This is an impressive feat of bibliographic scholarship listing more than 11,000 works that make use of the Arthurian legends. It shows, at a glance, the virtual explosion of such works in the twentieth century; while coverage of the literature of 1250-1899 takes less than 200 pages, more than 600 pages are required to document the literature of 1900-2000.
Volume 1 is arranged chronologically and lists those works considered by scholars to be "in the province of Arthurian studies," in other words, works that are about the tradition, legend, and myth of King Arthur and his knights, the Round Table, Camelot, and the Holy Grail. Most of the entries are primary texts, ranging from Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" (a retelling of the Gawain and Loathly Lady story) to, more recently, Marion Bradley's Mists of Avalon (1982) and Stephen R. Lawhead's Arthur (1989). Among the works that are included are reprints and retellings of classic texts, translations into English, and, for more recent years, sound recordings, comic books, films, television programs, and computer games. Secondary criticism is listed very selectively.
The entries are arranged by year and then, within the year, alphabetically by author. Bibliographic information is followed by a brief description of the work. The primary entry for each work also includes a publication history. Each year's listings conclude with cross--references that are meant "to complete the picture of Arthurian production for that year."
Volume 2 is essentially an index to volume 1. There are eight indexes for people, titles, characters, and more, each referring back to volume 1 by year only, rather than by page number. This unfortunately perpetuates the only weakness of the work: lack of accessibility. The arrangement of volume 1 encourages little else but browsing; a lack of page references in volume 2 does not provide any relief. Nevertheless, The Arthurian Annals is a worthy addition to research collections in academic and large public libraries. John Doherty
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Review
"A 20-year project, this one-of-a-kind source records over 11,000 "works" that span centuries and treat various aspects of the Arthurian tradition, including fiction, drama, poetry, translations, folklore, music, films, comic books, and more. This is quite possibly the most comprehensive annotated bibliography of Arthuriana likely ever to be available. Highly recommended for public and academic reference collections."--Library Journal
"An impressive feat of bibliographic scholarship listing more than 11,000 works that make use of the Arthurian legends....A worthy addition to research collectionsin academic and large public libraries." -- Reference Books Bulletin/Booklist
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