10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ballad of Sir "Dumbledin", March 28, 2003
A heroic knight falls in love with the married queen, incurring the wrath of the king. Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot? No, it's a slightly different Arthurian tale, and one that mainly focuses on the musically-inclined Sir Dinadin, who never wanted to be a knight anyway.
Dinadin has always wanted to be a minstrel (especially since his older brother Tristam is a valiant knight), but his father knights him in a drunken stupor and sends him off. After dispatching the knight of a treacherous damsel, Dinadin joins up with a rather dim Welsh knight, Culloch, and ends up at Arthur's court of Camelot. Then he goes off with Culloch, Kai and Bedivere to do knightly things -- including freeing a sharp-tongued lady-in-waiting called Brangienne and Culloch's attempts to win a rather unattractive princess.
Along the way, Dinadin learns that Brangienne is fleeing Queen Iseult, because she knows that Iseult is in love with Tristam, who is wandering around, having taken a vow of silence and unwilling to shut up about it. He also won't shut up about Iseult, with the result that everybody except her husband knows about them. Dinadin teams up with the noble Moor Palomides (who wants to learn what knights are), as Brangienne's safety is jeopardized, and the not-so-secret affair between Tristam and Iseult comes to a dramatic peak.
Morris takes a skip back in time for this book -- it takes place parallel to "The Squire, His Knight And His Lady" and "The Savage Damsel And the Dwarf," though the overlap is only about two paragraphs long. And he handles this story very well and very deftly -- Dinadin doesn't want to become a knight, and he doesn't really have conventional aptitude for it. He'd rather stay home and play his rebec. But his cleverness and ingenuity are what make him a good knight, above and beyond being able to whack things with a sword.
Dinadin is as likable a hero as Morris has penned before, not your typical knight but a solid and admirable one instead. Palomides serves as a good foil, searching for the English ideal knight and finding it where he doesn't expect to; Brangienne is very like Eileen, very witty and smart. Iseult and Tristam are pretty pitiful, and I'm not just talking about the nauseatingly-named "Love Grotto." Tristam thinks he's nothing without a lady to serve, and Iseult is just... well, she's just a lisping ditz with a crazy husband.
As with all his books, there is plenty of humor in this story, ranging from horribly-written ballads to a magical drinking horn to the worst wedding ceremony in history. (Not to mention Kai repeating the ballad line: "Jug jug witta poo poo") It gets a bit more serious near the end, but overall it's much more lighthearted than Morris's fourth Arthurian tale, "Parsifal's Page."
Fans of Morris will definitely like "The Ballad of Sir Dinadin." (Or Sir Dumbledin... Dimbledum... Dinderlin... oh bugger it...) Giving a new twist on the tale of Iseult and Tristam, Morris lets the spotlight shine on the unlikely and capable Dinadin.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Ballad of Gerald Morris, April 1, 2003
By A Customer
Although I didn't find this one as amusing as The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf (my personal favorite)The Ballad of Sir Dinaden is more comic fun from Gerald Morris. While some might find it too predictable, this book is charming in that while it might not be the most mysterious of books, it's certainly one of the more goof humored. Arthurian buffs will be especially excited to note Sir Lamorak's lady love. Yes, that is exactly who you think it is, at least, I hope so.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We laughed, we cried, we fought over who got to read it first!, April 2, 2007
After reading one book by author Gerald Morris, we were addicted! Now my husband (43), my son (12), and myself (37) are fighting over every book in the Squire's Tales series that we can get our hands on! We bought this book because we heard it was "good literature." We had no idea HOW good until we read it. It is clever, witty, sarcastic, adventurous, and inspirational! My husband laughed so hard he cried! It is a very entertaining retelling of the King Arthur stories and Canterbury Tales, complete with knights, castles, princesses, magic, fairies, herbs with healing powers, and quests! The characters as sassy and full of spunk, and there is a new adventure around every corner. We recommended these books to our local library, some of the librarians read one of the books, and they ended up ordering a bunch of the books from The Squire's Tales series for the library. (This book is fifth in the in the series.) It is easy to recommend such a charming and entertaining book!
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