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A review by edb14
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle
3.0
Shockingly, this is my first time reading one of the traditional King Arthur tales. Up until now, I gleaned all of my knowledge through cultural osmosis and the Disney animated movie "The Sword in the Stone." I was familiar with names like Sir Launcelot, Sir Gawain, the Round Table, and Excalibur, but I didn't really know how all of those stories fitted together and who did what to whom. So, having obtained a beautifully bound copy of this book from a friend, I gave it a go.
The stories are full of knights going out into the woods looking for "adventure" which always inevitably ended up being jousting with some other random knight. Clearly these people had way too much time and money on their hands. How could there possibly be this many knights in the woods in full armor? Many of them were doing nothing more than guarding a bridge or watching a group of women throw mud at a shield because they had been asked to. At one point, Sir Gawain breaks up a fight between a pair of knights who were arguing about which of them should go on an adventure. He berates them for starting a serious quarrel over something so trivial, then proceeds to go further into the wood and fight with another mystery knight over which of them can go on an adventure. It becomes ludicrous, and much of the drama and interest is sapped from these stories for me because of these shenanigans.
However, I thought it came to life again anytime magic or the fay were involved. Then the adventures had more peril and more nobility and interest. It opened up the stories to more than just knights whacking each other with sticks. King Arthur himself was an interesting character who had flaws but was generally likeable and good-hearted. Anytime Arthur was the focus of a story, I was engaged and interested in the outcome. The other knights could just go and fill their helmets with sand for all I cared.
These stories are of course beautifully captured in Pyle's classic prose style; his descriptions are gorgeous and I love his summation of the stories, especially when he cheekily criticized his own characters for their bad decisions or pointless posturing. He is a master of writing in the spirit of classic stories while infusing them with modern and more relatable sensibilities. If you are wanting a classic-feeling introduction to these old tales that are still readable, then Howard Pyle is your man.
The stories are full of knights going out into the woods looking for "adventure" which always inevitably ended up being jousting with some other random knight. Clearly these people had way too much time and money on their hands. How could there possibly be this many knights in the woods in full armor? Many of them were doing nothing more than guarding a bridge or watching a group of women throw mud at a shield because they had been asked to. At one point, Sir Gawain breaks up a fight between a pair of knights who were arguing about which of them should go on an adventure. He berates them for starting a serious quarrel over something so trivial, then proceeds to go further into the wood and fight with another mystery knight over which of them can go on an adventure. It becomes ludicrous, and much of the drama and interest is sapped from these stories for me because of these shenanigans.
However, I thought it came to life again anytime magic or the fay were involved. Then the adventures had more peril and more nobility and interest. It opened up the stories to more than just knights whacking each other with sticks. King Arthur himself was an interesting character who had flaws but was generally likeable and good-hearted. Anytime Arthur was the focus of a story, I was engaged and interested in the outcome. The other knights could just go and fill their helmets with sand for all I cared.
These stories are of course beautifully captured in Pyle's classic prose style; his descriptions are gorgeous and I love his summation of the stories, especially when he cheekily criticized his own characters for their bad decisions or pointless posturing. He is a master of writing in the spirit of classic stories while infusing them with modern and more relatable sensibilities. If you are wanting a classic-feeling introduction to these old tales that are still readable, then Howard Pyle is your man.