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King Authur The Arthurian Companion: The Legendary World of Camelot and the Round Table by Phyllis Ann Karr $17.95 / Pendragon Books / 1997 The Arthurian Companion is a reference book of merit for those looking to deepen their knowledge of the legend of King Arthur. Using various sources, Phyllis Karr elaborates on the characters, places, and important objects that appear in the Grail legends. No nameless maiden, obscure knight, or far-away village is left out of this definitive guide. Karr's descriptions of the people, places, and things in Arthurian Legend are full of useful information. Each knight has a coat of arms next to his name, taken from the d'Armagnac Armoral, a 15th-century guide for medieval knights who roleplayed their favorite Arthurian knight in tournaments. The main characters in the legends, such as Lancelot, Morgan le Fay, and Guenevere, have family trees after their lengthy descriptions, providing an easy-to-follow guide to the intricacies of the families and their connections to the legends. For those wishing to read the actual medieval manuscript-or follow up with more research-Karr lists the name of the book, author, volume, and often the page and line, where she found the information. The manuscripts used for researching this reference book include Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, The Vulgate Cycle, and the Arthurian romances by Chrétien de Troyes. Karr unabashedly proclaims that she prefers the romances to the historical or mythological sources and thus, does not include any of the latter in her research. However, Karr's choice to ignore the historical and mythological sources limits the research in this volume, making it a useful but not a definitive work on King Arthur. Still, Karr definitely knows her medieval sources, making The Arthurian Companion a great reference book to begin research on the Grail and Arthurian legends. --Michelle Santos

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