Description

It is said that a monument now stands before the high church of Caerleon: an anvil pierced through with a sword. It is said that the sword can only be taken by the Britons’ rightful king…

‘This is a book you will return to over and over again’ Dan Jones

From Sunday Times bestseller Amy Jeffs’, Arthur: A New Life mines the deep, elusive seams of a story we think we all know: the legend of King Arthur.

But here he is anew: a larger-than-life warlord, a hero raised by fairies, a leader of the wild hunt, a monster-slayer, lying wounded under the ash cloud, longing to rise again.

Tracing an epic story from Merlin’s conception and the building of the Round Table to the abduction of Guinevere and King Arthur’s ambitious quest for Empire, this Arthur is as real as any other, brought back to life from the earliest sources.

Drawing out the dark and beautiful stories from the original medieval and early modern texts, Amy guides the reader from citadels through forests, into volcanoes, caves and riverbanks and beyond, even as far as Hell and the Otherworld. Going further than merely the stories, she provides incisive commentary about each tale, emphasising the legends’ crafted nature and their symbiotic relationship with the political cultures of contemporary medieval Europe.

Twenty-five original linocut illustrations map the inky Arthurian myth-scape, darkened by time, familiar as a dream.

Publisher Review

Gripping, learned, funny and often shocking, Arthur strips the greatest body of British legend back to its medieval bones, and shows the King Arthur cycle in all its original glorious strangeness. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly told, this is a book you will return to over and over again. — Dan Jones, bestselling author of The Plantagenets A tapestry of tales that brings Arthur to ferocious life, following him across Europe and into the depths of even the darkest of legends — Helen Carr This is a book full of enchantment and revelation, its strange and marvellous stories alongside Jeffs’ spellbinding illustrations. This is an Arthur dreamed into being in the very earliest traditions, far beyond the chivalric figure you thought you knew. Jeffs’ compelling storytelling is grounded in meticulous research into medieval manuscripts and scholarship. * Catherine Clarke * It isn’t a book. It is a portal into a time and place in mythical history. Transportive. Scented with apple orchards, rich with the land. To touch upon the story of Arthur, tales I have lived with most of my life, to bring something new, vibrant, alive, after so many retellings is hard, but Amy Jeffs does this, by seeking out the source of the river. A triumph. — Jackie Morris