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Story retold

The Arthurian legend is probably the most retold story of all time. There might be more popular themes, but they usually tend to be more abstract where these stories usually always refers or claim to be the "true" story. Most of the stories share the same characters, places and events, but the setting can vary widely. 

What makes the arthurian legends unique is that it's not quite history, but it's not strictly folklore either. There isn't one original story upon which all the later stories would be based on.

There are many similarities in history to the events and characters, but the story itself has been evolving through the centuries, adopting those historical facts and weaving them together with the myths. The earliest recognized story is 12th century imaginative Historia Regum Britannia by Geoffrey of Monmouth which is considered the closest thing to a canonical version of the story.

Since then the stories lived on and evolved until around the 16th century after when they were mostly forgotten. Until the early 19th century when the romantisicm ignited a new interest in these old stories known as the Arthur of romance. From those days they have remained a mainstay in popular culture spanning even more adaptions throughout the years.

The list of modern works based on the legend is staggering and includes adaptations with many notable names such as Steinbeck, Mark Twain and Stephen King along notable authors that basically made their name by retelling the story, often from a new point of view. Like one of the modern classics and my favourite, the Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, by telling the story from the point of view of the female characters.

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