Hello! I agree about the poetry, I love poetry (a recent development in my life) but I definitely prefer novels. And I apologize for answering this late.
I think diving in arthuriana can be approached through different ways: following one character and looking up their novels/texts first (that’s what I did), trying to go in a chronological way (first historical texts and then modern novels) or just looking for good novels that can also help summarize the arthurian canons and headcanons around.
As I am not sure which character you like, I will suggest this post if you’d like to approach arthuriana in a chronological way, but if you instead want to dive in with novels… I’ll just make a list of novels I love and I consider fundamental (and helpful!).
I’ll start with long series that narrate Arthur’s story from beginning to end:
- The Once and Future King (White), this is a classic, a good novel and, as a plus, it goes from Arthur’s childhood to his death. Mostly about Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.
- Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy + The Wicked Day, this is another classic. The trilogy is all about Merlin and it narrates the story of Uther and, later on, of Arthur, while the Wicked Day is about Mordred. I am not in love with this series, but it is still a good one!
- Mists of Avalon (Bradley), while I am not a fan of this novel, Mists of Avalon is still an important book in modern arthuriana and it was the first novel (if I am not wrong) with a female protagonist, also I think it defined this idea of Morgana as Mordred’s mother. Mostly about Morgana.
- Persia Woolley’s Guinevere trilogy, this is a trilogy I adore. Guinevere is, of course, the main character and the story follows her childhood and ends with what happens after Arthur’s death.
- Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff, this is an historical reinterpretation, mostly focused on Arthur.
And now some of my favourites:
- Exiled from Camelot (Baldry). Kay is the main character. A lot of angst and lovely adventures.
- The Winter Prince (Wein). Mordred focused and historical
- Idylls of the Queen (Karr). Kay and Mordred investigate a murder. AMAZING.
- Here Lies Arthur (Reeve). Historical, Arthur is not a good person. A Nimue-like character is the protagonist.
- Corbenic (Fisher). Modern reincarnation AU with Percival as protagonist.
- The Squire Tales series (Morris). A series of parodies about King Arthur, but with an overall complete plot.
- The Pendragon (Christian). Bedivere narrates Arthur’s story.
- Gawain (Rowley). A romance and adventure novel that focuses on the story of Gawain and Ragnelle.
- The Road to Avalon (Wolf). A story about Arthur’s love for Morgana and Guinevere’s love for Lancelot.
- The Doom of Camelot. A collection of short stories about the end of Camelot.
- I am Morgan le Fay (Springer). The story of Morgana pre-King Arthur.
Please, let me know if you’d like some character-focused recs!
Arthurian Legends 