King Arthur. Knights. The Holy Grail. Are they in this book?

Your unasked questions are answered.

Our song for this article …. or not, as you soon shall see…

My short blurb for The Môrdreigiau Chronicles reads:

It’s a Regency-era Arthurian quest to avoid ecological collapse, with sea dragons.

Let’s look at the Arthurian aspect of this series.

King Arthur. Knights. The Hunt for the Holy Grail. Are they in this book?

Short answers: No (but frequently referenced). Not in book one. Yes.

My love for King Arthur

I’ve had a long abiding love for the Arthurian story. Not the legend of the Round Table, or the stories as told in medieval (and later) times, but those as told by Stephen Lawhead and Mary Stewart. And in my youth, I was deeply influenced by “Arthur, King of the Britons”, a low-budget Brit TV show, but magical in my eyes. (Not sure it has aged all that well.)

All three tell the story of the historical Arthur from within the Dark Ages period of Britain, approximately in the 5th century, after the Romans left. There are certainly magical elements in the novels, if not the TV series.

But it is the history that grabbed my attention, and obviously, I am continuing in a fantastical vein with sea dragons, dreigiau môr, who can do magic.

It’s the pre-Christian Arthurian aspect that I’m exploring. What I like to call the historical Arthur, the one who Bede bitched about in his British history chronicles, the one who rose to prominence in the generations after the Romans left.

I lean toward a Welsh Arthur, but more recent research suggests he may have lived in the northern part of Britain. Hmm, maybe he looked a wee bit like Jamie.

Um, might delete that later. Ahem, moving on.

The Quest for the Holy Grail

The Arthurian quest in this story is to find the Grail. It’s not the Grail pursued in the medieval literature (which feels like an early example of purity culture, I am looking at you Galahad). I go back further, into the Welsh literature, much of it an oral tradition, finally written down from older oral tales, some merged into the stories coming from medieval France.

Nothing in those older oral stories and poems really mentions a grail and when it is mentioned, it is a clear borrowing from the French medieval stories.

Although there is a poem by the Welsh/Celtic poet Taliesin, Preiddeu Annwn¹:

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The cauldron of the chief of Annwfyn:
    what is its fashion?
A dark ridge around its border
    and pearls.
It does not boil the food of a coward;
    it has not been destined.

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There is also Ceridwen’s cauldron, which gave poetic inspiration, particularly to Taliesin. Another example is from the Thirteen Treasures of Britain (could this mean 13 books? … well, I think that might be pushing it, frankly).

Thus, to put us at a remove from the medieval tales, I’ve used the Welsh for grail in the text: greal.

You Have to Believe We Are Magic

Traditionally, many characters around Arthur perform magic: Merlin, Nimue, Morgana Le Fay, but rather than tapping into the medieval and later versions of those, I have chosen to source the magic of this story from the time of Celtic gods and goddesses. A little nod to Ceridwen as it were.

It is their Grail, or Greal, that our heroine must find… and it’s not a magical object that fixes everything but a necessary piece to take the next step toward saving the world from ecological collapse.

What are your favourite Arthurian stories? What are your thoughts on the Grail, holy or otherwise? Have you seen the KDrama referenced in the last gif? Let me know in the comments!

1. Source: “Preiddeu Annwn: The Spoils of Annwn” by: Sarah Higley (Translator), from: The Camelot Project, 2007