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| series image - Dunkeld Cathedaral |
Friday means it's time again for my historical blog series - #Aye. Ken it wis like this...
We missed a day last Friday, since I was down at Cumbernauld (near Glasgow, Scotland) for the Historical Novelists Society Conference (HNS) which was a fantastic experience.
However, I'm very excited to restart the theme with the lovely Mary Anne Yarde who has brought King Arthur for us! The story of King Arthur has produced an endless round of excellent interpretations of his life and loves and I'm delighted to say I will always have room for another version. The controversy of who he was - if he in fact did live at all - and where he was from, produces fascinating debate. Mary Anne Yarde shares a superb post about the background with us today, along with a brilliant selection of images to enhance her descriptions. There's an exciting excerpt for you to read from her newly published novel Du Lac Prophecy after the post, so sit tight and enjoy it all!
Welcome to my blog Mary Anne and to the series, which I'm really loving with all of it's time periods and sub-genres of historical fiction. Please give us the background to your Du Lac Chronicles series...
Welcome to the Dark Ages. Welcome to the Land of King Arthur.
I have been
fascinated with the life and times of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round
Table since I was a child — I guess growing up a stone’s throw from Glastonbury
(The Ancient Isle of Avalon) may have had something to do with that.
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| courtesy of Mary Anne Yarde |
My book series,
The Du Lac Chronicles, tells the story of what happened after the death of
Arthur, and continues the story of his Knights and their sons. But to write
about the end of Arthur’s reign, I needed to know about the beginning. A not so
easy task, it turned out.
The history of
a historical Arthur is not written in stone but is, instead,
engraved in folklore, and that brings its own set of challenges.
Firstly, where
did Arthur come from? Well, that is an easy question to answer…
King Arthur
was English. No, he was Welsh. Arthur was Scottish. He was from Brittany. Oh, for
goodness’ sake, he was a Roman General!
Which is right?
Arthur is so famous that everyone wants to claim him and, over the years, there
have been many names thrown out there as to who he really was. But we mustn’t
forget that when we are dealing with Arthur, we are digging up folklore, and
that is not the same as excavating relics. We can make Arthur fit wherever we
want him to, and that is where the problem lies. It is very easy to make
mistakes, and I have read many books that claim to have found the real Arthur,
only they haven’t, it is just a theory, sometimes a very shaky one.
The same can be
said for Arthur’s famous castle, Camelot. There have been many possible locations for one of the most
famous castles in history. Tintagel, Cadbury Hill, Caerlaverock Castle,
have all been put forward, and last year it was suggested that a small Roman
fort at Slack is where the real Camelot once stood. However, during all this
excitement and discoveries we have overlooked a fundamental issue — there was
no Camelot. It was an invention of a French poet in 1180! How can you look for
something that was never there to begin with?
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King Arthur by Ruben Eyno
courtesy of Mary Anne Yarde |
The Dark Ages,
in which my books are set, are equally challenging to research because there is
a lack of reliable primary resources. What was written down was written down
for a purpose and that purpose was usually politically motivated, which in
itself is fascinating, although not so helpful. Now, in these early texts when
Arthur is mentioned, there is nothing about him being a
king. Nennuis describes him as a warrior on par with Ironman, but no
mention of a crown.
Nancy says: I totally sympathise with the lack of reliable primary sources, since I have the same issues. Without them we can only speculate and choose to use other people's interpretations.
(I really adore this statue of King Arthur. It encapsulates in an airy way the myth surrounding him so well)
It isn’t until
the 12th Century when Geoffrey of Monmouth writes his great work
that the Arthur we know is born. The History of The Kings of Briton was
meant to be a historically accurate account of British History and for many,
many, years what Monmouth wrote was considered factually correct. Of course, we
now know it was anything but. However, that does not mean that Monmouth’s work
is of no particular value. Monmouth borrowed heavily from folklore, and it is his story that drives the legend of
Arthur and his Knights forward. I think Monmouth’s book is incredibly important
as it tells us a great deal about, not only the era, but also about the people
who were listening to his stories. And if we dig a little further, we can
discover that it wasn’t only the populous who loved listening to Arthurian
tales. Those ever practical monks at Glastonbury Abbey did as well.
Let’s take a
journey back to 12th Century England…
A terrible fire had spread through Glastonbury Abbey, and unfortunately for the
monks, they did not have the coffers to pay for the repairs. If only they
could encourage more pilgrims to come to the Abbey. What could they do?
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| courtesy of Mary Anne Yarde |
Thanks to
Monmouth’s book “Arthur Fever” had
gripped the nation. People would pay good money to go on a pilgrimage to
Arthur’s final resting place. All that was needed was a good story and a grave.
The monks of Glastonbury
announced to the world that they had discovered Arthur’s final resting place.
That brought in the crowds. Glastonbury Abbey soon had the coffers to make the
repairs and then some. There was as much truth in the story of Glastonbury Abbey
and King Arthur’s grave as there was in The
History of the Kings of Briton. But for hundreds of years, both the Abbey
and Monmouth were believed.
My books are not
just set in Britain, but France as well, so I needed to have a good
understanding of what was happening in both of these countries in the 5th
/ 6th Century to keep the history real in the telling. Before we
look at any of these countries, we need to look at the powerhouse of the world
at this time, and that was the Roman Empire. However,
by 476 C.E. the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire
had been overthrown. The stability
that the Roman Empire had brought to Western Europe
for over 1000 years was no more.
But this dawning
new era brings some of the most fascinating historical figures that ever lived.
These were the days of men such as Clovis.
Clovis won a decisive victory against Rome, at the Battle of Soissons
in AD 486. But, Clovis’
ambition didn’t stop there. Roman Gaul and parts of Western
Germany fell to him as well. He forged a new empire through blood,
war, and marriage. He made Paris the capital of
his new kingdom, and he was the first King of a united Frank (France).
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| Clovis I - courtesy of Mary Anne Yarde |
The Saxons and
the Angles crossed the South Sea (The English Channel) to take advantage of vulnerable
Britain
who, since the Romans had left, had split back into various smaller kingdoms.
There was much infighting and unrest. It was the perfect opportunity for the
Saxon’s to come over and stake their claim.
Brittany, like Britain, wasn’t one united country,
but many, and they were a race of warriors. While they were busy fighting each
other, they missed the real threat to the kingdom, which eventually would be
their undoing and they would find themselves at the mercy of Frank.
While all this was
going on, the Church was creeping into the crevices, and spreading the word of
God and, what could be considered of equal value, one language — Latin. It
could be argued that it was the Church that united Britain in the end.
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King Arthur by
Charles Ernest Butler -
Wikimedia commons |
This was a time
of great unrest and change, but one thing remained constant for the general
populous and that was storytelling. Arthur may well have been a general but
folklore made him a Christian King and gave him a castle full of noble knights.
Arthur and his Knights (most of them anyway) cared about the people they
represented. Arthur was a good king, the like of which has never been seen
before or after. He was the perfect tool for spreading a type of patriotic
propaganda. Arthur was someone you would want to fight by your side. But he
also gave ordinary people a sense of belonging and hope. He is, after all, as
T.H White put it — The Once and Future
King.
Nancy: I loved reading this, and probably still have a very battered paperback copy of it in one of my bookshelves.
I have tried to
show what life was like in the 5th /6th Century in my
books, but I have been heavily influenced by folklore, because when you are
dealing with this period in history, you cannot dismiss it. Brittany, for example, is terribly difficult
to research historically during this era, but when it comes to folklore, she is
rich and if that is all she is going to give us, then so be it.
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| Carnac- courtesy of Mary Anne Yarde |
Local Legend claims that the stones were
once a Roman Legion. The great sorcerer, Merlin, turned the Legion
to stone.
Folklore is its
own particular brand of history, and it is often overlooked by historians,
which I think is a shame. You can tell a lot about a people by the stories they
tell, and people are still fascinated by this larger-than-life King, which I
think, says it all. Arthur may well have been a general, or a knight, he may
have been English, he may not, but it doesn’t matter because his story is
timeless, it will never grow old.
Two
Prophesies. Two Noble Households. One Throne.
Distrust and
greed threaten to destroy the House of du Lac. Mordred Pendragon strengthens
his hold on Brittany
and the surrounding kingdoms while Alan, Mordred’s cousin, embarks on a
desperate quest to find Arthur’s lost knights. Without the knights and the
relics they hold in trust, they cannot defeat Arthur’s only son – but finding
the knights is only half of the battle. Convincing them to fight on the side of
the Du Lac’s, their sworn enemy, will not be easy.
If Alden, King
of Cerniw, cannot bring unity there will be no need for Arthur’s knights. With
Budic threatening to invade Alden’s Kingdom, Merton putting love before duty,
and Garren disappearing to goodness knows where, what hope does Alden have? If
Alden cannot get his House in order, Mordred will destroy them all.
Mary Anne is sharing a special excerpt with us today. Relax and enjoy!
“They won’t help
you,” Bastian stated and Philippe turned to look at him. “The dead. They won’t
help you.”
“I thought I was
alone,” Philippe said as he looked back at Tristan’s tombstone.
“In Benwick Castle?” Bastian scoffed. “There is
always someone watching. You know that as well as I do. Why are you here?”
“I came looking
for answers.”
“Did you find
any?” Bastian asked with cynicism.
“No.”
“I didn’t think
so.”
“Lancelot was a
brave man, wasn’t he?” Philippe mumbled the question more to himself than
anything else.
“As was
Tristan,” Bastian agreed.
“Did you know
him? Tristan, I mean.”
“A little. He
kept himself to himself for the most part. He was wounded you see, during the
battle of Benwick. He lost the use of his legs. He couldn’t walk. But he…”
Bastian smiled as he remembered. “He was very wise. And he was happy to share
that wisdom. I liked him. Although not everyone did. After Tristan died, there
was talk. Some said he was a liar.”
“What did
Lancelot say?” Philippe asked.
“I cannot
imagine Lancelot being friends with someone who lied to him. But he neither
condemned nor defended Tristan. He kept his own counsel. What are you going to
do, Philippe?”
Philippe looked
up at the sky. The lavender hue had changed to a blue one. He never appreciated
how beautiful the sky was, until now. The day promised to be a warm one, but
Philippe felt chilled.
“What would you
do?” Philippe asked, as he rose to his feet and looked at his general.
“You have two
choices. You can abdicate. Hand him the throne. Or...”
“Or...” Philippe
encouraged.
“You could kill
him,” Bastian said with a shrug.
Buy Links:
Mary Anne Yarde
is the multi award-winning author of the International Bestselling series — The
Du Lac Chronicles.
Yarde grew up in the southwest of England, surrounded and influenced
by centuries of history and mythology. Glastonbury — the fabled Isle of Avalon
— was a mere fifteen-minute drive from her home, and tales of King Arthur and
his knights were a part of her childhood.
You can find Mary Anne at the following places:
Thank you for coming today, Mary Anne, and for sharing such a wonderful post for my series. My best wishes with your latest addition to the Du Lac Chronicles! I'm convinced it'll be a fascinating read (It's just as well that a virtual shelf on a kindle can be ever expanding ;-) )
Slainthe!
