Literary studies: ancient, classical & medieval

‘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.