Author Bernard Cornwell is revered for his impeccably researched and richly detailed historical novels. His Warlord Trilogy of King Arthur books are now available for NOOK, offering Cornwell fans a chance to explore yet another beloved series. In today's guest blog post, Cornwell explains why the character of King Arthur - a popular and elusive historical figure - inspired him to write this epic series, of which he says, "I have to confess that of all the books I have written these three are my favourites.”
There have been stories about ‘King’ Arthur for fifteen hundred years. In the earliest stories, curiously, he is depicted as a villain, a would-be rapist and a thief, but over the years he changed into the model king, the creator of the Round Table and leader of its chivalrous company. Did he even exist? I am convinced he was the leader of the British forces that defeated the Saxon invaders at the battle of Mount Badon in the early 6th Century AD. A churchman called Gildas wrote about the battle not long after it was fought, but he never named the British leader, though he does say that the battle was the last time that the native Britons defeated the hated invaders and that, for a generation afterwards, the British enjoyed a respite from Saxon attacks.
We would now call those native Britons the Welsh. Arthur was no English hero, indeed he was probably one of the fiercest enemies the English ever faced. The English, of course, being the descendants of the Angles and Saxons who were conquering Britain. So why did this victory make Arthur famous (if indeed he was the man who won it)? I think the story of Arthur is the tale of a golden age. In later years, as the British lost their land to the English, they remembered that last great hero who had defeated the Saxons, and in the tale’s retelling those lost days became ever more golden and ever more perfect. In time a hundred other stories would be attached to that tale. Merlin, Guinevere and Lancelot arrived, and the warlord Arthur was turned into a saintly hero for all time. In the three Arthurian books I tried to recreate the cruel times in which Arthur lived and to suggest just how a savage dark-ages warlord became a universal symbol of hope.
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Bernard Cornwell” to download his fascinating historical novels.
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