Review: The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

[majkia]

The power vacuum left when the Romans retreat from Britain, had been filled by kings and warlords who not only fight amongst themselves but also fight off invading Saxons and Irish warbands. One king, Uther, manages to cobble together a group of kingdoms. But he's dying, and leaves behind him only one legitimate son, Mordredd, born with a club foot. He gets a promise from one of his allies, that he will marry Mordredd's mother, Uther's queen, and act as regent until Mordredd, then only a baby, comes of age.
When Uther dies, the king betrays his promise and attacks, killing Uther's widow and attempting to kill Mordredd. But Merlin's band of Druids and outcasts manages to save and hide the future king.
Into that tableau comes Uther's bastard son Arthur, who had been banished to Amorica and who is now a warlord of great renown. Arthur promises to protect Mordredd and hold the kingdom for his half-brother.
Following the actual historical record (what there is of it), the tale is unlike all the other Arthurian books I've read. There's little brightness in the world of the Dark Ages. It is full of betrayals and endless wars and few men of honor to be found. Even Arthur is flawed and despite his desire to war for peace, he's foiled at almost every turn if not by his own flaws, then by betrayals and impossible odds.
An amazing book. ( )

Comments

[sollers]

Is it supposed to be historical fiction, historical fantasy or AU?

[majkia]

I'd call it historical fiction. Very little fantasy (if any really) in it.

[sollers]

Ah. I shan't bother with it, then; the mention of "druids" does that. The main point of the Roman push into the north west was to get rid of them, and any in the 5th century would be about as authentic as the Archbishop of Canterbury is. And it looks like names that haven't been lifted from Anglo-Norman versions are in a form that didn't come into being for a long time - even the form "Medrawt" is late 6th century and around 500 would still apparently have been "Moderatus".

As to Armorica, would that be the period of Marcellus' usurpation or would it be after Clovis helped the sons of Daniel Dremrut to recover their throne?

If I'm coming over as a nerd, it's because I am; I'm writing my own historical novel set around 500 and have spent a lot of time collecting names and forms of names appropriate to the period and delving into the religious situation; and a detailed deconstructuralist look at Gildas. I'm particularly fascinated by the fact that a proper Roman military engineer/architect designed the late 5th century fortifications at South Cadbury, and possibly the same man had the new drains laid in Viroconium. Over the years I've discovered how much is known about the period, both from Continental sources and archaeology, so my standards tend to be high.

[majkia]

I know very little about the time period so all I can tell you is the only action out of England was in Benoic, and centered around Ynys Trebes (Mont St Michael), where Ban was overrun by Franks.

As to the Druids they do feature. Nimue is terrific. Merlin is MIA for half the book, which is narrated by a man who was the son of a slave and raised by Merlin at Ynys Wyrdryn.

[sollers]

*wince* More Welsh names! The language changed out of all recognition in the mid 6th century; Gildas gives names in their old form but the Gododdin gives them in the new form, which changed astonishingly little for the next one and a half millennia.

There was a lot of tension between Armorica and the Franks, but Clovis never added much of it to his realm; and his subjects were almost shockingly Romanised (a good proportion of his "antrustiones" were Roman gentry. The Franks weren't doing any "overrunning" by this date; there had been a high degree of integration with Gallo-Romans since Clovis' father's day, when his nobles objected to him being too free with their wives and went over to Aegidius, and after Aegidius' death they, together with Gallo-Romans, decided that Syagrius wasn't the man his father was and went over to Clovis. Even before then, Clovis' father appointed the bishops in North East Gaul, as did Clovis even before his conversion. Their biggest problem at the time was Saxons settling in what is now Normandy (many place names are startlingly English-looking).

The Armorican connection goes like this:

Johannes Riothamus (friend and correspondent of Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop and writer) - Daniel Dremrut - Maxentius and Budoc.

The story goes that Daniel went to Italy where he served under Odovacer, and in his absence Marcellus usurped the kingdom. After Daniel's death his sons went to Clovis to ask his help, which he eventually provided, but a good few years later. There is a further story that Maxentius drove out his brother, who went to the Emperor* Arthur for help, which he provided.

*Welsh sources are very firm about this. He was proclaimed Emperor at Carlisle after a victory over the Picts.

It looks as though he's starting from the Anglo-Norman tales and disregarding other evidence. From the historical and archaeological point of view, that puts it in the same category as Geoffrey of Monmouth etc - historical fantasy.