Possibly the best thing that finally caving in to acquiring a smartphone in the year 2015 has enabled me to do to date is downloading this book off Project Gutenberg and reading it on the subway. After all it is a big influence on two of my early influences, namely The Waste Land and The Winter Prince, so it is great to finally read it and put a few more pieces together. And it's applying The Golden Bough to the Grail Romance, so how could it not be delightful? I feel a bit bad giving it only three stars, but she goes off the deep end enough that the empiricist in me can't quite stomach more. At least it's not as bad as The White Goddess, which I had to give up on out of outraged rationality. But that's not to say that this isn't a fascinating read. The connections she draws between the symbols of different myths and rituals are, if not always totally convincing, suggestive; her attempt to pinpoint a specific historical origin rather less so, but all engrossing. I am particularly fond of the idea of the suits of the Tarot being the same as the symbols in the Grail legend. And it makes a nice counterpoint to rereading Ms. Wein's whole sequence. Not that I don't love her newer books, but I hold out a desperate hope that their success will spur some publisher to take a chance on The Sword Dance so I can read it. Alas, not yet.

Anyway it is probably time to go on an Arthurian reading bender. Malory awaits.