The Book of Mordred

Yesterday I read 'The Book of Mordred' by Vivian Vande Velde. And, frankly, I was disappointed with it.

After Celtic mythology such as the stories of the Three Shouts and Cuchulainn, the Arthurian tales are probably my favorite legend cycle. I have not yet finished Malory's Morte d'Arthur (had to leave it at home, alas for the length of the book and the airport's luggage weight limit!), and I suppose I cannot call myself a true Arthurian fan until I have, but I have read Layamon's Brut and Idylls of the King and--best of all--The Once and Future King, one of the best books ever to have been and ever to be written.

So since my brother likes Velde's writing, and since she said she was inspired by The Once and Future King, I had perhaps unfair high hopes. Maybe.

The issues I take with this book is that first of all Velde adds original characters, and secondly that she actually changes what happens in the story, too.

I don't usually mind original characters, but when they are made too prominent, it feels awkward and uncomfortable to read. The teenage seer and her mother are, in this book, much too prominent to work in my opinion. Malory doesn't mention any girl dressing as a boy and riding after Mordred's army, or taking part in the fight, and it's such an outlandish notion, it simply doesn't hold water for me. Such a character constantly reminds me 'it's just a story', which a good book shouldn't do at all.

Now, I personally really like the tragic story of Mordred and Arthur's 'deaths' (in quotations since according to some Arthur isn't truly dead at all, is he?)--I forget which Arthurian book I read it in (or was it Dante? I think it was Dante), but I remember reading about how Arthur's lance went straight through his son's chest and the daylight behind him shone through him like a star before he fell. Now, that's quite horrid, I suppose, but it's also sort of beautiful, I think . . . Well, anyways. Velde changes the story--Mordred was madly in love with Nimue! So he didn't die after all, despite nobly giving up his place on the barge to Avalon in order to save his father! Because Nimue cured him! And then he fell in love with a widowed noblewoman and lived happily ever after . . .

Bah.

Mordred was not Morgan Le Fay's puppet. Mordred was not a well-meaning, good-hearted young man. Twisting the story to make him seem so just doesn't work.

I am now sorely tempted to write a short story of my own on Mordred, because I do think it would be interesting to portray the events from his point of view, and I'd like to try to do the concept justice. But I think Velde really muffed it this time round, especially after The Once and Future King's clever, complicated, sarcastic, and miserably bitter Mordred. To justify a character one shouldn't change canon, never never never! It just weakens your case.

And that's my random rant for the day, folks!