New translation and guided reading of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, Book One
Greetings folks! It’s been a long time, but I have been busily working away. I am almost done with Book 7 of The Swithen and that will be going to the proofreader soon, but in the meantime I have worked on another project. A new translation and guided reading of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.
If you’ve ever tried to read Le Morte d’Arthur and not gotten very far, this is the book for you. I walk you through an easy new translation of the text, stopping every few paragraphs to explain what’s happening and what it all means. It’s also aimed at the average person who likes Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings and maybe just wants to check out what this King Arthur stuff is all about—so it’s not pretentious and lofty, it’s casual and funny and really just about helping you get through.
P.S. This is just Book One of the Twenty-One Book work, but it still amounts to 183 pages and still includes the sword in the stone, Merlin, the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur. I will continue moving on to the other books in time and by the end will have one huge new translation and guide to Malory’s monumental work.
This is a project that definitely evolved from a small idea. On my YouTube channel @theswithenbookseries my videos do okay… but the one called How to Read Le Morte d’Arthur outperforms them all by thousands of views. So I thought, “I’ll do a series that goes through Le Morte d’Arthur chapter by chapter.” Then I realized that I couldn’t include any of Malory’s text, because it is a copyrighted translation. So I thought it was time to do my own translation. And then I thought it should be a book. And then I thought there should be an intro and a afterward… so it all just started and continued to grow.
Anyway, if you’ve ever wanted to read Le Morte d’Arthur but been intimidated by the text, give it a shot! It is only ebook now, but the paperback will follow soon. Thanks, and Book 7 of The Swithen should be out in the Fall.
Music playlist: Atmopsphere of The Swithen
Greetings happy ones…
I made a playlist that expresses the atmosphere of my Arthurian book series The Swithen. It’s an hour and 15 minutes of dark, brooding, mysterious and moody music that captures the mood I’m trying to create in my books. It will work even if you’ve never read the books!
Listen below or go to this page where you will find track-by-track discussion of what I hear in each song.
Preview tracks below. To listen to full songs, click the three dots and right and select “Play on Spotify.”
Book 6 Author Interview / Book 6 on Kindle Unlimited / King Arthur Basics
Greetings lovely ones—
So much going on I can’t even make one blog post about one thing! In the interest of your time, here are the links, then we’ll have more detail below.
Book 6 author interview – on the Children of Arthur blog
Book 6 is on Kindle Unlimited – Read it for free if you’re on KU
King Arthur Basics article – A new article for the total newbie to King Arthur
And now more detail:
Book 6 author interview
First and most exciting is an interview focusing on Book 6 with fellow Arthurian author Tyler Tichelaar. This is a good and very in-depth interview that gets into the nuts and bolts of interpreting the centuries-old legend while maintaining fidelity. Here’s a sample:
Tyler: Do you ever feel too constricted or limited in your writing by having to stick so closely to the legend? Does it become somewhat tedious to write as a result, or do you feel you have enough leniency to deviate and make up your own interpretations?
Scott: Actually, I love it! That has been the gift that keeps on giving, because the original Arthurian legends stand up to it and continue to reveal new depths as you investigate further. It also makes it interesting and like a puzzle for me to look at what we know and don’t know and think of a way to make it work.
For example, all we know about Ulfius is that he was Uther’s friend and ended up arranging Uther’s marriage to Arthur’s mother Igraine, and that later he accuses Igraine of being false. So, it becomes a game to think of what his character might be like, based on the few things we know and what kind of story might make sense and feel honest between the plot points. So, I have to create a character that will work within those strictures, and that is a fun challenge.
The downside is, as people say, “we all know the plot,” and knowing that if I am sticking to the legend, a certain number of people will know what is coming. That hinders the amount of surprise I can offer, but on the other hand, I also think about new readers who do not know the Arthurian legend and might discover it through my books. So, they may have heard about the sword in the stone, for instance, but don’t know the entire story that brought us to that point. So far, each novel has presented its own challenges and has its own focus and tone, so that keeps me interested. It is far from tedious, for sure!
Book 6 is on Kindle Unlimited
If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read Book 6 for free. If one of your friends you have been trying to start the series has Kindle Unlimited, they can read for free. There are few on ramps to the series since it is so dense and based on accumulated history, so I am advising people that they can start at Book 6 with relative ease, since it begins the story of Arthur’s reign, makes a pretty good self-contained adventure, and there won’t be too much confusion for those new to the series.
Find Book 6 on Kindle Unlimited > > >
King Arthur: The Basics article
I am in the process of sprucing up the website for The Swithen, which is in pretty desperate need of some loving attention. I am going to re-organize it to focus more on resources for readers of the novels, like character lists and insights about the books and Arthurian legend, and one of the first things to do is revamp some of the stale articles. This one is a basic orientation to King Arthur for the total newbie, which can still be interesting to read if you already know it all.
Read King Arthur: The Basics > > >
Thanks so much for supporting the book series! Feel free to let me know anything else you’d like to see.
Book 6 out Wednesday!
Greetings delightful people! I’m quite excited because the next book in the Swithen series will be released this Wednesday, August 28th. And the reason I’m excited is because I think this one is pretty good! This is where the King Arthur story begins for most people, and it has lots of magic and battles and action and intrigue.
You can order the ebook here.
Here’s a video where I take you through the main points of what to expect and, in short, why it’s awesome.
I thought the book was pretty good, but you know how you lose perspective as the author, so I was thrilled when my proofreader, who has read them all, said: [edited for spoilers:]
“Scott, I’ve gotta say I think this book is my favorite so far. I love Arthur’s progression, his range of emotion in having to deal with everything happening to him both externally and internally… Those extremes would make any person go a little nuts. His [scene] with Merlin at the end was so valid and real.
I also like how you handled Arthur and Guinevere’s first encounter over those few days after the battle. You managed to capture that funny teenage awkwardness without making it seem icky, if you know what I mean. I’m excited to see Guinevere become more fleshed out as the books progress.”
Yay! I am already fairly far into Book 7 because I’m so into the continuing story right now and basically, from now on we have continuously evolving stories that will just keep going all the way for 19 more novels!
You can order the ebook here.
New article: Merlin’s Legendary Origins
Greetings good samaritans,
Wondering about Merlin? How he developed? Where his figure originated and how it evolved through various rounds of storytelling over hundreds of years and through the work of several different authors? Wonder no more! Because my new article Who is Merlin? His Legendary Origins is here.
I have had an article on my website since the early days, but it was entirely inadequate, so I gave it a huge revamp and included a lot more information and background to make it a worthy entry. Now it has a lot more detail about where the first figure of Merlin originated in legend and how each version iterated on his myth, and when he was added to the Arthurian legend… because he wasn’t always at Arthur’s side! I find it fascinating to follow the various iterations and permutations these characters that we all think we “know” went through before they became the characters we are familiar with.
The piece now also talks about how Merlin appears in my Swithen novels, where I decided I had to take seriously the idea that he is the son of the devil and can’t just drop that little detail and move on like it never happened! And it’s all waiting for you in:
Who is Merlin? His Legendary Origins
Speaking of Merlin, the forthcoming Book 6 is where Merlin and Arthur are finally together and having to learn to work side by side, which may not be the smoothest pairing at first. I’m super-psyched about Book 6 because I think it’s really good and it’s only a buck if you pre-order it for Kindle (or the free Kindle app that lets you read on any device). The price will go up once it’s released. It’s also a great place to join the series if you don’t want to fuss with all that messy backstory. So why not pre-order now?????
