My life in books

Of late, I have been indulging my fascination with the Matter of Britain, as the body of Arthurian writing is sometimes called.

First, the scholarly works:

The Grail Legend in Modern Literature - John Marino
The Return from Avalon - Raymond H. Thompson

Both books cover similar territory, although with a different focus. Thompson's book is the earlier one (published in 1985), and is a straightforward look at the treatment of Arthurian themes and characters in modern fiction (ca. 1900 - 1985). Thompson, as constant readers may recall, was my advisor and mentor in university, so reading the book was particularly delightful for me, not just becasue of it's insights into the ways that Arthurian material has been incorporated and reinterpreted in modern fiction, but also becasue, well, it's fun reading a book written by someone you know, especially if you enjoy it. One thing that Thompson notes is the veritable explosion of new books with Arthurian themes in the period between 1950 and 1985 - ironically, the most recent book included in his survey is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon, which if anything accelerated the trend. I find myself wishing that Thompson would publish a revised edition that includes works published between 1985 and the present.

Marino's book focuses on modern fiction (and some other cultural works, including film) that draws on elements of the Grail legend - a significant part of the Matter of Britain, but by no means the largest part. Published in 2004, Marino's analysis of the use of Grail material in modern literature covers a greater time period that Thompson does, but a much narrower focus; there is some overlap in the works discussed, but not enough to make either work secondary to the other. Where Thompson's work is a general analysis and an attempt at producing a taxonomy of modern Arthurian fiction based on content, tone and intent, Marino is more interested in analysing the various examples of Grail-influenced literature in terms of their underlying theological assumptions and premises - is the Grail a real and sacred object? And if so, is it Celtic or Christian? Or is it a symbol of the human spiritual quest? Or something that is both of these, or neither?

Fun reading, both of them - and also excellent bibliographical works that have pointed me to some works of Arthurian-influenced literature that I haven't read, and now see that I simply must add to my library.

I also picked up in recent months a copy of Phyllis Ann Karr's The Arthurian Companion. As it is a reference work, it's hardly appropriate to say I read it, but I've spent a lovely chunk of time wandering through various entries, and I'm glad I have it.

Now, the fiction.

To round out the Arthurian binge, I recently acquired and devoured the final volume of Jack Whyte's historical fiction series about the Arthurian legends.

The Eagle finally gets down to the familiar story of Arthur the King, after so many volumes of building up the setting, brick by brick, from probable historical bases. The stories of Merlin, Uthyr and Lancelot finally come together in this volume, which takes us through, in an interesting choice, to the end of the stories of Lancelot and Guenevere, but leaves the end of Arthur and Mordred shrouded in conflicting rumours and incomplete reports brought across the sea from Britain to France.

Whyte has done something very amusing with his Lancelot character. Whyte's Lancelot is a member of a minor (at the time) royal house of the Salic Franks - his parents, the king and queen of Ganis, are murdered by a usurper named Clodio, and Clothar the Frank, called Lancelot for his skill with a lance, spends most of his life in exile from the tiny kingdom of his birth.

The last half of The Eagle deals with Lancelot's sea voyage to Gaul to establish ties between Arthur and King Pelles of Corbenic - who turns out to be a kinsman of Clothar, and avenger of the murder of his kin - Clothar's parents. Lancelot builds up a military force for Pelles, engages in some warfare with the Hungvari, and ends up living in Benoic, supposedly near modern Geneva, a small kingdom rulled by another royal kinsman, King Brach. There he starts a family with the widowed Gwenifer, and eventually passed Excalibur, which has been in His and Gwenifer's keeping, to his son Clovis.

Now, Clodio was a historical character. His successor, Merowig, is one of those characters about whom history can only conclude that there must have been someone like him, but who he actually was is not so clear. His name probably means travller from the sea. He may or may not have been Clodio's son or close kin. He may or may not have been involved in defeating Attila the Hun's attempt to overrun Gaul. What is known is, that whoever he was, he was the founder of the Merovingian dynasty. (Yes, that Merovingian dynasty.) And Clothar and Clovis (as well as some other names of Lancelot's kin) are names found in the Merovingian line.

Whyte certainly doesn't come out and say that Lancelot, hero of the matter of Britain, (whose main character, Arthur, Whyte has clearly linked historically to the Matter of Rome) is the father of Clovis of the Merovingians, who were eventually succeeded by the Carolingians, whose greatest king Charlemagne is one of the key figures in the third pillar of medieval literature, the Matter of France. but he makes it fun working out the possibilities that his Lancelot could have been.

And what makes this all very amusing, is that at the end of The Eagle, Merlin gives Lancelot/Clothar a package that he says contains documents about the history of Clothar's family, which had been passed on to him by Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been Merlin's long-time friend and mentor, as well as being mentor to Clothar in his youth. Clothar says that he has never opened the package, because it gives him a sense of unease. Now what family secrets of the founder of the Merovingian bloodline might a Roman Catholic bishop have been hiding?