By Ian Wilson
I think the Western World, particularly the Anglo-speaking world, has an obsession with King Arthur and Camelot. And for good reason; Arthur is part of our collective consciousness. He’s the platonic ideal of what all the subsequent kings of Britain tried to be. All English kings have tried to claim some legitimate connection to him, by blood or by some other means. But what made me, personally, choose to write about Camelot?
To answer that, I’ll have to go back to childhood. I think one of my favorite films as a kid was The Sword in the Stone. It was my gateway drug to Arthurian lore. My Dad would read me stories about King Arthur and his knights when I was young. This idea of a magic sword that would choose the next king intrigued me so. I kept thinking about it. There was just this ethos of Arthur that was always around.
Later, I found out that I am ethnically mostly British— some Welsh, some Scotch-Irish, and English, throwing in some Breton for good measure. I became interested in the folktales and culture of my ancestors, reading as much as I could get my hands on. It became sort of a personal mythology. An inheritance, if you will. I felt a sense that I had to keep the legends alive.
Now, I don’t know about nowadays, but when I was young, Celtic-based fantasy was kind of rare. At least, if it was around, I didn’t know about it. Most authors drew on Germanic mythology or the Greeks for their tales, or they’d write something entirely unique to them, or they’d just copy Tolkien’s homework, or J.K. Rowling, or whomever struck their fancy. Most steered clear of the Celtic peoples, because much of their lore has been lost, or ill-understood, or they simply weren’t popular enough.
The Celtic fantasy series I did know about and read were Stephen Lawhead’s Endless Knot trilogy, and Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain. I cannot recommend those books enough. They very much fired my imagination. I thought if I could create something like that, I would be a pretty good writer. So I researched and I planned, and then I set about writing and thus the Camelot Cycle was born.
And if this intrigues you at all, if you want to read thrilling tales from the time of Ancient Britain, pick up a copy of my books now by clicking the link below.
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