Young Writers Society

I am trying to incorporate Arthurian myths into my novel, and I was wondering if there were any interesting ones out there that I might be able to use.

So far I'm incorporating Excalibur, The Lady of the Lake, and Dragons.

I want any myths to be specifically from the Dark Ages, simply because that's where this is all stemming from, and if I take a bunch of Greek and Roman myths, than, really, where are my boundaries and limits?

Any help is appreciated.

loveness, ultraviolet

Arthurian legends are a pretty specific type of myth. They focus only on King Arthur and the members of his court. Gawain and the Green Knight is my personal favorite, but there's also Percival (and the grail), the romance between Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, and the exploits of Yvain, among others. A lot of websites have information on the Round Table and some of the more common stories, though if you dig a bit deeper (such as the Welsh Triads), you'll find characters such as Gwenhwyvach, Guinevere's sister, that have been forgotten over time.

I'm not sure how dragons figure into Arthurian legend specifically, unless you're talking about the red and white dragons that battled in Merlin's vision. You also have to keep in mind that tales of King Arthur are British in origin, and so can't be applied to all of Dark Age Europe.

Going back to Arthurian legends being very specific, you might try looking at other British myths (if you're focusing on Britain only) such as the Great Hunt, the Black Dogs of London, tales of selkies and kelpies, the Fair Folk, and so on. For more continental myths, there's the Baba Yaga, Reynard the Fox, Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, Tsarevitch Ivan and the Firebird, Sleeping Beauty (not the Perrault version; it's an old folktale, with many different versions), and so on. Asking your librarian for some books on folklore and fairy tales may be a good place to start.

There are a number of websites on the net that you can use to find information (such as history and region of origin) on various stories and mythological tidbits that will help you pick out which tidbits (or versions of tidbits) to use in your story.

My favourite is something that's usually forgotten in Authurian legends, and that's Elaine of Astolat - she's the one that Lord Tennyson wrote 'The Lady of Shalott' about, and I think she's better than Guenievere!!!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_of_Astolat is the best source I've found.

Don't forget the Sword in the Stone and Vivien (the sorceress who disposed of Merlin). I'd suggest getting a lot of books from the library or looking up websites that have to do with Arthurian tales; there are sooo many, and numerous translations, to keep you busy for a while.

Vivien (the sorceress who disposed of Merlin)

Just to prove how much variation there is in this one myth, I'm going to say I've never heard her name. The variation I've heard was the Lady of the Lake disposed of him. However, I ran this by a friend of mine and she said Viviane is the name of the Lady of the Lake. I'd just never seen it.

Vivian/Viviane is also sometimes called Nimue. The legends are old, and they've been adapted many times, so there's a lot of variation in names/spellings. Just so you know.