Camelot’s Queen is Nicole Evelina’s new novel and the second in the Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy. Evelina’s first novel, Daughter of Destiny, introduced readers to a new version of Guinevere, focusing on a part of the story often ignored—her childhood and youth in the years prior to her meeting and marrying King Arthur. Evelina gave us many surprises in that novel, from a childhood spent in Avalon to a lover no one would have expected. Consequently, when Guinevere’s marriage to Arthur is arranged, she is not happy to be parted from the man she truly loves.
Camelot’s Queen picks up with Guinevere’s wedding to King Arthur and covers most of her adult life. Never fear, she still has her love affair with Lancelot, is accused of treason, nearly burnt at the stake, and at the end of the novel, is rescued by Lancelot, leaving the door open for what will happen in the upcoming third novel. However, while Camelot’s Queen focuses on the more mainstream events of Guinevere’s life, Evelina clearly makes it her own, not only in her depiction of a feisty, sometimes hot-headed and selfish, sometimes wise, Queen Guinevere, but also in how she rewrites traditional parts of the legend such as Guinevere’s abduction by Malegant and the Quest for the Holy Grail. Evelina also creates new characters such as Guinevere’s new and unwanted female bodyguard, and she realigns other characters’ roles, especially that of Morgan, who is Guinevere’s rival.
For the most part, this is a realistic novel, although Evelina uses Celtic cultural influences in the story with just a touch of magic to them; for example, Guinevere’s training in Avalon allows her to have some small control over the elements, such as being able to create clouds and make it rain.
Evelina also gives a new spin on the conflict between Christianity and Paganism that has become mainstream to the legend in recent years, but no one would have suspected that Morgan, of all people, would convert to Christianity while Guinevere holds out against it—how that situation develops is quite stunning and to explain it here would be to take away pleasure from the reader. I will say, however, that I found this element the most interesting theme in the novel, and I was especially impressed by how Evelina treats the Holy Grail in relation to it.
An Author’s Note at the end gives some of Evelina’s reasons for the changes she made to the traditional storyline as well as insight into her extensive research into the Arthurian period, including visits to Arthurian places and consulting with Arthurian scholar Geoffrey Ashe.
As an Arthurian novelist myself, I found Evelina’s interpretations sometimes surprising, but usually dramatically effective. Her choices were certainly interesting, and not being a purist—why read Arthurian modern fiction if you are?—I was often delighted with her choices and her imaginative realigning of many Arthurian characters and themes. I especially found the family lineages and characters’ relationships interesting because Evelina uses them to explain some often confusing aspects of the legend, including the connections between the different nobles and royals of Cornwall, as well as Arthur’s own family tree and his relationship to Morgan. The book also moves at a quick pace—in a few places a little too quick I thought where I would have liked more details—but Evelina provides plenty of details in the key scenes, and in some of the places where I wanted more, I suspect Evelina intentionally held back to build up suspense for the third book in the series, Mistress of Legend, which will be published in 2017.
Anyone who loves strong female protagonists—or let’s face it, the Arthurian legend—will find plenty to enjoy, ponder, and discuss in Camelot’s Queen.
For more information about Nicole Evelina and Camelot’s Queen, visit her website at www.NicoleEvelina.com
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Tyler Tichelaar, Ph.D., is the author of The Children of Arthur series, which includes the novels Arthur’s Legacy, Melusine’s Gift, Ogier’s Prayer, and the upcoming 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. You can learn more about him at www.ChildrenofArthur.com.
Well, Nicole Evelina is not the first in making Morgan a christian. I remember Bernard Cornwell’s Morgan, who converts to the Church and even marries a bishop! (and a pretty ugly one, by the way). I loved Cornwall’s novels on Arthuriana, but I hated that part. I hated how he handled this character and how he erased her to the barge of Avalon to have Guinevere ferrying Arthur to Avalon! Guinevere!!!
Thanks for the comment, Morgan. I forgot about how Cornwell treated Morgan. Of course, she needs to be on the barge, though traditionally, so is the Queen of Northgallis, which could be interpreted as Guinevere. In Evelina’s novel Morgan is still the bad girl, even if she is a Christian. In my own novels, she’s one of the good guys, though, and definitely not a Christian.
Oh, I know this post is about Evelina´s novel and I don´t want to stole it, but I must add a couple of things. First of all, I can´t accept Guinevere as the Queen of Northgalis. The Queen of Northgalis is a fellow enchantress and ally to Morgan, not a random title which appears at the end of the novel (I´m speaking about Malory, of course). Or I could say the Queen of Northgalis is Morgan herself, by her marriage with Uriens, and later authors splitted the character in two, and so did Malory. Guinevere can not be on the barge; she is Arthur earthly wife, no less, but no more. When Arthur dies, she has nothing to do with him.
And about the bad/good girl thing, I will say I don´t mind. I don´t think on terms of good and bad, but of course I find strange to be both a sorceress and a Christian, unless you are a wise woman of a later period or a Cuban practicioner of santería.
Well, that’s why we write fiction – so we can all come up with our own interpretations. In Arthur’s Legacy, I made Guinevere Queen of Northgallis specifically so she could have a moment of forgiveness with Arthur at the end and because that character is so vague anyway that no one really knows who she is anyway in Malory. As for Morgan being a Christian and a sorceress, well, she has skills from Avalon in Evelina’s novel and I believe her motivations to become Christian are not based in any sort of spiritual desire but out of selfishness to manipulate others but we’ll have to wait for the third book in the series to know for sure.
You are right; fiction, and especially Arthurian fiction, is free and each author can come with his/her own interpretations. Just Guinevere been forgiven by Arthur is not my cup of tea. (I prefer the Scottish version where she is torn into pieces by horses). Being a writer (unfortunately not an author) myself, you can guess my choices will be a little… Guinevere-bashing.
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[…] Of course, since it’s the third in a trilogy, you may first want to read Daughter of Destiny and Camelot’s Queen. But what makes this novel stand out, besides Evelina’s wonderful writing abilities, is that it […]