Your love and passion for poetic language, God-given, is as great a gift in this world as any could hope for. Your skill at tossing us into the shadows of these great poets is truly remarkable. Thank you.
Having watched several of your videos now, a book that ties a lot of what you have been talking about together is Lewis's That Hideous Strength. A key character in it was of course Merlin. The passage in the chapter titles "The Saracen's Head" has an interesting passage. "He thought that Merlin's art was the last survival of something older and different - something brought to Western Europe after the fall of Minor and going back to an era in which general relations of mind and matter in this planet had been other than those we know." Ransom goes on to make a connection to Atlantis. And Ransom is also referred to as the Pendragon of Logres. But perhaps even more interesting is the connection here between Lewis and Tolkien's writings. With Lewis miss spelling Numinor because he had only heard the word read to him by Tolkien himself. Anyway, you get the mind going and I look forward to hearing more on arthurian legends from you.
Yes indeed, I am fascinated by Lewis's portrayal of Merlin and I'm sure it will influence me when I come to write my own, and I also like the link to Atlantis/Numinor and Tolkiens world, perhaps Avalon is a kind of Atlantis, recovered, and sustained again the tides of time
Really love Lewis’s imaginative use of Merlin in “That Hideous Strength” which has become a favourite story for me. Moreover the ‘Space Trilogy seems to have anticipated what more than a few think is going on in the world today with the real Withers and Frosts etc., in the unelected cabals such as the WEF for example! Thanks for your work on youtube Malcolm-i’m becoming fond of these instalments of yours! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
T'is thee whom speaketh with such prevalence such heartfelt joy An inspiration in volumes of great marvel T'is thee whom lifts ones spirit, to stir the depths of soul T'is thee almost by invitation that one puts pen to paper , to go fourth and create To thee much thanks kind sir i give.
I don't have time to watch every one of your videos but I love them so much when I do that I upvote them even if I don't have time to watch them because I know it'll be good.
Thankyou Malcolm! I love the old Arthurian stories, they really take me back to my childhood and the numerous Victorian picture books i had on my shelves. I remember reading a piece somewhere many years ago that suggested Arthur may be much older in origin than the medieval romances. It's also believed the stories of Excalibur have a much older pedigree too, and traces can be found in similar stories from both Ireland and central Europe ... I may have to do a bit of sleuthing 😉
Glad you enjoyed it. Yes there are motifs and elements that are much earlier than the stories - the magic swords and the grail, and also the ladies of the lake
Oh, how I loved this! You have such a profound and beautiful way of articulating the depth and beauty of poetry! Thank you for sharing a bit of the majesty that poetry holds and inviting us into your world! Great video!
Wowzers, this took me back to my Undergraduate studies/obsession of the Arthurian cycle. Thank you very much! Up high on my book shelf is a collection of my Arthurian readings. After seeing this video, I think I might visit some of my old friends in these myths. Thank you!!!
“Arthur King of the Britons? Who are the Britons?”. On a serious note, Mallory’s Death of Arthur was the book I would spend my high-school lunchtimes reading in a quiet corner, being somewhat socially challenged. Thankyou for sharing your fabulous collection of works on the once and future king.
thanks. Who indeed are the Britons? Some would say the Welsh, but in that sense the Welsh were everywhere before they were pushed back into Wales! But I think the Scots and Irish, not to mention the Cornish and the Breatons are part of this story too! M
Daniel Kelly, England is a political union of Anglo Saxon kingdoms, whose subjects were predominantly Of British origin (according to most geneticists) so i think we can safely say we are the Britons as we never went away :)
I only have a big paperback version of Malory, but it is of the old Caxton text and I love it; At a glance it looks obscure but in a moment one can slip right into the language. The only book I own where you can find the same word three times on a page spelled three different ways! P.S. I spotted that bottle of Ardbeg...one of the best scotches for the price I've come across. I was visiting the town of Portsmouth New Hampshire, coming from Massachusetts, and stopped into a cigar shop. The old timer there "fitted" me with a cigar and instructed me to go down the back steps where I could enjoy an Ardbeg and smoke my cigar in the grotto. Knowing I was from Mass, with stricter smoking laws, he cheekily welcomed me to "a civilized state." Well, he was right about the cigar, and the scotch.
Malcom, Have you read Steinbeck’s retelling of the Arthur tales? The book comes with some very interesting letters between Steinbeck and his editor on the matter as well.
As I've been reading more of the Inklings this year and those that influenced them the story of Arthur and his knights keep coming up. I'm very interested in reading and learning more about the Arthurian legend. Would you recommend starting with Malory?
@@MalcolmGuitespell Thank you for the recommendation. I was going through my grandfather's library last month and and he had a collection of Tennyson's work. Included in that was Idylls of the King!
Well, it's quite interesting Tolkien never thought it on par with other legends, so he decided to write his own, thinking it lacking. But, he was wrong, about this, one of the few things he was wrong about. Arthurian legend is a full mythology for Britain.
