Do recall the context… The Arthurian legends are not a story with sole authorship, like the Lord of the Rings. These are stories twisted and told by many different people. Perhaps the modern analogy is Spider-Man. Within Marvel there are many different varieties, and then you add on the fan driven content…
For those deeply interested in different takes on Arthur, Steinbeck [0] took a stab at it too. This sent me down a long Arthurian rabbit hole.
They also mention Marvel comics in the article. Although, it seems a bit less concrete than that. These stories were written over the course of hundreds of years, and were often not really collaborating at all, right? Like, Lancelot's characterization can diverge pretty significantly depending on whether the author is English or French, haha...
Correct. Marvel has somebody in charge. A more apt parallel is fanfic... except that there isn't any "canon". It's all fanon.
In the Arthurian fanfic verse, a few authors get famous enough that they form a kind of accepted canon. You're likely to read Malory in school, because the faculty likes the Malory version.
Try telling your teacher that you disagree with their headcanon.
If you think there's trouble to be had when telling your professor that you disagree about what's canon for a mythos from 1000 years ago, you should not engage with believers on what's canon vs not about a story about a Jewish carpenter from, oh, about 2021 years ago. Definitely do NOT question if that story has somebody in charge.
Good grief. I had no idea that Steinbeck had written an Arthurian tale - and based on Malory, to boot. I am so looking forward to reading that. Thanks for the information.
This is really messing with my head now. We read Steinbeck at school - in the UK - and were in awe at the gravitas, use of English, literary genius. This is like finding out that Thomas Hardy also wrote manga, or something. I would so love to get my hands on Murder at Full Moon.
I've just searched out some news stories about this and, apparently, Steinbeck destroyed some manuscripts he'd written under the Peter Pym pseudonym, but not this one; apparently he had also tried to get it published.
Arrrgh! I so hope that this sees the light of day at some point - or, er, the light of the Moon.
It kinda doesn't feel like a Steinbeck book, really, but it's not a bad read, for what it is.
(someone DV'd my original post, at some point, and I'm not sure if this is why [maybe it was for some other reason entirely] but I intended my use of the term "propaganda" in a descriptive, neutral sense—that's what it is, and what it was intended to be)
Steinbeck's Arthurian tales was spurred on by his childhood in Salinas, California. As a child, he used to play as a knight and he made his little sister play his squire. He dedicated the book to her.
I am generally favorable to a lot of what Steinbeck did with his treatment, other than "vamping up" Morgan le Fey, which seemed a bit too dime store novel of a characterization to me.
Otherwise he does a great job getting into the psychology of the knight characters. The published version also includes a great number of his letters on his process, showing how Steinbeck himself was on a sort of spiritual grail quest in trying to get to an authentic version of the telling.
If you are into the Arthurian literature as it jumped from the medieval to the modern, this is a great book to add to your collection.
Last note: be forwarned that Steinbeck never really finished his book. He spent years doing the research, but never really wrapped the stories with a bow. Just appreciate the tales he does tell, and how he tells them. You already know how the story ends.
I wonder if that’s why it’s so difficult to look up specific stories. I vividly recall reading one in my childhood about a KotRT who sought out to challenge another who was supposed to be unbeatable during daylight, but insisted on waiting to challenge him at his best rather than his weakest. Always thought it was a great honor story and I can’t for the life of me find it.
Note that this "strength was greatest at noon" was also said to be true about Gawaine, and there is a version of a combat where after the noon hour his strength waxed and he was defeated.
"According to the Vulgate Mort Artu, Gawain had been baptised as an infant by a miracle-working holy man, also named Gawain, who named the boy after himself, and the following day announced that every day at noon, at the hour of the baptism, his power and strength will increase."
I think that's probably based on the story line about Lancelot wounding Gawain with Balin's sword. Somewhere in Morte d'Arthur, but I don't recall the "wait to be at his best" part.
It sounds like a Hollywood addition to the story, so maybe a movie?
I would suggest asking on reddit if you can't find it here. I've actually managed to find some things that I had been seeking for over a decade through places like reddit.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/ might also be a good place to ask, story identification threads are common and often answered quickly if sufficient detail is given (or the asker is lucky).
The details I remember, the one he wanted to challenge was the Red Knight (I think) and the other detail of the story that I remember was whoever was going to challenge him initially didn't have any armor and kept collecting pieces from other knights that he defeated along the way.
I think it might have been Gawain now that you mention it. Pretty sure it started with a G so I kept thinking Gallahad.
For those deeply interested in different takes on Arthur, Steinbeck [0] took a stab at it too. This sent me down a long Arthurian rabbit hole.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Acts_of_King_Arthur_and_...