Avalon: The Return of King Arthur

Stephen Lawhead

Overview The time has come for Arthur to return. It is

England’s greatest need as the monarchy is threatened to be dismantled. This is essentially a modern novel where King Arthur has returned and is trying to keep the monarchy of Britain intact. He is up against the Prime Minister and even the public who is weary of royal scandal and it is almost certain that the monarch will not remain. The reborn King Arthur must remind the people of the importance of a king and the role of a monarchy.

Character List James Arthur Stuart – King Arthur

Jennifer – Gwenhwyvar

Myrddin Embries – Merlin

Moira – Morgain

Calum – Sir Kay

Christianity in the Narrative

Throughout Lawhead’s narrative Merlin mentions how his powers come from God. He frequently invokes God during prayers and spells and tells James to do the same. Everything is done before the “Lord of all” and the “High King”.

Arthur’s Return The History of the Kings of Britain –

Monmouth

Brut – Layamon

Le Morte D’Arthur – Malory

Idylls of the King – Tennyson

The Black Book of Aneirin – Aeinrin

Arthur in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

“The Arthurian legend of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is a remarkable malleable body of material, capable to being expanded, contracted, or radically changed in form to fit the design of an author or the tastes of the public.”

Modern Arthurian Narratives

Retellings

Updating the narrative

The legend as structure

Revisionist views

Conclusion “What the Arthurian legend will

look like in a decade or a century, and what will be thought of it then, can only be matters of speculation. What is certain is that when Malory and other authors spoke of the ‘once and future king’, they could not have imagined the popularity and nature of that Arthurian future.”

Sources Lacy, Norris J. "The Arthur of the

Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries." The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend. Ed. Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009. 120-35. Print.

Lawhead, Steve. Avalon: The Return of King Arthur. New York: Avon-EOS, 1999. Print.

Monmouth, Geoffrey. History of the Kings of Britain,. Ed. J. A. Giles. Trans. J. A. Giles. New York: Dutton, 1958. Print.

Malory, Thomas. Le Morte Darthur, Or, The Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table: Authoritative Text, Sources and Backgrounds, Criticism. Ed. Stephen H. A. Shepherd. New York: Norton, 2004. Print.

Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King. Ed. James M. Gray. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1983. Print.

Layamon. Brut. London: Oxford U.P., 1963. Print.