The Fury Of Gawain

THE FURY OF GAWAIN & OTHER FRENCH MEDIEVAL ROMANCES

adapted by Pablo Garcia-Matthews

cover by Michel Borderie

 

While the other warriors of Camaalot and Logres blind themselves climbing toward the Holy Gradal, Gawain's quest is into the bilious depths of his own fury...

The stories of this volume -- exploring the vivid and strange Arthurian universe of the French romance-writers-- have been translated from Medieval sources (primarily of the 13th century), and challenge all of our modern assumptions about the "Arthurian Legend!"

Discover a Gawain very different to the familiar hero of the Green Knight poem; find out why King Arthur's foster-brother Kei was even crueler than you remembered; find out why King Pellinore wasn't quite the joke that T. H. White made him out to be in The Once and Future King, and why Gawain wanted him dead!; learn the grim, dark origin of the "Holy Grail," and experience the familiar narrative of the "Grail-Quest" retold as a folktale, complete with crude humor; learn what really happened to Lancelot and Queen Guenuevre after Arthur left for Avalon; discover the real identity of the father of Morgan le Fée's son (here's a hint, he's not Arthur), and glimpse the interconnected universe of the Medieval adventure heroes as King Arthur, Morgan, and Gawain survive into the days of Emperor Charlemagne, Ogier the Dane, and the Paladins!

Nine magical, bloody sagas of Medieval France are presented together for the first time in this volume, some of which have never before appeared in English. Thunderously triumphant, cruelly subversive, these selected stories represent landmark developments in the tradition of French fantasy, and illustrate the raw power and seductive draw present even at the tradition's very beginning.

CONTENTS:
"Women of the Mounds" - from the Elucidation (c. 1200)
"The Folly of Gawain" - from La Suite du Merlin (c. 1200) 
"Tristan and Iseult" - from Tristan (c. 1150) by Béroul 
"The Pure Fool and the Gradal" - from Le Foyer Breton (1844) by Emile Souvestre
"The Cruelty of Kei" - from Li Hauz Livres du Gra'al (c. 1200)
"The Fury of Gawain" from Le Roman de Palamedes (c. 1200)
"Sir Bo'or and the Mourning of Tristan" from the Suite du Tristan (c.1300-1450) 
"The Ending of the Round Table" - from Ly Myreur de Histors (c. 1340) by Jean d'Outremeuse
"The Child from Avalon" - from Histoire du preux et vaillant chevalier Meurvin, fils d'Oger le Dannois lequel par sa prouesse conquist Hierusale