Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Squire's Tales



Those of you studying the medieval period may enjoy reading The Squire's Tales Series by Gerald Morris, eight books based on the Arthurian legends. I stumbled on to this series by accident last year when my daughter was struggling with Tolkien's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (recommended by Wise Bauer in The Well-Trained Mind). Tolkien's version is in verse, includes some old English, and is very difficult reading. Morris's retelling, The Squire's Tale, stays true to the original tale, but is so much more fun! Morris creates Terrence, Gawain's squire (and Nimue's nephew), from whose perspective the story is told. Terrence has his own adventures and, like all Arthurian heroes, must go a on a quest, but Gawain's story remains the center of focus. My daughter loved it!

I read the entire series to my children who begged for storytime every night (which made it very easy to get their night-time chores done). I can't tell you how many quests my children went on as we read this book, and my son created endless games involving the characters(King Arthur, Guenevere, Lancelot, Sir Dinadan, Sir Galahad) and mythical beings (the Lady of the Lake, Puck). All of the books are based on an ancient tale: Queste del Saint Graal (Quest for the Holy Grail), Tristam and Iseult, Le Morte de Arthur, etc. At the end of each book, Morris includes a note about the story's provenance and some information about the medieval writers, the time period, or the genre. The American Library Association has included several of the books in their Best Books for Young Adults.

The series includes:

The Squire's Tale
The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady
The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf
(my favorite)
Parsifal's Page
The Ballad of Sir Dinadan
The Princess, The Crone, and the Dung-Cart Knight
(my daughter's favorite: Lancelot is the star of the show)
The Lioness and her Knight
The Quest for the Fair Unknown
(starring Sir Galahad)
The Squire's Quest (due out in September)



More information about Morris and his books can be found at the Children's Literature Network

All images were retrieved August 27, 2009, from the Children' Literature Network at http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/aifolder/aipages/ai_m/morris.html


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