King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: Newly Re-told Out of the Old Romances

The wonderful woodcut-like illustrations, made by cutting out black paper, add greatly to the atmosphere of this book. A good introduction to Arthur for all ages.

A great introduction to the story of King Arthur for anyone, but especially younger readers

Unusual for a very negative portrayal of Merlin

I always read this first, in preparation for reading Charles Williams' Arthurian poetry, "Taliessin Through Logres" and "The Region of Summer Stars". However, Roger Lancelyn Green's book is great reading on its own account. Perhaps, it's because I'm a Christian--whatever the reason, Green's modern

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yet faithful accounts of these traditional stories affect me emotionally when I read them.
At which point, I suppose, I'm in the perfect mental state to work through Williams' complex and allusive poetry as I search for even more of the spiritual depth in the Arthurian saga.

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Lotte Reiniger's illos are nice

First line:

~ After wicked King Vortigern had first invited the Saxons to settle in Britain and help him to fight the Picts and Scots, the land was never long at peace ~

I managed to finish [King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table] but I did not enjoy it at all. I literally slogged through

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most of it.

I think it was partly the old style English. The brevity of the stories bothered me. Each chapter is devoted to one mythological episode such as 'Sir Tristam and the Fair Iseult' or 'Sir Gawain and the Lady Ragnell' and these stories, to my mind, all run together with not enough character development to make me actually care about what happens to any of them. Each one basically involves one Knight killing another Knight, usually by beheading, to save the lady.

I know this is written for children but I can't imagine being able to get through this until much later in life.

There is one thing that I enjoyed about this book and that was the wood-cut illustrations which were, I thought, quite unusual

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This book has remained 41% complete on my currently reading shelf since July 25, 2009, so clearly it's a did-not-finish. I would love to read about the escapades of Arthur and his knights, but this adaptation did not present them interestingly.

A children's book from the 1950's which remains evocative & relatively concise in its overview of the Arthurian myth cycle. Involving all the normal suspects & a few more, it deals with the main adventures of all the main protagonists in a somewhat dated style of writing. This, once, you've got

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used to it, does not detract from the pace of the narrative though, & can be quite enjoyable. Players of the RPG Pendragon will love this overviews & the breakdown of the story, I would imagine. Interesting, relatively well paced, & really quite a comprehensive beginning text for any new student of Arthurian legend, I'd say I liked this.

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I really loved this book - it was such a different writing style than what I normally read. Rather than telling it like an actual story, it was more like a telling of events.
My favorite character was definitely Arthur, though I did think that as King he should have been a little bit more active

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instead of watching all his knights do all the work.
The end was very sad, but interesting...
WARNING! SPOILERS!
I didn't understand why Lancelot and Guinevere didn't end up together. After fighting so much to be together, at the end they just give it all up, even when they've won, and go and become monk/nuns. Even if they are ashamed of such tragedy resulting in their love - they should have stayed together.
I was fascinated by the writing style at first but as the book wore on the reading got harder. It took me a while to finish it, because at the last few chapters I got very bored of the writing style and didn't pick up the book for another week or two.
Still, despite the writing style getting a little dry, this book is definitely recommended - the best account of King Arthur I've ever come across.

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Really liked it. Had never read in its entirety. Glad I did. Very gallant and full of imperfect heroes constantly sparring, saving ladies and seeking adventures.

This was one of the books that I read aloud to Jefferson. But then someone else read him the last chapter and put it away, so I needed to go grab it and read the last chapter before I counted it. That actually happened months ago, but I didn't get around to that last chapter until just

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now.

Jefferson likes stories and games with knights and wizards, so I thought I should read him one of the originals. But when I started this with Jefferson, I thought I'd picked another miss, because it seemed so dry, and I thought I was going to have to put it away until he was older. But then he would ask some question that would prove he was paying careful attention, or he would leap up for a dramatic reenactment to prove that he was definitely captivated by the story.

So these stories weren't exactly what I was expecting, but Jefferson loved them. And I enjoyed becoming more familiar with the Arthurian legends.

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This is a very readable account of the story of King Arthur. Years ago, I wasn't able to get into T.H. White, but this was very enjoyable.

I read this in my school days and thoroughly enjoyed the rereading! A Puffin books version written in the 1950s for children. I found this version far superior to the Antonia Fraser volume from the 1960s which may be for a much younger audience, say children versus this effort by Green is more

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suited to the Young Adult audience.
This version is a great introduction to the Arthur myth in an easier to read language than say Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur, but still keeps very well to the traditional tale. That said modern readers might find the violence and less than sensitive treatment of various social issue a bit confronting these days.

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