Book review: Mordred, Bastard Son by Douglas Clegg.
I found this to be a beautifully written, very poetically styled novel and I was hooked from the very start. The employment of the third person narrative for prologue and epilogue worked extremely well as brackets to the meat of the novel in the first person. Mordred is a highly sympathetic and likeable character and the twists on Arthurian legend and the idea that Arthur was not the shining king of wonder and sparkly rainbows that historians/mythologians tend to portray him as was very refreshing.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and had a moment near the end of 'uhoh' when Mordred ruminated on why Merlin did not want Lancelot to go with Mordred to save Guinevere. I sense dark times and sadness ahead for our anti-hero. For that is what Mordred is in this novel, and I cannot wait for the second part of this wonderful trilogy.
There are deviations from the 'accepted' mythos of Arthurian legend: for one thing, Mordred is the result of the rape of his mother by Arthur, her half brother, when he was 15 and drunk. Merlin has prophesied that Arthur's son will destroy him and so Morgan Le Fey flees Britain with her child to Armorica, medieval Brittany, to the sanctuary of the sacred forest of Broceliande and the Isle of Glass. Mordred is a gay man who suppresses his adolescent urges in order to learn magic from Merlin, but his mother grows insane and after a series of misadventures, her sister, Morgause, attempts to kill Arthur's intended bride, Guinevere. Guinevere in this novel is a Roman princess, and part of her betrothal agreement concerns Broceliande being ceded to the Romans, which drives Morgan and Morgause wild with rage. Morgause has no love for anyone, and decieves Mordred, even as he is falling deeply in love with a hermit who lives at the edge of Broceliande. The hermit turns out to be Lancelot, exiled by Arthur for a misdeed not yet revealed, and reluctantly allowed to live in Broceliande by the Eponi and the high priestess Viviane. This novel is full of magic, legend, myth and love, it is a gay romance, the love between Mordred and Lancelot growing slowly but surely, the passion between them written lyrically and very movingly.
A review from Publishers Weekly:
Though usually portrayed as the worm in the bud that was Camelot, Mordred, the illegitimate offspring of King Arthur and sorceress Morgan le Fay, gets sympathetic treatment in Clegg's revisionist Arthurian fantasy, the first in a projected trilogy. Born into exile on the Isle of Glass, the young Mordred knows his father only through the stories bitter elders tell of Arthur's theft of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Mordred flourishes under the instruction of his mother and the wizard Merlin, but he's distracted from his education in druidic mysteries by his adolescent passion for a hermit living in the nearby wilds. That hermit's identity, coupled with a transgression that alienates Mordred from his community by the novel's end, all point to the inexorable destiny that shapes the tale's events and tinges them with pathos. Clegg (The Priest of Blood) maintains a nice balance between the human and mythic dimensions of his characters, portraying the familiar elements of their story from refreshingly original angles. (Jan.)
I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Arthurian legend. It's a beautifully written book, Mordred's reinvention here is wonderful and his character is tragically beautiful. I cannot wait for the second installment.
It's a quick read - just over 200 pages, and I read it in two nights. Absolutely wonderful story, I haven't been this impressed with a non-Russian novel in a very long time.
Get it here at Amazon.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and had a moment near the end of 'uhoh' when Mordred ruminated on why Merlin did not want Lancelot to go with Mordred to save Guinevere. I sense dark times and sadness ahead for our anti-hero. For that is what Mordred is in this novel, and I cannot wait for the second part of this wonderful trilogy.
There are deviations from the 'accepted' mythos of Arthurian legend: for one thing, Mordred is the result of the rape of his mother by Arthur, her half brother, when he was 15 and drunk. Merlin has prophesied that Arthur's son will destroy him and so Morgan Le Fey flees Britain with her child to Armorica, medieval Brittany, to the sanctuary of the sacred forest of Broceliande and the Isle of Glass. Mordred is a gay man who suppresses his adolescent urges in order to learn magic from Merlin, but his mother grows insane and after a series of misadventures, her sister, Morgause, attempts to kill Arthur's intended bride, Guinevere. Guinevere in this novel is a Roman princess, and part of her betrothal agreement concerns Broceliande being ceded to the Romans, which drives Morgan and Morgause wild with rage. Morgause has no love for anyone, and decieves Mordred, even as he is falling deeply in love with a hermit who lives at the edge of Broceliande. The hermit turns out to be Lancelot, exiled by Arthur for a misdeed not yet revealed, and reluctantly allowed to live in Broceliande by the Eponi and the high priestess Viviane. This novel is full of magic, legend, myth and love, it is a gay romance, the love between Mordred and Lancelot growing slowly but surely, the passion between them written lyrically and very movingly.
A review from Publishers Weekly:
Though usually portrayed as the worm in the bud that was Camelot, Mordred, the illegitimate offspring of King Arthur and sorceress Morgan le Fay, gets sympathetic treatment in Clegg's revisionist Arthurian fantasy, the first in a projected trilogy. Born into exile on the Isle of Glass, the young Mordred knows his father only through the stories bitter elders tell of Arthur's theft of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Mordred flourishes under the instruction of his mother and the wizard Merlin, but he's distracted from his education in druidic mysteries by his adolescent passion for a hermit living in the nearby wilds. That hermit's identity, coupled with a transgression that alienates Mordred from his community by the novel's end, all point to the inexorable destiny that shapes the tale's events and tinges them with pathos. Clegg (The Priest of Blood) maintains a nice balance between the human and mythic dimensions of his characters, portraying the familiar elements of their story from refreshingly original angles. (Jan.)
I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Arthurian legend. It's a beautifully written book, Mordred's reinvention here is wonderful and his character is tragically beautiful. I cannot wait for the second installment.
It's a quick read - just over 200 pages, and I read it in two nights. Absolutely wonderful story, I haven't been this impressed with a non-Russian novel in a very long time.
Get it here at Amazon.