Bernard Cornwell is certainly best known for the Sharpe series. But I maintain that his King Arthur trilogy is his best work. Beginning with The Winter King, then moving on to Enemy of God, and ending with Excalibur, the series follows a little-known character from early Arthurian myth, Derfel. Rasied by Merlin and fighting for Arthur, he is constantly drawn into the intrigues of both their worlds.
What I love so passionately about this series is that it deconstructs the flowery Arthur myths. This is the fifth century, not the twelfth. No jousts, no pageants, just warfare and survival.
Some of the things I like best:
– Arthur is not a king, he’s a warlord. This correlates to the earliest mention of him as a Dux Bellorum, a Duke of War.
– Arthur spends most of the three books fending off the Saxons. This is what he was famous for in the first place, but it has seemed to hold no interest for any author in the last eight hundred years. They’re much more interested in his lovelife.
– Lancelot is a cad. His reputation for bravery comes from the bards, whom he pays.
– Arthur is a pagan who doesn’t care at all about religion until it stands in his way.
– the Round Table was just a table a feast. Someone took it and made it famous in a song, leaving out the fact that it was cracked and vomited upon by the end of the night.
– Merlin isn’t hunting the Holy Grail. He’s a pagan, so he’s after a pagan cauldron!
These are just a few of the elements I enjoy, the ones that don’t give away major plot points. A brilliant series. I once tried to get the rights to adapt it to the stage. My wife, Jan, wrote a script for the first novel. But when Cornwell read our draft he cheerfully said he thought we’d been too faithful to his book. After that, sadly, the rights were granted to the Welsh National Theatre, or Clwyd Theatr Cymru. I had drinks last year with the CTC artistic director, Terry Hands, who told me how the project was progessing. It makes me sad that so much has been changed in their drafts. Cornwell’s novel caused Jan and I to see the action staged just as it was written.
Nevertheless I want the play to be a huge success. And I keep buying the first book for people. Everyone should be aware of this version of the classic tale.
-DB
