I don't really know what to call it, the traditional mythology of Britain? There's this vibe with knights and dragons...

I don't really know what to call it, the traditional mythology of Britain? There's this vibe with knights and dragons, the classic D&D setting. What is the origin? Where can I learn more about it? I know the Souls games used them.

Chivalric romance?

>I know the Souls games used them.
Have you perhaps heard of any other fantasy, ever?

Arthurian legend?

The problem is that it's a confused half-remembered impression of what various authors and poets thought the middle ages were like, decorated with Victorian sensibilities.

What do you call the mythology of the greeks? Greek mythology. It's British/Western-European mythology, depending on what aspects you're talking about. That whole coastline + island shares a lot of history, so most of the big iconic stuff can be found in multiple tellings of slightly different stories.
As many of the popular legends are effectively one-off short stories, I'd say start with a book of classic legends or fables Tons of such collections are out there, but be sure you're not picking up some sort of generalized/summarized version. I'd also be sure to read The Legend of King Author, the four branches of the Mabinogi, and the traditional versions of the Grimm fables.

we're clearly dealing with a newfriend; be gentle

Arthur*

That's not how you deal with newfags.

>King Author
I think I've read his book.

The difficulty is that there are multiple versions and layers of interpretation.

There's the modern accounts, retellings and reinterpretations which tend to be the most direct influence on media these days.

And then there's the renaissance romanticism where scholars and poets took local myths and legends and did their own thing with them. A lot of traditional sources, like Le Morte d'Arthur go back to this time.

And then, way way back, usually forgotten or only rediscovered in fragments, you have the truth of the old myths and legends, which were often hundreds of very similar stories twisted and retold in different villages, different gods with the same name or the same god with different names, a confusing mess of cultural mythology which, while fascinating, provides very little in the way of coherent basis for modern storytelling.

For ease, stick to modern sources and if you get really curious go back to stuff like Le Morte d'Arthur, but it's always worth being aware that the 'real' stories are buried several layers deeper than even that. Le Morte d'Arthur was basically fanfiction, including a self insert.

>the classic D&D setting

What's having reading comprehension this poor like?

OP here. Interesting... I'll pick up LMdA, then. Do you recognize what the influences might have been in the Souls games?

Nobody's talking about compression you faggot

Honestly? The biggest direct influence on Dark Souls is the Berserk manga. Berserk itself is another japanese take on traditional eurofantasy stuff, and there's a lot more written on its own inspirations and influences, but a huge part of the Souls DNA is just Miyazaki fucking loving Berserk.

Not even kidding check out Beowulf and Le Morte d'Arthur. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is pretty dope too. They'll give you a good bunch of ideas. The Iliad/Odyssey are a good time and linked to pretty much most european mythological hero stuff too.

I use one of these words way more frequently than the other; sue me.

Where did this stuff arise though? I'm trying to imagine it as being stories that grew up around knights having battles in England and France, and stories being created by townsfolk that got passed down and embellished, and maybe even added onto over time.

Also wondering if mythologies of parts of the world outside of Europe inspired it too. I don't know, I'm not a history guy, but did someone like Marco Polo bring back stories from the Orient that found their way into what we know now as the classic sword, princess and dragon type adventure tales?

>be guy with weapons, maybe even several guys with weapons
>manage to kill other people and fuck their wives
>have parties, get drunk, make stories
>repeat

Largely oral history retold and eventually written down, changed, retold to incorporate local religious features, rewritten, edited to include morals you think are important, lost to history, retold orally, eventually written down again but changed to make new enemies seem evil, etc.

There's a lot of crossover in themes of ancient historical heroic tales, partially because the themes aren't that complicated but are fairly common, partially because empires rise and sort of canonize shit but then fall apart.

Dragons are that neat mix of snakes being really scary and exaggerating the size/importance of your enemies so your stories are better. Maybe also dinosaur bones.

Autherian stuff is a mix of welsh, 'celtic', christian, left over roman stuff retold through Romanticism.

check wikipedia even if just to see a bunch of other sources to read

Why the quotations on Celtic?

Arthurian legend
Robin Hood
Which are just part of the wider western myhtology, which centers around Germany, England, Scandinavia.
Nibelung Saga
Beowulf
Dietrich von Bern
Roland Saga
etc.

Mostly because I'm being glib and its a word a lot of hippies and neopagans and stuff use to mean 'british thing I like'.

D&D is pretty much a wholesale ripoff of Tolkein, so The Hobbit should be your first go-to.

After that, I would recommend Beowulf, which Tolkein was partially inspired by, Norse Mythology, and THEN the tales of King Arthur.

Read the story of Saint George and the Dragon for good measure, but dragons are more commonly based on the ones from The Hobbit and Beowulf instead. Kidnapping damsels though, that was Saint George's dragon.

The reason why I say go in this order is that The Hobbit will give you a general feel, and then Beowulf -> Arthur/Saint George will give you a sort of sense of progression from older myths to later ones that culminate in the generic fantasy settings you see today.

For extra reading go for greek myths, and if you want to laugh/are a furry, go for egyptian myths.

>D&D is pretty much a wholesale ripoff of Tolkein

not even fukkin' close

Try 'ripoff of Fritz Lieber, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, and Robert Howard'

Well, you're not wrong, but we're talking to a newbie and I can't think of a single thing more D&D than Hobbit + Fellowship.

Fellowship of the Ring is more of a D&D story than the dungeons and dragons movie.

Ehh. The Hobbit is an idealised D&D story. The movies, with all their stupid jokes, bizarre plots, bad acting (roleplaying) but sincere moments of fun are closer to the reality in a lot of ways. If anything they're too close to home, which is why the movies don't really work as, well, movies.

>Autherian stuff is a mix of welsh, 'celtic', christian, left over roman stuff retold through Romanticism

It's French fan-fiction. Literally.

The "classic DnD" can be referred to a western medium or low fantasy, as it comes primarily from the western world

Eh, it's very strongly linked to north-west european legends and folklore with an oddly anachronistic american colonial vibe. Plus the big three pantheon mythologies, norse, grecoroman and egyptian.

Classic D&D settings are very light on Spanish or eastern european mythology, let alone other influences you might consider, like the moorish/islamic influence in Europe.

>stories from the Orient
Manticores are thought to have been based on secondhand descriptions of tigers.
The questing beast was likely a giraffe.
Centaurs are probably based on any number of mounted invaders such as Mongols.
Even the tarasque may have been a hippo that somehow got to france.

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