Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

A thread for boooks set aroudn the British Isles that have a British populace perspective.

I'd like to mention Awen: Powys/Mercia, Offa's Dyke, Canu Heledd, 793-796 Ad, one of my absolute favorite, favorite, favorites!!! The title + subtitle give you an idea of the story. The word Awen is Welsh for "poetic inspiration" and is the closest to an English translation. The hero is a would-be bard, caught in the enmity between two kingdoms. Canu Heledd is a real cycle of poems, which figure in the story. You can find the text on the 'Net.
Also another book I really liked: the last in the Roman trilogy of Rosemary Sutcliff--one called The Lantern Bearers

That Latern Bearers is included in my The Eagle of the Ninth Collection. While I can't wait to read them, I will have to. It's just not a priority this year.

I found the text to the Canu Heledd here:
http://www.kmatthews.org.uk/history/c...
Text is in both old Welsh and English. To the left, click on the name of the poem, then the text in both languages will display.

Darcy, I think you'll enjoy The Lantern Bearers. I had it out from the library, read it several times before it was due, then finally bought it.

Jane wrote: "I'd like to mention Awen: Powys/Mercia, Offa's Dyke, Canu Heledd, 793-796 Ad, one of my absolute favorite, favorite, favorites!!! The title + subtitle give you an idea of the story. The word Awen..."

That sounds fascinating, Jane. Thanks for telling us about it. Adding it to my tbr..

Thanks for the link Jane - love it!

Britain after Arthur. Great reads.


http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10...

Thanks for them Steven, not heard of them before now.

Mark wrote: "Thanks for them Steven, not heard of them before now."

You're welcome. They've been around a while and never did get the attention I think they deserved.

Steven wrote: "Britain after Arthur. Great reads.


http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

Those look good - I've added the first one to the TBR list - somehow that never seems to get any shorter :)

Are they fantasy, Steven? The other books have no blurb or reviews, but that first one the blurb says they 'rely on the power of the Sacred Wood'.

For future reference. We only include straight historical fiction in the era threads. No magic or anything like that.
There is a Mythology thread where books such as fantasy type Arthur books go to live.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...

Our Library System website: http://www.4cls.org
calls its genre fantasy. I have put a get-from-library on Book 1, which is the only one they have of the trilogy. I'm 'over-Arthured' for awhile, so I'll wait before putting a hold.

You'll be our guinea pig then. To tell us if it is actual fantasy or just called that because it is Arthur.
:-)

Terri wrote: "Are they fantasy, Steven? The other books have no blurb or reviews, but that first one the blurb says they 'rely on the power of the Sacred Wood'.

For future reference. We only include straight h..."

They are not the fantasy you'd expect from Tolkien or Martin, but here and there you'll find some Celtic power more resembling the kind of 'magic' Cornwell used in his Arthur stories. It is minimal and it is much more speculative HF than fantasy.

Hmm...that's as clear as mud. Lol. :-)

Cornwell doesn't use any Celtic power or magic, not even a little, in his books. It's all implied, but no actual power is created. Is that what you mean? It is all implied but not actually happening.

Terri wrote: "You'll be our guinea pig then. To tell us if it is actual fantasy or just called that because it is Arthur.
:-)"

This is the cataloging they had on Winter king.

Author: Cornwell, Bernard.
ISBN: 9780312156961
Personal Author: Cornwell, Bernard.
Publication Information: New York : St. Martin's Griffin, 1997, c1995.
Physical Description: 431 p. : maps.
Series: The Warlord chronicles ; v.I
Series Title: The Warlord chronicles ; v.I
Personal Subject: Arthur, King-Fiction.
Subject Term:
Britons -- Kings and rulers -- Fiction.
Arthurian romances -- Adaptations.

I'll check on the cataloging on the other one.

There is no genre given.

Terri wrote: "You'll be our guinea pig then. To tell us if it is actual fantasy or just called that because it is Arthur.
:-)"

This is what Four Counties had on Vol. 1 in the series Steven mentioned:

Title: The last companion: a novel of Arthurian Britain
Author: McCormack, Patrick, 1958-
ISBN: 9780786714940
Personal Author: McCormack, Patrick, 1958-
Edition: 1st Carroll & Graf ed.
Publication Information: New York : Carroll & Graf, 2005.
Physical Description: ix, 401 p. : map ; 21 cm.
Series: Albion seriesAlbion chronicles ; bk. 1.
Personal Subject: Arthur, King-Fiction.
Subject Term:
Knights and knighthood -- England -- Fiction.
Arthurian romances -- Adaptations.
Geographic Term: Great Britain -- History -- To 1066 -- Fiction.
Genre: Fantasy fiction.

Ergo: this tells me this is fantasy. Note: Winter king had no special genre. So if you go by their cataloging, they consider WK w/o fantasy

Steven wrote: "Do you remember the link between Cornwell's main character, Derfel
Do you remember the woman ..."


So your answer to my question was yes? There is no magic in those books, only implied.

Sorry. Had to delete your post as the details you gave from both the BC Saxon series and the Arthur Trilogy were spoilers and could ruin reads for people.

Jane wrote: "Terri wrote: "You'll be our guinea pig then. To tell us if it is actual fantasy or just called that because it is Arthur.
:-)"

This is what Four Counties had on Vol. 1 in the series Steven mentio..."

Interesting. Sounds like the only way we can know for sure whether that McCormack book is fantasy is for you to read it. :-) Once you are over your Arthurian overdose!

Terri wrote: "Jane wrote: "Terri wrote: "You'll be our guinea pig then. To tell us if it is actual fantasy or just called that because it is Arthur.
:-)"

This is what Four Counties had on Vol. 1 in the series ..."

Right!!! :)

Terri wrote: "Steven wrote: "Do you remember the link between Cornwell's main character, Derfel
Do you remember the woman ..."


So your answer to my question was yes? There is no magic in those books, only imp..."

My bad. Realized that this morning and was coming to delete or edit out the spoilers.

If you want the magic found in sword and sorcery fantasies you will look in vain. The stories paint a picture of the author's vision of Dark Age Britain in the years following the Battle of River Bend and the fate of some of the surviving warriors of the man who may have been Arthur.

Steven wrote: "Terri wrote: "Steven wrote: "Do you remember the link between Cornwell's main character, Derfel
Do you remember the woman ..."


So your answer to my question was yes? There is no magic in those b..."

Lol. Yeah, one of those spoilers applied to a book people are currently reading as our group read and the other spoiler applied to a series that some people have kept going on with after reading last months group read.:-)

Ouch!!!

Let me resubmit my most humble apologies...

'Am eating worms as I type.

That's all right.Apology accepted. Hoping nobody saw your spoilers before I wiped them from the earth. :D

I did see them, but did the equivalent to "lalalalalala" (when someone is saying something you don't want to hear) for my eyes. To anyone watching, it probably looks like a bad case of eyes spasms as I quickly exit from the topic :D

Haha!!! Thank goodness for eyelids, hey.

King Egbert and the Naming of England
George T. Beech investigates whether a King of Wessex adopted a new name for his country in 828, but failed to implement the change.
http://www.historytoday.com/george-t-...

UPDATE 22/March/2014: This article no longer viewable to non subscribers of History Today. I am not a subscriber, but if you are, then you can still view it by logging in.

http://phys.org/news/2014-02-ancient-...

found this very intersting.

Terri wrote: "King Egbert and the Naming of England
George T. Beech investigates whether a King of Wessex adopted a new name for his country in 828, but failed to implement the change.
http://www.historytoday.co..."

I'm not a History Today subscriber. Would you care to summarise the article for those of us who aren't? It was always my impression that Athelstan was the first "King of England" in addition to naming himself Imp. Brit. on his coins.

I am not a History Today subscriber either.
It appears now you have to be one to view the article. Perhaps it is only viewable to non members for a limited time when it is posted.

I will amend that post to reflect this fact.

Whitby, non vampire topic.;). Very interesting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/envi...

That is interesting, Whitby is quite the place!

Martha, The series you've just posted are not straight historical fiction. Many seem to have also listed the series as being, in part, fantasy, which does not fit this group's brief.

This group sticks to pretty much, non-fantasy, not-too-romancey type historical fiction.

Yep, Sorry Martha. :( we know you were just trying to help.
We try to keep the fantasy out of the straight historical fiction threads.
We'd hate someone to buy a book they see in these threads expecting it to be straight hist fic, only to find they have bought an historical fantasy.

Let's give Matthew Harffy a shot, his debut novel The Serpent Sword looks promising. It is set in 633 AD Britain and I will be starting it as soon as I finish my current read.

Very, very exciting. T
Archaeologists think they may have discovered King Arthur's castle near Tintagel Castle.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

I just want to mention one of my favorite books of all time Avalon as it's set in the late tenth century. It could also go in the Viking section since it deals with both, but a big portion of the book is set in England. If anyone decides to read it, I want to preface it with the first twenty pages are really slow, similar to how old movies spent much more time setting up the characters than those made today do. But get past that and the book becomes fantastic.

Anya Seton was good at giving books a slow start, and , just before you were about to give up, she'd pick up the pace.

Margaret wrote: "Anya Seton was good at giving books a slow start, and , just before you were about to give up, she'd pick up the pace."

I totally agree! I love so many of her books, but I think Avalon is the only one that fits in this category.

I read The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. The setting is pre-Saxon England with mythical creatures, knights, pixies, good monks and bad monks, ogres, and a dragon. The area is surrounded by a mist that causes personal and collective memory loss. Against this backdrop, Axl and Beatrice, an elderly couple, set off on a quest for find their son.
The novel is not really about pre-Saxon England. I think it is a meditation on memory--its efficacy, and the role it plays to foster or impede reconciliation on a personal and/or collective level.
An amazing novel.
My review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The new Giles Kristian is released this month.

Lancelot by Giles Kristian



I am a little bit excited about this one as it is set in one of my favourite periods of history and Giles writes petfectly in this period.

He won't be writing any Disney story here.

Hi folks, I've been a lurker here for a long time. I didn't know we could introduce our own books, so with my latest release, I hope you don't mind and might find this of interest. My focus is on Arthurian historical fiction, based on the research of the eminent historian Geoffrey Ashe. The first, The Retreat to Avalon, and second, The Strife of Camlann, are out and I am working on #3, Three Wicked Revelations. Aside from the historical side, I also stick to the old Welsh legends rather than the later French Romances. No Lancelot or Grail in my stories!
Thanks, and I'd love to hear what you think.

The Retreat to Avalon

The Strife of Camlann

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y...

"Ten years on from the discovery of the Viking-age Galloway Hoard in south Scotland, experts have revealed that part of the collection came from West Asia.
The collection - described as one of the most important UK archaeological finds of the century - was found by metal detectorist Derek McLennan in 2014.
A lidded silver vessel was discovered still wrapped in its ancient textiles, which is extremely rare, and meant that the surface of the vessel could at first only be seen through X-ray scans.
Experts say the vessel is originally from what is now central Iran and it was transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago."

Gorgeous photos, and this would definitely inspire a novel!