Scan barcode
A review by leannarapier
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
3.0
3 1/2 stars
I read this book aloud to my 9-year-old son. It wasn't long before I found it's old-fashioned manner of storytelling wearisome. Nonetheless, my son found the stories entertaining, although even he remarked after a while on the predictability of every tale and that some knight would cause some other to lose his head. Also, despite being labeled as "children" in the library, these stories were in fact originally intended for adults, evident by the number of affairs, illegitimate births, and losses of one's head, but thankfully not graphic.
Note—if you read the afterword (which was actually more interesting to me than the stories themselves)—these stories were not realistic to the the age of the legendary King Author, but were, rather, the imaginings of the medieval storytellers imposed upon that time frame; for knights and chivalry and Christianity were medieval ideals and not that of the earlier times in which King Author himself was supposed to have lived. So you can think of King Arthur and his knights as the original fantasy stories that certainly have impacted the fantasy genre for ages to come.
I read this book aloud to my 9-year-old son. It wasn't long before I found it's old-fashioned manner of storytelling wearisome. Nonetheless, my son found the stories entertaining, although even he remarked after a while on the predictability of every tale and that some knight would cause some other to lose his head. Also, despite being labeled as "children" in the library, these stories were in fact originally intended for adults, evident by the number of affairs, illegitimate births, and losses of one's head, but thankfully not graphic.
Note—if you read the afterword (which was actually more interesting to me than the stories themselves)—these stories were not realistic to the the age of the legendary King Author, but were, rather, the imaginings of the medieval storytellers imposed upon that time frame; for knights and chivalry and Christianity were medieval ideals and not that of the earlier times in which King Author himself was supposed to have lived. So you can think of King Arthur and his knights as the original fantasy stories that certainly have impacted the fantasy genre for ages to come.