The death of King Arthur

Essentially a collection of a hundred or so vignettes (I didn't bother to count), this book seems incredibly mis-titled because Arthur's death is only the last section. Even calling it The Life of King Arthur would've been incorrect, as his story really only bookends the collection. Not even bookending it, actually, as it starts with Merlin and finishes with both Guinevere and Lancelot. So if stories of Merlin, Guinevere, and Lancelot are the bread of this sandwich, Arthur's account is the butter--how he went from peasant boy to literature's most regal cuckold...and accumulated the service of 150 knights along the way. It is really their exploits that make up the bulk of the book.

And let me tell you how frustrating their exploits are. It is basically just story after story of non-graphic sex and violence, where supposedly honorable knights fight each other over insults or else follow some mysterious woman on an unknown adventure. The most important thing to these knights is their pride and their name. These are the most noble men in the land--except when they are not.

I imagine these stories were supposed to encourage people to act more chivalrously, but following the examples laid out here seems to be the cause of major blundering--even on down to today's politics. The narrative is extremely spare, probably owing to the cost of paper and copying, as well as the high illiteracy of the time (think reading The Bible). Each story is about a page or two long and probably worked better as a tale told by the fire than read collectively in an armchair.

At best, this is a one-star read. My only reason for giving it two stars is the insights it gives to the time period it was written and understanding how it impacts Western culture. It's somewhat interesting to see how far we have come--and, ironically, how far we actually haven't--but this is a book I can only recommend to completists of the Arthurian legend.