{"product_id":"excalibur-book-gwyn-a-williams-9780563370208","title":"Excalibur","description":"An exploration of the Arthurian legends - of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the Sword in the Stone, the Quest for the Grail, and Merlin - from pre-Celtic times to the present. The legends have an extraordinary power and persistence which can be seen from the many different genres in which they appear - poetry, music, literature, art, film. This work includes the following themes: the origins of legends in the pre-Celtic age; the emergence of the historical Arthur as leader of the Britons against the Saxons after the collapse of the Roman Empire; the stories of Arthur and Merlin found in Welsh chronicle histories, poetry and romances; the spread of legends through Europe, particularly France and Germany during the time of the Crusades, when they assumed a holy purpose; the invention of the Grail story; the dwindling influence of the legends in Europe in the later Middle Ages, followed by a politicization of legends in Britain in the 16th century, and an upsurge of a British national mythology in the Elizabethan Age; the revival in the 19th and 20th Centuries - in romantic evocation of the Golden Age - in various guises: from Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites to 20th-century fiction and films.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49551484453137,"sku":"GOR001318893","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52842991845649,"sku":"GOR004548726","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0563370203.jpg?v=1751422421","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/excalibur-book-gwyn-a-williams-9780563370208","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}