I am very excited to read this book as I love this author's writing, and as this is the first in a series of books, I am imagining (hoping!) it may be similar to (and as gripping as) The Lord of the Rings series, which I love. I don’t know the King Arthur and Merlin tales, though I love seeing references to them both when I visit Tintagel in Cornwall, so I’m looking forward to learning all about them.
I am very excited to read this book as I love this author’s writing, and as this is the first in a series of books, I am imagining (hoping!) it may be similar to (and as gripping as) The Lord of the Rings series, which I love. I don’t know the King Arthur and Merlin tales, though I love seeing references to them both when I visit Tintagel in Cornwall, so I’m looking forward to learning all about them.
The story begins with Merlin as a boy in Maridunum in Wales, his full name is Myrddin Emrys (‘Myrddin’ in Welsh being pronounced as ‘Merlin’). He lives at the palace but is the illegitimate child of the King’s daughter, and she refuses to say who the father was. The King died a while ago and his son is fearful that Merlin’s father may claim Merlin and make him legitimate and therefore Merlin would be in line to the throne, so he tries to kill Merlin with poisoned fruit. Merlin is a bit of a loner, and in his solitary wanderings he finds a cave which he explores. The owner of the cave returns, causing Merlin to hide in a recess at the back of the cave, which is another cave covered with crystals and Merlin has a strange experience whilst in there. The owner of the cave finds Merlin there and introduces himself as Galapas. He teaches Merlin lots of skills, and also encourages him to develop his ‘sight’/visions which first came to him in the crystal cave. Merlin has a vision of his mother and father meeting at this cave, and realises that this is where he was conceived. Oooh, I am loving this so far with the tension of the King’s son trying to kill Merlin, and now the magical cave of crystals and the visions this seems to have released in Merlin, attempted murder and magic all in one, perfect!
Merlin escapes the palace and goes on a boat to France, to Morbihan in Brittany (Brittany was then called Breton), and is brought to Ambrosius who is impressed by Merlin’s visions, and Ambrosius also realises that he is Merlin’s father. Ambrosius, and his brother Uther, are the King’s brothers and were hurriedly smuggled out of Britain when their brother the King was killed, and they’ve been building an army and are about to invade Britain again, as Britain is currently controlled by the Saxons, whilst Ambrosius and his family are Roman. They set off and land at Totnes, and engage in battle with King Hengist’s Saxon army and Ambrosius kills Hengist. Ooooh, I really like Ambrosius, he seems a great man, a fair and considerate leader, able to command firmly and tactfully and inspiringly, and with a good instinct of how to treat people and get the best from them, particularly when ‘listening and weighing and judging and answering with that grave easy way of his, allowing each man his say for pride, then taking at the end the decision he had meant to take from the beginning but giving way here and there on the small things so that each man thought he had made a bargain and got, if not what he wanted, then something near it’, plus he is very brave and takes part in these battles himself, risking his own life, not just sending in his men to do the fighting for him. But this makes Ambrosius the uncle of Merlin’s mother, doesn’t it? Hmmm, this seems a little dodgy with uncle and niece getting together, although Ambrosius seems a very lovely and kind man so hopefully it was a loving and consensual relationship! And I realise I don’t know anything much really (to my shame!) about the Saxons and the Romans and their history in Britain, so I keep pausing my reading in order to learn more, and it’s a fascinating history! Britain used to be under Roman rule (with Ambrosius’ brother as King), and the Saxons (who are today’s Germans) were asked by the British to help them defend themselves against the Picts (today’s Scottish), but the Saxons then gradually took control of Britain themselves.
Ambrosius creates a united Britain, and repairs each town which the Saxons had damaged and destroyed during their reign. Merlin visits Stonehenge (which was then known as Giant’s Dance Stones) at Amesbury, as he is asked by Ambrosius to raise the fallen stones as a monument to his victory over the Saxons and to mark the men who died in that battle, and also because this is Ambrosius’ birthplace and where he wants to be eventually buried. Merlin brings stones from Killare in Ireland for these to be used for Ambrosius’ gravestone, and he designs the position of this gravestone so that the sun will slant across the grave. I find it fascinating how Britain was all divided up at this time in the 5th century and that each county had its own king, before they were united by Ambrosius. And that Wales and South West England and North West France (then called Amorica, and now called Normandy/Brittany) were all connected with each other and traded together and all spoke the Celtic tongue! Wow, it’s all just so hard to imagine today, but absolutely fascinating and I’m desperate to visit all these places mentioned, both in Wales and South West England and also North West France (which I’ve only visited before in relation to World War Two research). The Morbihan area in Brittany in particular looks a beautiful place to visit, and it is in Carnac (then called Kerrec) in Morbihan where the standing stones are which Merlin saw, so they would be great to visit too.
After Ambrosius dies and is buried under the Irish stone at Stonehenge, his brother Uther reigns. Uther falls in love with Ygraine, the wife of Gorlois King of Cornwall. Uther begs Merlin to help him find a way to secretly sleep with Ygraine and Merlin agrees to this as he has had a vision that Uther and Ygraine will create an important child together who will be vital to the future of Britain. Merlin creates a plan so Ygraine is kept safe at Tintagel Castle when Gorlois goes off to battle with Uther’s troops at Dimilioc (which is now called St Dennis, and is 20 miles from Tintagel), and Uther then secretly enters the castle and sleeps with Ygraine. Gorlois is killed in the battle. Omg, I can’t wait to read the next book in this story! But I was gutted that Ambrosius died! Obviously Arthur isn’t yet born, but already he is going to have to go some way to beat my affection and respect for Ambrosius!
I see there are two schools of thought about Arthur and Ambrosius and Merlin, etc, whether they were actually real kings or just legends, as history was passed down by word of mouth at that time rather than written down so there is no proof that these people existed. I guess though (as I think the author says in the back of this book) that it is likely that people similar to these characters did exist, who had these names and lived lives and did acts similar to these characters to a certain extent, even if they didn’t follow the exact path that the legends detail, and so the stories have built up around them and so around a basis of truth. But I can feel myself also taking heart (and hope) that as well as there being no proof that these characters did exist, there is also no proof that they didn’t exist (!), as I desperately want to believe they did, particularly Ambrosius as he was so chivalrous and fair, and is so inspirational with him uniting Britain, and I am guessing that Arthur will be of similar characteristics to Ambrosius and this is why people (and probably myself when I read the later books in this series about Arthur) want to believe he was real. I also see that most of the information about King Arthur seems to come from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s book of the 1100s, The History of the Kings of Britain (which I am quite tempted to read) and it is now thought that he made up parts of this, which I can see then piles doubt on the whole King Arthur legend, sigh (but I still want to believe!). I did chuckle to also see that there was a resurgence in the popularity of these tales during World War Two, as they deal with the successful repelling of the Saxons/Germans, tee hee, I can understand that people then wanted to believe that could happen again!
There were a few places mentioned from this historical period that I am familiar with today, which made it extra special to read about, such as Conisburgh in South Yorkshire (then called Kaerconan) where the battle between Ambrosius and Hengist King of the Saxons was fought and where Ambrosius killed Hengist, and Hengistbury Head in Bournemouth which is where King Hengist’s head is supposed to be buried, and also York where Ambrosius defeated the two sons of Hengist and sent them north of Hadrian’s Wall, and Totnes in Devon where Ambrosius landed when he returned to Britain, and Tintagel Castle in Cornwall where Arthur was conceived.
I absolutely loved reading this book, and the legend and world it introduced me to and brought alive for me! Having only known this author for her gripping mysteries, I wondered what this book would be like, and it’s so different from her mystery books that I wouldn’t have guessed it was by the same author but it’s equally as great a read! I can’t wait to read the next in the series, The Hollow Hills. I also have a few of her mysteries waiting on my shelf to be read, so I will enjoy those too, I think the next one I’ll read will be Nine Coaches Waiting as the blurb on the back of that book sounds very very good, but I also have This Rough Magic and The Ivy Tree to look forward to as well. And I was hoping this series of Arthur tales would have a similar feel to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series of books and indeed it does, with a new world being opened up to me, as well as with a wise man advisor (Merlin in this book, and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings), so I am itching to re-read those books too, starting of course with The Hobbit. But I think this The Crystal Cave book could well become one of my favourite reads, just like The Hobbit.
