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Best Books on the Legend of King Arthur

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My favourite books on Arthur, King of Britain

From the faraway days of Britain come the stories rooted in ancient Celtic and Germanic imagination, stories of the strongest, the bravest and the best.

Tales that have been told and endlessly retold, tales of a chivalrous knight, a powerful warrior and a just and intelligent leader. We have shaped his image to suit our shifting sense of morality, but was there ever a 'real' Arthur? I believe so.

There are many in interpretations of Arthur in literature, many are the stories of early Britain, and of the Chieftan, the High King or the Dux Bellorum who held back the Saxon tide for a short moment in history. From early childrens' books which told of the Knights and the Round Table, to more modern novels of Morgan le Fay, Mordred and Merlin, these are my favourite books, well-thumbed, dog-eared, standing forever on my bookshelf.

Simply the best books on Arthur, King of Britain.

Personal Favourites
Sword at Sunset
The Mists of Avalon
Women of the Arthurian Legend
Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy
The Once and Future King
Pendragon Cycle Book 1 : Taliesin
Pendragon Cycle Book 2 : Merlin
Pendragon Cycle Book 3 : Arthur
Camulod Chronicles - Book 1 - The Skystone
Bernard Cornwell : The Winter King
The Silurian - at Lulu
King of the Celts: Arthurian Legends and Celtic Tradition
Discover the 'real' King Arthur
Classics on King Arthur
More on King Arthur
More Best Books
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What do you think about this Book List?

Personal Favourites

The search for Arthur seized my dreams when The Boy's King Arthur Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table Edited for Boys By Sidney Lanier fell into my hands. I was 9 years old and ensorcelled!

The mysteries of that far away mist-shrouded land held me captivated and and motivated my studies for almost 40 years.

Since then I must have read every new novel, (many good, many more bad, but most of them predictably indifferent) and I'm left with my personal favourites.

Sword at Sunset

The late Rosemary Sutcliff wrote historical novels, wonderful stirring novels not fantasy, and she gave us a painstaking and imaginative reconstruction of the desolate time when the Legions marched away from Britain forever.

Sword at Sunset (Rediscovered Classics)

by: Rosemary Sutcliff

Amazon Price: $6.16 (as of 02/16/2012)

Arthur, a war chief, tells his own story of the battles to hold back the barbaric Saxon hordes. If there were ever a 'real' Arthur, this is how it must have been. The characters are real living (all too human) flesh, passionate people who will make a home in your heart.

A classic, highly readable and recommended novel.

Author, Rosemary Sutcliff

Rosemary Sutcliff: Sutcliff is considered mainly a childrens' author. However her books have a wider appeal, addressing as they do complex and elemental themes in an intricately woven and foreign background. Some are definitely for adult readers.

The Mists of Avalon

You must have read this classic from the pen of Marian Zimmer Bradley by now.

If you haven't, this interpretation of Arthur told from the perspective of powerful women characters can be summed up in one word - masterpiece. I'll say that twice - masterpiece.

Rather than Arthur, Morgaine is the focus of the book. Generally known in legend as the fae queen who is the enemy of Arthur, in this book she is his sister and a priestess of Avalon.

Morgaine is the primary focus of the book, while the secondary focus is the other women around Arthur -- his mother, Igraine, his wife Gwenhyfar, Morgause, queen of Lothian, and Vivienne, Lady of the Lake.

The Mists of Avalon

by: Marion Zimmer Bradley

Amazon Price: $7.26 (as of 02/16/2012)

This is the crowning glory of the works of Marian Zimmer Bradley., it's engaging, spellbinding, moving, and beautifully written. A classic story of Arthurian times...

Women of the Arthurian Legend

Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy

The story of Merlin, the magical wise man who mentored Arthur.

In the Merlin Trilogy, Mary Stewart presents her fantastical but realistic portrayal of Arthurian legend. It's engrossing and hauntingly written, and has become a classic of the genre.

The books are The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. These books have Merlin, Arthur's wizard mentor, as their focal point, and the result is a charming, engrossing tale providing a unique perspective on a familiar tale. Her history is superb and richly detailed, her characterisations are masterful, and her plotting is perfect. You'll be entranced by this magical story.

Merlin has been portrayed many times, but Stewart's vision is unique. A classic. I just love this interpretation, utterly believable and a great yarn as well.

If only there were more writers to tell tales as grand as these!

Still from Merlin (Special Edition)

Bundled together....

The Once and Future King

This book is strangely hard to describe. It's amusing, a comedy with some hysterical twists and at the same time an expose of the brutality of violence, domination and dictatorship. Witty, ironic, pacifistic, perceptive and superbly crafted.

Yet another dimension to the re-telling of Arthurian legend and in one word - whimsical

The Pendragon Cycle

A breathtaking work by acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead.

I'm always looking for tales of the Matter of Britain and, while there are great numbers out there, I'm hard to please. Can you recommend a good one? I want a good, enthralling story, I love historical accuracy (as far as possible), but I also love fantasy and if some basis of historical fact is laid down for a fantasy flight, I am more than eager to read.

But the author must be able to write well, I've seen too many that fall down with poor structure and even poorer English. Stephen R.Lawhead is a great storyteller, he has studied and loves his subject and he can write.

In his trilogy, the Pendragon Cycle, the emphasis is not on Arthur, for the story and the great events that shaped the world are placed fairly and squarely in the hands of Merlin.

John William Waterhouse :wikimedia commons

Pendragon Cycle Book 1 : Taliesin

Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle, Book 1)

by: Stephen R. Lawhead

Amazon Price: $4.40 (as of 02/16/2012)

The first book of the trilogy is Taliesin, and it tells the story of the parents of Merlin. Taliesin is found as an infant in a salmon weir, and as he grows up the boy discovers his bardic skills, his druidic wisdom and powers.

Pendragon Cycle Book 2 : Merlin

Merlin (The Pendragon Cycle , Book 2)

by: Stephen R. Lawhead

Amazon Price: $3.14 (as of 02/16/2012)

Merlin, the second book in the trilogy, picks up the story a few years later when Merlin is a youth and continues with his development into the wise sage who works to create the Summer Realm of Arthur.

Pendragon Cycle Book 3 : Arthur

Arthur (The Pendragon Cycle, Book 3)

by: Stephen R. Lawhead

Amazon Price: $3.43 (as of 02/16/2012)

Arthur, the final book in the original trilogy, tells the story of how the Summer Realm is established and, ultimately, how it falls. You know the story.

Camulod Chronicles - Book 1 - The Skystone

I first picked up this book about seven years ago but have only now decided to finish it. Jack Whyte is a man who cannot write about women, they are two dimensional creatures and adjuncts to the male characters.

If I overlook the fact that this style, apart from annoying me, belongs in the 19th century, we have here a very good look, an excellent look, at 5th century life in Roman occupied Britain.

The Skystone comes with a glossary, a pronunciation guide and maps of Britain, which prove helpful throughout the series.

The Skystone (The Camulod Chronicles, Book 1)

by: Jack Whyte

Amazon Price: $11.47 (as of 02/16/2012)

The book revolves around the secret of the Skystone. An old soldier, a retired centurion, now a blacksmith, purely by chance finds the secret of an ore-bearing stone that has fallen from the sky.

Although the blacksmith knows that the stone has fallen from the sky, what he does not know is that the stone is part of a much larger 'stone,' in fact it is a meteorite and the discovery of the strange metal hidden within the stone provides a link to a legend, over two centuries later, when a boy named Arthur is born.

A boy who is destined to be a king . . .

Camulod

Bernard Cornwell : The Winter King

The Winter King (The Arthur Books #1)

by: Bernard Cornwell

Amazon Price: $5.98 (as of 02/16/2012)

Cornwell's Arthur is a fierce, dedicated and complex man, in a rousing and bloody tale of politics and war told from the horror of hand-to-hand combat across a shield wall..

Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2)

by: Bernard Cornwell

Amazon Price: $8.62 (as of 02/16/2012)

Having secured the throne of Dumnonia for the infant King Mordred, Arthur seeks to bring peace to the kingdom by uniting the various rival Celtic factions into the Brotherhood of Britain.

Excalibur, A Novel of Arthur (The Arthur Books #3)

by: Bernard Cornwell

Amazon Price: $9.16 (as of 02/16/2012)

Now we learn of the final fate of all the characters,in a spectacular conclusion.

The Silurian - at Lulu

The Silurian : Book One The Fox and The Bear
by L.A. Wilson available from Lulu.com

Thank heavens for self publishing! Without it, we would have no chance of reading The Silurian from Wilson. But take my word for it, if this book is not snaffled by a publisher soon then I will eat my Easter Bonnet.

The Silurian is an adventure book, action and more action without being regaled by endless gore. I don't want to read a battle blow by blow, clot by clot, but I do like a clear picture of what opposing forces are doing. Are they engaged in single combat between Champions, Celtic style? Is one side rushing pell mell to overwhelm with numbers, brute force and bravery like the Saxons? Is there a plan with Roman military manoeuvres?

When I say 'adventure' I'm happy to say that there are no gratituous sex scenes. If I want to read a book with these scenes, then I will go out and buy one, something I do quite often. I just don't want to come across them unexpectedly in the middle of a novel when there's really no need for them at all. All the same this is an adult book, with adult themes of Love. The bond of comradeship between fighting men is a constant theme and the passions of Love are explored. " Men, women, boys and girls, and even the dogs loved him to madness. He did this to everyone who met him."

Wilson makes Arthur a Welshman, one of the Silures, a tribe which waged effective guerilla warfare against the Roman Occupation. (The Romans never forgave the Silures for harbouring Caratacus).

The story is told by Bedwyr, Prince of Dogfeiling, who prefers to be called simply Fox and I won't spoil the story by saying too much about the familiar Medraut. Fox is now a friend of mine, someone I feel that I know, for Wilson has that wonderful gift of bringing a character into real life.

Wilson's language is superb. Simple English, stark as the landscape and beautiful as only English can be without later borrowed European words. Reading this at home in a summer afternoon of 30 celsius, I shivered with cold as much as with anticipation. The setting is so very, very real. Luguvalos ... I stood looking up the road into the darkness, at the dark brooding hills around me, the silence and the cold. I pulled my cloak tight and walked forward, so dark in these bloody hills. Much of the time it's cold in The Silurian, a freezing, stone-cold freezing. The kind of cold that was painful. Brrrr!

An excellent addition to my collection of Arthurian novels. I highly recommend it.

King of the Celts: Arthurian Legends and Celtic Tradition

For the serious reader, a classic work by Jean Markale, a man part Breton, part-Irish, and all Celt.

Markale's grandmother, close to the forest of Brocéliande, told the boy the ancient strange legends, and he subsequently devoted forty years to studying and teaching the history of the Celtic peoples.

Markale has published numerous books about Celtic civilisation and the Arthurian cycle. His particular specialities are the place of women in the Celtic world and the Grail cycle.

Every student of mythology has at least one Markale on the shelf. A brilliant man, and King of the Celts is a brilliant book.

Discover the 'real' King Arthur

Fascinating! Who was Arthur? Ashe believes he has found the real historical man. A well written and compelling insight into myth and reality and a fascinating look at life in the turbulent times of the Saxon Tide.

Do I agree with his conclusions? I'm not quite sure ......

The Discovery of King Arthur

by: Geoffrey Ashe

Amazon Price: $3.98 (as of 02/16/2012)

Ashe, with insight, passion, and vast historical knowledge, brings us the facts behind the legend of King Arthur and arrives at his conclusion of Arthur's identity.

A powerful read and as gripping as any good detective novel.

Classics on King Arthur

The core myths of the Celtic peoples centre on the great cycle of stories based on the life and exploits of King Arthur.

These legends link Arthur to a common poetic idea of Britain as a kind of paradise of the West, with a primeval unspoiled past. Together they add up to the greatest theme in the literature of the British Isles.

I've listed here what I call my 'reference' books on Arthur.

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