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Introduction: Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King
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14238 |
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BOOK WORLD
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8 / 1996 |
373 Words |
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The legends of King Arthur and the Round Table span centuries and cultures and have absorbed the characteristics and influences of each passing age. It was the twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes who was responsible for introducing the romantic, chivalrous aspects of Camelot--Lancelot, Galahad, Guinevere, and Excalibur--that we are familiar with today. Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King, this month's featured book, tends to follow in the tradition of twelfth-century historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, stripping away the more-romantic aspects while emphasizing, instead, the historical background--a Britain under siege by foreign invaders and torn by civil strife.
Cornwell, a prolific writer and former BBC journalist, is perhaps better known as the creator of the best-selling Richard Sharpe adventure series and the Masterpiece Theatre drama on which it is based. His new Warlord Trilogy attempts to do for the fifth-century Arthur myths what he has done for Britain's nineteenth-century naval war stories.
The tale, narrated by a monk named Derfel Cadarn (an orphan befriended by Merlin and former warrior for Arthur), is about a true hero: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor. Cornwell's Arthur is a rather complex character who faces numerous dilemmas--most of his own making. His impulsive decisions often have tragic consequences, such as loving Guinevere more than he should and alienating friends and allies, ensuring bloody battles to come. Cornwell's depictions of Guinevere, Lancelot, Galahad, and Merlin also have fresh, provocative twists.
Cornwell has said in an interview that his book is not about warfare but
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