It was a great pleasure to chat with you, Liam! There are few things in life as fulfilling as discussing stories we love with others who are passionate about them. All the best!
Interesting discussion, gentlemen! Largely familiar material, although for the most part I read it "long long ago" - early '70's - and little of it has been re-read. The one new item, which I have tracked down in translation on Gutenberg, is the Old English poems, which I want to explore at some point. The one exception to re-reading is Malory, and I had an interesting experience with that which ties into Liam's observation of the tediousness of some of the action: two years ago this month I had just finished reading aloud to my wife a new translation of "The 1001 Nights" that my daughter had bought me as a birthday present and for a change of pace we then started on Malory (1970's Penguin edition, with standardised spelling), but within a couple weeks she asked for something different, finding the quest and fighting stories repetitive and tedious. So we went on to one of Morris' prose romances ("The Sundering Flood"), which indicates to me that it was not Malory's older form of English (reflected in Morris) that was the problem but rather Malory's style. I might add that we have also read (aloud) Morris' other romances as well as his rendering of some of the sagas. I finally finished re-reading Malory on my own last year, and in hindsight realised that the first parts of "Le Morte d'Arthur" are indeed the least interesting - guess I should have been more selective in my choice of material. C'est la vie! Going beyond the works that you discuss, I would add Wolfram's "Parzival" as my personal favourite "take" on the Arthurian cycle (which I discovered back in the early 1970's via Joseph Campbell's "The Masks of God, Volume 4: Creative Mythology"). From the later period Boiardo's "Orlando innamorato" in the Carolingian cycle (I like Charles Ross' verse translation, which I only discovered serendipitously a few years ago), which, while mostly on the "human" plane, nonetheless has some fantastical creatures and magical elements, as well as sympathetic non-Christian characters and, as I stated in my Amazon review of Ross' translation, "[o]ne of the attractions of the Orlando Innamorato is the abundance of memorable and interesting women characters like the wise and intrepid Fiordelisa (my particular favourite), and the warrior maidens Marfisa and Bradamante." I would add that Fiordelisa reminds me of Ursula in "The Well at the World's End", another female character capable of dealing with problems through intelligence rather than violence. Personally, I'm less fond of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", but it is also worth a read.
Obviously not technically medieval, but my favorite story told in the epic poetry format is Paradise Lost. Truly beautiful writing. I read it to myself aloud, and it was one of the best reading experiences I have ever had.
This discussion between you and Liam was long overdue! I was nervous I wouldn’t recognize a single title, and while you two mentioned many that are obscure to me, I was excited that I’ve read Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d'Arthur, and, thanks to you, Saga of the Volsungs. I want to read The Wanderer poem. Great discussion!
@@Johanna_reads You are so right, Johanna! I’m glad I finally invited Liam for this discussion - as I expected, he brought some excellent insights! Also, it makes me happy that you’re interested in more Old English poetry!
Studying English literature, specifically the Romantic era poetry as a complete body of work really resonates with the fantasy fan in me. The Anglo-Saxon works, I LOVE "The Wanderer": "He who deeply considers, with wise thoughts, this foundation and this dark life, old in spirit, often remembers so many ancient slaughters, and says these words: 'Where has the horse gone? where is the rider? where is the giver of gold? Where are the seats of the feast? where are the joys of the hall? O the bright cup! O the brave warrior! O the glory of princes! How the time passed away, slipped into nightfall as if it had never been!" And now Elden Ring must be played.
@@thefantasythinker Thanks, Jarrod! My love for medieval literature and my love for fantasy come from a very similar place. For me, the connections are very important. All the best!
Great discussion guys! I am woefully behind on medieval literature and this is a great resource to get started on it. Added quite a few of these books to my Goodreads TBR. The Edda is one I’m particularly interested in reading that I was not familiar with before. Thank you for the discussion!
Thank you, Bryson! I enjoy video discussions that combine my two favorite realms of literature: medieval and fantasy. The latter certainly owes much to the former. All the best!
Lovely discussion to listen to during my work as a librarian! Here in Norway there is a lot of promotion of the 750th jubilee of “Magnus Lagabøtes Landslov” (“The State Law of Magnus Lagabøte", the first law covering the whole of Norway, issued by King Magnus VI Lagabøte (“he who mends the law”) of Norway between 1274 and 1276, one of the earliest examples of a comprehensive national legislation. While laws are not usually what fantasy readers are most excited about (😅), it is interesting how rather progressive it is compared to the usually image of the Draconian Middle Ages, which has been argued was due to Magnus being a second son originally destined for the clergy, educated by Franciscan monks and doing charity work for the poor, when his older brother died young. Also the Byzantines should be mentioned: Anna Komnene’s “The Alexiad” (who was a major inspiration for Princess Irulan in “Dune”) and several military manuals such as “The Strategikon” and “The Tactica” might inspire some battle scenes. Marco Polo’s Journeys should also be mentioned!
What a fantastic video! A couple of these I've experienced in the form of Wanger operas (Parsifal and the Ring Cycle) and keep meaning to read the stories that would've inspired the composer. How about a recommendation from Medieval India? I'd like to suggest the 13th century Kannada poem Harishchandra Kavya (The Life of Harishchandra) by Raghavanka and English translation by Vanamala Viswanatha. It tells the story of King Harishchandra who is willing to give up everything he holds dear, including his kingdom, his wife and child, and even his caste, in order to demonstrate his devotion to the truth.
Great conversation. I'm reading right now "Segurano o il Cavaliere del Drago", a re-descovered Arthurian tale, from the XIII century. Written in ancient french by an Italian unknown author about Segurant le Brun, a new invented Knight at the round table. Apparently the tale was well known but then has been forgotten. About ten year ago, in the arsenal library in Paris, Emanuele Arioli, an Italian scholar, has found many episodes of the tale inside the manuscript "Propheties de Merlin", and than continued the reserch and published the entire story, although fragmentated. It's fashinating. I hope this wasn't too much long and confusing, my english isn't very good.
Dante is an excellent addition! I hope you're doing well and perhaps finding time for some creativity -- seeing "brush2canvas" in the comments is always a welcome reminder of art.
@@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy All good, Philip! Just a bit tired and too lazy to wake up a unicorn to dispatch a comment. And yes, sometimes art happens. Hope you get some writing done and not just editing.
I have not read the entirety of Gargantua and Pantagruel, but it's interesting how that time period produced so many parodies of chivalry, like the slightly later Don Quixote. End of an era, for sure.
Many thanks for having me on, Philip! If anyone ever wants to chat medieval literature, I don’t know as much as Philip but I love to talk about it.
It was a great pleasure to chat with you, Liam! There are few things in life as fulfilling as discussing stories we love with others who are passionate about them. All the best!
Interesting discussion, gentlemen! Largely familiar material, although for the most part I read it "long long ago" - early '70's - and little of it has been re-read. The one new item, which I have tracked down in translation on Gutenberg, is the Old English poems, which I want to explore at some point. The one exception to re-reading is Malory, and I had an interesting experience with that which ties into Liam's observation of the tediousness of some of the action: two years ago this month I had just finished reading aloud to my wife a new translation of "The 1001 Nights" that my daughter had bought me as a birthday present and for a change of pace we then started on Malory (1970's Penguin edition, with standardised spelling), but within a couple weeks she asked for something different, finding the quest and fighting stories repetitive and tedious. So we went on to one of Morris' prose romances ("The Sundering Flood"), which indicates to me that it was not Malory's older form of English (reflected in Morris) that was the problem but rather Malory's style. I might add that we have also read (aloud) Morris' other romances as well as his rendering of some of the sagas. I finally finished re-reading Malory on my own last year, and in hindsight realised that the first parts of "Le Morte d'Arthur" are indeed the least interesting - guess I should have been more selective in my choice of material. C'est la vie!
Going beyond the works that you discuss, I would add Wolfram's "Parzival" as my personal favourite "take" on the Arthurian cycle (which I discovered back in the early 1970's via Joseph Campbell's "The Masks of God, Volume 4: Creative Mythology"). From the later period Boiardo's "Orlando innamorato" in the Carolingian cycle (I like Charles Ross' verse translation, which I only discovered serendipitously a few years ago), which, while mostly on the "human" plane, nonetheless has some fantastical creatures and magical elements, as well as sympathetic non-Christian characters and, as I stated in my Amazon review of Ross' translation, "[o]ne of the attractions of the Orlando Innamorato is the abundance of memorable and interesting women characters like the wise and intrepid Fiordelisa (my particular favourite), and the warrior maidens Marfisa and Bradamante." I would add that Fiordelisa reminds me of Ursula in "The Well at the World's End", another female character capable of dealing with problems through intelligence rather than violence. Personally, I'm less fond of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", but it is also worth a read.
@@RNMcKown Thanks so much for all these worthy additions to the discussion!
Obviously not technically medieval, but my favorite story told in the epic poetry format is Paradise Lost. Truly beautiful writing. I read it to myself aloud, and it was one of the best reading experiences I have ever had.
@@douglashufnagel7424 Paradise Lost is truly epic!
A great conversation between two great voices in the BookTube world. Many thanks for the kind words about our Beowulf book!
@@UppsalaBooks Very much our pleasure! Thank you for producing such an excellent edition and translation!
This discussion between you and Liam was long overdue! I was nervous I wouldn’t recognize a single title, and while you two mentioned many that are obscure to me, I was excited that I’ve read Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d'Arthur, and, thanks to you, Saga of the Volsungs. I want to read The Wanderer poem. Great discussion!
@@Johanna_reads You are so right, Johanna! I’m glad I finally invited Liam for this discussion - as I expected, he brought some excellent insights! Also, it makes me happy that you’re interested in more Old English poetry!
Studying English literature, specifically the Romantic era poetry as a complete body of work really resonates with the fantasy fan in me.
The Anglo-Saxon works, I LOVE "The Wanderer":
"He who deeply considers, with wise thoughts,
this foundation and this dark life,
old in spirit, often remembers
so many ancient slaughters, and says these words:
'Where has the horse gone? where is the rider? where is the giver of gold?
Where are the seats of the feast? where are the joys of the hall?
O the bright cup! O the brave warrior!
O the glory of princes! How the time passed away,
slipped into nightfall as if it had never been!"
And now Elden Ring must be played.
@@RiddlesOfSteel I’m a fan of the Romantic poets too - most especially Wordsworth. Have fun with Elden Ring!
Fantastic discussion guys! It's great to see all the things that we love about fantasy put into the context of where it all may come from. Great job!
@@thefantasythinker Thanks, Jarrod! My love for medieval literature and my love for fantasy come from a very similar place. For me, the connections are very important. All the best!
Great discussion guys! I am woefully behind on medieval literature and this is a great resource to get started on it. Added quite a few of these books to my Goodreads TBR. The Edda is one I’m particularly interested in reading that I was not familiar with before. Thank you for the discussion!
@@christianshobbiblog1816 Thanks, Christian! I hope you’ll find these reads enriching when you get to them!
This was terrible for my TBR - but a great video. Had lots of fun listening to the both of you
@@mastersal4644 Sorry about the TBR! 😁 Thank you for watching, as always!
What a great idea for a video. Definitely gonna check out some of these
Thank you, Bryson! I enjoy video discussions that combine my two favorite realms of literature: medieval and fantasy. The latter certainly owes much to the former. All the best!
Great chat 🫡
@@bigaldoesbooktube1097 Thank you, Al!
Excellent video. Would love to see a video on the classical era books next!
@@nudge2626 Thank you! That’s an excellent idea!
Lovely discussion to listen to during my work as a librarian!
Here in Norway there is a lot of promotion of the 750th jubilee of “Magnus Lagabøtes Landslov” (“The State Law of Magnus Lagabøte", the first law covering the whole of Norway, issued by King Magnus VI Lagabøte (“he who mends the law”) of Norway between 1274 and 1276, one of the earliest examples of a comprehensive national legislation. While laws are not usually what fantasy readers are most excited about (😅), it is interesting how rather progressive it is compared to the usually image of the Draconian Middle Ages, which has been argued was due to Magnus being a second son originally destined for the clergy, educated by Franciscan monks and doing charity work for the poor, when his older brother died young.
Also the Byzantines should be mentioned: Anna Komnene’s “The Alexiad” (who was a major inspiration for Princess Irulan in “Dune”) and several military manuals such as “The Strategikon” and “The Tactica” might inspire some battle scenes. Marco Polo’s Journeys should also be mentioned!
Thank you for your worthy additions, MacScarfield! Much appreciated!
What a fantastic video!
A couple of these I've experienced in the form of Wanger operas (Parsifal and the Ring Cycle) and keep meaning to read the stories that would've inspired the composer.
How about a recommendation from Medieval India? I'd like to suggest the 13th century Kannada poem Harishchandra Kavya (The Life of Harishchandra) by Raghavanka and English translation by Vanamala Viswanatha. It tells the story of King Harishchandra who is willing to give up everything he holds dear, including his kingdom, his wife and child, and even his caste, in order to demonstrate his devotion to the truth.
Thank you! That is a most welcome addition!
What a great discussion! My biggest question: does that tweed jacket have elbow patches? LOL.
@@jeremyfee Alas, no elbow patches on that one! 😁 Cheers, Jeremy!
There were chapters that seemed to consist of fight descriptions: "he was passing wroth and smote Sir X and took his horse" in Mallory.
Sir Thomas loved his smiting! Especially when Lancelot was around!
Great conversation. I'm reading right now "Segurano o il Cavaliere del Drago", a re-descovered Arthurian tale, from the XIII century. Written in ancient french by an Italian unknown author about Segurant le Brun, a new invented Knight at the round table. Apparently the tale was well known but then has been forgotten. About ten year ago, in the arsenal library in Paris, Emanuele Arioli, an Italian scholar, has found many episodes of the tale inside the manuscript "Propheties de Merlin", and than continued the reserch and published the entire story, although fragmentated. It's fashinating. I hope this wasn't too much long and confusing, my english isn't very good.
@@callinicobo5991 How cool! Thank you for telling me about Segurant!
Oh, nice video idea and a great list! Maybe for those who read all of this some Dante.😁
Dante is an excellent addition! I hope you're doing well and perhaps finding time for some creativity -- seeing "brush2canvas" in the comments is always a welcome reminder of art.
@@PhilipChaseTheBestofFantasy All good, Philip! Just a bit tired and too lazy to wake up a unicorn to dispatch a comment. And yes, sometimes art happens. Hope you get some writing done and not just editing.
Greetings from Paraguay 🇵🇾
Hello to you in beautiful Paraguay! Cheers!
Orlando Furioso is a must!
@@omaramat4813 An excellent addition, though a bit late to be considered medieval.
Philip have you read Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais?
I have not read the entirety of Gargantua and Pantagruel, but it's interesting how that time period produced so many parodies of chivalry, like the slightly later Don Quixote. End of an era, for sure.
Cheers, Mr. Rorosuri!