What a delightful new series i have discovered. It’s actually an old series – The Cyrstal Cave was written in 1970 and is thus older than i am. It’s historical fiction, or perhaps historical fantasy, and takes places in the dark ages. It is the beginning of King Arthur’s tale, and it starts a generation before, with the boyhood of Merlin.
We learn where Merlin comes from, and what forces came together to impact this boy to become the powerful influence he eventually became. Groundwork is laid for the future legend.
Current historians debate even the existence of Arthur, and that makes him an attractive figure to create stories about. When i was a child, The Sword in the Stone was one of my all-time favorite movies. (I wanted to try out life as a bird or a squirrel too.) I’ve loved reading other books about that time period as well, including The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell and Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I’m glad to find another perspective on this much-loved story.