The legend of King Arthur is embedded in British and American culture. Contemporary America, in particular, is a rich breeding ground for the Arthurian mythos, not only in films, novels, short stories, and fantasy and science fiction, but in other areas of popular and mass culture as well. This work is a collection of 18 previously unpublished essays that demonstrate the impressive extent to which the Arthurian legend continues to permeate contemporary culture beyond film and literature. The essays cover the Arthurian legend in economics, ethics, education, entertainment, music, fun and games, the Internet, and esoterica. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
The legend of King Arthur is embedded in British and American culture. Contemporary America, in particular, is a rich breeding ground for the Arthurian mythos, not only in films, novels, short stories, and fantasy and science fiction, but in other areas of popular and mass culture as well. This work is a collection of 18 previously unpublished essays that demonstrate the impressive extent to which the Arthurian legend continues to permeate contemporary culture beyond film and literature. The essays cover the Arthurian legend in economics, ethics, education, entertainment, music, fun and games, the Internet, and esoterica. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
King Arthur in America analyzes the tremendous appeal of the Arthurian legends in America by examining the ways that Americans have found to democratize the Matter of Britain and to incorporate aspects of it not only into America's own mythologies but also into literature, film, social history, and popular culture.
The definitive modern take on the timeless tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round table. The legends of King Arthur date back to medieval Europe, and have become some of the dominant myths of Western culture. In The Once & Future King, T. H. White reinvents the story for a modern audience. The novel starts by introducing the reader to a young Arthur – just a child, and far from the King he will become – as he is raised by the wizard Merlyn, and moves on to chronicle his rise to Kingship, the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, and the eventual destruction of the round table. The first section, released independently as The Sword in the Stone, was adapted into an animated film by Walt Disney Pictures. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
The King Arthur we imagine did not exist in history. He is the result of stories told and retold, changed and added to by storytellers for centuries, each making the story reflect the storyteller’s time and values. The chapters in this book look at movies, manga, comic books, a television show, and traditional books released since 1960 to explore some of the ways King Arthur has been reimagined in the past 60 years. Interpreting Avalon High and The Kind Who Would Be King, Camelot 3000 and King Arthur vs. Dracula, Fate/Zero, John Steinbeck’s The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, the influence of Arthurian legend on Harry Potter, Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, John Boorman’s Excalibur, Jerry Zucker’s First Knight, Antoine Fuqua’s King Arthur, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword, Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, Iris Murdoch’s The Time of the Angels, and the BBC series Merlin, the authors find that while we are still interested in the idea of King Arthur, we may also want his story to be more racially and gender inclusive, less elitist, and in some cases, more secular.
Foreword by Neil Gaiman The world’s leading Arthurian authority reimagines one of the most beloved and influential legends—the story of King Arthur and his Knights—for a new century in this gorgeous keepsake edition, illustrated with luminous full-color paintings and drawings by internationally acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe. The stories of King Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere, Galahad, Gawain, Tristan and the rest of the Knights of the Roundtable, and the search for the Holy Grail have been beloved for centuries and are the inspiration of many modern fantasy novels, films, and shows. These legends began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history sometime in the sixth century, generating a host of oral tales that would be inscribed some 900 years later by Thomas Malory in his classic Morte D’Arthur (The Death of Arthur). The Great Book of King Arthur brings these legends into the modern age, using accessible prose for contemporary readers for the first time. In addition to the stories in Morte D’Arthur, John Matthews includes many tales of Arthur and his knights either unknown to Malory or written in other languages, such as the story of Avenable, the girl brought up as a boy who becomes a famous knight; Morien, whose adventures are as fantastic and exciting as any found in Malory’s work; and a retelling of the life of Round Table favorite Gawain, from his strange birth to his upbringing among the poor to his ascension to the highest position—Emperor of Rome. In addition, there are some of the earliest tales of Arthur, deriving from the tradition of Celtic storytelling. The epic hero is represented in such powerful stories as “The Adventures of Eagle-boy” and “The Coming of Merlin,” which is based on the early medieval text Vita Merlini and tells a completely new version of the great enchanter’s story. The Great Book of King Arthur includes 15 full-color paintings and 25 pencil drawings.
This book focuses on how and why various cultures have appropriated the story of King Arthur. It is about re-vision, how cultures alter inherited texts and are, in turn, changed by them, and it deals with the ways in which various cultures have empowered the Arthurian legend so that power might be derived from it. The authors suggest that the vitality of the Arthurian legend resides in its ability to be transformed and to transform, in its potential for appropriation and use. Culture and the King deals with issues of literature, history, art, politics, economics, gender study, and popular culture. It crosses the boundaries traditionally erected around these disciplines and addresses emerging critical methodologies concerned with the "poetics of culture."
King Arthur is one of the greatest legends of all time. From the magical moment when Arthur releases the sword in the stone to the quest for the Holy Grail and the final tragedy of the Last Battle, Roger Lancelyn Green brings the enchanting world of King Arthur stunningly to life. One of the greatest legends of all time, with an inspiring introduction by David Almond, award-winning author of Clay, Skellig, Kit's Wilderness and The Fire-Eaters.
TAKE AN ADVENTURE THROUGH TIME! Stephanie Drake and her three children-Ashley, Rose and Hunter-are just glad to be alive after that terrible storm slammed their boat ashore on an uncharted island. What started as a one-day jaunt at sea to lay a wreath where Stephanie's husband and the children's father-a sailor in the U.S. Navy, lost at sea during a similar storm-has turned into a living nightmare. They find themselves in another world ... on the mythical island of Avalon, where magical creatures, medieval knights and powerful wizards are ruled by the descendants of King Arthur. On Avalon, Stephanie and her children find themselves being hunted by bounty hunters, thieves and brigands. They are caught in the power struggle between Lord Kraven Darkholm, a powerful wizard descended from the evil sorceress, Morganna le Fay, and the Gil-Gamesh, the champion of Avalon. The people of this magical isle have been protected for centuries by the descendants of Sir Percival Peredyr, the last Knight of the Round Table who served as the first Gil-Gamesh of Avalon. But who is the Gil-Gamesh and how does he know so much about Stephanie and her children? Now, it's a race against time as the Gil-Gamesh must protect the outsiders and get them home to the real world. All the while, Kraven Darkholm continues to scheme against them all, vying to achieve his ultimate goal of becoming ruler of Avalon. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark Piggott, a native of Phillipsburg, N.J., enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1983 as a Navy Journalist. He spent 23 years in the Navy, serving on three aircraft carriers and duty stations along the east coast. He retired in 2006 as a Chief Journalist and settled in Newport News, Virginia. He is currently the public affairs officer for Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.
This is the first comprehensive book on the Arthurian legend in medieval and Renaissance Italy since Edmund Gardner’s 1930 The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature. Arthurian material reached all levels of Italian society, from princely courts with their luxury books and frescoed palaces, to the merchant classes and even popular audiences in the piazza, which enjoyed shorter retellings in verse and prose. Unique assemblages emerge on Italian soil, such as the Compilation of Rustichello da Pisa or the innovative Tavola Ritonda, in versions made for both Tuscany and the Po Valley. Chapters examine the transmission of the French romances across Italy; reworkings in various Italian regional dialects; the textual relations of the prose Tristan; narrative structures employed by Italian writers; later ottava rima poetic versions in the new medium of printed books; the Arthurian-themed art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance; and more. The Arthur of the Italians offers a rich corpus of new criticism by scholars who have brought the Italian Arthurian material back into critical conversation.
