Customer Reviews

Lancelot (Books of Wonder)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been years since I read and reviewed Hudson Talbott's King Arthur and the Round Table, but I remember well how much I admired it. I believe it's one of the best adaptations of the King Arthur legends for a young readership, mainly because of the gorgeous illustrations that capture the grandeur, beauty and hardship of the medieval world; in a beautiful blend of realism and idealism.

Along with "King Arthur and the Round Table," are Talbott's preceding books The Sword in the Stone and Excalibur, though here he draws focus away from King Arthur and in order to concentrate on his most famous knight: Sir Lancelot. There is a huge amount of material that makes up the saga of Lancelot's life, and naturally Talbott can only mine a fraction of it, choosing to end the story on a relatively happy note and avoid the tragedy that follows. Though the text may be a bit wordy for some younger readers, it still captures a fair chunk of Lancelot's early life, and can be considered a good introduction to more weighty adaptations of his story, such as Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Sword and the Circle and T.H. White's The Ill-Made Knight.

As a baby, Lancelot is saved by the Lady of the Lake after his parents' kingdom is overthrown, and when he comes of age he travels to Camelot to become one of the Knights of the Round Table. Swearing his loyalty to King Arthur and becoming the favored champion of Queen Guinevere, Lancelot roams the land in search of adventure. After the usual rescuing damsels, slaying giants and battling false knights, Lancelot is drawn to a haunted tower, where a beautiful maiden called Elaine is cursed to sit day and night in a burning bath, awaiting a champion.

From here the story goes on to include the killing of a dragon, Lancelot's madness and wandering in the wilderness, the Holy Grail, and his marriage to Elaine, ending on a hopeful note with the birth of Galahad.

Talbott chooses to keep the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot to a minimum, which has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, young readers are not bogged down by themes of adultery, guilt and vengeance, on the other, the onset of Lancelot's madness is not his forbidden love for Guinevere, but rather his shame that he's become Elaine's champion instead of the Queen's without her permission. After Guinevere chides him for: "dishonoring me and the court!" Lancelot jumps out of a nearby window, a scenario which not only casts Guinevere in a negative light, but which makes Lancelot seem a bit of a drama queen.

Still, the real strength of Talbott's retellings have always been his bright and vivid illustrations. There are beautiful vistas here of Guinevere's springtime maying, complete with a May Pole and petals strewn on the ground, in which the pastels of the idyllic meadow is encroached by the black and purple knights of Melegrans. Later, a bedraggled and beaten Lancelot dwells in a murky, grey forest, where birds and deer quietly dwell in the mists. Finally, Lancelot and Elaine are married in the sunset colors of mauve and gold, rowing across a glassy lake to their isle of Joyous Garde. Talbott has a mastery over his palette of colors, making this array of images just as iconic and memorable as any famous renderings of King Arthur and his kingdom.

The pictures are not short on blood and gore when need be (though it's never gratuitous) and Tallbott pays especial attention to shields and insignias (from Arthur's golden dragon to Melegrans' black falcon), lending the illustrations a sense of both authenticity and otherworldliness. His horses are graceful, his dragon terrifying, his knights manly and his maidens winsome.

With just the right blend of mystery and clarity in both the prose and the illustrations, this is another excellent rendering of a Camelot legend for a young reader.

The story of Lancelot has inherent issues when presenting it to children. The story of his affair with Guinevere raises difficult questions. Hudson Talbott wisely avoids these questions by covering Lancelot's life from his birth till his marraige to Elaine and the birth of their son, Galahad. Not surprisingly, how Elaine convinces Lancelot to marry her is not explained. Hudson Talbott does a very good job of presenting Lancelot's character to young children. Recommended.

If you like knights, monsters, castles and warriors like I do you should read Sir Lancelot by Hudson Talbot. He is a famous warrior that stops evil men and protect its kingdom.

In the beginning of the book Lancelot is born and he grows into a man and becomes a knight of the round table.

He gets into a fight with his mom and becomes angry and jumps out the window. He went into the woods and got lost! His mother found him unconscious. She cures him and his wife had a baby.

Look in your local library to find Sir Lancelot!

The book is not in good shape. Although the pages are clean, several of them have fallen out.