The Blood Inside Maple Trees

[redbrunja]

zahrawithaz  has a post on the arthurian legends and how they developed over the centuries that is hugely helpful.

I find it especially timely because I've been trying to remember where I got my ideas about these legends. I remember liking Guinevere prior to reading The Mists of Avalon (one of the major reasons I hated that book was Bradley's treatment of her), although Bradley's novel is first I can recall reading about the arthurian legends; it was shortly followed by Child of the Northern Spring and Queen of the Summer Stars, though I did not read the third book of that trilogy; one of the thick, famous, books about Merlin( ETA: okay so I asked my mom about this, and I read The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills and I have never read ); and I Am Morgan Le Fay and I Am Mordred).

Basically, I do not recall a time when I didn't know the basis of these legends.

[ETA: From quizzing my mom, I am pretty sure that at least half but probably more of my early exposure to these legends was her telling them to me.]

Comments

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

A friend gave me Child of the Northern Spring. I read a bit of it, and then its been sitting on my bookshelf for about six years. I think I should probably pick it up again.

I loved The Mists of Avalon, mostly because of its Old World paganism perspective. And because, while Guinevere is an awful character in it, it is the only Arthurian story that doesn't villainize Morgaine/Morgana. It's nice to not have the "witch" be evil for once.

There is another by Alice Borchardt called The Dragon Queen that focuses on Guinevere. Its much more mystical in nature, and in it Guinevere is already a queen of the Celts who marries Arthur in a political alliance to stop the Saxons. She's definitely a HBIC. Unfortunately it was supposed to be a trilogy, but the author died.

[lady-tigerfish.livejournal.com]

I do give her hearty amounts of credit for Morgaine, and she was also the first (non-YA) author I encountered who even tried to tell the story from a perspective wherein "pagan" wasn't synonymous with "savage," so she definitely did break new ground.

I think I've run into The Dragon Queen! It looked interesting and I may have to pick it up now.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I need to reread Child of the Northern Spring. I think I would have a different perspective on it as an adult.

in it, it is the only Arthurian story that doesn't villainize Morgaine/Morgana. It's nice to not have the "witch" be evil for once.

True. Although post-MoA, there have been a lot of stories that do that. And a lot of earlier stories too- apparently she started out as a good witch.

I've also read The Dragon Queen - i didn't realize that the author died before she could finish the series thought.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she died a few years ago. Anne Rice is actually her sister, and there has been a lot of pleading by Alice's fans for Anne to finish the series based on her's notes etc., like Tolkein's son did with his work. I understand one author not wanting to touch anther's legacy, but I suspect that Anne Rice is just too pretentious to bother. She would rather spend her time treating her fans like crap, denouncing the vampire genre and everything that got her where she is today, and writing a fictional account of the life of Jesus... >:|

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Right, because we really need more books about fucking jesus.

[lady-tigerfish.livejournal.com]

...I know you were using an expletive to strengthen your comment, but all I could think about was published Bible slash XDD

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Trust me, my choice of the word 'fucking' was totally deliberate.