjoyable. It's not so much The Mabinogion itself but the ancillary tales that are of interest as far as Arthur is concerned. The Four Books of the Mabinogion are of course well worth reading. Arthur and his Companions go in search of Mabon ap Modron and that tells you more about Arthur than many a volume – this is no Christian king they are talking about.
As an aside my Goddaughter's friend spent over 7 years in a Welsh school. I told him I envied him – he could read Aneirin's Eulogies, Taleisin, the Mabinogion and others in the language in which it was written while I had to read it in translation.
Oh we didn't read stuff like that he told me, we just read books on how to read Welsh.