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The Crimson Chalice trilogy #1
The Crimson Chalice
Another reworking of the Arthurian legend, but so bereft of Arthurian resonance that it might have worked better as an unvarnished or unvarnished historical novel of the Roman twilight in Britain. As the Saxon pillagers sweep ever farther west, young Baradoc, Roman army veteran & son of a British tribal chief, meets Tia, a Roman girl fleeing the troubles. Their son Arturo, a child hugely endowed with wildness, blarney & arrogance, grows up to inherit his father's dream of uniting Britain against the Saxons. The story is chiefly concerned with the slow building of his campaign, from his early rebellion against the delaying tactics of the anti-Saxon forces to the great victory of Mt Badon. Like many imaginers of an earlier Britain, Canning is best when describing the wild countryside & the homely skills of its inhabitants. His attempts to graft this material onto the Grail legend are effortful platitudes. Merlin appears & disappears at climactic moments, saying things like "Only the gods know that." Speeches are peppered with ritual interjections of "Aie..." to indicate deep thought. People look at each other & instinctively know something, or undergo some tremendous change "from that moment"...Canning's Arturo does occasionally come to life during his stormy childhood in the Tribe of the Enduring Crow; once he is grown, one feels that Canning, like Sir Bedivere, has lost sight of the barge.--Kirkus
Beginning note: "At the time of this story—roughly 450 AD—any effective Roman presence in Britain had long gone. The shadow of the Dark Ages—which were to last nearly 300 years—had already fallen across the country. The Saxon mercenaries, hired originally to fight against the Pictish invasions from the North, were now breaking out of the lands granted to them in the East. Constantly reinforced by more of their kind they were beginning to sweep westwards across the country, massacring & pillaging, to make it their own."
Postscript: "Although there are no incontrovertible facts about King Arthur, the renown of his life & deeds in the Dark Ages was lodged for over 600 years in folk memory. & folk, being what they are, invariably alter & embroider a good story. Wm of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth & then Sir Thomas Malory were landed with the result. Lesser as well as better writers have followed them. Acknowledging that I come in the first of these two categories, I feel no shame in entering the lists poorly armed but securely mounted on a horse I have ridden for years called Imagination."
Beginning note: "At the time of this story—roughly 450 AD—any effective Roman presence in Britain had long gone. The shadow of the Dark Ages—which were to last nearly 300 years—had already fallen across the country. The Saxon mercenaries, hired originally to fight against the Pictish invasions from the North, were now breaking out of the lands granted to them in the East. Constantly reinforced by more of their kind they were beginning to sweep westwards across the country, massacring & pillaging, to make it their own."
Postscript: "Although there are no incontrovertible facts about King Arthur, the renown of his life & deeds in the Dark Ages was lodged for over 600 years in folk memory. & folk, being what they are, invariably alter & embroider a good story. Wm of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth & then Sir Thomas Malory were landed with the result. Lesser as well as better writers have followed them. Acknowledging that I come in the first of these two categories, I feel no shame in entering the lists poorly armed but securely mounted on a horse I have ridden for years called Imagination."
550 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
4 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
About the author
Victor Canning
163 books59 followersVictor Canning was a prolific writer of novels and thrillers who flourished in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but whose reputation has faded since his death in 1986. He was personally reticent, writing no memoirs and giving relatively few newspaper interviews.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
Canning was born in Plymouth, Devon, the eldest child of a coach builder, Fred Canning, and his wife May, née Goold. During World War I his father served as an ambulance driver in France and Flanders, while he with his two sisters went to live in the village of Calstock ten miles north of Plymouth, where his uncle Cecil Goold worked for the railways and later became station master. After the war the family returned to Plymouth. In the mid 1920s they moved to Oxford where his father had found work, and Victor attended the Oxford Central School. Here he was encouraged to stay on at school and go to university by a classical scholar, Dr. Henderson, but the family could not afford it and instead Victor went to work as a clerk in the education office at age 16.
Within three years he had started selling short stories to boys’ magazines and in 1934, his first novel. Mr. Finchley Discovers his England, was accepted by Hodder and Stoughton and became a runaway best seller. He gave up his job and started writing full time, producing thirteen more novels in the next six years under three different names. Lord Rothermere engaged him to write for the Daily Mail, and a number of his travel articles for the Daily Mail were collected as a book with illustrations by Leslie Stead under the title Everyman's England in 1936. He also continued to write short stories.
He married Phyllis McEwen in 1935, a girl from a theatrical family whom he met while she was working with a touring vaudeville production at Weston-super-Mare. They had three daughters, Lindel born in 1939, Hilary born in 1940, and Virginia who was born in 1942, but died in infancy.
In 1940 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent for training with the Royal Artillery in Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, where he trained alongside his friend Eric Ambler. Both were commissioned as second lieutenants in 1941. Canning worked in anti-aircraft batteries in the south of England until early 1943, when he was sent to North Africa and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaigns. At the end of the war he was assigned to an Anglo-American unit doing experimental work with radar range-finding. It was top secret work but nothing to do with espionage, though Canning never discouraged the assumption of publishers and reviewers that his espionage stories were partly based on experience. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of major.
He resumed writing with The Chasm (1947), a novel about identifying a Nazi collaborator who has hidden himself in a remote Italian village. A film of this was planned but never finished. Canning’s next book, Panther’s Moon, was filmed as Spy Hunt, and from now on Canning was established as someone who could write a book a year in the suspense genre, have them reliably appear in book club and paperback editions on both sides of the Atlantic, be translated into the main European languages, and in many cases get filmed. He himself spent a year in Hollywood working on scripts for movies of his own books and on TV shows. The money earned from the film of The Golden Salamander (filmed with Trevor Howard) meant that Canning could buy a substantial country house with some land in Kent, Marle Place, where he lived for nearly twenty years and where his daughter continues to live now. From the mid 1950s onwards his books became more conventional, full of exotic settings, stirring action sequences and stock characters. In 1965 he began a series of four books featuring a private detective called Rex Carver, and these were among his most successful in sales terms.
He died in 1986.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 22, 2018
So very boring..skimmed a lot , beautiful stepback though:/
May 17, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in September 1999.
There seems to be something about the Arthur legend which attracts thriller writers. Best known are probably Mary Stewart's books, but other authors who have tackled the subject include Bernard Cornwell and Victor Canning. Canning's trilogy, beginning with The Crystal Chalice, is less a straight retelling of the legend than a story inspired by it - particularly the Holy Grail elements. In The Crimson Chalice, for example, Arthur and Merlin hardly get a mention. Magic is virtually banished, just occasionally appearing here and there. This mainly makes it serve as a reminder that the setting is Arthurian, rather than being a straight fifth century historical novel.
Young upper class Roman girl Tia (short for Gratia) flees from the destruction of her father's villa by a party of marauding Saxons, when she comes upon the body of Baradoc in the woods. Heir to the chieftainship of a British tribe in the far west, he was taken prisoner by Phoenician traders and sold as a slave. He is also escaping the Saxons, but has been attacked and left for dead by his cousin, the next heir. She nurses him back to health, and they continue together to Aquae Sulis (Bath) and the comparative safety of her uncle's villa there.
The self-deprecating postscript effectively disarms criticism of Canning's style; suffice it to say that some of the more romantic and poetic passages are ill advised.
There seems to be something about the Arthur legend which attracts thriller writers. Best known are probably Mary Stewart's books, but other authors who have tackled the subject include Bernard Cornwell and Victor Canning. Canning's trilogy, beginning with The Crystal Chalice, is less a straight retelling of the legend than a story inspired by it - particularly the Holy Grail elements. In The Crimson Chalice, for example, Arthur and Merlin hardly get a mention. Magic is virtually banished, just occasionally appearing here and there. This mainly makes it serve as a reminder that the setting is Arthurian, rather than being a straight fifth century historical novel.
Young upper class Roman girl Tia (short for Gratia) flees from the destruction of her father's villa by a party of marauding Saxons, when she comes upon the body of Baradoc in the woods. Heir to the chieftainship of a British tribe in the far west, he was taken prisoner by Phoenician traders and sold as a slave. He is also escaping the Saxons, but has been attacked and left for dead by his cousin, the next heir. She nurses him back to health, and they continue together to Aquae Sulis (Bath) and the comparative safety of her uncle's villa there.
The self-deprecating postscript effectively disarms criticism of Canning's style; suffice it to say that some of the more romantic and poetic passages are ill advised.
July 5, 2024
(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)
I'm finally going through my physical library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
I'm finally going through my physical library owned book list, to add more older basic reviews. If I liked a book enough to keep then they are at the least a 3 star.
I'm only adding one book per author and I'm not going to re-read every book to be more accurate, not when I have 1000s of new to me authors to try (I can't say no to free books....)
First time read the author's work?: Yes
Will you be reading more?: Yes
Would you recommend?: Yes
------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)
All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked
Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)
December 5, 2017
Libro molto avvincente su Artù; in effetti ricalca poco la leggenda dei cavalieri della tavola rotonda, come generalmente conosciuta: l'Autore ha cercato di dargli un'appropriato quadro storico, ispirandosi al personaggio, ma costruendo una storia ambientata in una credibile Britannia del V secolo (in particolare nell'attuale Cornovaglia), con la sua frammentazione tribale e le lotte contro gli invasori sassoni. In effetti si avvicina più ad un romanzo storico (tipo Le storie dei re Sassoni, di Cornwell) che ad un fantasy (solo gli incontri con Merlino sono una minima concessione al fantastico, gli stessi sogni di Artù sembrano più un'invenzione della sua immaginazione che un'ispirazione degli dei). La trama è prevalentemente quella di un romanzo di avventure, con battaglie, intrighi, ardimenti e tradimenti, ma non mancano i lati poetici e l'Amore. I personaggi principali (Baraduc e suo figlio Artù, un pò meno le loro mogli) sono abbastanza delineati, gli altri fanno più che altro da comparse.
April 16, 2020
I think this was one of the best tellings of the story of Arthur which I've read, and I've read quite a few. The author chose to write a more plausible version of the story of Arthur, noting that Arthur's existence was likely just based on the fact of the long-lasting stories. There isn't a bunch of magic and romance added to this version of the story. It is based on some actual history and what could have truly happened to bring about this long-lived tale of King Arthur.
February 16, 2023
Great read. Been years, but it is a gritty take on the Arthurian cycle. This was an English translation from another language. I don't recall what the original language was. If I am not mistaken, Galahad finds the grail through scholarly archaeology rather than on a quest, and that was while he was in prison, I think for some treasonous act against the king.
February 7, 2021
Interesting story of King Arthur as Part 1 of the trilogy - but much too repetitive in terms of all the battles that were fought. That part should have been edited and tightened up. Other than that I would recommend the book as it is an enjoyable tale.
July 22, 2020
Enjoyed in the 80's.
October 23, 2020
It was so easy to read the beautiful prose.
August 20, 2012
Of the many books I have read concerning the legend of King Arthur, this is my favorite. An imaginative tale that wanders outside the traditional lines set forth by Mallory and Tolstoy, it gives the reader all that can be asked of fine literature. A sweeping tale, told in three parts, immediately draws you in with its wonderfully descriptive prose. We begin with the forest meeting of Gratia and Baradoc, who, during their travels fall in love. More adventures await them, including the birth of their son, Arturo. The story then follows with Arturo's life from childhood to his fabled death. A must read for those who love Arthurian legend, battles, romance, and medieval Britain. I, too, wept when the dream ended.
August 1, 2013
It has been more than twenty five years since I read this book, but time has not changed the pleasure I got from re-reading an enchanting tale of the meeting of King Arthur's parents, and an interesting take on the legend. I love the kindle version as there are so many references to Roman names for places in Britain that it is really handy to keep checking where in England Baradaoc and Tia are, and to relate to the lovely descriptions of the landscapes. It's a historical romance with a difference and doesn't lose anything over time. First published in 1972. I can't wait to read the next in the trilogy. Give it a try, as it hasn't been available on Kindle long.
January 24, 2016
Marked as didn't finish as I only managed the first book (of the three combined in this ed). Not bad, just found myself page-counting, and at this point I'm unlikely to go back to it.
I recommend Jo Walton's Tir Tanagiri books for anyone on the look-out for Arthur variants.
I recommend Jo Walton's Tir Tanagiri books for anyone on the look-out for Arthur variants.
Read
August 27, 2016This was REALLLY hard to read! And that's saying something for me, generally I find these kinds of historically-ish things kind of fun to get through but not this time. It just didn't hold my interest!
February 27, 2008
Never got past the first few chapters -- pretty much covers every cliche that YET ANOTHER retelling of the King Arthur story can. Skip it.
July 6, 2009
This was my all time favorite book when I was in high school.
April 22, 2010
This is a better-than-average reworking of the Arthurian and Grail matter written with an intelligent grounding of the history of the Britons after the Roman withdrawal.
October 9, 2012
very masculine, very preshistoric, probably closer to an historically accurate Arthur than many of the other retellings.
July 7, 2013
Was such a good read! I loved it!
January 23, 2016
Paperback - (A)
December 15, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, it was a nice surprise after finding a 1970's copy in the op shop! A really nice story of adventure and love.
Read
May 20, 2019I love reading any of the Arthurian tales. This is definitely an interesting twist. It's a rather fast read, but Canning is very wordy! It was nice reading an older script where lots of adjectives are used and the author paints a picture for the reader.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews