What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I only remember small part of the book's storyline:
The protagonist is a teen and female. She's been through many hardships (can't remember what specifically). She comes across a boy her age who thinks he's a girl.
The boy's mother disguised him as a girl when an evil knight invaded his land when he was very young and killed all the men and boys. His mother, the lady of the castle, raised him as a girl to protect him until he was old enough to fight the evil knight. He'd never seen a naked woman or man and didn't know the difference between his body and a woman's.
It's likely there's a romance between the two, I don't remember.

I read this book about seven years ago. I think's is written in the vein of Gerald Morris's Squire's Tale series, and is an narrative adaption of a old European tale.

Reference: Gerald Morris's The Squire's Tales series - https://www.goodreads.com/series/4148...

This sounds so familiar to me! I will look through my books and see if anything rings a bell.

Okay, I realized that what I was thinking of was not a book but this: http://bettermyths.com/percival-is-th...

However, I think your book is likely to be a retelling of the Percival/Parsifal story, which may help narrow it down a bit.

Krista wrote: "Okay, I realized that what I was thinking of was not a book but this: http://bettermyths.com/percival-is-th...

However, I think your book is likely to be a retelli..."

Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll do some searching.

There is a Parsifal in Blue Flame by K.M. Grant, but I don't know if he's been disguised as a girl.

I'm thinking of Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve - I know the girl becomes Merlin's apprentice after she fled somewhere and swam down a river. All the names are slightly off in this retelling, so the girl is Gwyna, the boy raised by his widow mother is Peredur and he later becomes Gwyna's lover. The narrative threw me a lot and I didn't like it as an Arthurian tale, but the dynamic was brilliant and brought a haunting realism to the old Arthurian legends. Also, Sir Bedivere (Bedwyr) becomes Queen Quenevere/Gwenhwyfar's lover (she drowns herself in a pond after he dies(?). Another distinct memory I have of Here Lies Arthur is Peredur discovering he should be a knight and rides out meeting Gwyna and her ladies (she starts menstruating which is why Merlin stopped using her as a boy and left her with the ladies) he wears a cooking pot on his head and has a small kitchen knife as a sword? Also at one point they taped a seagull to his back to scare a really mean abbot. There's more if any of this rings a bell -

Pearl wrote: "I'm thinking of Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve - I know the girl becomes Merlin's apprentice after she fled somewhere and swam down a river. All the names are slightly off in this ..."

I think that's it! Oddly, I only remember scenes with Gwyna and Peredur, like the scene where she pretends to be the lady of the lake for him. I'm looking forward to reading it again. Thank you!