A couple weeks ago it was our anniversary. We went to Chipotle for dinner and then, of course, the bookstore afterwards! It was a used bookstore and I found lots of neat things there. One that really excited me was the last book in a series about King Arthur. I had read the first 3 books when I was either in high school or college. At the time, I had to go to used bookstores to find them because they were not easily found and as far as I knew there was no Amazon.com yet! I really enjoyed reading the first 3 and thought that there were only 3 books in the series. I never gave it another thought until I found this one.
The book is titled "The Wicked Day" by Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart is a Scottish author and wrote this book in 1983. The first book in the series "The Crystal Cave" was written in 1970. The second and third are "The Hollow Hills" and "The Last Enchantment". Not all of the books are about King Arthur. In fact, the first one is all about Merlin: how he was born, how he got his powers, etc. I really don't remember a lot of details about the first 3 books because I read them so long ago. I was tempted to read them over before reading the 4th, but decided I had too many other books I hadn't read yet this summer, so I didn't want to waste time reading ones I already had. It worked out ok--I don't think I needed to in order to understand the story.
This story (The Wicked Day) is mostly about King Arthur's illegitimate child, Mordred. He was conceived when Arthur's half sister Morgause tempted Arthur to sleep with her (he didn't know he was related to her at the time). The baby was raised by foster parents and doesn't come to Morgause's court until he's 10. The illegitimate kid wouldn't have been that big of a deal except that Guenivere, Arthur's wife, was barren and didn't give him any heirs. There's tons more to the story, but in the end Arthur and Mordred fight for the title of High King. I won't ruin the end for you.
Mary Stewart obviously used some factual information to give basis to her story, but most of it is literary license. It doesn't really matter to me because no one really knows much about King Arthur anyway. It's a typical medieval story: incest, adultery, murder, greed, magic, you know! This series is by far the best Arthur story I've read. There are lots out there, but these just have fantastic plots, great descriptive language and interesting characters. It's definitely no "Sword and the Stone" (one of my favorite Disney movies).
Unlike the Narnia series, this is not for kids! But if you're interested in fantasy and a little historical fiction, I highly recommend this series. If you don't want to read the entire 4 books, read the first one "The Crystal Cave". It's excellent. Thanks Mom for the suggestion so many years ago that is entertaining me still!
The book is titled "The Wicked Day" by Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart is a Scottish author and wrote this book in 1983. The first book in the series "The Crystal Cave" was written in 1970. The second and third are "The Hollow Hills" and "The Last Enchantment". Not all of the books are about King Arthur. In fact, the first one is all about Merlin: how he was born, how he got his powers, etc. I really don't remember a lot of details about the first 3 books because I read them so long ago. I was tempted to read them over before reading the 4th, but decided I had too many other books I hadn't read yet this summer, so I didn't want to waste time reading ones I already had. It worked out ok--I don't think I needed to in order to understand the story.
This story (The Wicked Day) is mostly about King Arthur's illegitimate child, Mordred. He was conceived when Arthur's half sister Morgause tempted Arthur to sleep with her (he didn't know he was related to her at the time). The baby was raised by foster parents and doesn't come to Morgause's court until he's 10. The illegitimate kid wouldn't have been that big of a deal except that Guenivere, Arthur's wife, was barren and didn't give him any heirs. There's tons more to the story, but in the end Arthur and Mordred fight for the title of High King. I won't ruin the end for you.
Mary Stewart obviously used some factual information to give basis to her story, but most of it is literary license. It doesn't really matter to me because no one really knows much about King Arthur anyway. It's a typical medieval story: incest, adultery, murder, greed, magic, you know! This series is by far the best Arthur story I've read. There are lots out there, but these just have fantastic plots, great descriptive language and interesting characters. It's definitely no "Sword and the Stone" (one of my favorite Disney movies).
Unlike the Narnia series, this is not for kids! But if you're interested in fantasy and a little historical fiction, I highly recommend this series. If you don't want to read the entire 4 books, read the first one "The Crystal Cave". It's excellent. Thanks Mom for the suggestion so many years ago that is entertaining me still!
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