So I've had a new idea. A rather crazy one but...

On the King Arthur thread, (which I cannot now find,) I mentioned that one day I was going to write my greatest work ever and it was going to be the story of King Arthur in a dramatic, understandable novel form. Not an interpretation, a return, or a spin off, the actual legend. All of them.

Well, it dawned on me I was going to need a lot of reference material in order to write such a book, because who can keep 150 knights straight in their head? It further occurred to me to just compile a book. And then I thought, people compile other legends and fairy tales and get them published, maybe I can too.

Ideally I'd like to read all the books ever written about Arthur and watch all the movies ever made and review them as a part of this collection as well. That way you know not only the legends but what other people have done with them.

So does anyone have any suggestions on how to start? Encouragement on this insane idea? I have Wikipedia of course, but wading through all of those pages...

My current sources include:
Howard Pyle
Thomas Malory
Roger Lancelyn Green
Heather Dale
Taliesin

The only resource I could suggest would be Le Morte d'Arthur. But you already have that listed...sorry, I can't give you much more than that.

eruheran

You could watch an episode or three of BBC's Merlin TV series. It's silly sometimes, but it gets you familiar with the characters, it's fun, and it puts me in the mood to write GOOD fantasy.

About the only thing that BBC's Merlin got right was the character names and genders . But if I want to go on about that, I should start a review. Anyways, Janin, the Welsh Mabinogion is a collection of legends regarding King Arthur's knights. Many of the knights mentioned in this are scarcely mentioned elsewhere in Arthurian legend. Also, as someone researching the subject, I trust you're going to destinguish between the original concept of King Arthur and Camelot and the contemporary metaphor of Camelot as an ideal state founded on ideal principles (which is NOWHERE in the original legends). PLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSEEEEEEE!

"The Arthurian Reference book" or something like that. I'll go to the library soon and I'll get the author and title for you.

This sounds like a fabulous idea--especially because it's slightly insane.

For another look at the Arthurian legends, I love Watch Fires to the North by George Finkel and Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff. (Sutcliff also wrote an Arthurian series of five books, but I've never read those.) They're not so much fantasy as they are historical, giving a deeper insight into the origin of Arthur without any of the French importations.

Oh, and The Once and Future King is another lovely adaption. I don't know how helpful it will be for reference, but I noticed it uses a couple legends that are overlooked in other books.

Seer, I intend to differentiate between every difference of every legend. It's going to be a massive undertaking, not only because of the sheer volume of the legends, but because I also intend to include a massive amount of my own commentary. Thanks for the references and encouragement, folks! I've got a whole stack of reading to do, but I've started making lists and notes while I read now. So it might actually be a possibility, even for someone usually as disorganized as me.

(The question is, are the people crazy enough to read it, even if I do get it written?)

Can I rant about the Merlin series? The only thing it has to do with King Arthur are the names and time period. It's hilarious for that reason alone. But I do like it. I love the characters. Merlin is cute, which may or may not be a good thing. I can't get over Guinevere being the blacksmith's daughter. I'm waiting anxiously for Uther Pendragon to die. And I really like Arthur. That may come as a surprise to anyone who's seen the series, but finally a prince who actually acts like a king's son! He's arrogant, he's bossy, but he's also incredibly brave and skilled. He leads the knights for heaven's sake. He falls into neither cliche that most king's sons are consigned to. He's not the useless spoiled court brat and he's not the overwhelmingly noble and perfect champion. He's a little bit of both. He's very, very real. I love watching him in action. And Lancelot's character is the closest thing to actual Arthurian mythology I've seen yet. He is very, well, Lancelotish.
What really gets me though is the modern slang. I always thought the one thing you never, never, never did in fantasy was use modern slang.

I'm entertained anyways. It's a very interesting series.

This is such an awesome idea! I would definitely get it.

I'm not much help with references, though...

I agree! Merlin is comfort TV. It's badly done, it's not close to the book, but for some reason you still like watching it.

and ditto about Arthur. I LOVE that character.

By the way, you've probably thought of this, but...there is a LOT of contradiction in Arthurian legend. How are you planning to get around that?

Since this is a reference book, I'm going to include every version of every legend, pointing out the differences and contradictions. That's part of what is going to make this book so long. When I actually get around to writing a King Arthur story of my own, I'll probably just pick and choose which ones I want to use. I am a firm believer, however, that if you think hard enough you can reconcile any legend, even if it results in some strangeness. (This has been done with both Star Wars and Myst.)