the use of history and archaeology in contemporary arthurian fiction

8/9/2019 The Use of History and Archaeology in Contemporary Arthurian Fiction

1/10

The Use of History and Archaeology in Contemporary Arthurian FictionAuthor(s): CHRISTOPHER A. SNYDERSource: Arthuriana, Vol. 19, No. 3, BONNIE WHEELER (FALL 2009), pp. 114-122

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2/10

The

Use

of

History

and

Archaeology

in

Contemporary

Arthurian

Fiction

CHRISTOPHER A.

SNYDER

From

the

1970s

on,

the

majority

of

writers

of

narrative

fiction

who have

turned

to

theArthurian

legends

for their novels have chosen

an

historical

approach.

These

novelists

used

history

and

archaeology

to reconstruct

theworld ofKingArthur. CAS)

In

1485

illiam

Caxton

justified

is

printing

fThomas

Malory

s

Morte

d'Arthur

in

large

part

on

the

basis ofArthur

s

historicity:

..

.divers

men

hold

opinion

that there

was

no

such

Arthur,

and

that

all such

books

as

been made of

him be but

feigned

and

fables,

because

that

some

chronicles make of

him

no

mention_[But]

him that

should

say

or

think

that

there

was never

such

a

king

called Arthur

might

well be aretted

great

folly

and blindness.1

For

you

can

visitArthurs

sepulcher

in

Glastonbury

Abbey,

continued

Caxton,

see the Round Table atWinchester, and even

grasp

Lancelot s sword It is

debatable whether

Malory

himself would have

cared

to

have Caxton describe

his

work

as

'histories':

few of the

greats'

who

succeeded

him?Spenser,

Tennyson,

William

Morris,

T.H.

White?spent

any

effort

anchoring

their

Arthurian

stories

in

the historical soil

of

post-Roman

Britain.

Why,

then,

should

so

many

of the novelists

since

White

choose

the

genre

of

historical

fiction for rheir

Arthurian

tales?

For

one

person

to

read

every

modern

Arthurian

novel,

or

ar

least those

in

English

which

made

their

way

to

trade

paperback,

was

just

doable

up

to

about

1980;

it

is

likely impossible

now.2

Furthermore,

it

seems

to

this

writer

that

nearly

all of the

contemporary

Arthurian

authors,

from the late

1970s

on,

prefer

the historical

approach

to

Arthur.

I

think it

not

only

pertinent

to

ask

'Why?'

this

is,

but also

'How?';

that

is,

why

and

in

what

ways

have

contemporary

writers

of

fiction used

history

and

archaeology

ro reconstruct

the

world

of

King

Arthur?

Novels

are

not

the

only

genre

in

which

this

'historical

turn'

can

be

glimpsed.

Elizabeth Sklar

points

to

the

historical

emphasis

in

Arthurian

gaming

and

comics,

whose

creators

and authors

are

'eschewing

glamorized

medievalism

for

more

somber

settings

and

representation

that

suggest

the

Dark

Ages

[sic]

114

ARTHURIAN

A

19.3

(2OO9)

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3/10

CONTEMPORARY ARTHURIAN

FICTION

115

time frame

currently

considered

the

"authentic"

period

of

Arthurian

legend.'3

Much the

same

can

be said formodern

Arthurian

cinema.4

Gone

are

the

Technicolor

pageantry

fMGMs

Knightsof

the

oundTable

(1953)

nd

the

romantic

sentimentality

of

Warner

Brothers' Camelot

(1967),

replaced

by

the

mud and blood

reality

of

Excalibur

(1981),

King

Arthur

(2004),

and

Tristan

and

Isolde

(2006).5

Similarly,

History

Channel-style

documentary

filmmakers

play

up

the

violence and

gritty

realism of

the

early

Middle

Ages

with

an

increasing

use

of 'historical re-enactors'

(often

extras

who

come

with their

own

homemade

arms

and

armor).

Lastly,

it

goes

almost

without

saying

that

the

Internet is

teeming

with historical Arthur theorists and

enthusiasts.6

One

need

only

browse the

weekly

digests

of

Arthurnet

to see

how dominant

are

the

historical discussion threads, often outnumbering the literarynearly 10 to 1.7

Trade

publishers

clearly

recognize

this

overwhelming

interest

in

the

historical

Arthur.

Take,

for

example,

the

following

promotional

material

from the

front

matter

of

Jack

Whyte's

1996

novel

The

Skystone

(Tor Books),

the first book of

his

Camulod Chronicles:

'Whyte

breathes life

into

the

Arthurian

myths,'

writes

Tony

Hillerman,

'by

weaving

the

reality

of

history

into

them.'

One

could

question

whether

Arthurian

myths

need

life

breathed

into

them

and

if

history

is

really

up

to

the

task.

'We

see

theworld

as

it

was

1600

years

ago,' proclaims

The

Ottawa

Citizen,

while

The Edmonton

Journal

describes

rhe novel

as an

'historical

treatise.'

Does

Whyte

himself ascribe

to such a

position?

In an

'Introductory

Note' (extramaterial also includes

a

map

of

Roman

Britain,

a

list of

placenames,

and

an

essay

on

the

Roman

army),

Whyte

makes

the

claim

that 'the

major

historical characters' of his

novel 'lived and behaved

as

described herein and

that,

by

the

year

450,

'civilized

life,

literacy,

education and

Christianity

were

stamped

out

and

the

Dark

Ages

settled

on

Britain.'

This

would

have

been rather

shocking

news

to

saints

Patrick

and Gildas.

I

do

not

mean

to

pick

on

Whyte

in

particular

for his historical

blunders;

as

far

as

I

can

tell,

he

is

one

of

the

better

writers

in

the

genre.

I

applaud

the

novels

in

this

group (or

at

least

most

of

them)

for their enthusiasm for

history

and

archaeology

and theirmeticulous

attention

to

detail

(these

Norris

Lacy

calls 'both

scholars and

writers

of

fiction').8

Indeed,

as

I

admit

to

the

authors

and would-be-authors

who seek

my

advice,

academic

historians

can

rarely

do

much better when

it

comes to

details

of

clothing,

food,

and drink.

Raymond

Thompson recognizes

this

in

his

definition

of

Arthurian historical fiction:

'Historical novels endeavor

to recreate

the

spirit

of the

age

ofArthur

through

attention

to

authentic

detail.

Setting

is

carefully

constructed,

based

upon

the

latest

knowledge

of the

period....

'9

This

gives

historians and

general

readers

a

legitimate

set

of

historical

criteria

for evaluating theseworks (apart fromplot, character development, etc.). Has

an

author

convincingly

captured

the

spirit

of the

age?

Has he

or

she

offered



4/10

ii6

ARTHURIANA

legitimate

historical

or

archaeological

detail?

Is

there

any

evidence

that

the

author has read recent scholarship on Britain in thefifth and sixth centuries

(a

period

I

have termed

heBrittonic

Age)?

I

cannot

here

offer

a

comprehensive

account

ofArthurian

historical

fiction.

For

that

you

must turn ro

the

surveys

of Nathan Comfort

Starr,

Raymond

Thompson,

Alan and Barbara

Lupack,

and

others.

In

King

Arthur

in

America,

the

Lupacks

proclaim

William H.

Babcock's

Cian

of

theChariots

(Lothrop,

1898)

the first

merican

historical novel

to

deal with

theArthurian

legends.10

Here

Babcock

draws

from several

scholarly

studies of

medieval Welsh literature

as

well

as

archaeological

journals

to

wrire

abour

Arthur

and

the

Anglo-Saxon

invasions,

and

a

pagan

warrior

poet

named

Cian

who takes

a

stand

against

compulsory

Christianity.

Though

not

the

first

English

writer

in

rhis

genre,

Rosemary

Sutcliff

was

certainly

an

influential

pioneer

with her

novels

The

Lantern

Bearers

(Oxford

University

Press,

1959)

and Sword

at

Sunset

(Hodder

and

Stoughton,

1963).

In

a

1986

interview

with

Raymond

Thompson,

Sutcliffe

explains

why

she

chose

an

historical

setting

for her

Arthurian

novels:

Originally

I

read

retellings

fwhat

we

might

call

the

Malory

version.

I

did

not

discover the

historical

side

ofArthurian

legend

until

I

was

eighteen

or

nineteen,

when

I

read

two

intriguing

books

by

some

absolute

crackpot

called

Dayrel

Reid?They dealtwith theDark Ages, but particularlywith theArthurian

legend

and with the

possibilities

of

an

historical

Arthur.

I

was

fascinated

by

this

idea,

and

I

set

off

looking

for all

the

other clues

that

I

could

find.

Then,

little

by

little,

other

people,

like

Geoffrey

Ashe,

began

to

write

about

the

historical

Arthur,

and

I

read theirbooks

as

they

came

along.

I

always

believed

very

strongly

that there

could

be

no

smokewithout

a

fire.A

legendary

hero

almost

always

has

a

basis

in

a

real

person,

around

whom bits of

legend

and

bits of other

people

s

stories

gather

and collect...

I

was

convinced

that there

was a

real

man

in the

middle somewhere.11

Surcliff larer admirs

to

Thompson

that

she

also

read

much

archaeology

early

on, and that she is up to

speed

with themost recenr excavations at South

Cadbury.

For

Sutcliff,

placing

her

story

in

the so-called Dark

Ages

'has the

additional

advantage

that

if

you

cant

prove

your

interpretation

is

righr,

nobody

else

can

prove

it is

wrong..

.but

since

I

am a

writer,

not

an

historian,

I

will

sacrifice historical

accuracy...

[for]

a

good

story'

A

contemporary

of

Sutcliff

s

who also

prefers

a

Roman

Arthur

is

Alfred

Duggan,

a

member

of

Evelyn

Waugh's

circle

as an

undergraduate

at

Oxford.

Late

in

life,

fter

serving

in

World

War

II,

Duggan

wrote

two

historical

novels

wirh

Arthurian

connections: The Little

Emperors

and

Conscience

of

the

King

(bothpublishedby

Faber and

Faber

in

1951).

om

Shippey

as

shownhow

Duggan

incorporates

in

his novels

details

from

archaeological

excavations

at

such Romano-British

towns

as

Verulamium,

Venra

Belgarum,

Corinium,

and



5/10

CONTEMPORARY ARTHURIAN FICTION

117

Calleva.12

Duggan

also shows

a

more-than-amateur

grasp

of

the intricacies

of

provincial politics in theLate Roman Empire.

For

Mary

Stewart,

it

was an

interest

in

history?not

Arthur?that

prompted

her

to

write

the first f

four

Arthurian

novels,

The

Crystal

Cave

(Hodder

and

Stoughton,

1970):

Ed

always

wanted

to

write

a

historical

novel.

One

of

my

main

interests,

s

you

will

notice in

my

modern

thrillers,

as

Roman

history.

Fd

been

to

look

at

the

Roman sites

in

England

many

a

time,

and tried

to recreate

things

in

my

mind.

Thus when

I

finally

decided

to

write

a

historical

novel,

Roman Britain

seemed

the

obvious

place

to

start_I

wouldn't

say

that

was

attracted

to

the

Arthurian

legend

at

first.

t

is,

after

all,medieval,

and

that

period

never

appealed

to

me

at all. Itwas Roman Britain that interested me.13

Stewart

admits

to

working

with

maps

of ancient

and

Roman Britain

and

to

making

great

use

of

local

topographical

traditions

concerning

Arthur and

Merlin.14

For

her Guinevere

Trilogy

(St.

Martins,

1981-85),

Sharon

Newman

was

inspired

by

a

history

course

on

the Fall

of

the

Roman

Empire

and

sampled

some

of

the

archaeological

literature

as

well.15

Yet

she

rejected purely

historical

fiction,

combining

some

elements instead with those

of

fantasy:

I

was

sick of

reading

stories

set

in

the

ark

Ages,

where

everybody

was

sitting

around in skins in frontof

musty

firesand

belching.

That didn't

appeal

to

me.

I

wanted

to

show

the

period

in

a

different

light.

I

felt

I

was

writing

a

historical

novel,

only

I

was

using

the fantastic elements that the

people

in

those

days

would

not

have been

surprised

to

find.

These

elements

were

part

of

the

social

history.

In

The

High

Kings

(Bantam,

1983),

author

Joy

Chant

came

up

with

a

unique

formula

for

mixing

Iron

Age

culture

with

Geoffrey

of

Monmouth-inspired

fiction:

I

came

up

with

the idea

of the

stories

being

told

to

thehistoricalArthur..

.Given

that information n thehistoricalArthur isso

conjectural,

I also decided that I

would be

closer

to

expressing

how

I

imagined

he

might

have lived

in

snapshot

glimpses,

rather

than

trying

to

make

a

continuous,

coherent narrative.16

Stephen

Lawhead includes both

maps

and

pronunciation

guides

in

the

volumes of

his

Pendragon

Cycle (Crossway

Books,

1987?2000).

Beginning

with Taliesin

(1987),

Lawhead

attempts

to

weave

the

story

of

the

collapse

of

Atlantis

together

with

early

medieval Welsh

material,

producing

a

rare-for-the

genre

pro-Christian

world.17

Far

more numerous are

what

we

might

call the

neo-Pagan

authors

(by

subject ifnot religious affiliation). Such a groupmight include Parke Godwin,

Persia

Wooley,

J.

Robert

King,

and

Diana Paxson.

Paxson,

author

of

The



6/10

ii8

ARTHURIANA

White Raven

(Morrow,

1988),

sites

among

her

influences

Rosemary

Sutcliffe,

Marion Zimmer Bradley, and historian JohnMorris.18

No writer

of

Arthurian

fiction

since T.H.

White has been

as

popular

as

Marion

Zimmer

Bradley,

the American

author

of

Mists

of

Avalon

(Knopf,

1982)

and

Lady

of

Avalon

(Viking,

1997).19

Her

ground-breaking

shift

of

the

narrative

to

female

figures

such

as

Morgan

(Morgaine)

and

Guinevere

(Gwenhwyfar)

is

built

on

the

premise

that

ancient Britons

were

devoted

to

the

worship

of

the

Mother

Goddess,

a

religion

that

came

under

attack

from

inroleranr

Christians.20

Though

such

matriarchal

paganism

finds

its

way

into

many

Arthurian

retellings,

suffice

it

to

say

that

there

is

no

evidence

of this

in

either the historical

or

archaeological

record of

Britain.21

According

to

Diana

Paxson,

Bradley

s sister-in-law and fellow

priestess

ofDarkmoon Circle, she

realized

early

on

rhat

in

order

for her

ro

be

true to

her

vision

shewould

have

to

abandon

history,

and

instead,

tell

the

truth of

legend.'22

Nikolai

Tolstoy

has

written

both

an

historical

study

and

a

novel

centering

on

the

figure

ofMerlin.

His

path, again

told

to

Raymond

Thompson,

is

perhaps

unique:

The

light

came

quite suddenly

on

the road

to

Damascus,

when

I

read

Ann

Ross'

Pagan

Celtic

Britain,

about

1967,1

believe.

It

had

a

strong

effect

n me

because

I

read

it

at

just

the

right

moment.

I

thought

her

book

might

throw

light

on

aspects ofDark Age history,but I found it

was

theotherway round:

my

reading

of

history

made

many

things

in

the literaturemake

sense_I

suppose

that,

like

many

historians,

I've also

toyed

with the

idea

of historical

fiction...

[But]

to

understand the

mentality

of

primitive

people?in

this

case,

sixth-century

ritish

people?you

cannot

restrict

yourself

to

purely

factual

material

events,

ignoring

thewhole

mythic

world

in

which

they

ived and

set

the

frameworkof

their

being.23

Bernard

Cornwell

was

already

an

accomplished

writer

of historical

fiction

when he

turned

to

Arthur

in

1995

with The

Winter

King,

the

first of his

Warlord

Chronicles

(St.

Martin's,

1995-98).

In

an

otherwise

sane

and

moderate

Author's Note, Cornwell wrires:

We

might

know

very

little bout

Arthur,

but

we can

infer lot from the

times

in

which he

probably

lived.

Fifth-

and

sixth-century

ritain

must

have been

a

horrid

place...

as

racked

by

religious

dissent

as

it

as

by

invasion

and

politics/4

Was

fifth-century

Britain

really

worse

than other

eras,

and

if it

really

was

a

horrid

place,'

why

write?or

read?about

it?

From

this

cursory

survey

of

modern

English-language

novelists,

the

following

trends

can

be

discerned:

1.

There

is

often

a

very

deliberate

attempt

to create

either

a

Roman Arthur

or a

native/Celtic

Arthur,

and then to show a culture clash.



7/10

CONTEMPORARY

ARTHURIAN

FICTION

119

2.

There

is

much

interest

n

the

Picts

and other

indigenous

Britons?the

Old

Ones,

the Little

People,

theDark

Ones?who

are

depicted

as

the

keepers

of

ancient

wisdom

and

rites.

3.

These novels

often

employ

maps

and

glossaries

as

aids

to

the

reader,

in

essence

mimicking

modern

history

textbooks.

4.

Romano-British

towns

(often

the

same

ones)

usually

play

a

significant

role

in

the

story,

hough

the

archaeology

of these

towns

is

only

cursorily

used.

5.

The situation

is

similarwith

hillforts,

nd of

these

South

Cadbury

and

Tintagel

are

most

prominent.

6.

There

is

a

preference

for

perceived

older,

Welsh

heroes?Cai,

Bedwyr,

Gwalchmai?and

Bedwyr

often

performs

Lancelots role

in

the

narrative.

7.

Paganism

is

celebrated,

or

used

as a

device with

which

to

criticize

Christianity.8. Studies on thehistoricalArthur

byGeoffrey

Ashe and

John

Morris,

in

particular,

have been

major

influences

on

many

novelists.

Lastly,

I

would add

the

following

from

personal

conversations I've

had

recently

with

two

Arthurian

writers,

one

on

the

way

to

being

published,

the

other

working

on

his third

Arthurian

novel.

Both

were

drawn

to

the

early

Welsh material.

The

former,

an

academic,

is

learning

Welsh and

riding

Welsh

mountain

ponies

to

give

her

novel historical verisimilitude.25

The

latter,

a

journalist

turned

novelist, remarked,

'I

just

find the

Dark

Ages

as

rich

a

literary

playground

as

any

other

...

I

wanted

the real

Arthur

...

I

was

intrigued by

the

challenge

of

painting

Arthur

as a

man,

not

a

legend.'26

I

must

admit that

I

find

many,

if

not most

of

these novels?even

Bradley's

Mists

of

valon?offer,

in

small

ways,

very

convincing

representations

of

daily

life

in

the Brittonic

Age.

But

all of

them,

in

my

opinion,

are

much lesser

literary

accomplishments

than,

for

example,

White's

Once

and

Future

King,

which

utterly

dismisses

the historical

origins

of

the

Arthurian

legends

with

the author's

cringe-worthy

statement,

Arthur

was

not

a

distressed

Briton

hopping

about

in

a

suit

of

woad.'

Does

this

mean

then that

the

history

and

archaeology

of

early

medieval

Britain are irrelevant to the literarytradition ofArthur? Hardly. The Brittonic

Age,

glimpsed

through

its

fragmentary

documents and material

culture,

either

produced

an

historical

King

Arthur

(still

a

possibility),

or

it

produced

a

political

climate,

a

religion,

and

an

ethos which

demanded

the

creation

of

Arthurian

tales. The

itinerant

kings,

the

warbands,

the

monastic

saints,

the

tores

and

spears

and

bardic

poetry

which

appear

in

the first

literary

manifestations

of

the

Arthurian

legend

are

very

much

a

product

of

early

medieval

Brittonic

culture.

Geoffrey

of

Monmouth,

Chretien de

Troyes,

and

Sir

Thomas

Malory

may

not

have followed the

same

methodology

as

Alfred

Duggan,

Rosemary

Sutcliffe,

and

Marion

Zimmer

Bradley;

nonetheless,

these medieval

'Founding

Fathers' also found

history

and heroic culture to

be useful

in

their

interpretations

of Arthurian

myth.



8/10

HO

ARTHURIANA

MARYMOUNT

UNIVERSITY

Christopher

A. Snyder isProfessor of European History and Director of theHonors

Program

at

Marymount

University

in

Arlington, Virginia.

He

holds

a

Ph.D.

in

Medieval

History

from

EmoryUniversity

nd

is the

uthor f

TheWorld

of ing

Arthur

(Thames

&

Hudson,

2000)

and The

Britons

(Blackwell,

2003).

Dr.

Snyder

is

a

member

of

the

editorial

boards of

Arthuriana

and The Camelot

Project.

NOTES

1

Caxton,

'Preface'

to

LeMorte

d'Arthur

(NY:

Modern

Library,

1999),

p.

xvi.

2

According

to

Raymond Thompson,

thenumber ofArthurian

novels

published

in

the first

alf

of

the twentieth

century

was

less

than

50,

while that

number

more

thandoubled from1950-85; see

Thompson,

TheReturn

from

Avalon:A

Study

of

the

Arthurian

Legend

in

odern

Fiction

(Westport,

CT:

Greenwood,

1985),

3.

Norris

Lacy

charts

nearly

80

Arthurian novels

appearing

in

English

between

1990

and

1995:

see

Norris

J.

Lacy

and

Geoffrey

Ashe with

Debra

N.

Mancoff,

The

Arthurian

Handbook,

2nd

ed.

(NY:

Garland,

1997),

p.

171.

3

Elizabeth

S.

Sklar,

'Marketing

Arthur: The Commodification

of Arthurian

Legend,'

in

King

Arthur

in

Popular

Culture,

edited

by

Elizabeth

S.

Sklar and

Donald

L.

Hoffman

(Jefferson,

C:

McFarland,

2002),

pp.

9-23

(18-19).

4

See,

for

example,

the

essays

in Kevin

Harty,

ed.,

Cinema

Arthuriana,

rev.

ed.

(Jefferson,

C:

McFarland,

2002).

5 For an example of thedamage thathas been done, see Stephanie Zachare, 'The

glitter

of

Camelot

has been lost

in

Antoine

Fuqua's

valiant

quest

for

historical

accuracy,

ut

Keira

Knightley

does

prance

around

in

leather

ikini,'

review f

King

Arthur for

Salon.com,

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2004/07/07/

king_arthur/print.html,

ccessed

March

14,2009:

'The

big

selling oint

of

Antoine

Fuqua's spin-cycle

epicKing

Arthur

is

its

claim

to

authenticity.

f

you're

looking

for

the

glitz

and

glitter

of

Camelot,

you've

made

a

wrong

turn,

because

this

King

Arthur takes

place

not

in

Great Britain's

glamorous

Middle

Ages

but

in its

far

less

dazzling

Dark

Ages?the

5th

century,

before

the

invention of

soap.

(They

didn't call

it

the

Dark

Ages

for

nothing.)

In

King

Arthur,

faces

are

permanently

and realisticallysmudged; there ismuch wearing of rough,nubby cloaks and

dingy

chainmail,

reinforcing

the

hopelessness

of it

all.

Merlin

isn't

glam-rock

wizard but

an

all-knowing

warrior

king

who

wears

blue

lipstick.

Primitive

beliefs

abound;

savage

enemies

lurk,

their

dusty

beards

arranged

in

threateningplaits,

waiting

for the

right

pportunity

to

burn the

villages,

just

for

kicks.

The

Britain

of

King

Arthur

is

a

country

sitting

n

the

dark,

waiting

for

something

to

happen.

The audience

can

relate.'

6

For

a

survey

of

the

historical

Arthur

theories,

both

in

print

and

electronic

publications,

see

Christopher

A.

Snyder,

Arthurian

Origins,'

in

A

History

of

Arthurian

Scholarship,

edited

by

Norris

Lacy

(Cambridge:

D.S.

Brewer,

2006),

pp. 1-18.



9/10

CONTEMPORARY

ARTHURIAN FICTION

121

7

Of

the

55

submissions

during

the third

week

of

April,

2009,

some

40

concerned

overtly

historical

or

archaeological topics,

while

only 4

examined

purely literary

issues.

8

Lacy

et

al.,

Arthurian

Handbook,

p.

172.

9

Thompson,

The

Return

from

Avalon,

p.

4.

10

Alan

Lupack

and

Barbara

Tepa

Lupack,

King

Arthur

in

America

(Rochester,

NY:

Boydell

and

Brewer,

2001),

pp.

93-97.

11

The

Thompson

interviews,

riginally

for

the

periodical

Avalon

to

Camelot,

are

now

part

of

he

Camelot

Project:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/

sutcliff.htm.

he

no

smoke

without

a

fire

comment

is

rejection

of the

argument

against

an

historical

Arthur

put

forward

by

David Dumville

in

'Sub-Roman

Brirain:

History

and

Legend,' History

n.s.

62

(1977):

173-92.

12Thomas

Shippey,

'TheHistorical Vision of

Alfred

Duggan (unpublished),

p.

3.

13

Interviewed

by

Raymond

Thompson

at

Lochawe,

Scotland

(April

1989):

http://

www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/stewart.htm.

14

Ibid.

'The

traditions

probably

recall

reality.

t's

like

Schliemann

and

Troy,

in

a

way.

I'm

sure

that

an

old

tradition

with

lots

of

legends

around

it

has

a

very

sound

basis

in

truth. he

idea of

Arthur

galloping

about in

plate

armour

is

a

piece

of

nonsense,

but

I'm

sure

he

existed.'

15

Interviewed

by

Raymond

Thompson

at

Vancouver

0uly

1989):

http://www.lib.

rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/newman.htm:

I

pretty

much

covered

the

field

of

medieval

Arthurian

literature

n

English,

French,

Welsh,

German.

At

the

same

time Iwas

taking

a

history

course on the Fall of theRoman

Empire,

where

I

read

Gildas

and

Ausonius,

the

fourth-century

aulish

poet,

as

well

as

modern

historians

like

John

Morris

and

Geoffrey

Ashe...

.1

know

that

I

write

fantasies,

and

I

know

that

they're

onsidered

light

reading...

.But

every

bit

of

history

in

those

books is

absolutely

as

accurate as

I

could

make

it.

I

read

numerous

archaeological

studies,

discovering,

for

example,

that

the

body

of

a

Saxon

girl

was

found

in

a

Roman

graveyard

in

York,

far

away

from

any

other

Saxon.'

16

Interviewed

by

Thompson

at

Leigh-on-Sea,

Essex

in

1989:

http://www.lib.

rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/chant.htm.

n

the

interview,

Chant

admits

to

being

influenced

by Rosemary

Sutcliff

nd

John

Morris'

The

Age of

Arthur.

17More

overtly

Christian isDonna FletcherCrow's

Glastonbury:

The

Novel

of

Christian

England

(Wheaton,

IL:

Crossway

Books,

1992).

18

See

Thompson's

interview:

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/intrvws/paxson.

htm.

19

Additional

material

is

cited

from

Marion

Zimmer

Bradley,

The

Mists

of

Avalon

(New

York:

Ballantine,

2001).

20

See

Lupack

and

Lupack,

pp.

292-95.

21

In

the

Acknowledgments

of

Mists,

Bradley

writes

that

she

read all

of

James

Frazer's

The

Golden

Bough

as

well

as

books

on

comparative

religion

nd Druids.

She

thanks

Geoffrey

Ashe,

Jamie

George

of The

Gothic

Image

bookstore

in

Glastonbury,

local

neopagan groups, and variousmodern Druid andWiccan adherents.Christine



10/10

the use of history and archaeology in contemporary arthurian fiction

Documents