Forget knights in shining armor performing chivalrous deeds for damsels in distress; forget Camelot and massive castles with gleaming stone turrets and round tables. Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King" rips a bleak and gritty tale of the legendary Arthur, a realistic rendering of life in Briton's 5th Century, a period of history described as "The Dark Ages" for good reason.
As always, Cornwell's fiction based-in-history is well researched and fast moving. And while the evidence of Arthur is inconclusive, his faithful depiction of Briton's warlords fighting each other, even while the dreaded Saxon's occupy the eastern half of the island, is fact. The ancient Pagan religion vies with the emerging Christianity for mind share of the populace, while Druids and Christian Priests intermingle with no love lost. It's been a couple of generations since the Roman's packed up and left, taking with them, it seems, any semblance of civilization, leaving the natives in awe of their knowledge. The once great Roman roads and cities have drifted into disrepair, and rival tribes raising armies and taxes to battle their brethren drain the land. In this war torn land, Cornwell's Arthur returns from service across the sea in Armorica (France). Arthur is not a king, but a noble and loyal leader sworn to protect the infant and crippled King Mordred, heir to the recently deceased Uther Pendragon, Briton's high king. While admittedly anachronisms, the author includes familiar figures from the legend: Merlin, Galahad, and Excalibur, but Lancelot is a cowardly fraud and Guinevere is a shallow and witchy seductress who inadvertently leads the courageous but naive Arthur into war that never should have been.
While it may take a few chapters to get into the swing of medieval people and place names, this is soon a rousing and bloody tale of politics and war told from the horror of hand-to-hand combat across a shield wall, of sorcerers, witches, priests, and wizards offering sacrifices, curses, and prayers to whichever Gods may be listening at the time. In short, a realistic first chapter in Cornwell's trilogy of a truly tragic hero and the legend that, nearly fifteen centuries later, continues to captivate and fascinate.
