How to Best Use This Blog

How To Best Use This Blog

• For the very casual learner, or interested party just follow along at your own speed and note the bullet points I provide at the bottom of each segment.  Note: there may be more than one segment per page.  This will give you a nice overview to the material without investing too much time.
• For the average beginning Arthur reader wanting to pick up some information and wanting to see if this is something you would like to invest more time in, I would recommend picking up one of the guides posted and reviewed at the bottom of this page.  Perhaps even try reading or even just skimming some of the works discussed.  This will let you know if Arthurian Lit is your cup of tea.
• For those who want to dive right in I would advise reading all of the recommended works and do some exploring outside as you see fit.  There is plenty of information out there.  Wikipedia is an excellent resource despite the undeserved bad name by teachers.  I use it all the time to read up on unfamiliar references.  I will also eventually create links to other sites as I find them.
• I urge all followers to make a habit of reading the introductions to each work of whatever book you pick up.  Its full of relevant cultural and historical information and will also show you some of what it takes to create a translation.  
• The footnotes can also be informative.  Sometimes extra pertinent information may break the flow of the book so its included at the bottom of the page or back of the book.
• Notes do not hurt, even if you never read them again.  The act of writing helps cement information in your mind.
• Read things out of order or even ahead of or outside this blog if your interest takes you that way.  What is of primary import is that you continue reading.  Arthurian literature is hopelessly interconnected as authors borrow, mimic, add, subtract, and change the works that come before them. 

 The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend by Alan Lupak and/or King Arthur in Legend and History by Richard White are two great resources to help you along.  Each of them are excellent guides and are still a great reference to me.  Each book has its pros and cons.  I like the Oxford Guide because it is succinct on most subjects, informative for a general readership, and has sections that compile information as well such as segments on the Holy Grail, Gawain, Merlin, and Tristan and Iseult.  It also has a mini-encyclopedia for Arthurian subjects.  What I don't like about it (and this is a minor complaint) is that it seems to dedicate a good bit of time to modern Arthurian literature, film, and poetry which, though I don't feel are worthy of neglect, I feel most individuals are aiming for the older works when they get a book like this.  Legend and History is far more informative than the other.  It spends a bit more time on each work and provides excerpts for the reader from each book.  I like this because, for the early works that may only feature a paragraph on Arthur, you can feel like you have read the segments without having to read a huge otherwise unrelated work.  It even has whole multi-page poems you may not be able to find elsewhere.  It has a handy chronology of (certain) books in the beginning which is very useful and has a small section of photographs of monuments for the historical section.  What I don't like is that the excerpts get longer and longer and the huge size of the book reflects that.  You pay for those long excerpts with a school textbook price of $50 for the paperback.   The other problem is that the pages, due to size, started to separate from the spine forcing me to purchase the hardback (used) as a replacement (but clearly I was willing to replace it).