The Winter King - Bernard Cornwell

...I am fairly interested in the Arthurian legends. "The Winter King" is the first book in the Warlord Chronicles Trilogy.

"The Winter King" is narrated by Derfel, an ageing monk looking back on his earlier life as a warrior in Arthur's service. Derfel is writing his story down at the request of his Queen, Igraine, against the wishes of Sansum, his superior at the monastery.

Derfel's version of Arthur's ...
...- no one knows what the truth is. Cornwell plays on this by interspersing the narrative with short exchanges between Derfel and Igraine.

Igraine wants the story to be more romantic and insists on changes to Derfel's story, such as Excalibur being the sword in the stone, when Derfel insists it was lying on a stone not in it. Igraine responds by saying her scribe will translate Derfel's narrative in any way that she wishes. In this way ... more

I've never read anything by Bernard Cornwell before but picked this up as I am fairly interested in the Arthurian legends. "The Winter King" is the first book in the Warlord Chronicles Trilogy.

"The Winter King" is narrated by Derfel, an ageing monk looking back on his earlier life as a warrior in Arthur's service. Derfel is writing his story down at the request of his Queen, Igraine, against the wishes of Sansum, his superior at the monastery.

Derfel's version of Arthur's life and times is a lot less romanticised than the version most of us know. Of course Arthur's very existence is disputed to this day - no one knows what the truth is. Cornwell plays on this by interspersing the narrative with short exchanges between Derfel and Igraine.

Igraine wants the story to be more romantic and insists on changes to Derfel's story, such as Excalibur being the sword in the stone, when Derfel insists it was lying on a stone not in it. Igraine responds by saying her scribe will translate Derfel's narrative in any way that she wishes. In this way we see how stories are shaped and twisted into legends that bear little resemblance to reality.

Cornwell's version of life in Arthurian Britain is brutal - life is hard and there is constant fighting and killing. The Britons fight between themselves for supremacy - especially when the High King Uther dies leaving only Mordred, his infant grandson, to succeed him. As if that wasn't enough, Britain faces constant raids by the Saxons and the Irish, looking to plunder land and enslave the local populace.

Arthur is presented as being Uther's bastard son and therefore not entitled to take the throne of the High King. He returns to Britain as the guardian of the infant Mordred, in order to protect him until he is of age to rule.

Derfel is a sympathetic narrator and you find yourself supporting him throughout the book. He believes in Arthur and is an honourable warrior - he swears oaths throughout the story and always tries to abide by them. His love and friendship for Nimue is quite touching as is his devotion to Arthur.

All the usual characters are present in this story - Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot etc - but Cornwell has a different take on most of them. This makes the story a bit more believable and intriguing.

Arthur is shown to be a kind and compelling leader who wants to see the best in everyone. However, he is also an ambitious man and wants to rule over a peaceful Britain, ostensibly for Mordred, whom he is sworn to protect.

Merlin is a somewhat ambiguous character who is not present for most of the novel. He randomly appears and disappears and no one can predict his actions. He is also shown to be somewhat selfish and callous in some regards but kind in others.

Derfel is an orphan brought up in Merlin's household as he survived a Druid's death pit as a child. Merlin collects such people as children as he believes they must be beloved of the Gods. Nimue, Derfel's childhood friend, survived a wreck at sea that killed everyone on board apart from her. Nimue is Merlin's protegee and is a priestess who is touched by the Gods.

Merlin's main ambition is to bring the old religion - Druidism - back to Britain. It was destroyed under the Romans and he believes the Gods have abandoned them. We hear most of the argument for this train of thought through Nimue, who wholly supports Merlin. Christianity has gained a foothold and both Nimue and Merlin are disgusted by this weak religion.

Guinevere is shown to be a strong woman and Arthur's love for her is presented as a madness. He abandons a betrothal that would bring Britain to peace in order to pursue Guinevere. She is shown to be somewhat capricious and cruel - she uses her beauty to her own advantage and cannot abide ugliness.

Lancelot is loathed by Derfel and is presented as an arrogant and cowardly braggart. He is adept at pretending to be brave in battle by lagging behind and returning looking bedraggled and claiming great victories as his own. He has a following of poets and bards who write songs claiming him as the bravest warrior.
He is sharply contrasted by his half brother Galahad, who is truly honourable and brave.

One thing that I found fairly confusing in this book was the place names as they are all fairly similar and I wasn't too sure where the characters were for most of the story. This is helped somewhat by a list of place names (also showing the modern day names) and a map at the beginning of the book. There is also a list of characters which was also helpful as there are a lot of different characters with similar names throughout the book.

I did enjoy this book as it was a completely different take on the Arthurian legends. It was a lot more realistic as life would not have been easy in the Dark Ages in Britain. However I did find it a bit slow at some points and the confusion with the place and character names at some points also slowed me down.

I enjoyed the detail of the book as it was an interesting look at how life would have been in Britain. I also enjoyed the detail about the Druid religion and the hold it had over people. The constant friction between the pagans and the Christians also adds an extra thread to the plot.

I think I will look out for the following books in this trilogy as I did enjoy this and found it an enjoyable alternative to the Arthurian legends we all know. I would recommend this as a more realistic depiction of Britain in the Dark Ages and the problems a warlord such as Arthur would have faced in order to secure peace.

This review is also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk under my username. 

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