Years pass, and Guinevere becomes a great beauty, riding free across Northern Wales on her beloved horse. She is entranced by the tales of the valorous Arthur, a courageous warrior who seems to Guinevere no mere man, but a legend. Then she finds herself betrothed to that same famous king, a hero who commands her willing devotion. Just as his knights and all his subjects, she falls under Arthur’s spell. At the side of King Arthur, Guinevere reigns strong and true. Yet she soon learns how the dark prophecy will reveal itself. She is unable to conceive. Arthur’s only true heir is Mordred, offspring of a cursed encounter with the witch Morgause. Now Guinevere must make a fateful choice: She decides to raise Mordred, teaching him to be a ruler and to honor Camelot. She will love him like a mother. Mordred will be her greatest joy–and the key to her ultimate downfall. Return to a time of legend–the days of Guinevere and Arthur and the glory that was to become Camelot

    There almost certainly was a real leader named Arthur, who was probably a clan chieftain from Cornwall, Wales, or Scotland. Arthurian legends deal with important and timeless themes, such as justice and the struggle for power. It is not surprising that tales of this fiery Celtic warrior echo through the ages, making him a hero for our time as much as his own.In this exciting collection, Daniel Randall and Ronne Randall reveal the true Arthur at the heart of many centuries of storytelling, while powerful and dramatic illustrations by Graham Howells bring the heroism and treachery of Arthur's turbulent time vividly to life.

    John Matthews is the author of more than fifty books on Celtic and Arthurian History and related subjects. He is a prominent lecturer and teacher in the United States and Europe.

    208 full-color illustrations.

    will surely influence the future critical discussion of Heinrich's poem and the medieval Arthurian cycle. ARTHURIANADiu Cr�ne (The Crown) is one of the most neglected of Arthurianromances, perhaps because it does not fit into the canon of orthodox Arthurian stories: it is Gawain, not Perceval or Galahad, who achieves the Grail, and Heinrich's Arthur is not a predestined, assured imperial figure but a rulerwho struggles through reverses and challenges as he attempts to establish his authority, making the eventual triumph of the court and the accolade of the Grail all the more dramatic.Diu Cr�ne is a bravura performance which creates a compelling new foundation myth. Camelot is transformed from its initial state of factionalism, sexual betrayal and lack of morale under an inexperienced king to one of law, order and security symbolised by the supreme resourcefulness shown by Gawain in the unflinching service of Arthur, his liege lord. It reinvents the imaginative foundation of the Arthurian ideal, and demonstrates that the ideal maintained its appeal in Germany into thelater middle ages.NEIL THOMAS is Reader in German in the School of Modern European Languages in the University of Durham