I Am Morgan Le Fay, Nancy Springer
I Am Morgan Le Fay is a young adult novel which tries to give Morgan Le Fay more of a reason for her actions and more psychological depth. It’s reasonably successful in that, though it’s not one of my favourite Arthurian stories I’ve ever read — it seems a bit slight, and Morgan’s behaviour and the outcome was entirely obvious. The mythology is a bit of a hotchpotch, but I didn’t mind that too much because it was so lightly touched on. Cernunnos is a character, but it doesn’t really go into the significance of magic and how that’s linked to divinity in their world.
I kind of think I might be able to judge this better once I’ve read I Am Mordred as well, to see how Springer handles Mordred. Mary Stewart manages to excuse Mordred everything while throwing the blame on Morgan, and there’s always blame to go around in Arthurian stories, so I’d kind of like to see where it shifts in this case. Presumably not to Mordred, but to whom?
I think I might be interested in reading an adult version of Morgan’s story…I haven’t really read anything about her before, just what I’ve seen on TV.
chucklesthescot recently posted…Book Review: When The Peace Is Gone by PA Glaspy (Powerless World #2)
Hmm, I’m trying to think of a good one. She’s so often just a villain!
Interesting about Mordred: I’ve just republished an ancient piece of mine (from 40 years ago!) discussing why Mordred is such a denigrated figure in literature compared with Hamlet, when both have so much in common! (It’s on http://pendragonry.wordpress.com if you’re curious.)
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I should look at that blog, I just don’t have as much time as I’d like for my old lit interests with my dissertation now!
Ah, I love Arthurian books. Have you ever read The Mists of Avalon? That one is my absolute favorite. Nice review. I see you’re well versed in Arthurian lit!
I have, but I’m not a fan, I’m afraid. Even with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s personal crimes aside, I just don’t enjoy the book, though I wish I did! And I would hope I’m well-versed on Arthurian lit, haha. I might be a BSc student now, but I wrote my MA dissertation on the Celtic influence in Arthurian stories from medieval times to modern. 😉