The King Arthur Trilogy

There are countless retellings and adaptations concerning the life and times of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and I'm not even close to having read all of them. Therefore, it's impossible for me to say that Rosemary Sutcliffe's version is the definitive Arthurian retelling. However, it's certainly one of the best. Told in Sutcliffe's graceful prose that is both epic and intimate when need-be, and the tricky subjects like incest, adultery and bloodshed are conveyed without being either too prudish or overly graphic. Divided into three parts, this version of Sutcliffe's King Arthur combines all three novels into one - and as a bonus you get David Wyatt's beautiful cover art. However, since it seems to be currently unavailable, I've added links to the separate books, which will save me having to go and review them as well. The first installment The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is thicker than the next two books combined, and Sutcliffe draws on a wide range of sources with which to build her own narrative. Going back to the circumstances of Arthur's birth as outlined in Geoffrey Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain, she gives us her account of his birth, fosterage, and eventual crowning when only just fifteen. From Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: The Winchester Manuscript (Oxford World's Classics) she brings in the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guenever, Arthur's struggle to establish peace, and the forming of the Knights of the Round Table (for a much shorter rendering of the story up to this point, try the beautiful picture book Tales of King Arthur: King Arthur and the Round Table (Books of Wonder) by Hudson Talbott). From this point, Sutcliffe moves into several other stories concerning the Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the most famous translation by Tolkien: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo) the Kitchen Knight (also one of my favourite picture books by Trina Schart Hyman: The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur) and perhaps the best rendering of the tale of Tristan and Iseult there is (it almost deserves to be its own book). Merlin and Morgan le Fey drop out of the story surprisingly quickly, and most of it is concerned with knight's errands and love stories, most of which can be read out of order, for it is not a novel so much as a compilation of stories. The Light beyond the Forest: The Quest for the Holy Grail (Arthurian Trilogy, Vol 2) is perhaps the least enjoyable of three, based on the Knights' Quest for the Grail and heavy with religious symbolism and metaphor. Filled with inexplicable mysteries and miracles, temptation against earthly delights and feminine wiles, this book is based on the uncompleted French poem Perceval: The Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes, but Sutcliffe also adds in plenty of her own invention as she recounts the journeys of Bors, Galahad, Lancelot and Perciv