King Arthur

I think I've mentioned that, the year before my family left England for Canada, we travelled all over, visiting relatives and friends. One couple we stayed with had a son who was in college, and his mother threw his library open to me. Most of it was not all that interesting--boy stuff, you know--but one book was. It was a collection of King Arthur stories, cleaned up a bit for the consumption of children. It was all there, except for the love story between Lancelot and Guinevere; and I do mean all of it. Chronologically, it went from the conception of Merlin to the death of Arthur, and it encompassed the Fisher King, the Questing Beast, Morgan's treachery with the Scabbard for Excaliber, the Siege Perilous, the Grail--all of it. With really great pictures, too. The lady (thanks!) let me take the book with me, and it got read over and over. We had been in Canada about a year when I lent it to a neighbour, and her house burned down. Fortunately, everyone got out safely, but not books.

After I was grown, and especially when I was a stay-at-home mom to one toddler, I got back into thinking about King Arthur, and those stories. The local library had the Mary Stewart retelling, "The Crystal Cave," "The Hollow Hills," "The Last Enchantment," and "The Wicked Day." Recommended reading, by the way. I liked them, but became obsessed with finding a copy of the book that was lost in the fire so long ago. I bugged the library ladies, ordering huge lists of books, culled from bibliographies of books I borrowed. It spiralled into madness. I learned about the Mabinogi, I learned about the change from Paganism to Christianity. I learned about Brian Boru. I learned about the Merovingian Kings of France carrying the bloodline of Christ (not a new idea by any means--the Rosicrucians have been promulgating it for a long time). I ordered so many books from Inter Library Loan that the local library actually asked me which ones I wanted them to buy!

At the same time, there was another lady interested in the same subject. For months, the library ladies had been trying to get us together. They told me about her, and they told her about me. Finally, in 1981, we were both in the library at the same time. The ladies introduced us and sat back to watch the scintillating discussion they were sure would ensue.

It took two sentences. She asked, "What did you think of 'Excaliber?' I loved it!" I answered, "I hated it!" and that was that. No further discussion was ever entered into.

Over the years, "Excaliber" has sort of grown on me. There will always be parts of it I loathe. Mordred's birth, Mordred's armour, Merlin's metal skullcap, among many others, but compared to Hollywood's latest interpretation of the legend it's not so very bad.

Why can't somebody just make a film of the story as Malory wrote it down?

I did eventually find the book I had lost, on Ebay, for $12. How lucky can one person be?