Courtly, but Slightly Less Than Magical: Arthurian Romances

I've been dogging for a while to read good solid classic Arthurian fantasy. That seems hard to come by these days, as we continue to push fantasy forward in new and diverse directions. I'm all for that, but sometimes I need a little Lady of the Lake. So instead of going down the low-end fantasy rabbit hole, I decided to go to the source, and picked up the collection of Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes.

These are the tales of the well-renowned knights of Arthur's round table - Lancelot, Perceval, Yvain, Cligés, and Erec. Each story is brief, and packed both with thrilling battle sequences told in great detail, along with wardrobes described in great detail. The romance elements of these are primarily courtly, but extremely well executed to get an idea of the loftier aspects of love (and lust) in this period. The tales themselves have a hint of the gothic which is to come, in some interesting turn of events like long-lost siblings, intrigues that leave princesses locked away in towers or buried alive, and those things kept my interest. But what I came to this book for - the more mystical elements of Arthurian tales, was not something that Troyes focused on. Rather, it was taken for granted that some people were sired by magical personages or wore charmed/enchanted jewelry. I would have loved to see that treated with as much detail as had been given to the shape and quality of a halberd.

I'll keep reading the rest of the Arthurian canon at some point, but let's just say I'm still missing my Lady of the Lake.

K Rating: 4/5