In America pulp magazines such as Weird Tales reprinted classic Gothic horror tales from the previous century, by such authors as Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton and printed new stories by modern authors featuring both traditional and new horrors.

The influence of Arthur Machen, with his carefully constructed tales concerning the survival of ancient evil into modern times in an otherwise realistic world and his beliefs in hidden mysteries which lay behind reality, looms large.

Some Welsh and Breton tales and poems relating the story of Arthur date from earlier than this work ; in these works, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn.

In addition to these pre-Galfridian Welsh poems and tales, Arthur appears in some other early Latin texts besides the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae.

While it was by no means the only creative force behind Arthurian romance, many of its elements were borrowed and developed ( e. g., Merlin and the final fate of Arthur ), and it provided the historical framework into which the romancers ' tales of magical and wonderful adventures were inserted.

There is clear evidence for a knowledge of Arthur and Arthurian tales on the Continent before Geoffrey's work became widely known ( see for example, the Modena Archivolt ), as well as for the use of " Celtic " names and stories not found in Geoffrey's Historia in the Arthurian romances.

Erec and Enide and Cligès are tales of courtly love with Arthur's court as their backdrop, demonstrating the shift away from the heroic world of the Welsh and Galfridian Arthur, while Yvain, the Knight of the Lion features Yvain and Gawain in a supernatural adventure, with Arthur very much on the sidelines and weakened.

Tennyson's works prompted a large number of imitators, generated considerable public interest in the legends of Arthur and the character himself, and brought Malory's tales to a wider audience.

Furthermore, the revival of interest in Arthur and the Arthurian tales did not continue unabated.

Tennyson had reworked the romance tales of Arthur to suit and comment upon the issues of his day, and the same is often the case with modern treatments too.

While chivalric romances abound, particularly notable literary portrayals of knighthood include Geoffrey Chaucer's The Knight's Tale, Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, and Miguel de Cervantes ' Don Quixote, as well as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d ' Arthur and other Arthurian tales ( Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc.

Geoffrey combined existing stories of Myrddin Wyllt ( Merlinus Caledonensis ), a North Brythonic prophet and madman with no connection to King Arthur, with tales of the Romano-British war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus to form the composite figure he called Merlin Ambrosius ().

For example, the fully developed Code of Chivalry, which has a major role in the Arthurian tales, reflects the social conditions of the late Middle Ages when these tales were composed, rather than the conditions of 5th Century Britain when the historical King Arthur lived.

A variety of Cornish stones are used in the construction and the 73 stained glass windows illustrating the Arthurian tales are by Veronica Whall ; there are several fine paintings also of scenes from the life of King Arthur by William Hatherell.

Culhwch (, with the final consonant of Scottish " loch "), in Welsh mythology, is the son of Cilydd son of Celyddon and Goleuddydd, a cousin of Arthur and the protagonist of the story Culhwch and Olwen ( the earliest of the medieval Welsh tales usually, but erroneously, referred to collectively as the Mabinogion ).

Writers and poets like Taliesin, Chrétien de Troyes and Thomas Malory wrote tales of derring-do featuring Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Galahad.

The question of the dates of the tales in the Mabinogion is important, because if they can be shown to have been written before Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and the romances of Chrétien de Troyes then some of the tales, especially those dealing with Arthur, would provide important evidence for the development of Arthurian legend.

The tales Culhwch and Olwen and The Dream of Rhonabwy have interested scholars because they preserve older traditions of King Arthur.

Gerald, a constant supporter of royal authority, in his account of the discovery clearly aims to destroy the idea of the possibility of King's Arthur's messianic return: " Many tales are told and many legends have been invented about King Arthur and his mysterious ending.

William Caxton was the first English printer and published English language texts including Le Morte d ' Arthur ( a collection of oral tales of the Arthurian Knights which is a forerunner of the novel ) and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The literature which was popular then was heroic-romantic literature derived from the French and in turn English courts, notably chanson de geste around Charlemagne ( the Matter of France ) and tales of King Arthur ( the Matter of Britain ).

These tales have been compared to the Dying Earth sequence of Jack Vance.

One by one he discovered the authors that would influence his later work: Jack London and his stories of reincarnation and past lives, most notably The Star Rover ( 1915 ); Rudyard Kipling's tales of subcontinent adventure and his chanting, shamanic verse ; the classic mythological tales collected by Thomas Bulfinch.

The game includes parodies of various popular books and fairy tales, including Rapunzel, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Fairy tales such as Jack the Giant Killer have formed our modern perception of giants as stupid and violent monsters, sometimes said to eat humans, especially children ( though this is actually a confusion with ogres, which are distinctly cannibalistic ).

Giants figure in a great many fairy tales and folklore stories, such as Jack the Giant Killer, The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body, Nix Nought Nothing, Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon, Young Ronald, and Paul Bunyan.

Geck observes that Alger's themes have been transformed in modern America from their original meanings into a Male Cinderella myth, and are an Americanization of the traditional Jack tales.

* Writer Jack Finney, author of The Body Snatchers, uses Galesburg as a setting for several of his time-travel tales.

In these tales, protagonists named either Will or Jack are doomed to haunt the marshes with a light for some misdeed.

" Inspired by such writers and artists as Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Rice Burroughs, J. R. R Tolkien and Jack Kirby, Byron set out to create his own dark fantasy universe, with tales told through epic lyrics and music.

In these tales, Turpin was the hero, accompanied by his trusty colleagues Claude Duval, Tom King, and Jack Rann.

Many British fairy tales, such as Jack the Giant Killer and The Black Bull of Norroway, feature shapeshifting.

Legendary figures from nineteenth century London whose tales have been romanticised include Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber of Fleet Street, and serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Bottigheimer notes that in the southern Appalachians of America Jack became a generic hero of tales usually adapted from the Brothers Grimm.

Category: Jack tales

* Jack ( hero ), an archetypal trickster hero appearing in many folk tales, fairy tales, legends and literature.

Despite the near-unanimous conclusion that the tales were fabrications, and despite Monk's ill repute, some anti-Catholic groups, particularly fundamentalist Protestant authors such as Loraine Boettner and Jack Chick, still cite Monk's story as if it were true.

In their picaresque and unrelenting strangeness, Shea's tales evoke Jack Vance and Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique tales, as well as The Worm Ouroboros ; but what his work most reminds me of is David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus, a book which had always struck me as being sui generis.

A number of folk and fairy tales include a giant named Blunderbore, most notably " Jack the Giant Killer ".

* The religious fundamentalistic comics of Jack Chick which often feature moralistic tales that are so far-fetched that they become ridiculous.

* The character of Jack Horner appears in the Fables comic book by Bill Willingham, where it is revealed that he is also most of the other Jacks featured in fairy tales, nursery rhymes, etc.

Category: Jack tales