King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition [Paperback]

"King Arthur's Children" is a long overdue addition to Arthurian studies. Most people are familiar with Arthur's son Mordred, and he is extensively reviewed in this book. But such characters as Amr and Llacheu are also covered, along with lesser known examples of Arthur's children. Besides looking at the traditional tales, "King Arthur's Children" highlights modern fiction which has made use of invented children of Arthur. A lot of this material was new to me and inspired me to explore some of these later books. The author is writing a novel about Arthur's legacy. I look foward to it.

Tyler R. Tichelaar, who has a Ph.D. in literature, has been fascinated with King Arthur since a child. I understand that, as in 6th grade my class read a King Arthur story and then wrote a play about him that we later performed. I have great memories of all that went into the writing, the sets, the learning of lines and then performing the play not just two times for the elementary school but later at night presenting it to our parents and other people from the community. That started my own fascination with Arthurian legend. Did he really exist or on the other hand, is he just a legend? As an adult, I continued to read about Arthur in Stephen Lawhead's five book series The Pendragon and then Avalon: The Return of King Arthur. Therefore, I was excited to read Tichelaar's King Arthur's Children and I was not disappointed.

King Arthur's Children looks at the literature since the fifth century tracing every mention of the children of Arthur starting with the Welsh legends. Tichelaar also looks at the French romances and other references to the children during the Middle Ages. He then brings it up to modern times where authors continue to write about the king and his children, often making up new children. Lawhead's series is just one of many modern novels he discusses.

This though is not a dry historical account but Tichelaar is a storyteller and in the midst of all the details of the children, storylines are shared that made me want to read more about Arthur. Why is it that even in the 21st century we are still interested in King Arthur, his adventures and his family? Maybe it is the fact that we do not know if he really did exist, or is it the classic issues his story brings up - family struggles, forbidden love, best friends in love with the same woman, or maybe our fascination is with all the adventures of King Arthur. I do not know but Tichelaar's work has added something valuable to those who study the man or to those of us who still want to read more of the infamous king. I highly recommend King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition.

Tichelaar himself is going to add to the King Arthur books with his upcoming novel King Arthur's Legacy. After reading this book, I am looking forward to reading his novel also.

I just finished reading King Arthur's Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition It is a scholarly analysis of every known treatment of King Arthur's children, from Welsh legends and French romances, to Scottish genealogies and modern novels. King Arthur's Children explores an often overlooked theme in Arthurian literature and reveals King Arthur's bloodline may still exist today.

Now for my personal opinion . . . I know nothing about King Arthur except for what I've seen in a couple of forgettable movies. He pulled a sword out of a stone. He was married to Guinevere. He was helped by Merlin the wizard. With this lack of knowledge you would think this is a very strange book for me to read and review. But in my world I don't want to read books about things I already know. I want to learn something new.

Thank goodness Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. has a fabulous writing style which makes so much new-to-me information fairly easy to read and understand. I think my biggest problem was reading and remembering all the "weird" names of the different characters. If they'd all been Johns and Marys it would have been much simpler . . . LOL.

So if you are a fan of King Arthur than this is definitely the book to read. Well thought out, well written and allowing room for question and debate.

[...]