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Many books have been written about King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot and Camelot. Here, I think are some of the best books about King Arthur and Merlin.

To start with, everyone should read “The Once and Future King” by T. H. White. Here is as stirring and classical look at the Arthurian legend.

Definitely check out Stephen R. Lawhead ’s Trilogy: “Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle, Book 1)” “Merlin” and “Arthur”. It starts our combining two legends, that of Atlantis and of Camelot. “Taliesin is the remarkable adventure of Charis, the Atlantian princess who escaped the terrible devastation of her homeland, and of the fabled seer and druid prince Taliesin, singer at the dawn of the age. It is the story of an incomparable love that joined two worlds amid the fires of chaos, and spawned the miracles of Merlin… and Arthur the king.” The author followed this up with a second trilogy in which the reign of “Arthur” actually begins: “Pendragon”, “Grail” and “Avalon” . These books are not re-tellings of the original Arthur and Merlin legends, but use the myths as the underlying theme.

Of course, if you have not read the original stories, another good place to start is with The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart. Here is the Arthurian legend in three books: The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. These books have Merlin, Arthur’s wizard mentor, as their focal point, and the result is a charming, engrossing tale providing a unique perspective on a familiar tale. Her history is superb and richly detailed, her characterizations are masterful, and her plotting is perfect. You’ll be entranced by this magical story.

Another series of more esoteric novels based around King Arthur and Merlin is Jack Whyte’s “Dream of Eagles / Camulod Chronicles” It is pretty good. The books are: The Skystone (The Camulod Chronicles, Book 1), The Singing Sword, The Breeding of the Eagle, The Saxon shore.

For the more scholarly, look for the following books: Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms (a look at some possible historical source materials); Arthur, the Dragon King (a different look at the roots of the legend – material in this book was included in the recent “King Arthur” movie, Clive Owen). The Gododdin: Britain’s Oldest Heroic Poem (Welsh Classics) (the ancient Welsh poem contains the first reference to Arthur).

Of course, there are many other fine King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, Guinevere related books out there… Happy Reading!

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King Arthur was Real?
September 23, 1998

by Amélie A. Walker

Possible evidence of the existence of Arthur, the legendary warrior king, has been found at Tintagel in Cornwall. A Cornish slate with sixth-century engravings was found in July on the eastern terraces of Tintagel on the edge of a cliff overlooking the place traditionally known as Merlin’s Cave. It was discovered under broken pottery and glass from the late sixth or seventh centuries during the re-excavations of an area last dug in the 1930s.

The 8 inch by 14 inch slate bears two inscriptions. The older, upper letters have been broken off and cannot be deciphered. The lower inscription, translated by Charles Thomas of the University of Glasgow, reads “Pater Coliavi ficit Artognov–Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, has had this built.” The inscription is basically in Latin, perhaps with some primitive Irish and British elements, according to Thomas. The British name represented by the Latin Atrognov is Arthnou. Geoffrey Wainwright of English Heritage says that the name is close enough to refer to Arthur, the legendary king and warrior. Thomas, however, believes that we must dismiss ideas that the name is associated with King Arthur. Christopher Morris, professor of archaeology at the University of Glasgow and the director of the excavations, feels that the script does not necessarily refer to Arthur, because King Arthur first entered the historical domain in the twelfth century.

Cover of Idylls of the King

The slate, part of a collapsed wall, was reused as a drain cover in the sixth century. The is the first secular inscription ever found at a site from the Dark Ages in England. The find demonstrates that Latin literacy and the Roman way of life survived the collapse of Roman Britain. It is the first evidence that the skills of reading and writing were handed down in a nonreligious context, according to Morris.

Also found were shards of Mediterranean amphorae, large vessels used for storing and transporting commodities, and a cache of fragments from a single glass vessel. The latter are from a large glass flagon of a type not found elsewhere in Britain or Ireland during this period, but found in Malaga and Cadiz from the sixth or seventh century. The find indicates, for the first time, a direct link between Spain and Western Britain at this time.

Tintagel has come to be associated with King Arthur as his birthplace, depicted by the Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth in A History of the Kings of Britain (ca. 1139), and renewed by Alfred Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King in the 1870s.

The Tintagel Excavations are a joint project sponsored by English Heritage and the University of Glasgow.

http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/arthur.html

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