Book Review: The Idylls of the Queen

[osprey_archer]

troisoiseaux kindly consented to join in my Arthurian quest by reading Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Idylls of the Queen with me (companion review over here), which turns out to be an amazing book to read in conjunction with T. H. White’s Once and Future King. In some ways the two books are doing the same thing, rewriting Malory as a modern novel while keeping the action basically the same, but they’re approaching that task from totally different angles.

Karr focuses on a single incident, when a knight dies from eating a poisoned apple at Queen Guenevere’s banquet, and the queen is accused of the murder. Kay, the seneschal, sets out ostensibly in hopes of finding Lancelot to fight as the queen’s champion, but actually in hopes of finding out who really poisoned the apples and therefore saving the queen himself.

Kay, you see, is madly in love with the queen, a choice that puzzled me at first, but actually I think it works really well: this love gives him a streak of idealism which leavens the biting, sardonic sarcasm with which he approaches almost everyone else, apparently on the theory that no one can reject you if you reject them first. He is, as he informs us with a warped sort of pride, the most churlish knight of the Round Table.

Because no one else wants to ride with Kay, he rides out on this quest with Mordred, ALSO one of the least-liked knights of the Round Table. Actually, insofar as he likes anyone (aside from his beloved queen, of course), Kay seems to like Mordred, and even to be sort of happy that they’re going on this quest together, even if Mordred DOES like to rile him up by suggesting the queen might be guilty, apparently for no better reason than Kay gets mad as a hornet every single time.

Mordred, as we discover, is acting out because it is prophesied that he will destroy Camelot, and he’s kind of sort of hoping that one of the other knights will kill him before he does. This shouldn’t be too hard, because the knights are very murdery! incredibly easily riled! just killing each other all the time! and yet they just won’t kill him.

Just as in Elizabeth Wein’s The Winter Prince, Mordred is described as having light hair, but unfortunately in both cases I am incapable of envisioning him with anything but shaggy dark emo hair that falls in his eyes in a perfectly cut slanting bang. He is also supposedly almost forty(!) and has a son (!!) but troisoiseaux and I agreed that it’s impossible to see him as older than about 27; he has SUCH strong Hamlet vibes.

In between The Winter Prince and Idylls of the Queen I have now developed Mordred feelings and I’m KIND of bitter about it, but what are you going to do? Anyway, he came along on this quest because he hoped that Kay thought Mordred had killed the queen and was therefore going to murder Mordred and thus save Camelot, and he’s most put out when Kay is like “What the fuck my dude, of course you didn’t poison the apple, you are the least unbearable of all of Arthur’s unbearable murdery knights.”

I suspect Karr is drawing the murdery knights directly from Malory and also suspect that it has a very different emotional valence there. In Idylls of the Queen you get the feeling that Kay’s sarcasm is a sort of defense mechanism against the fact that he’s living in the midst of a slow-moving atrocity: his king (who is also his foster brother and former best friend) killed a whole boat full of babies, his fellow knights are just murdering people all the time, and the murders just serve to further blood feuds that go on and on and on…

This could be unbearably depressing if you just looked at it straight on, but Kay’s bitterness holds it at a kind of remove, both for himself and the readers. When he describes the incident of the May Babies he’s actually funny: “Arthur had been bestowing his kingly body as generously as he could upon the ladies of his realm, to the point where he could not be sure how many lords’ children were really bastards of the high king,” he notes sardonically, and so when it is prophesied that one of these children born in May will destroy Camelot, he has to put all to lordly babies on a boat to drown.

It’s such an interesting contrast with The Once and Future King. White’s heroes are essentially the heroic characters in Malory, Arthur and Lancelot and Merlin, although sometimes it pains him to reconcile their heroism to incidents like the May Babies. (He just sort of skips over that incident till the final book, when he can no longer avoid it, and it clearly pains him that Arthur who he has so lovingly painted could do such a thing.)

Karr in contrast offers a jaundiced view of these heroes, especially Merlin, whom Kay sees as an evil mastermind undermining Camelot: otherwise why not tell Arthur that Morgause is his half-sister till after the incest, hmmmm? He also loathes Lancelot, but that’s at least three-quarters jealousy for Lancelot’s relationship with the queen, and the other quarter arises from jealousy for the fact that everyone else loves Lancelot too, not least Arthur, who used to like Kay best, not that anyone remembers that now. Not that Kay cares.

Kay insists that he doesn’t give a damn about anything except the queen (possibly because the queen is one of the few people in Camelot who is nice to him, churl or not), while in fact giving so many damns about so many things that he might actually die if he ever once allowed himself to consider just how much he cares, and how little he is cared about in return.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

I really enjoyed reading this with you! It's such a fun ride - the two most unpopular knights of the round table go on a road trip quest to solve a murder mystery; what's not to love?! - but I especially enjoyed discussing the comparisons between Karr's and other Arthurian retellings, and Karr's characterization/narrative choices overall.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, there's so much to talk about here! Karr clearly knows her Arthuriana backward and forward and she's having such a great time sharing it with us in the most world-weary, sarcastic, just completely Done voice possible.

[kore]

Dammit, if I read this I am going to fall for that like a ton of bricks.

[osprey_archer]

I mean not to be a bad influence but I very much think you would probably enjoy this book when I read it... both Kay and Mordred have kind of an Iron Woobie thing going on (although Mordred alternates this with going full Over-Dramatic Emo Boy).

[kore]

Must....resist....catnip

[troisoiseaux]

READ IT READ IT READ IT READ IT

[kore]

LOL I JUST GOT A COPY

[osprey_archer]

You'll have to report back once you read it!

[kore]

Oh look, the Wildside Press version fell into my path and I tripped on it

[anna_wing]

This is an absolutely darling book (and the title is great, I nicked it for some of my Tolkien fanfic), and made me fall madly in love with both Kay and Mordred, though with a side-order of "Oh, pull up your socks and stop whinging, Mordred". I felt sad for Guinevere, who was rather nice.

[osprey_archer]

I particularly love the scene where Kay essentially joins the reader in saying "pull up your socks and stop whinging, Mordred." Just forget about the whole prophecy thing! He's just making it more likely to come true by dwelling on it and carving his creepy little snake rings! But Mordred alas appears to be incapable of pulling up his socks.

[skygiants]

I also love the scene where Mordred is lounging in bed like "I am just WAITING here, with NO sword, ready to be MURDERED [BY YOU!!]" and Kay is like ??? okay ??? get some sleep ????

[osprey_archer]

The WRONG kind of come-hither, Mordred! (Actually the book is quite non-slashy given that there is a road trip with an attempted death match halfway through. Kay's crush on Guenevere is just too tragically convincing.)

[anna_wing]

It's very clear from the book that Kay is one of the few in Camelot who possesses any common sense whatsoever.

[sovay]

He is also supposedly almost forty(!) and has a son (!!) but troisoiseaux and I agreed that it’s impossible to see him as older than about 27; he has SUCH strong Hamlet vibes.

If it helps, Hamlet's age is textually a disaster, too.

Kay insists that he doesn’t give a damn about anything except the queen (possibly because the queen is one of the few people in Camelot who is nice to him, churl or not), while in fact giving so many damns about so many things that he might actually die if he ever once allowed himself to consider just how much he cares, and how little he is cared about in return.

No lie; Kay cares from space. Because I have only so much time for misunderstood cinnamon rolls, however, I really appreciate the less principled aspects of Kay's self-inflicted reputation, like the incredible jaundice of his assessments of everyone and their relationships even in cases where they actually look all right to the reader or his tendency even in a life-or-death climactic joust to explain that he could totally have turned his mounted opponent's lance with his naked sword while on foot if he hadn't been carrying some other jerk's blade at the time. His narrative voice makes a wonderful parallax between the one person in the room with their head screwed on straight and the person who can't get out of their own way long enough to ask the right questions without antagonizing everyone they need answers from, which is a very funny but also structurally clever problem to give a detective character, especially one who is working overtime to reign in their sarcasm for exactly that reason and is constantly reminded that their efforts are going for naught. It goes by quickly in the text, but I find Kay's experience of the spell of melancholia to be book-stoppingly piercing, because it's a case of magically amplified depression, it isn't objectively the truth, if nothing else it's disproved by the last chapter with Guenevere, but it is so clearly much of what he fears to secretly believes about himself and because this novel is written from so deep inside the meta there's no event horizon in sight, he's right that future ages will sing of the glories of Lancelot and Tristram and remember him as a churl—a conscientious one perhaps, but still. I have a lot of feelings about this book.

[skygiants]

Yes, I really love the balance of it -- the Gareth incident, for example, where he's absolutely determined to be annoyed at this kid who is probably genuinely pretty all right, I think really provides an important balance against any urge to have Kay as a perfect misunderstood woobie hero. He is intelligent and clearheaded and sympathetic and one of the more ethical people in Camelot, and also bitter and cranky and getting in his own way a lot of the time and kind of a pain in the ass to be around!! both are true!!

[osprey_archer]

The Gareth incident is especially great because you feel that on some level he KNOWS that Gareth is fine actually and he should just get over the whole Beaumains thing, but he WILL NOT. He will never let it go. He is intelligent and clear-sighted and also deeply, terminally petty.

In re: Galahad in OAFK we talked about how goodness and likeability can often be at odds, and in Karr's Kay I think we see another facet of this fact: Kay is probably one of the least murdery members of the Round Table, the most stable and trustworthy and responsible, absolutely the guy you would want running your castle... but also it's VERY obvious why almost none of the knights enjoy hanging out with him.

[sovay]

but also it's VERY obvious why almost none of the knights enjoy hanging out with him.

I enjoy his company immensely, but it helps that I don't have to spend the amount of time I would in person saying, "Oh, come on."

[osprey_archer]

Yes, some people are more enjoyable as book characters than as dinner companions, and Kay is a Grade A example of the type.

[troisoiseaux]

Modred as well, which is honestly what makes this book so much fun.

[osprey_archer]

Would not want to cross knives (literally or figuratively) with either of them, but LOVE watching them cross knives with each other!

[sovay]

the Gareth incident, for example, where he's absolutely determined to be annoyed at this kid who is probably genuinely pretty all right, I think really provides an important balance against any urge to have Kay as a perfect misunderstood woobie hero.

Agreed. He also misses no opportunity to rag on Pelleas and as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with the man except that he's a bit of a himbo, but since Nimue is happy with him I don't see the problem.

(I love that Kay's defensive rant about Gareth starts more or less with "everybody gets to be wrong once in their life" and finishes up "OR I COULD NOT CARE ABOUT MY JOB AND THIS ENTIRE KINGDOM COULD LOGISTICALLY FALL APART." It's very relatable.)

He is intelligent and clearheaded and sympathetic and one of the more ethical people in Camelot, and also bitter and cranky and getting in his own way a lot of the time and kind of a pain in the ass to be around!! both are true!!

It's so important. Excellent use of icon, incidentally.

[osprey_archer]

YES, the way that his rants escalate. That one in particular is just a tour de force.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I think what makes Karr's version of Kay so readable is that the woobie aspects are perfectly balanced with his less palatable qualities, like his biting tongue or his tendency toward self-justification. The part where he's explaining that he could have caught Pinel if only he had his own sword! In some ways he's just as childish as Mordred.

The magical melancholia scene is just a paragraph but it's such a gut punch - especially because, as you say, he is right about how the future ages will remember him. He'll be oafish idiot Kay in the Disney Sword in the Stone.

[sovay]

In some ways he's just as childish as Mordred.

It makes for an amazing disaster knight road trip.

(It also makes the places where he's not like that all the more effective. I love when he's retelling—speaking of—the story of the Sword in the Stone, because he's doing it in his usual irritable, slightly defensive way, blaming Arthur for bringing him the sword as if he didn't know its worth, and then it's as if he suddenly catches himself: "I was a young fool, too, at the time, not much older than Artus.")

The magical melancholia scene is just a paragraph but it's such a gut punch - especially because, as you say, he is right about how the future ages will remember him. He'll be oafish idiot Kay in the Disney Sword in the Stone.

When I was re-reading the novel earlier this year, I discovered that I had accurately remembered for more than thirty years (and coveted, are we kidding) the little silver knife set with a stoat's skull which Merlyn gives Kay, but I had completely forgotten the accompanying description of Kay as "not at all an unpleasant person really, but clever, quick, proud, passionate and ambitious. He was one of those people who would be neither a follower nor a leader, but only an aspiring heart, impatient in the failing body which imprisoned it" and had to take, as one does, a moment of OW JESUS T. H. WHITE.

[osprey_archer]

T. H. White just super casually breaks all of our hearts over Kay. An aspiring heart who hasn't the right qualities to fulfill his own aspirations...

[sovay]

The part where he's explaining that he could have caught Pinel if only he had his own sword!

Actually, the thing I find infuriating and heartbreaking about that particular alibi is how stupidly unnecessary it is. Kay charging out after a self-revealed murderer only half-equipped for combat and carrying the wrong sword is as crazily damn-fool heroic as all the glory-seeking berserkers he scoffs at—he even admits that after he was unhorsed, he shouted for Pinel to face him as if they were taking part in a tourney as opposed to fighting for real—and in light of the odds it's rather less important that Pinel got away than that Pinel didn't kill him in his escape. And of course no one witnesses his moment of reckless chivalry, any more than he gets the chance to fight for the Queen's honor, but there he was being courageous in his own right and he can't stop comparing himself to Gawain and Tristram and Lancelot the whole time and, just . . . dude, it's all right. You don't have to explain. No one thought you weren't trying. It's a great way of working in the boastful Kay of Malory and it is twingingly sympathetic and you still want to shake him upside the head.

[troisoiseaux]

Just as in Elizabeth Wein’s The Winter Prince, Mordred is described as having light hair, but unfortunately in both cases I am incapable of envisioning him with anything but shaggy dark emo hair that falls in his eyes in a perfectly cut slanting bang. He is also supposedly almost forty(!) and has a son (!!) but troisoiseaux and I agreed that it’s impossible to see him as older than about 27; he has SUCH strong Hamlet vibes.

I am DELIGHTED to announced that I have found a Mordred faceclaim that checks all of the boxes of light(ish) hair, shaggy emo hair, and being 40: this specific picture of Gerard Way.

[osprey_archer]

This image of Mordred is going to HAUNT me, my god.

[sovay]

this specific picture of Gerard Way.

Whoa.

(I just had occasion to revisit this post, but had not seen this addendum till now.)