The Company of Camelot: Arthurian Characters in Romance and Fantasy

(Hardback)

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This book deals with the eight major figures in the Arthurian legends and how they have been individually represented in literature from its beginnings up to the present day. The characters discussed are: Arthur the king, his queen Guenevere, his wizard Merlin, his half-sister Morgan le Fay, his faithful seneschal Sir Kay, his warrior nephew Gawain, his knight and rival Lancelot, and his incestuous son and nemesis Mordred. These characters are first identified in terms of their medieval origins, then explored in their varied depictions in modern fantasy fiction. The pattern that emerges is largely one of polarization of personality. The first study of Arthurian materials to focus specifically on the characterization of individuals, this book also achieves an original perspective on the evolution of individual characters from mythic prototypes.

Author Bio

CHARLOTTE SPIVACK is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has published widely in the fields of fantasy and medieval literature, and is the author of Merlin vs. Faust (1992), Merlin's Daughters: Contemporary Women Writers of Fantasy(Greenwood, 1987) Ursula K. LeGuin (1984) and The Comedy of Evil on Shakespeare's Stage (1978). ROBERTA LYNNE STAPLES is Associate Professor of English at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. She has published numerous articles on Arthurian and English literature.