Sarah writes historical fiction centered around the same time as my Chasing History series. I thought it would be great to get another opinion on this time period and why she chose it for her books.
Writing historical fantasy set in the dark ages requires
research that goes beyond the world building of epic fantasy, but carries with
it similar characteristics, since we know so little about that era in Britain. For my Arthurian novel, Cold my Heart, I start with the knowledge that the Saxons (in
actual fact, a combination of several Germanic groups) invaded Britain after
the Romans abandoned the island in 410 AD.
King Arthur, if he existed, would have been born around 480 AD, but
whether the real Arthur—the living, breathing war leader who defeated the
Saxons for a generation—ever existed has never been proven.
The paucity of historical documents from that time period is
to blame. What we have are three
sources:
1) Y Goddodin—a Welsh poem by the 7th century poet,
Aneirin, with it’s passing mention of Arthur. The author refers to the battle
of Catraeth, fought around AD 600, and describes a warrior who “fed black
ravens on the ramparts of a fortress, though he was no Arthur”.
2) Gildas, a 6th century British cleric who wrote De
Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain).
He never mentions Arthur, although he states that his own birth was in the year
of the siege of Mount Badon. The fact that he doesn’t mention Arthur, and yet
is our only historian of the 6th century, is an example of why many historians
suspect that King Arthur never existed.
3) Taliesin, a 6th century Welsh poet, who wrote several
poems about Arthur. Including the lines: “ . . . before the door of
the gate of hell the lamp was burning. And when we went with Arthur, a
splendid labour, Except seven, none returned from Caer Vedwyd.”
From these seeds
grew the myth of Arthur, which the Normans (and then the French) co-opted,
adding the Lancelot-Guinevere-Arthur love triangle, the sword in the stone,
Merlin, and Arthur’s incestuous relationship with his sister Morgan along the
way.
By 1191, the monks of Glastonbury were claiming knowledge of
his grave, and soon after, the link between Arthur and the Holy Grail, which
Joseph of Arimathea supposedly brought there. By 1225, monks in France had
written The Vulgate Cycle, telling of the holy grail from the death of Jesus
Christ to the death of Arthur. This story became the standard version used
throughout Europe.
Whether or not King Arthur was a real person is an either/or
query. He either was or he wasn’t. Many scholars, researchers, and
Arthurophile’s have strong opinions on this topic, both for and against though
much of the academic work has come down on the side of ‘wasn’t’—or at least if
Arthur was a real person, his name was not ‘Arthur’ and he
possible wasn’t even a king.
For the purposes of my book Cold My Heart, I choose
to believe that Arthur was real, that he was backed into a corner by his
duplicitous nephew, Modred, and did not die at Camlann as the
Norman/French/Anglo version says, but lived to see his country securely in the
hands of a worthy heir. At the same time, the world of Cold My Heart
rests in the balance between the historical Wales of 537 AD, and the
quasi-medieval Arthurian world that readers have grown to love throughout the
ages.
Set in sixth century
Wales, Cold My Heart tells the
story of Myrddin and Nell, a journeyman knight and a former nun, who share a
vision of a terrible future—one which encompasses the death of their King and
the loss of their country
Sarah Woodbury
This
is part one of a series of interviews for my blog tour through
Indie Writers Unite. Look for the Support Indie Authors logo for
further submissions. Please support these authors, check out
their blogs and purchase their books. They are the best of the
best. /Sue Owen.
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