On King Arthur Stories

Marvel Studios announced this week that they’re probably going to make it so that you need to watch their Disney+ serieses to understand some of their upcoming movies, and I just wanna punch everyone involved with the money-grubbing making of Disney+ in the face.

But never mind that! YALLFest today!!

I have to have talked about this at some point, but it’s on my mind so let’s do it.

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On King Arthur Stories

I kind of hate that there are expectations for King Arthur stories. Very specific expectations. And these are usually in the shape of a triangle…

The most famous part of the Arthurian legend is the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. That’s the part that people remember! It’s the thing that led to the whole downfall of the entire kingdom! It’s tragic, and epic, and is the sort of love story that people cry their eyes out about. Here’s the thing: it’s been done to death and I absolutely hate it.

Part of the reason I hate this is because the King Arthur stories are full of hundreds of stories: stories of love, and adventure, of monsters and battles, duels and enchantment. And yet what is the one thing that popular culture seems intent on giving us? A single love triangle. One that we’ve seen over and over again. There’s rarely any innovation, and if there is, it’s really boring.

Making it even more frustrating is that it was one of the later bits of the story that got added on; King Arthur stories have their basis in Welsh mythology, and Lancelot didn’t even exist in those days! The French added him to the stories later, along with changing the names. So we have this story cycle originally based on a legendary Celtic king with a war band of the greatest warriors of his time, some of whom had superpowers, and interacted with gods and monsters and giants, and yet… everyone just wants to talk about that one time a French knight started sleeping with the queen.

I was immensely relieved when I recently picked up The Squire’s Tale by Gerald Morris, which is a kid’s book, yes, but it is focused entirely on the adventures of Sir Gawain (from the point of view of his squire, our protagonist). Gawain? That guy who, as the Morris points out in his Author’s Note, was called the most honored of knights at one point before his spot was taken by Lancelot? Because the French wanted one of their own to be the hero of the British King Arthur stories?

What made the book fun was that at times it poked fun at a lot of the tropes found in Arthurian stories. At one point Gawain meets a knight who refuses to let him cross a stream without jousting. Gawain is absolutely baffled by this, wondering why this guy’s so eager to fight strangers and what precisely he thinks he’s guarding this stream in the middle of nowhere from. But it’s never a parody; the story reaffirms the ideas of chivalry and paints its heroes as actual heroes, rather than guys just goofing around in medieval England.

I’m not saying that all Arthurian stories need to take this route, but it was a welcome change from “Here’s another way to frame the Arthurian love triangle.” I’m not sure if later books will pick it up; it seems likely, considering that the first was built on many of the French stories and hint at things to come later. Which is a bit disappointing, but not a deal-breaker as long as the story remains good.

Because I like the King Arthur stories that take full advantage of dealing with the little stuff. There are dozens of Arthurian knights, and in the older Welsh legends warriors. And yet most of them are relegated to being either background characters or canon fodder. One of the most frustrating things about the BBC Merlin was having random redshirts be named as famous Arthurian characters, like Bedivere or Pellinore. And so many works do the same thing, just not as obviously. You have a bajillion characters to tell stories with and you just kill them off for cheap drama? So you can focus on a love triangle? WHYYYYYY

This is why when I pick up King Arthur stories, I prefer if they play up some of the minor characters, or downplay the love story, or leave it out entirely. I loved how The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwall played with reader expectations of Lancelot (and by that I mean making him overtly a terrible person) while focusing on a character most people haven’t heard of and I loved how The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead left out the love triangle entirely in its retelling. I like how King Arthur: Legend of the Sword doesn’t have a love story at all and kind of goes nuts with the fantasy elements. 

Just… if you’re going to write about King Arthur, do something cool and different, not just the same old stupid love triangle.

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