New Book Reveals The Aeneid Was Based on British Sources

Historian Bernard Jones has written a fascinating new book, The Voyage of Aeneas of Troy, which reveals that Virgil’s Aeneid was probably not original to Virgil but based on historical fact and a centuries-old poem he may have received orally or in written form that dated back a thousand years. In fact, Jones argues that every detail of The Aeneid can be traced as geographically accurate, which by extension strongly suggests it is not based on just a legend but a historical voyage. Most surprising of all, the events of The Aeneid did not take place in the Mediterranean as commonly believed and as the poem indicates; by analyzing the poem’s geographical references, Jones discovered it was originally set in ancient Britain and its surrounding seas.

The Voyage of Aeneas of Troy is the sequel to Jones’ earlier book The Discovery of Troy and Its Lost History. In that book, he made a similar argument that Troy was actually in ancient Britain, even arguing that Homer was himself British. Here, he continues the argument, describing how Aeneas and his companions fled from Troy and traveled about Britain and the North Sea into areas like the modern-day Netherlands before returning to Britain and establishing a new Trojan civilization. In time, Aeneas’ descendants, including Brutus for whom Britain is named, also traveled and made new settlements. Over time, some of the descendants traveled to what are the modern-day Netherlands and Belgium and some of them became ancestors to the Franks. These groups, as they moved south through Europe, would have provided an opportunity for Virgil to hear the story of The Aeneid and record it in writing, perhaps for the first time. However, for whatever reason, Virgil chose to alter or slightly disguise place names to equate the British places in the original poem with those in the Mediterranean. Jones also notes that Virgil never finished The Aeneid but was revising it at the time of his death; he asked that it be destroyed, which might have happened if the Emperor Augustus had not decided it should be preserved. We may never know if Virgil wanted the poem destroyed to keep secret the actual locations mentioned in the poem, or if he just felt artistic angst over an incomplete work being read by the world.

How Virgil might have gained access to the poem and why he decided to transfer the action to the Mediterranean may never be known. Jones argues that the poem intentionally contains a secret code that was intended to hide the geographical details of the poem but that also reveals the true map of Aeneas’ voyages. In fact, Jones goes to great lengths to determine the physical distances from one place to the next that Aeneas traveled. The Aeneid does not discuss miles or kilometers but it does give directions—east, west, two days’ journey, etc.—that do not match the distances from one place to another in the Mediterranean, but they do match the distances in Britain.

As for place names, the similarities between many places in Britain and in the Mediterranean is astounding. For example, the Scilly Isles in Britain are disguised as Sicily in The Aeneid. The geographical features of specific parts of both areas are also similar. Jones discusses how Scotland, when turned upside down, resembles the Peloponnese and maps in the book show how the Bristol Channel is similar to the Adriatic Sea. Jones provides numerous maps throughout the book as well as charts showing place names and their meanings.

Some of the places in The Aeneid, of course, seem to be mythical, but Jones provides geographical locations even for these. Charybdis, the famous whirlpool encountered by both Aeneas and Odysseus in The Odyssey, does not actually exist in the Mediterranean, but Jones makes a compelling argument for it existing at Mount’s Bay off Land’s End. The cliffs of the Sirens turns out to be the Needles off the Isle of Wight.

I will confess my knowledge of Mediterranean and even British geography leaves much to be desired, and I am sure this book will be controversial, but I cannot help admiring the years of in-depth research Jones invested to write this book. He takes into account everything from sea levels three thousand years ago to descriptions in The Aeneid that he followed almost religiously as a guide to try to create comparisons between them and the landscape of Britain. He was amazed himself by the similarities and revelations he discovered.

Even if you end up being skeptical of Jones’ research, I think he makes a compelling argument. I also found it enjoyable to revisit the story of Aeneas and be reminded of his many adventures and how they might have taken place in Britain. Modern scholars tend to assume many of the genealogical claims of our ancestors, such as Brutus founding Britain, are fake and were created in the wake of Christianity to tie different peoples to a greater biblical narrative so everyone could be neatly shown to be descended from the sons of Noah, as argued in Anthony Adolph’s book Brutus of Troy and the Quest for the Ancestry of the British. However, archeologists have made surprising finds in the historical record based on paying closer attention to ancient works they assumed were only metaphorical. Furthermore, it can’t be denied that the Normans and Anglo-Saxon invasions led to the loss and repression of much that the ancient Britons knew and believed to the point where even speaking and reading Welsh was outlawed into the nineteenth century. The jury may still be out on whether Aeneas’ journeys were in Britain rather than the Mediterranean, but I think The Voyage of Aeneas of Troy is a book that deserves to be read and discussed, and as Jones himself is the first to assert, much more research remains to be done to confirm many of his beliefs. We may never know the full truth, but just like with the legend of King Arthur, who is an alleged descendant of Aeneas, the possibilities are fascinating, and the more effort we make to learn the truth, the more we learn about the past, even if the truth itself remains elusive.

I hope you will take this chance to journey with Aeneas again or even for the first time and discover how truly remarkable a work The Aeneid is with Jones as your tour guide.

For more information about Bernard Jones and his works on ancient Troy and Aeneas, visit https://www.trojanhistory.com/

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly work King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition, books on Gothic literature, and many historical novels and history books about Upper Michigan. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com, www.GothicWanderer.com, and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

Prince Valiant Celebrates 50th Anniversary with Valiant’s Son Marrying Mordred’s Daughter—Prince Valiant Vol. 26: 1987-1988

The Prince Valiant saga continues in Volume 26, covering the years 1987 and 1988 of the strip. The story picks up with wedding preparations. Valiant and Aleta’s son Arn is going to marry Maeve, the daughter of Mordred. The wedding takes place on the fiftieth anniversary of the script. Then Arn and Maeve leave on their honeymoon and leave the strip for about a year.

Meanwhile, Yuan Chen (tutor to Valiant’s son Galan and first introduced in Volume 23) arrives in Camelot to discuss China’s trade with the west. Yuan Chen describes how the Great Wall of China was built to keep the Huns out of China, so the Huns went west into Europe, and now they are hindering the silk and spice routes for Europe. The Chinese merchants want the Knights of the Round Table to help them protect the route and then Camelot will get part of the profits. King Arthur is happy to agree to this because he has to pay for all the destruction Mordred’s recent rebellion caused. Consequently, the strip divides into two stories—Valiant goes off to find a land route to China along with Galan, Gawain, and others, while Aleta returns to the Misty Isles with her twin daughters to catch up on her governing duties there.

Aleta’s adventures concern her trying to restore the lands of two young men whose uncle has stolen them. It turns out the villain is Mephisto who was once interested in Aleta. He is also a spy for the Emperor Justinian. She manages to trick him and trick the emperor in the process.

As for Valiant, his adventures are more of the action kind. Surprisingly, Gawain barely figures in the adventures, but Galan plays a key role. They fight off wolves. Then they are held hostage and forced to build longships by villains who want longships like what Valiant has. Valiant has no choice but to build the longship to get his freedom, but he gets the upper hand in the end. There’s also an adventure where they are told they cannot leave a city they have come to. Valiant gets them out of that mess by creating a reverse Trojan Horse situation where he and his friends sneak inside the horse. Then the townspeople cast it out of the city wall when they begin to think it is causing them bad luck. Perhaps Valiant’s most fascinating adventure, however, is when he discovers a forgotten people who have been hiding in a cave since the time of Noah’s flood. They took refuge there and sealed themselves inside along with several animals that did not manage to make it to the ark, including fleeches (a type of winged monkey) and Yetis. Valiant is told he can’t leave their either, but he manages to escape and Galan takes the fleeches with him, while the Yetis escape and will apparently go live in the Himalayas.

Of greatest interest to me was that Valiant not only hears the tale of Prester John, but is mistaken for him by the Chinese Emperor, Wu Ti, when he arrives in China. (My novel Ogier’s Prayer: The Children of Arthur, Book Three also features Prester John. Consequently, I was fascinated to learn the legendary Christian King had already made his way into Arthurian legend before my own book. Also interesting is that there is a historical Chinese Emperor named Wu Ti or Wudi, but he lived a century before Christ, so he’s about 600 years out of his time here.) In the Prince Valiant strip’s version of Prester John’s story, the famous figure befriended a Chinese warrior noble and eventually inherited his land, then declared himself a king. The emperor claims Prester John stole land from him. Prester John has since disappeared. Eventually, Valiant and Yuan Chen manage to convince the emperor that Valiant is not Prester John. However, the emperor, believing Valiant is wise, decides he is the one to find Prester John and decides to hold Galan hostage while he goes on the quest. We are told that Valiant encountered a dragon at the beginning of the quest, but then the narrator tells us the chronicle goes silent because it took so long for news to get back to Camelot. I imagine the rest of the adventure will be told in a future volume.

Meanwhile, the story returns to Arn and Maeve, now back from their honeymoon. Arn has been made Parker of the lands of Orr in King Arthur’s domains. Meanwhile, Maeve is having difficulty fitting in with the other ladies in the area. When Arn declares a tournament will be held, Maeve enters it to the chagrin of Sir Guy, the local sheriff. Worse, Guy’s wife Mathilde also enters it and beats him in a race. Guy has been so intent preparing for the tournament with the intent to beat Maeve that he has neglected the guarding of the land, resulting in bandits attacking the area during the tournament. Of course, Arn and his men defeat the bandits. Rather than punish Sir Guy, it is decided he will teach both boys and girls horsemanship and self-defense going forward—a very women’s equality decision for the time.

Then Arn receives a letter from Aleta begging for his help since Valiant cannot be reached. Karen, one of the twins, has apparently run away from home. The story shifts to Karen, who stowed away on a ship and has arrived in Venice. There she is befriended by a young man named Giovanni. Giovanni is on a quest to find his father, who went on a trip to make his fortune and never returned. Volume 26 ends here.

In addition, the volume opens with an essay by Peter Menningen who wrote a series of Prince Valiant books in Germany as tie-ins for the Prince Valiant television series when it ran on TV there. Images of a large number of book covers and pages from the German strips he wrote are included, which highlight his fabulous artwork, less cartoonish than the Prince Valiant strip itself, and a bit more modernized. In Germany, Prince Valiant is known as Prince Eisenherz, which translates as Prince Ironheart.

Volume 27 will be released in December 2023. The preview for it tells us that among other highlights, Mordred will return to make more trouble. I look forward to it.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition, plus works on Gothic literature and historical fiction, history, and biography. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com, www.GothicWanderer.com, and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

Mordred’s Daughter Takes Center Stage: Prince Valiant Volumes 24 and 25, 1983-1986

The Prince Valiant saga continues with two of the most significant volumes to date in the series from Fantagraphics. While most of the Prince Valiant strip encompasses individual episodic stories, these two volumes constitute a larger story arc.

One of my favorite things about the Prince Valiant strip has been watching Prince Valiant’s children grow up, and that remains true in these volumes. We begin with Valiant and Aleta’s youngest child who has been kidnapped and is eventually rescued. Nathan, as he ends up being named, is little more than an infant, while his older siblings range in age from Arn, now fully grown and old enough to achieve knighthood by the end of these volumes, to Karen and Valeta, the twin girls who are busy chasing after young men, and then Galen, whose age isn’t certain, but is probably about ten to twelve. All of the children provide plot lines relative to their various ages which helps to keep the humor of the strip going amid the more serious adventures.

But Arn is the child at the center of the most serious adventures in these two volumes. Earlier, he had met and fallen in love with Maeve, but he did not know that Maeve is Mordred’s daughter. In these volumes, he learns of her unfortunate parentage, but he continues to love her. Maeve also proves herself to be her father’s daughter only biologically. As Mordred plots to overthrow Camelot, she turns against him, resulting in him imprisoning her and Arn eventually having to rescue her.

The first volume ends with Mordred successfully capturing Camelot and taking over Britain. Arthur and his court flee first to France and then to Thule, which for the first time is depicted on a map, showing it is clearly modern-day Norway. Valiant father’s, King Aguar, willingly takes in King Arthur, since once upon a time (when the strip first opened), Arthur had provided shelter to Aguar and his people. Once in Thule, Arthur and his knights plot how to regain control of Britain. Along the way, there is an exciting plot involving a competition between two brothers for the throne of Lappland.

Eventually, Arthur makes an agreement with the Saxons of Saxony to let them settle in Britain in exchange for their assistance in overthrowing Mordred. Earlier, Arn had made an agreement with some other Saxons to guard parts of Britain. Arthur is slowly becoming used to the idea that Britain will no longer belong solely to the Britons, and he notes how the Romans and Britons’ blood mingled in the past, and now Saxon blood will mingle with them also. In the October 23, 1983 strip, he states that the Britons and really all peoples are mongrels and then, “if we must be mongrels, let us be mongrels in peace.”

Arthur is not so open-minded when he learns Arn is in love with Maeve, but once Maeve proves herself loyal to Arn and Arthur and not Mordred, he is more accepting of her and will eventually surprise everyone by his graciousness.

But first, Arthur, with the aid of the Saxons and the Viking Boltar, has to invade Britain again. Battles ensue. Arn rescues Maeve from Mordred’s prison, only to have her recaptured by Mordred, and then rescued again. After Mordred discovers Maeve’s escape through dungeon caverns, he is captured by the Dawn people, a diminutive people from ancient Britain who then help to save Camelot.

Once Arthur is back in power, he asks the Dawn People what became of Mordred. They tell him they do not know—that he must have escaped from them—but in truth, they want to bring about their own form of justice by sentencing him to life in a pit. It seems unlikely Mordred will ever escape, but given that he doesn’t die, I wouldn’t be surprised if he resurfaces later.

Of course, in the traditional Arthurian legend, Arthur and Mordred die while fighting together at the Battle of Camlann. Mordred’s effort in these volumes to conquer Camelot might be Prince Valiant’s take on Mordred’s treachery. Still, I suspect we will see more of Mordred, rather than just have a happy ending now, but for the time being, he has been vanquished.

All is now well and plans begin for Arn and Maeve’s wedding. Valiant gives Arn his mother’s ring to give to Maeve. However, it keeps falling off her finger, so she puts it in a cabinet for safekeeping. Aleta has some difficulty adjusting to the idea of having a daughter-in-law, and at first, there is some tension over the wedding planning, but in the end, it seems like Aleta and Maeve will get along. The most surprising moment comes when Arthur declares that since he has no children and Maeve is his relative (his niece since Mordred is his brother), that Maeve and Arn’s child shall rule Camelot after him, and should he die before the child is old enough to rule, Arn will be regent. And so the bloodline of Arthur and Valiant is mingled.

I was expecting the strip to end in 1986 with Maeve and Arn’s wedding, but it did not. Instead, it ends with the wedding ring disappearing. Fears it was stolen lead to Galen doing an investigation and discovering the cabinet Maeve placed it in once belonged to Merlin, so it must be a magical cabinet. The mystery of where it disappeared to will apparently be solved in the 1987 strip. Volume 25 ends with a preview of Volume 26 for 1987-1988 that says the strip celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with the marriage of Arn and Maeve, which suggests the wedding might not take place for a while yet.

Volume 24 is accompanied by an opening essay by Stan Sakai, a Japanese-Hawaiian cartoonist who writes about the blend of history and fantasy in the Prince Valiant strip and how it influenced his own work. The volume ends with an essay about the creation of Prince Valiant miniatures in Germany, where the strip has been popular, and numerous photos of the miniatures. Volume 25 includes an essay by Cullen Murphy who did the writing for the strip under his father John Cullen Murphy. His essay is about his mother and how she helped inspire some of the artwork, especially being a model for Aleta, and it is accompanied by his mother in several photographs in poses similar to those in the strip. The volume concludes with an essay by Meg (Murphy) Nash, John Cullen Murphy’s daughter, about her work helping her father with the lettering and coloring for the strip, which really made me appreciate the level of detail the strip required in the days before everything went digital, even down to making sure the newspapers used the right colors when reproducing it.

As Prince Valiant has progressed, at times the stories have become cliché and felt somewhat repetitive, but these four years reflect some of the finest storylines since the strip’s earliest years because of the larger arc to the story they provide. They make me want to continue on to see Arn and Maeve wed and their children grow up and to find out whether we have seen the last of Mordred.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition, plus works on Gothic literature and historical fiction, history, and biography. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com, www.GothicWanderer.com, and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

Latest Swithen Novel Takes Arthur from Boy to King

Wonderly Wroth is the fifth book in Scott Telek’s The Swithen series. The series retells the Arthurian legend from the birth of Merlin to the fall of Camelot. Telek plans twenty-five books total, and this newest addition ensures readers will be staying interested in the series for a long time to come.

Telek is not rushing the storyline in this series. The fourth book, The Flower of Chivalry, ended with the boy Arthur pulling the sword from the stone. Wonderly Wroth covers the roughly six months after that event, a time usually only brushed over in the chronicles and other Arthurian fiction. First, we have Arthur showing his father Sir Ector and brother Kay that he is able to pull the sword from the stone. Then the family tries to come to terms with what that will mean for all of them. Once Ector accepts that Arthur can pull the sword, the trio go to Archbishop Dubricius to convince him, and so a chain of events is set in motion in which Arthur again and again must prove himself the rightful king by drawing forth the late King Uther’s sword. Of course, the other kings of Britain are not happy. Arthur not only has to contend with King Lot’s displeasure, but he also has to face assassination attempts and a kidnapping. Most importantly, he must win over the common people to his cause.

The matter would all be easier if Arthur were himself convinced he was the rightful king. Here is where Telek really shines in developing his characters. Arthur is filled with self-questioning. He does not even know who his parents are, and no one seems quite able to tell him since no one really knows who he is or why he has been chosen to pull the sword when full grown men and nobles and knights are unable to do so. In time, Arthur comes under the protection of Sir Ulfius and Sir Bretel, who had once served High King Uther and the Lady Igraine, and after many conversations, they and Arthur come to realize Arthur is the child of Igraine and Uther—but even that discovery only leads to more problems. An issue from the past concerning Arthur’s parents and the two knights becomes the main storyline, and an opportunity to delve into the tension between two primary virtues of good knights: loyalty and honor.

None of what I’ve shared about the story here really gives away anything since almost everyone will know the Arthurian legend who reads the novel. Part of the magic of its retellings is we all know what will happen, but we enjoy how each author individually and creatively gets us to the key events. Telek likes to dwell in all these lost moments of uncertainty in the storyline and share how the characters come to cope with the situations that will shape them.

I won’t go into full detail about how Arthur eventually becomes king, but I will say that I loved when King Lot’s resistance led to him getting a moldy loaf of bread thrown at his head.

But there is much more happening in this novel than just Arthur’s immediate story. One of my favorite characters, although he is only briefly in the novel as a setup for future books, is Pellinore. Pellinore is a terrible womanizer in most versions of the legend and he lives up to that here, but he is also incredibly naïve about why women don’t like him. One of the funniest moments in the book is after he has forced a woman to his will, he professes his love for her and asks her to accompany him. When she refuses, he steals her dog as a souvenir of her, which only makes her more enraged. Then once he has parted with her, he realizes he doesn’t really want the dog and hopes it will just wander off and leave him alone.

Perhaps the strongest and most interesting aspect of the entire novel, however, is Telek’s depiction of the conflict between Christianity and the Pagan or fairy ways. Merlin and Viviane are the key characters who represent these different belief systems. Such conflict has been a staple of Arthurian legend, especially since Marion Zimmer Bradley’s monumental The Mists of Avalon. Numerous authors have treated the issue in a similar vein to her, and Telek joins this trend that usually ends with the Pagans looking better than the Christians, but he also puts some very original ideas into Viviane’s mouth as she argues her points. One of the most shocking things Viviane claims is that in two thousand years, humans will cease to exist and her kind will have the power again. Since the novel is set in the fifth century, that means we humans only have about 400 years left. Viviane’s discussions with Merlin make him question some of what he believes about how God has called him to manipulate events to bring Arthur to the throne and ensure the land is Christian. At the same time, Merlin seems determined to do what he believes is right, even when he’s not sure if his beliefs are right. Viviane, rather than getting angry with Merlin for such stubbornness, tells him to come to the lake when he will need her help—doubtless reflecting when she will give Arthur the sword in a future book.

Arthur also questions the status quo and others ideas of right and wrong. He is being taught that as king he must drive the Saxons from Britain, yet when he is told the story of Brutus, the founder of Britain, who invaded the island and killed the giants, he asks how Brutus taking Britain from the giants is any better than the Saxons taking it from the Britons. Such astute remarks make me suspect Merlin will not have an easy time getting Arthur to toe the line. Usually, Merlin is a mentor figure to Arthur, but Wonderly Wroth left me wondering whether Arthur might not prove to be the smarter of the two. Telek’s Arthur is definitely shaping up to be one of the more memorable depictions of the boy king in modern fiction.

The novel closes with a hint of things to come in Book 6 of the Swithen series. Of course, King Lot isn’t going to settle for moldy bread being thrown at his head, so stay tuned for Arthur to face his first battle as king. I’m eager to discover how Arthur will prevail.

For more information about Wonderly Wroth, the Swithen series, and future book releases, visit https://theswithen.wordpress.com/.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other novels and nonfiction works. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com, www.GothicWanderer.com, and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

The Plots Thicken: Prince Valiant Vols 22 and 23—1979-1982

The Prince Valiant saga continues in the latest two volumes reproduced by Fantagraphics, and I must say these are two of the best volumes yet in the series. Ironically, Volume 22 contains the last of creator Hal Foster’s contributions to the strip. He had already quit doing the final artwork some years earlier, handing it over to John Cullen Murphy, but through 1979, he continued to create the scripts and concepts for the artwork, until at age eighty-seven, he fully retired. The writing was then taken over by John Cullen Murphy’s son Cullen Murphy. With all due respect to Foster—for we would have no Prince Valiant without him, and his incredible work marked the strip’s first forty-two years—I feel there is no falling off in artwork after he left, and the plots, as evidenced at least in the first three years completely in the Murphys’ hands, may well be even stronger than in Foster’s original work. Having your successor keep up the momentum and quality of your work is rare indeed, and countless examples can be provided of works that have retained popularity but still fell off in quality when the original creator was no longer involved. One example is L. Frank Baum’s magnificent Oz novels. The series has continued for thirty-plus volumes after his original fourteen novels, but while they continue to be written and be popular, none of his successors ever really achieved the quality and whimsy of his original novels, as readable and enjoyable as many of those sequels are.

Volume 22 of Prince Valiant continues with one of my favorite elements of the strip, watching Valiant’s children grow up. We see his oldest son, Arn, now a squire to Sir Gawain and setting off on his first quest. Valiant’s youngest and fourth child, Galan, becomes a page so he can learn the manners of the court. The twin girls get less attention in these volumes, but they are ever present. Among the highlights of this volume are Arn and Gawain’s journey to the Isle of Man to help protect it from Viking raiders. In another storyline, Valiant is captured by brigands and sold into slavery, causing Arn to travel as far as the Sahara to find him, with a dramatic rescue happening during a sandstorm. Perhaps best of all, Mordred moves into the forefront of the plots beginning in this volume. In Prince Valiant, Mordred is Arthur’s half-brother, not his son, but he is just as evil. He begins to poison King Arthur to try to take the throne for himself, but of course, his plot is discovered. After Arthur recovers, he banishes Mordred from court, declaring “May your children scorn you and your grandchildren call you Judas.” This is a significant moment in the storyline, although the reader will not realize it for some time, but more of that in a moment. Several other adventures occur in this volume that I will leave for readers to discover on their own.

Volume 23’s highlights begin with a wild boy who comes to Camelot. When his presence leads to some tragic results, a female wanderer appears and tells Arthur and Valiant that they must pay for their pride. She then sends Valiant to find an old man in the Alps and ask him for humility. The quest has surprising results for Valiant, who receives from the old man a gold casket that he can’t believe is “humility.” When he brings it back to the female wanderer, she tells a story of how it contains her beauty, which she lost because of pride. She will return into the strip later.

Next, Valiant journeys to his father’s kingdom of Thule where he meets up with Arn. Mordred reenters the plot because he is in Thule, plotting behind the scenes to get his revenge on Valiant for foiling his plot to poison Arthur. He ultimately overthrows Valiant’s father, King Aguar, driving him from the kingdom and back to living in Britain’s fens, bringing the strip back to its origins, since Aguar refuses to take charity from Arthur. Then Mordred makes an alliance with the Picts and attacks Camelot. We are told many records of the events of this time are lost because they were destroyed during the pillaging. Valiant’s twin daughters and son Galan are sent for safety to Ireland where Galan learns a secret of the High King of Ireland; he then basically blackmails the king into going to Camelot’s aid. All is righted in the end; Camelot and Thule are returned to their rightful rulers. A dramatic fight at sea between Mordred and Arn as Mordred escapes results in Arn falling into the sea and washing up on the shore of a remote island where he meets the beautiful huntress Maeve. He is smitten with her, but she rejects his love, and through the rest of the volume, we find him pining over her.

Meanwhile, Aleta is pregnant again, to Valiant’s surprise. She decides to return to her kingdom of the Misty Isles to give birth to the child. On the way, she and Valiant visit Constantinople, where they meet Justinian, nephew of the Emperor Justin. Justinian has feelings for Aleta, but he also has a wife, Theodora. He wants a male heir, but Theodora, though pregnant again, has only produced boys. Through his evil plotting, Justinian has Aleta’s newborn son kidnapped, planning to switch babies if Theodora has a girl. When Theodora has a boy, the doctor who lied and told Aleta her son was stillborn decides to take Aleta’s baby and give it to a peasant couple. Eventually, Valiant learns what has happened, and Arn sets out on a quest to find his baby brother, who has been adopted by a Jewish family and named Nathan. As the volume ends, Justinian, now emperor, is plotting to kill all the Jewish babies to stop Valiant from finding his child, but Arn has just discovered him.

Interwoven into the search for the lost child is the story of Galan’s friendship with Yuan Chen, a scholar from Cathay (China) who makes the boy begin to be curious and think about math and science topics. Eventually, Yuan Chen convinces Valiant to let Galan travel with him to India. Valiant agrees but sends a guard with him. Galan and Yuan Chen have their own adventures when they arrive at their destination.

What I loved especially about Volume 23 was that often two plots were going on simultaneously, which made the pacing better. Frankly, in some of the earlier volumes the plotting got kind of boring.

Like all previous volumes, there are opening and closing essays. Volume 22 begins with an article by Cullen Murphy first published in The Atlantic in 1994. I loved reading it because I read it when it was first published in The Atlantic at the time I was beginning work on my book King Arthur’s Children. It was my first introduction to the Prince Valiant strip and revealed something interesting to me—that Valiant’s son marries Mordred’s daughter and their child will inherit Arthur’s kingdom. Although it would be years before I would religiously begin reading the strip, I was intrigued from that point on. Spoiler alert: In Volume 24, it appears it will be revealed that the woman Arn loves, Maeve, is Mordred’s daughter and a love affair will ensue.

The final essay in Volume 23 discusses historicity in the Prince Valiant strip, which is interesting because it points out both the depth of research Foster and the Murphys did to make the setting appropriate to the days of King Arthur and where they introduced anachronisms. For example, by providing a timeline of Valiant’s life, he would have to be ninety-nine years old to live long enough to meet the Emperor Justinian. Oh well, the storylines are fun if we don’t try to impose too much historical accuracy on them.

Volume 24 has an essay on art, including the role of nature in the strip. It includes mention of other strips that were influenced by Foster, including mention that he was himself influenced by Howard Pyle. The concluding essay is really a collection of the drawings/scripts Foster created to work from.

Overall, I would say these volumes created a real resurgence of interest in the Prince Valiant strip for me, especially with Mordred being brought more to the forefront. I eagerly await Volume 24, to be released in December 2021.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other novels and nonfiction works. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com, www.GothicWanderer.com, and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

New Movie Depicts Mordred’s Efforts to Marry Guinevere

A lot of bad King Arthur movies have been made over the years. Fortunately, Arthur and Merlin: Knights of Camelot (2020) is far from the worst of them, though it’s not one of the good ones either. Overall, I would give the film a C+ because it does a few interesting things, despite the pacing being slow, the picture often dark and dreary, and the story, as usual, not following the tradition.

First off, the film is badly titled. Merlin makes an appearance, but it’s pretty brief and not super-integral to the plot. If he had been left out it, it would have been no great loss. The subtitle is ridiculous since it suggests Arthur and Merlin are Knights of Camelot, but one is a king and the other a wizard. The knights are in the film but it’s not about them either. A better title would have been Arthur and Mordred or Mordred and Guinevere.

The best thing about the film is that it tells the story of Mordred’s attempt to take over the kingdom, including marrying Guinevere. In many Arthurian films, Mordred is the villain, but this is the first one in which he tries to force Guinevere into marriage as happens in traditional versions of the legend. The film supposedly takes place in 463 AD when Arthur goes to Europe to fight the Roman Emperor, leaving Mordred at home in charge of the kingdom. The date is too early as any Arthurian scholar would know. Arthur’s journey to the continent was likely in the 520s or 530s, depending on what date you want to give his death at the Battle of Camlann, but it was definitely after Rome fell and an upstart claimed to be Roman Emperor.

While on the continent, Arthur is pretty pathetic. Honestly, I didn’t follow much of this part of the plot other than that Arthur was self-doubting of his abilities and seemed to be kind of a weenie. I would have missed a lot of what was going on if not for having read the film description on the back cover of the DVD. (I found it for $7.99 at Menards—I wouldn’t pay more for it.) The film moves slowly, and it is very dark—it’s often hard to see which man is which since many look alike and all have beards, and I admit I closed my eyes more than once and nearly napped while watching so I probably missed some plot points.

The strongest part of the film are the portrayals by Mordred and Guinevere. Mordred wants the throne for himself and he tries to force Guinevere into marriage, even telling her that if she will not marry him, he will kill her. We see him making sexual advances to her, stating the kingdom is his and that makes her body his. Sir Lancelot shows up and tries to help but ends up imprisoned and ineffective for most of the film. Nothing special about this Lancelot at all. Kind of a dud.

There are a couple of other female main characters, but honestly, I never figured out quite who they were or what they were doing. I thought one might be the Lady of the Lake, but I think they were Saxons Mordred was in league with. The dialogue is also often quiet, not necessarily hard to hear, but neither is it written so that the watcher can easily follow who is who or what their relationships are.

Time for a spoiler alert: So of course, with a little help from Merlin, Arthur quits being pathetic and decides he’ll be the king his country needs. He returns to Britain and fights Mordred. The filmmakers’ choices here are interesting but not necessarily understandable. A battle ensues fought inside Camelot, in which Lancelot is freed. Arthur battles Mordred and defeats him, but lets him go free, warning him never to show his face again. Mordred scrambles away, leaving us to wonder if he’ll live to fight another day. Was this battle in the castle meant to be the Battle of Camlann, or is it a prelude to the battle to come since Arthur and Mordred are both still alive? Arthur is left back in control of his kingdom, but he sees Lancelot and Guinevere ride off together, meaning he is basically alone. The film has played fast and loose with the chronology of the traditional events that led to the downfall of Camelot, and it’s not clear at all why the filmmakers didn’t have Mordred and/or Arthur die in the end. The result is no going off to Avalon, no hand catching the sword as it is thrown into the lake. Instead, we have a flat ending that leaves more questions than answers and no cathartic moment that the legend usually evokes.

I do give the film credit for trying. As I said, I was intrigued by the depiction of Mordred and Guinevere’s relationship, which I don’t think has been depicted in film before. Guinevere’s marriage to Mordred has always been controversial among scholars, causing debates on whether or not Guinevere was in alliance with Mordred or forced by him into marrying her. (See my previous blog “While Arthur Was Away, Did Mordred with Guinevere Play?”) In this film, it is clear Guinevere is only interested in Lancelot, not Mordred.

The other aspect of the film I enjoyed was the scenery, including the castles. Camelot appears to be on the coast of Britain, which is wrong, but while the lighting in the film made it hard to enjoy the story, it did show how light would flow through large castle windows and reflected the reality of the dinginess of the era.

All in all, I think this film may bear a rewatching so I can better follow the plot and figure out who some of the characters were. I’ll have to watch it when I’m less tired since it nearly put me to sleep. If you really are desperate for a new King Arthur movie to watch that won’t make you completely appalled, you might give Arthur and Merlin: Knights of Camelot a try.

A few other reviews of the film are a little harsher than mine, though I have to admit I agree with them about everything. If you’re still undecided whether to watch, check out:

https://readysteadycut.com/2020/07/13/arthur-merlin-knights-of-camelot-review/

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/arthur-merlin-knights-of-camelot/

You can view the trailer at: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/arthur-merlin-knights-of-camelot

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other books. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

New Novel Offers Original Take on Gawain and Lancelot’s Friendship

Paul McLerran’s new novel Gawain: A Novel of Arthurian Legend is a retelling of Sir Gawain’s life in one volume that sheds new light on the character, and especially his friendship with Sir Lancelot. McLerran obviously has done his homework in researching the character of Sir Gawain, and in his end notes, he discusses his sources for various parts of the novel. While largely following traditional Arthurian sources, he also makes some surprising and enjoyable changes.

Paul McLerran’s Gawain is a faithful and fun retelling about one of King Arthur’s greatest knights

The novel opens with Gawain in his youth. His father Lot was killed by King Arthur when he rebelled against him, leaving Gawain and his brothers in the care of his mother Morgause. McLerran wisely has Gaheris dead in childhood since he’s always been a rather pointless character. The other brothers, Gareth, Agravain, and Mordred, however, are all here. Morgause decides to send Gawain, Gareth, and Agravain to Camelot to a tournament early in the novel. Her purpose is to have her sons infiltrate Camelot and eventually avenge their father, but Gawain shows such skill and promise that Arthur quickly notices him and convinces him to stay at Camelot and become a Knight of the Round Table.

From there, Gawain’s story follows the traditional pattern. He quickly befriends Lancelot, and we are treated to several familiar stories, including Guinevere’s abduction by Meliagaunt and Lancelot’s rescuing of her, which Gawain doesn’t partake in, but it makes him observant of Lancelot and the queen’s relationship going forward. Other more typically Gawain-focused stories include twists on the story of Dame Ragnell, here named Raquel, and Gawain’s encounter with the Green Knight.

Ultimately, the fall of Camelot begins, and Gawain ends up waging war with King Arthur against Lancelot, due to his anger over Gareth’s death at Lancelot’s hand.

None of these stories are really surprising to fans of Arthurian legend, but they are enjoyable to read for the twists McLerran gives them. I won’t give them away and spoil the fun of reading them for yourself.

However, one departure from tradition that surprised me but also gave some new life to the legend was how Lancelot is treated as rather coarse and as a ladies’ man. In more traditional sources, Lancelot is virtuous and only just fails to achieve the Holy Grail because of his love for Guinevere, which he is usually depicted as being tormented over. Here, however, he is a bit of a man whore. Gawain also is far more virtuous, or at least virginal, than in some more medieval versions where he tends to be the one more likely to be a ladies’ man. Regardless, they become friends and nicely balance each other out in the novel.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Holy Grail stories within the legend, but I was surprised that McLerran leaves them out for the most part. The Holy Grail figures in the novel, but McLerran does not have the knights go questing for it. It has always been rather an interruption to the main tales in my opinion, but it also allows for Lancelot to be more virtuous and sympathetic, which is perhaps a reason to shy away from it in this novel. Still, I felt like a bit of the story was missing here, though it may have been too much of a distraction.

One additional clever change I liked is that McLerran makes Mordred a bit more conniving than in other versions. While Mordred has always taken advantage of the situation of Arthur’s departure, here it is clear he purposely allows Lancelot to escape from being caught with Guinevere. He does this so Arthur will go to wage war against Lancelot, thus leaving Albion and making his throne more vulnerable.

While Camelot does fall, the end of the novel is rather a surprising departure I did not see coming that added a bit of a happier ending to the story that I think readers will find satisfying.

Finally, I have to mention that I liked that McLerran stated that his depiction of Gawain as a general waiting to battle Lancelot, which starts each section of the novel, is a tribute to the frame of the play/film of Camelot that begins with Arthur as a general on the eve of battle. Anyone who wants to pay tribute to Camelot is all right in my book since it’s my all-time favorite movie.

All in all, Gawain: A Novel of Arthurian Legend is both a revealing and entertaining new interpretation of the legend and particularly the character of Gawain.

For more information about Paul McLerran and Gawain: A Novel of Arthurian Legend, visit https://paulmclerran.com/. When there, be sure to check out his blog posts where McLerran discusses more about why he wrote the novel and how he fell in love with Arthurian legend.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other books. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

Prince Valiant Volumes 20 and 21

Prince Valiant’s story continues in these two volumes produced by Fantagraphics. This time, they are solely the work of John Cullen Murphy, Hal Foster’s successor, other than the 2000^th installment of the strip in Volume 20, which summarizes the key points of Valiant’s story and was drawn by Foster. The years of these volumes run from 1975-1978. I’ll summarize a few of the highlights here. But be forewarned there are some spoilers.

As this cover shows, Aleta always steals in the show in the Prince Valiant strip.

Volume 20 includes more of Prince Arn, Valiant’s son, who has become one of my favorite characters as we have watched him grow up. Here he meets twin princes, one of whom ends up murdering the other.

Aleta, Valiant’s wife, is another favorite character of mine. This time she and Valiant return to the Misty Isles, and on the way, Hashida the Sorcerer falls in love with her, kidnaps her, and hypnotizes her. Of course, Valiant rescues her, but Aleta won’t let him kill Hashida, explaining to him that if he kills everyone who loves her, he’ll decimate the male population.

Aleta’s banished sister, Helene, figures in the story also. Years ago, her husband plotted against Aleta. Now the husband is killed in a gambling fight and she is taken as a prize by the winner, so Valiant has to rescue her also.

Finally, Arn is sent to Camelot to begin to learn statecraft so he is ready someday to be a king.

In addition, a short but interesting essay is included at the end of Volume 20 by Michael Dean about stereotypical racial characters in the Valiant strip, particularly a very short segment in which a moneylender’s depiction led to an outcry by Jewish readers that he was a stereotype, even though the strip did not name him as a Jew. While Murphy was writing the strip at this time, Foster saw fit to respond with an apology. The essay mentions that in earlier strips Foster was sensitive to depictions of Jewish characters, but also that a larger study of racism and stereotypes in Foster needs to be made—something I agree with, for there are a lot of stereotypical racial characters in the strip, but at the same time, the strip is partly a product of its time and also has the problem of being very wide-reaching in allowing Valiant to travel over most of the known world at the time and consequently to come into contact with people from many different lands, some of whom have to be villains and some decent people to add interest to the plots. That is an oversimplification so I hope someone will write an in-depth article or book on racism in the strip.

John Cullen Murphy’s art work perfectly captures the style Foster created for the script.

Volume 21 begins with an interesting article about the “historicity” of Prince Valiant, which discusses the strip’s connection to the Arthurian legend and gives a fair overview of the development of the Arthurian legend and its sources while noting that Foster made reference to many events such as the quest for the Holy Grail and the love story of Tristan and Iseult while going off into Valiant’s own stories rather than focusing on the Arthurian ones. What is important and interesting here is how hard Foster tried to be historical, clearly setting the strip in the fifth and sixth centuries in the time when the Roman Empire had fallen and before the rise of the high Middle Ages. In fact, Foster was writing one of the earliest versions of Arthurian fiction that tried to be historical rather than being simply romance, although a few Arthurian novels predate it such as W. Barnard Faraday’s Pendragon (1930).

While there are several stories in Volume 21, for me the best were Valiant’s daughter Karen’s desire to become a warrior queen, and then the story of how Arn travels to Thule and reunites with Lydia, daughter of King Haakon, whom he has fallen in love with. Sadly, Lydia dies in a tragic accident, leaving Arn mourning. I trust Arn will find love in a future volume—there are even hints by the end of this one that he will. Meanwhile, Arn grown a mustache, showing us he is now fully grown.

The upcoming Volume 22 promises to return us more closely to the Arthurian plot as Arthur’s half-brother Mordred plots to usurp the throne. Stay tuned for more.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other books. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com and www.MarquetteFiction.com.

Why Netflix’s Pseudo-Arthurian Series “Cursed” Fails

While many people seem to have enjoyed Cursed, those of us who are diehard Arthurian legend fans approached it with skepticism and little hope of anything good, and we were not wrong. Cursed is little short of a travesty—for many reasons. Spoiler alert if you read farther.

Cursed is at best a mediocre fantasy series. As an Arthurian fantasy, it is a disaster. There are so many things wrong with this show that I am not going to waste my time listing all of them. I thought it was terrible from the first episode, and I was ready to quit, but when others told me they had gotten through the whole thing and enjoyed it, I decided to keep watching. There were a couple of decent episodes, but the overall concept of the show is basically insulting to anyone who loves the Arthurian legend like I do. I have read well over 100 Arthurian novels, have written five of my own, as well as one nonfiction Arthurian book, and have watched every TV show and movie possible about the Arthurian legend. Many of those books, TV shows, and movies have been discussed at this blog for the last decade. In my opinion, the lowest of the low is King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, but Cursed comes in second, even edging out the Starz Camelot TV series.

Lily Newmark (left) as Pym and Katherine Langford as Nimue. Pym is one of the few entertaining characters in the show even though she’s completely not Arthurian. Langford does a good job as Nimue–too bad she didn’t have a better script to work from.

Here’s a short and far from complete list of what’s wrong with this show:

• The characters’ backstories are obliterated
• Uther Pendragon is illegitimate and not Arthur’s father, which destroys Arthur’s backstory
• The Weeping Monk is Lancelot—this will likely be explained in Season 2 if Netflix continues the series (hopefully it won’t)—but it completely removes all of Lancelot’s backstory, including his being raised by the Lady of the Lake
• Merlin has a fictional backstory of having lived for centuries, which isn’t in keeping with the legend
• Merlin claims to have known Charlemagne, which is completely unhistorical since Charlemagne lived three hundred years after King Arthur
• Uther is said to be King of England, but there is no England at this time—it’s Britain. It became England after the Anglo-Saxons conquered the country, which happened after the time of Arthur
• The Sword of Power is just a cheesy name—just call it Excalibur already
• Gawain is not the Green Knight—the Green Knight is his adversary historically
• Many of the characters have little if anything to do with the characters whose names they bear in Arthurian legend. A good website explaining the Arthurian versions of the characters is https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/cursed-characters-explained-arthurian-names-references. In any case, it feels like the creators of this show just picked names to give to people regardless of their origins.

I could go on, but like I said, life is too short. The show did do a couple of things right:

• I like that Morgana is in a nunnery when she is first introduced
• I liked the references to Celtic myth—e.g., Ceridwen’s cauldron—and to historical people like Queen Boudicca

But the number one reason this show fails so abysmally is that it can’t decide just what it is—history or fantasy or even a plausible mix of both. Traditionally since the twelfth century when the Arthurian legends first became popular in written form, the legend’s retellings have fallen into two primary categories: chronicles and romances. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain is an example of a chronicle. Chronicles at least pretend to be telling historical, realistic tales of British history. Romances began with Chretien de Troyes’ The Knight of the Cart and his other works. These works tend to be less interested in claiming King Arthur is historical and instead focusing on romances between the characters and on magic.

This division between chronicle and romance has continued into modern Arthurian fiction. We have more fantastical works like T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, which would be considered romance or fantasy fiction, and we have works like Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset, which tries to create a historical King Arthur, making it part of the chronicles tradition.

The multicultural fey

At times, given the strong propensity for magic in the Arthurian legend, modern authors try to create relatively realistic and historical works—especially in recent decades as interest in the search for the historical King Arthur has grown—while throwing in just a pinch of magic. Novelists have tried overall to depict Arthur in his historical period in the decades after the Romans left Britain and just before the Saxons took over the majority of what is England today. This period is roughly 410 A.D (the year the Romans left Britain) and 539 A.D. (the year Arthur traditionally died at the Battle of Camlann). Most novels try to maintain this time period, and even the fantasy novels tone down the magic, trying to make it feel plausible or tying it to Pagan religious traditions. Books fitting into this category would include Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, and my own Children of Arthur series, which I describe as historical fantasy. In such cases, the authors makes a lot of effort to be historical in terms of dates and historical people included, while at the same time having a little magic for the excitement of the plot.

I am fine with playing a little fast and loose with the Arthurian legend because it is set in a period we do not know enough about historically to determine if Arthur was real or not, and consequently, authors can use artistic license. This is a true benefit of the legend that has allowed it continually to reinvent itself for centuries. However, there comes the point where it can be over the top. Giant magical snakes the size of castles in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword are one example.

In Cursed, the over-the-top historical distortions leave me appalled and almost completely unable to suspend disbelief. One example is the way the Catholic Church is treated in the series. The Pope and his followers are completely corrupt and intent on stamping out not just Pagan religions but the “fey” or fairies. The problem with this is that in Arthurian times, the Celtic Church still held sway and the Catholic Church had not acquired the power over Britain that it would by the end of the sixth century. Furthermore, the Church would not have had an army of Paladins as depicted in the film. This is just yet another cliché about the corrupt Church, which is constantly attacked in the media today, never giving any credit to the many good things it did in the Middle Ages or in modern times. Also problematic is that in some scenes, one wonders if the show is set in Britain or in Africa. I am all for multicultural casts in stories with modern settings, but this “blackwashing” of history does a disservice to people of all colors. It is not historically accurate. It is as much an insult to people of British descent who value their culture as was John Wayne being cast as Genghis Khan was an insult to Asians. I understand the pendulum is swinging the other way now, and perhaps this is warranted, but it gives a very distorted and unrealistic view of history that ultimately does a disservice. Any perversion of history is ultimately detrimental to the human race in understanding its own past. Granted, many of the members of the multicultural cast are fey in the show, but Arthur is not fey. He is not even the son of Uther Pendragon in the film. Perhaps a second season will explain how he will justifiably become king, but right now, his presence in Britain is a confusion. I am sure many will disagree with me on this point. As I said, I am all for multicultural programs. I am just not for distorting history.

In short, Cursed does not at all pretend to be in any way depicting a historical Britain. When it does drop historical references to the “King of England” and Queen Boudicca and Charlemagne—it just seems to make a bigger mess by being anachronistic. Then it creates a bunch of characters who are not in the legend at all, and it plays fast and loose with the traditional characters until they are not recognizable as their Arthurian counterparts.

The BBC’s Merlin TV series was far more successful than Cursed, although I know it had its critics, because it did not pretend to be working within the time frame of British history. It took our Arthurian characters and placed them in a fictional land called Albion (granted, a historical name for England). It never referenced Christianity or any past moments in British history. Even the Old Religion that Uther was fighting against was kept vague enough to be clearly fantasy and not any legitimate Celtic religion. Merlin also better developed its characters. It was lighter in tone and allowed you to get to know the characters. Cursed has so much action and bloodshed all over the place there is hardly time to get to know anyone.

Finally, what is most lacking in Cursed is any sort of spiritual or moral element. No one in this show has any vision of what they are fighting for. There is no belief in restoring peace and order to Britain. There is no sense of creating a land of justice. There is not even mourning for the good old days of the Roman Empire or even the pre-Roman Celtic days. At one point, there is a passing reference to the Holy Grail, but what does that mean to the show? We are given no clue. There is no religious element—the Church is utterly corrupt, but we don’t know why. We don’t understand why the Church is against the fey. Most importantly, no one seems intent on being a good person. I can’t imagine one person in this show would go on a quest for the Holy Grail. I think they’d all laugh at it. There is no sincerity and no reverence for what the legend is based on. Even Merlin is a drunk. At its roots, the Arthurian legend is a deeply spiritual body of work. It is about using might for right. It is about overcoming your sins and cleansing and purifying your soul. It is about following the impossible dream. At the end of the traditional legend, Lancelot becomes a monk. Cursed turns this on its head by making him into a murderous monk from the outset. It is sacrilegious. It is cheap. It is disgusting. It is insulting.

Left to right, the Weeping Monk (Lancelot), Nimue, and Arthur

Sadly, no great Arthurian film has yet been made. My favorite remains the 1967 Camelot based on the Broadway musical and loosely based on T. H. White’s The Once and Future King. Besides the fact that I love musicals, it is my favorite because I feel it is the film that gets most to the heart of the deep spiritual and philosophical message that the Arthurian legend tries to portray. Excalibur (1981) also has its good points and is one of the closest in telling a complete version of the legend, although Arthur is a bit too cheesy for me. Perhaps Knights of the Round Table (1953) comes closest to Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, which is the true epitome of the legend—both the culmination of the medieval versions and the work that everything since has built from, consciously or not. And I only gave Knights of the Round Table 3 out of 5 stars when I reviewed it at my blog because it is overly morally cleaned up for a 1950s audience, but the magic, the spirituality, and the adventure is all there. By comparison to Cursed, it is near-perfection.

At the end of the day, Cursed will be forgotten beside these stronger shows. Cursed is just a fantasy that stole a bunch of Arthurian names and a magical sword for its own purposes—which can only be to make money for Netflix, because it doesn’t seem to aim for anything higher despite all the hype that it’s a feminist retelling of the legend—as if there haven’t been countless retellings from the female characters’ points of view—anyone ever heard of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Persia Woolley, Rosalind Miles, Nancy McKenzie, or Nicole Evelina’s novels? Cursed doesn’t care about creating strong female characters unless it means ratings for Netflix. It only uses Arthurian names for publicity. I cannot call it real Arthuriana. Consequently, I give it a D+. If it commits the travesty of continuing into a second season, it deserves a D- unless major efforts are made to redeem it. Had it been simply a fantasy series and it had changed its characters names to be non-Arthurian—because most viewers wouldn’t have realized it was Arthurian anyway—I’d have given it a C. After all, it does work as a fantasy, albeit a violent, amoral one.

Hollywood and Netflix, you can do better.

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Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, Lilith’s Love, and Arthur’s Bosom. He has also written the nonfiction scholarly works King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition and The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, plus numerous other books. You can learn more about Tyler at www.ChildrenofArthur.com.

Book 4 of Swithen Series Enticingly Reimagines King Arthur’s Childhood

Scott Telek’s Swithen series about the Arthurian legend just keeps getting better and better. The fourth book, The Flower of Chivalry, has just been published, and in it, Telek imagines an incredible childhood for King Arthur, culminating in his pulling the sword from the stone.

I have previously reviewed the first three books in the series, beginning with Our Man on Earth. The first two books focused on Merlin’s early life and the third book on Arthur’s conception. This fourth book begins with Arthur as a young boy living with his foster parents, Sir Carlyle Ector and Nerida, and foster brother, Kay. Neither his adopted family, nor Arthur know who he really is, and Arthur does not even know he is not Carlyle and Nerida’s real son, although as the novel progresses, Kay comes to guess the truth, resulting in Arthur becoming very conflicted about who he is.

Telek’s goal is to retell the Arthurian legend, sticking to the early and most revered of the medieval texts without in any way swaying from them, other than to fill in the blanks. Here he has had a lot of room for liberties since little was written of Arthur’s childhood by the medieval authors other than that Arthur went to a tournament with his brother Kay as Kay’s squire, forgot to bring Kay’s sword to the tournament, and unwittingly borrowed a sword he found in a churchyard, not realizing it was the sword—the sword in the stone, the pulling out of which would make one rightful king of Britain. Consequently, Telek has a lot of fun getting the reader to that important event, and he imagines Arthur’s childhood fully in surprising ways that are both entertaining while still keeping the tone of the earlier texts.

There are many good things to write about in this book. Arthur’s rivalry with Kay is fully explored as Arthur comes to realize he is different from his foster brother who is rather a lout, at times jealous of Arthur, and far more violent and far less thoughtful. Things come to a head in Arthur and Kay’s relationship when they discover a giant frog that Kay tries to kill and Arthur tries to protect. Kay ends up ripping off the frog’s leg, but Arthur manages to arrange for the frog to get away. Kay then declares he will find the frog and kill it, so Arthur finds it first and takes it a new place where it will be safe.

This is not just any frog, but one that grows to be about three feet tall. It is seen as a monstrosity by Kay, who declares it a threat to children so it must be killed. Arthur, however, ends up befriending “Frog” and developing a relationship with him. In time, Frog becomes something between a friend and a pet, being intelligent enough to interact with Arthur while not quite being able to speak. Frog also has the ability to regenerate his leg.

I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes between Arthur and Frog while wondering what made Telek decide to include Frog as a character since he seems rather out of place in this Arthurian universe, but eventually, Frog’s purpose in the book becomes very clear and I totally embraced it.

Another important theme in the book is the treatment of women and a knight’s duty to protect them. This theme hearkens back to Malory where there is initially a great deal of violence against women in Arthur’s early reign, including the violence of Balin against the Lady of the Lake. Telek remains focused on Arthur’s childhood in this book although there is the occasional chapter that briefly reminds us of Balan and Balin, Morgan and Morgause, and other characters who will play bigger roles in later books. But the primary issue concerning the protection of women in the novel is that Sir Ector is a knight of Duke Moreland and Duke Moreland has his eye on Nerida, which puts Arthur’s family in a difficult situation. There is no real justice in Britain since Uther died and no new high king has been found. Ultimately, Arthur must take matters into his own hands.

To say more about these events that Telek creates where there was a void in the Arthurian legend would be to give too much away, but I’m not spoiling anything by mentioning the tournament where Arthur pulls the sword from the stone. I marveled at all the detail Telek provides about the tournament. He completely brings it to life, showing us the excitement of the boys in going to the tournament, their feelings of being in a large city for the first time, the noise and crowds, the meals served at the inn, the excitement over the contest to pull the sword out of the stone, and finally, when Arthur does so, the mayhem that results as people try to fathom how a boy can become their high king.

I don’t think anyone has as thoroughly and convincingly imagined Arthur’s childhood as Scott Telek has done. This book far surpasses T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone for being far more serious and far better thought out, both as a stand-alone work, and as a vital link to the previous novels in Telek’s The Swithen series and those yet to come. Finally, I would like to mention that Merlin’s mother Meylinde makes her final appearance in this novel. She has become a favorite character of mine for her wisdom in the previous novels and her ability to keep Merlin in line, and she does not disappoint in this novel. I am only sorry to see her go, but Telek has planted plenty of other interesting characters in these pages for us to enjoy journeying with in the future books.

I highly recommend The Flower of Chivalry and all of the Swithen series and am eagerly awaiting the rest of the books in the series. There will be twenty-five total. Keep them coming, Scott!

For more information about The Flower of Chivalry, Scott Telek, and the Swithen series, visit https://theswithen.wordpress.com/.