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Gerald Morris
The Ballad of Sir Dinadan is the latest in a series of Arthurian kid's books by Gerald Morris, a couple of which I'd read previously. These books are really charming. I'm a little in love with them not least because I routinely fall in love with a) any Arthurian book that knows more about Arthur than I do (though you think this is hard, yet it is not so: I've never actually read Malory all the way through), b) any Arthurian book that acknowledges how essentially idiotic the story of Tristam and Iseult is, and c) any book at all that demonstrates the author has actually read the Mabinogion. T.H. White, of course, scored extremely high on a) and b), and possibly well on c) (though he was certainly a little less interested in the Celtic aspect). Morris does very well, with top marks on c) -- in this book, Culhwch and Olwen make up a large subplot of the book, and the other Mabinogion romances feature heavily in some of his other books.
These books are really cute and a lot of fun, and made me laugh out loud at times. They aren't perfect books. They can occasionally be on the simplistic side (though although I had mourned the lack of mention of, e.g., the weirdly dignified Eagle of Gwernabwy in with all the over-the-top satire, it's true that the whole episode of Mabon is treated very differently, so maybe I'm being too critical), with some of the characters one-dimensional and the plot not always hanging together entirely coherently (honestly, kind of like his sources, so I can't really complain). Dinadan, in addition, has an interesting ending that may appeal to some but which I'm not sure I liked-- I'm not sure I like the triumph of experience over hope. But anyway, his books do retain that sense of wonder I still remember from my first forays into Arthurian myth, and if I knew a kid (or grown-up kid) who was just getting her toes wet with this stuff, I would absolutely give her these books as an excellent introduction to Arthur's court and to the treasures of the Mabinogion.
These books are really cute and a lot of fun, and made me laugh out loud at times. They aren't perfect books. They can occasionally be on the simplistic side (though although I had mourned the lack of mention of, e.g., the weirdly dignified Eagle of Gwernabwy in with all the over-the-top satire, it's true that the whole episode of Mabon is treated very differently, so maybe I'm being too critical), with some of the characters one-dimensional and the plot not always hanging together entirely coherently (honestly, kind of like his sources, so I can't really complain). Dinadan, in addition, has an interesting ending that may appeal to some but which I'm not sure I liked-- I'm not sure I like the triumph of experience over hope. But anyway, his books do retain that sense of wonder I still remember from my first forays into Arthurian myth, and if I knew a kid (or grown-up kid) who was just getting her toes wet with this stuff, I would absolutely give her these books as an excellent introduction to Arthur's court and to the treasures of the Mabinogion.