Giles Kristian is a new name to me - I knew little about the author when I picked up Lancelot and a quick Google quest told me that he had written several well received action/adventure novels that centered on the Vikings, as well as a brace of books set around the English civil war. He also co-wrote a book with Wilbur Smith.
I purchased Lancelot because I've always been something of a sucker for all things Arthurian, and I have, over the years, read many books that used the legends as a starting point but what I found in this book was a totally original retelling of the famed sagas, that uses the love triangle between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere in a totally audacious way that allows the author to present several remarkable twists and turns that literally, I kid you not, had me open mouthed. I soaked deep, allowing the fiction to submerge me, into the world of a story well told.
There is something of a lyrical poetry to the author's style, but at the same time the story is straight forward and propels the reader along in the way all the best fiction does. It's a big book, topping six hundred pages, but not once during the narrative did the engine stall. I'd recommend this book highly to anyone who fancies escaping into a well realised world and spending time with wonderfully drawn characters.
The story is told in the first person with Lancelot himself the narrator, and through this device the post Roman landscape is brought vividly to life. We follow the young man through his childhood, and into adulthood where he meets and is bound to King Arthur, the high king of the Britons. It is a story of war, of betrayal, of jealously but mostly it is the story of love.
The mountain is called Myndd Y Gaer, which translates to English as Mountain of the Fort, and if I look out of my front window I look directly onto that particular mountain. I get a kick from thinking that I live in the shadow of such a momentous structure. A mountain of distinction, a mountain that may lay a claim to being one of the most important mountains in the world.
Read on, and you'll understand why I get a thrill from being in close proximity to such a majestic mountain.
Upon this mountains are the ruins of an old church (St, Peter's church) and I still walk there quite often.
I've walked that mountain many many times over the years - as a child I knew it as Fortress Mountain and there were many legends told about the area. Hidden somewhere on the mountain was supposed to be the gateway to Annwen, which was where goblins, fairies and all manner of creatures lived. Now fairies in the old Welsh legends I was told as a child were not benevolent creatures at all, but were quite evil - they would steal children, poison springs on the hillside and generally cause mayhem. There was often told in local folk lore of a creature call a Quwan, which had the horns of a bull, the head of a man and the body of a wolf. It was also said to breathe fire like a dragon and it would roam the mountains after dark. Woe betide anyone foolish enough to be out wandering the mountains after dark for they would end up fodder for the Quwan.
The ruins of St. Peter's Church - photographed Jan 2020
All stuff and nonsense of course, but it does send a shiver up the spine when you find yourself up these mountain after dark, as I often do. To paraphrase Shakespeare, - in the dark imagining some fear how easy the bush becomes a bear.
These stories, folk tales, legends, lies..call them what you will, are fantastic enough but there is one story related to this mountain and the old ruins of St. Peter's church that seems even more unlikely but refuses to go away. Are you ready for this - OK here we go. The story is, and there is some evidence to support this, that the church or rather a mound just behind the church houses the remains of none other than King Arthur himself.
Yes, that King Arthur - he of Camelot, the round table, Merlin and all that. I kid you not and I'll outline the supposed connection in a moment, but first I'd like to point out a rather amusing turn to the story. Not far from the old ruins there is a rock formation in the mountain and some joker, armed with spray paint has written the legend: KING ARFUR WOZ ERE!!!
That creative graffiti did raise a smile to my face, when I saw it the other day.
The facts are that Amateur historians Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett have promoted a hypothesis that King Arthur could be identified with a King Athrwys of Gwent. Now Wilson and Blackett went much further and they identified the church of St. Peter on Myndd-Y-Gaer as being the last resting place of King Arthur. So confident were the two men in their research that they purchased the ground upon which the church ruins sit, and sometime between 1983 - 1985 they organised an excavation there. They claimed to have found King Arthur's gravestone during that dig. Even more startling is that a later dig, overseen by the respected Eric Talbot of Glasgow University took place in 1990 and this time a silver cross was found that bore the inscription Pro Arnima Artorvis, which translates roughly as, for the soul of Arthur.
The cross found in the excavation of St. Peters
The church is believed to have been built on a existing structure which was dated, Wilson and Blackett claim to the 1st century AD making it the oldest existing Christian church in the world. In 1990 the full scale excavation was stopped due to a ferocious storm, with 100 mph gales making working at the site dangerous. At this point below the foundations of the church an older structure was discovered and what was believed to have been the entry to a crypt was partially uncovered, but due to problems with the authorities following the storm, further excavations were forbidden. Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett believe that this was the work of the historical establishment closing down their research for nefarious reasons.
The reader will find several interesting videos HERE that outline the controversy surrounding the search for King Arthur.
There now follow several photographs, supplied to me by a friend, taken during the 1990 dig at St. Peter's church.
'We the Welsh have a good claim to King Arthur and we have been denied him.' Dr Russell Rees, Cardiff University.
'I'm surprised there isn't more support for developing the Arthurian legends in relations to Wales from the main quangos essentially.' Professor Morgan, Cardiff University.
'I've never had any doubts that Arthur was a Welshman, or as he would have thought of himself in those days, a Briton.' Rev. Geraint Ap Lowerth
King Arthur belongs in Wales but he has been snatched, stolen from us and placed in Glastonbury where his supposed grave was discovered in 1181. However, that turned out to be a con carried out by the monks who were attempting to raise money to rebuild Glastonbury Abbey.
To my own mind there was a King Arthur but was he, Welsh? Well yes and no - during the 5th century Wales didn't exist, nor did England so it is difficult to place him in modern boundaries.
He is believed to have held the Anglo Saxons at bay for many many years and the Anglo Saxon would have called Arthur and his people, Wealas which means foreigner and is the root of the modern word, Welsh. So yes a claim can be made that King Arthur was indeed Welsh. Indeed the modern Welsh word for the English is saeson which in the ancient tongue means Saxons. It is also a fact that the very first mention of Arthur was written in Welsh or rather Brythonic. Geoffrey of Monmouth made the first written claim of King Arthur back in the 12th century.
But back to the excavation of St. Peter's church.
Given that the storm drove the excavators away and that they were, for a time, forbidden to return it meant that a lot of the human remains pictured above were simply left, and were scattered by both ramblers and animals which, understandably caused a backlash in the local press. I remember my own local newspaper calling the dig ghoulish. I remember taking a walk up to the old church whilst the 1990 dig was taking place and I saw something that remains clear in my mind, I can even recall the image now. A grave had been excavated and I saw a complete skeleton, side on, still laying in the ground and what struck me is that the skeleton was a reddish colour rather than the bony-white I'd expected. The bones had been dyed a deep red by the years spent in the ground. It was kind of a surreal feeling thinking that this skeleton may have belonged to one of the names I'd often read on the ancient gravestones that dotted the ground around the ruins.
Today, the ruins remain and below are several photographs that I took on a visit to the location only this past week.
Below is an aerial photograph showing both ruins of the church and the mound where some claim Arthur is buried. Get this - the mound is boat shaped, which has led to the startling claim that Arthur is buried there within the fabled Ark of the Covenant.
Much of the research and claims by Wilson and Blackett are compelling, particularly the supposition they have put forth that a comet struck the British Isles in 562 and brought about the Dark Ages. There has been a lot of evidence to support this theory. The event is even recorded in the ancient manuscript, The Tysilio Chronicles. 'And then a Star of enormous size appeared to Ythyr, having a single shaft, and at the head of the shaft a ball of fire in shape of a dragon, and from the dragon’s jaws, two beams went upward, the one beam reaching towards the farthest parts of Ffraink and the other beam towards Iwerddon, which split into seven smaller beams. And Ythr and all who saw this spectacle feared, and they asked the wise men what it might mean. And then Merddin wept and said, “O nation of the Bryttaniait! now are ye bereft of Emrys Wledic, a loss that cannot be replaced.”
To sum up there is far too much here for it to all be cast aside as the rumblings of crackpots. There is enough evidence to suggest that the Arthur legends were stolen and tied into areas like Glastonbury for reasons that may never be truly uncovered. And Wales and specifically Glamorgan may hold a strong claim to be the area where King Arthur, that fabled king who has attained mythic status, truly belongs. Maybe that joker with the spray paint may have a point and KING ARFUR WOZ ERE!!!
Below is a video I shot at the old ruins a few years back
"Perhaps my love for the legends was because my husband shares a name with the venerable hero. Perhaps, I was just so upset because the story had become so bastardised over the years that I decided to put my own mark on it. And perhaps I wanted to honour human courage rather than magic. Whatever the reason, I am certain that there are so many stories in the great sweep of history that are so vivid, compelling and riveting that I will never lack for subject matter." M K Hume, talking of the Arthurian legends.
I came across this book by happy accident - it was mistakenly placed among a pile of old western paperbacks that I picked up from a musty old secondhand book shop - as well all know musty old shops are the best kind of secondhand book shops. I started reading the book and before I knew it I was fifty or so pages in and hooked - the book tell of Arthur's (Artor as he's called in the book) early life and of his rise to the position of King of the Britons. The Arthur legends are of course just that - legends and no-one knows if he really existed at all.He first appeared in print in the writings of Welsh historian, Nennius who gave a list of 12 battled in which the fabled king fought. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote the first life story of Arthur and it is here that Caliburn, the magical sword commonly called Excalibur first appears. So did Arthur exist? Who knows but someone certainly kept the invading Saxons at bay for a great many years. In fact all that can be said with even the least degree of certainty is that sometime in the fifth and sixth centuries, someone called Arthur or Arturus led a band of warriors who fought a resistance against the invading Saxons,Jutes and others from the north of Europe.
M K Hume
M. K. Hume's epic tale uses the voice of historical fiction rather than fantasy, and the Celtic world is vividly brought to believable life - magic doesn't play a part in this story and indeed the wizard, Merlin is here a master strategist, which makes the book all the more believable and fits in with the convincing historical context. As does the author's take on the sword in the stone legend, and immediately upon finishing this book I took a trip up the Amazon and downloaded, Warrior of the West, which is the second book in the Arthur trilogy. I'm currently reading that book on my all new Kindle Paperwhite (expect a review of the newest Paperwhite soon) and this book is even better than the first so there'll be a review of the second part, and no doubt the third, appearing on these tainted pages very soon.
Quite excellent storytelling.
Was King Arthur a real person? Find an interesting article by John Mathews HERE
The legends of King Arthur have their origins firmly in Welsh folklore - not that this fact has ever bothered the movies - but now Sherlock Holmes director, Guy Ritchie is set to direct a new movie about the fabled king - penned by "Trainspotting" scribe John Hodge, and produced by Atlas Entertainment the film should see light in 2012.
RELATED: KING ARTHUR WELSH LINKS:
The earliest references to King Arthur come from Wales and early Welsh literature. If there really was a King Arthur, he seems to have been passed down to us via Welsh legend
Bardsea Island Bardsey Island is off the northwest tip of Wales. One says that Merlin is buried here. Another is an adaptation of the cave legend, where he lives in solitude as a hermit. Another is as the Island of Avalon, the final resting place of King Arthur.
Berth Pool The Berth and its pool are just outside the town of Baschurch in mid Wales. The site itself is surrounded by marshy lowlands that would have been flooded in the time of King Arthur (much like Glastonbury) and would have given the earthwork the appearance of an island.
Bosherton This lake is in the southwestern corner of Wales in the town of Bosherston, not far south of Pembroke. It is a putative home for the great sword of King Arthur, Excalibur.
Bryn-rhyd-yr-arian The small town of Bryn-Rhyd-yr-Arian is hidden away in the mountains of North Wales. There is not an aweful lot to link the site to King Arthur except a local folk tale about the Round Table.
Cader Idris Welsh legends say that King Arthur made his kingdom there, hence the name Cader Idris: or the Seat of Arthur.
Caerleon Caerleon is a small Welsh town beside the River Usk, a few miles north of Newport. The name in Welsh means "City or Fort of the Legion." Legend says that after the Romans left Britain, King Arthur set up court at Caerleon.
Carmarthen Carmarthen is in South Wales. There are three sites with Merlin connections in the Carmarthen area.
Dinas Bran Dinas Bran is outside the town of Llangollen in Northern Wales. Dinas Bran is said to be a model for the Grail Castle. The search for the Holy Grail being one of the central King Arthur legends.
Dinas Emrys Dinas Emrys is in the Snowdonian Mountains of Northern Wales. The site has legendary connections to Vortigern
Eliseg Pillar The Pillar of Eliseg is outside the town of Llangollen in North Wales. The pillar has two separate inscriptions, one newer and more legible than the other. The old, weathered inscription was the one containing the pedigree of Vortigern.
Ganarew King Arthur Cave is just a few miles north of Monmouth, at the bottom of the southeast slope of the Little Doward Hill. It is the home of one of the many King Arthur cave legends.
Little Doward Little Doward is just a few miles north of Monmouth. There are connections to Vortigern, but not much remains up here from Vortigern's time;
Llyn Barafog Llyn Barfog, or the Bearded Lake, is the setting for a particularly adventurous encounter between King Arther and the lake monster.
