Post originally by Delbert at 2004-07-14 05:07:45
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Slaine is based on the Irish stories of Cu Chulain, many (or all, it's been a while since I read it) of which can be found in the Tain bo Cuilgne (sp?), commonly referred to simply as "The Tain", including as the title of the Oxford university Press translation of the tales that I have ... somewhere. IIRC, Cu Chulain does undergo warp spasms in the Tain - that's not an invention of Slaine's writers, although their interpretation may not be what was originally meant.

On non-Mallory versions of Arthur, I am currently reading "King Arthur in legend and history", edited by Richard White, which collects the early chronicles, early poems, and then excerpts from other early interpretations of Arthur. The interesting part so far is the early chroniclers' interpretations, where Arthur's role seems to be more as warband leader than king, and his realm much smaller. Mordred appears very early on, but the rest of the trappings of the romantic Arthur take some time to appear. You could certainly pull your own take on the legend from this collection of sources.