There was a time when I read everything I could get my hands on about the subject. Morgan Llewelyn and his books about Druids and Ireland. Mary Stewart who deepened my love for the topic. Even non-fiction books about King Arthur. My discoveries branched out and into the legend of Robin Hood, Welsh mythology and anything that touched upon it. There was even a time when I wanted to get a degree in Medieval Studies. (Okay, I still do.)
Looking at Goodreads, I realized that although I remember loving many of these books, I couldn't recall exactly what happened in all of them. I miss these worlds and I'm remembering the retellings fondly. There are so many versions. Ones where Merlin is evil and Morgan Le Fey is good. Ones where Camelot is a beautiful kingdom and ones where Brittain is dark and Arthur is rough and gritty. Ones where Guinevere is misunderstood and ones where she doesn't even exist at all and represents, as many scholars say, a personification of the land.
Ironically, the second post I wrote on this blog from 2010 is titled Arthurian Mythology. It's a very short post and simply mentions the book I was reading at the time, Gwynhfar by Mercedes Lackey. If only I had a blog even before then when I was reading all these great books (you know, before the internet even existed), I could now look back and refresh my memory on the plots and perhaps relive the delight I felt. I'm really not one to re-read a lot of books, but I'm thinking that perhaps I should. I don't just love to read, I love to talk about books and I won't be able to talk about them if I can't remember them. But re-reading books that I read SO long ago may bring up other issues. I've been reading some reviews of books I loved and I'm a little disappointed at some of them. Are the books that I adored so much really trite and boring? Maybe I should just keep the memories I have of them.
I'm also happy to find even more books on the topic than when I was reading them and discovering "old" titles as well. Right now I'm reading Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliffe and I think I may have to incorporate more Arthurian legends into my blog and reading repetoire.
You can check out my Arthurian bookshelf list on Goodreads and you can also check out my Pinterest board of Arthurian books by clicking below.
Follow Midnyte Reader's board Books - Arthurian on Pinterest.
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