New Perspectives in 21st-Century Arthuriana

New Perspectives in 21st-Century Arthuriana

This article relates to The Bright Sword

Since the earliest texts of the 11th and 12th centuries (which in turn are based on much older narratives), Arthurian legend has been one of the richest sources of material available to authors. Over centuries, the tales, characters, and concepts of Arthuriana have lent themselves to a seemingly inexhaustible wealth of adaptations, interpretations, reimaginings, borrowings, and influences. The second half of the 20th century saw Arthuriana transcend genres, embracing everything from science fiction to feminist fiction, mystery thrillers to musicals, movies to comic books. Its hold on the popular imagination remains as powerful in the 21st century as it ever has been, and as society continues to evolve, so too does Arthuriana.

Some 21st-century works take a gritty, historically accurate approach. Among these are L. K. Alan's Arthur (The Dark Isles Chronicle Book I, 2019), and Giles Kristian's The Arthurian Tales series (2018–2024) comprising Lancelot (2018), Camelot (2020), and Arthur (2024). In the latter, the last two books take place after Arthur's death, as does Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword (2024), which combines realism, high fantasy, and subversive humor with societal preoccupations similar to our own. What happens when a cataclysm is upon us and the world is collapsing? How do we conserve all the benefits of the world bequeathed to us and at the same time deal with inevitable change? In his satirical Perilous Times (2023), Thomas D. Lee goes a step further, resurrecting the Knights of the Round Table to try to fix the modern world's problems.

Arthuriana has had a reputation for misogyny, reflecting as it often does the attitudes of society towards women during the times in which the texts were written. Arthurian women have in the past been portrayed as sexist stereotypes and troublemakers who were the cause of men's downfall. They were passive, lovelorn trophies (Guinevere, Elaine), manipulative temptresses (Morgan, Nimue), adulteresses (Isolde, Guinevere again), or evil, conniving witches (Morgause, Morgan again). However, Arthuriana has also, paradoxically, been ahead of its time when it comes to feminism and gender nonconformity. The legacy of female knights such as Bradamante, Britomart, and Melora lives on. In Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur (2007), Peredur (inspired by Percival) is a boy raised as a girl by his widowed mother. Peretur (another variation of Percival), the heroine of Nicola Griffith's Spear (2022), disguises herself as a boy to join King Artos as a knight. In the YA duology Once & Future (2019) and Sword in the Stars (2020) by A. R. Capetta and Cori McCarthy, teenage girl Ari Helix is the reincarnation of King Arthur, and she travels back in time to steal the Holy Grail. In my own Fata Morgana series (2017–present), the character Safir is a girl disguised as a boy so she can train to become a knight. One of The Bright Sword's greatest heroes is Sir Dinadan, first introduced as Orwen, who transitions to live as a man and become a Knight of the Round Table.

The two women most maligned in traditional Arthuriana are Guinevere and, especially, Morgan le Fay. Twenty-first-century authors have taken up the torch of writers such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Persia Woolley, and Fay Sampson to champion these two women. Among the many titles involving the former are Kiersten White's Camelot Rising series (2019–2021) and Nicole Evelina's Guinevere's Tale trilogy. Morgan remains a favorite heroine of adult and YA fiction, from Alessa Ellefson's Morgana trilogy (2013–2019) to Katherine Sparrow's Fay Morgan Chronicles (2015).

When it comes to LGBTQ perspectives, Mary J. Jones' 1991 novel Avalon pioneered Arthurian lesbian romance, with Argante (Guinevere's daughter) and her lover Elin, and Nimue and her lover Morgant. In Lancelot: Her Story (2015) and Lancelot and Guinevere (2016), Carol Anne Douglas reimagines Lancelot as a woman disguised as a man, effecting a new spin on Lancelot and Guinevere's forbidden love. Sarah Luddington's Lancelot and the King (2011) has Lancelot (here a man) in love with Arthur himself. Douglas Clegg's novel Mordred, Bastard Son (2006) portrays a sympathetic Mordred who falls in love with Lancelot.

Authors like Nicola Griffith, co-founder of #CripLit, are ensuring there is disability representation in Arthuriana. One of the characters in Spear is Llanza, her version of Lancelot, who walks with an antalgic gait. In the Fata Morgana series, Merlin's sister Ganieda is born deafblind and with magic powers equal to his, and, as in early Welsh sources, The Bright Sword's Bedivere has only one hand. There has been controversy over the lack of racial diversity in Arthuriana, despite the fact that not all of the original Knights of the Round Table appeared white. Tracy Deonn's contemporary fantasy Legendborn series (2020–present), among others, attempts to remedy that, demonstrating yet again the ongoing adaptability and evolution of Arthuriana.

Filed under Books and Authors

This "beyond the book article" relates to The Bright Sword. It originally ran in July 2024 and has been updated for the July 2025 paperback edition. Go to magazine.