#arthur rex

[queer-ragnelle]

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger | More quotes at Arthuriana Daily

[gawrkin]

(Source: Arthur Rex, by Thomas Berger)

For modern Arthurian stories, I prefer this kind of resolution to Queen Guinevere and Morgan le Fay's arcs.

Morgan makes peace with Gwen and allows her a chance to prove herself.

And Guinevere gets to be present for Arthur's final passage and do more than just pray and fast to earn a redemption.

I have my own ideas and twists (namely a Wild Hunt theming and maybe adventures set in the modern day) but this is generally in the ballpark of where I'd want these two to end up.

[irishhorse-blog]

Can I interrupt my BTS posts with something more personal?

As an author, I find that there is NOTHING like hearing your words being spoken out loud by a voice performer. It makes it real in ways you'd never expect.

A dear friend of mine who lives in Cornwall has already taken my first King Arthur book (Arthur Rex: In Principio) to Tintagel to "say hello" to the Arthur statue there on the cliff. Now he's taken the book to Glastonbury Tor, where he videoed himself reading a passage from chapter 18. I'm just so, so thrilled.

Richard | Facebook

This was a huge ego boost that I sorely needed. I'm just starting to pull my writing out of the Long Covid fog, and this was some very timely encouragement. Now maybe I can finally get to work on book 4 in the series.

[aquestionthatsneverbeenposed]

@arthur-rex​

Merlin knew what he had to do. He had known it for a long time now. From the moment Balinor had breathed his last--hell, maybe before that, even, maybe he had always known it, in the back of his mind, maybe he had always known he would have to face Kilgharrah again, he would have to look into the dragon’s great golden eyes and see the embers of the bridge he had burned nearly a year earlier.

Yes. Merlin had known what he had to do. From the second he had stepped out of the castle, into the thick smoke, with Arthur and the knights, he had known, and he had done it, hadn’t he, all of it. He had faced the dragon. He had commanded the dragon, even. 

And all right in front of Arthur.

And even as Kilgharrah soared up into the dark skies, with the heavy thump and high wind of his enormous wings, Merlin turned back to look at his prince, still sprawled on the grass. He didn’t know what to say--he didn’t know, really, if there even was anything left to say anymore. He had magic. He was a dragonlord. And Arthur was the Prince of Camelot. There was really only one way this could end. 

Still, that didn’t mean Merlin couldn’t try.

“I’m sorry, Arthur,” but the words wouldn’t come out louder than a shaky whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

[queer-ragnelle]

Arthur Rex by Thomas Berger | More quotes at Arthuriana Daily

[gawrkin]

(Source: Arthur Rex, by Thomas Berger)

Because, as all Arthurian peeps well and truly know, Guinevere hates gay men.

[queer-ragnelle]

would you mind sharing your thoughts on Arthur Rex? No pressure at all!

hi anon! i would love to!!

TL;DR author thomas berger had a lot of prejudice coming through in this book at random times which will undoubtedly make this unpalatable for some readers. completely valid reason to skip this one. but if you can get past that, the characterization is interesting! i'll indicate some of favorite aspects (with spoilers) below a cut.

right off the bat i think berger gets huge props for his balanced characterization almost across the board. aside from some of his super villains who love evil for the sake of evil (morgan le fay, sir melaegant, sir gromer, sir mordred) everyone has good & bad qualities that work in tandem to create an engaging story arc.

autism be damned by boy arthur can work a kingdom! lovable weirdo from page one. picky eater, sleeps with the windows open in winter, incapable of reading emotions, blind to social cues, infodumps to whomever will listen. which leads to the fascinating handling of his seduction at the hands of his sister morgause. here arthur is a 20yo virgin (nothing wrong with that, just older than he's usually depicted at this stage which i found unique). he's oblivious to morgause's wile e coyote attempts to kill him for her husband lot as arthur gives her a tour of the castle & talks non-stop about random stuff she doesn't care about. yet...she's wooed by his adorable naivety & they have consensual sex in ignorance of their relation. however, once arthur learns of this, he's so humiliated & disgusted with himself, that he refuses to set foot in that castle again, & after falling in love with guinevere & marrying her, he stays in her castle for her own familiarity & his comfort. he's then haunted for the rest of the book by that one night & it influences his decisions forever after, eventually costing him that strategical mind which made him a good king in the first place. i found that arthur's love for guinevere was very sweet if complicated. after his tercel kills her canary, he fills a room with countless new ones in golden cages, but she's not content. it really highlights arthur's fatal flaw, that he's high-effort, yet the encounter with morgause emotionally stunted him forever, & he lacks the emotional intelligence necessary to connect with his wife. i also like how arthur handled gawain's killing of pellinore. arthur beats gawain up (lol) & yells at him that his own father (uther) was a bad guy & all he can do himself is be a better man, & gawain should be trying to be better than lot, not worse. he forces him to shake hands with lamorak & they're friends after that. 10/10 no notes all my blorbos kiss & make up. infodumping to morgause:

this then brings me to gawain who i adore in this book. he has it all. he's a total slut right from his introduction when he's not immediately available to meet the king bc he's "jousting a maiden..." he loves his brothers dearly, he's (eventually) loyal to arthur, great friends with kay & lancelot, he goes through the green knight adventure, & then eventually meets & settles down with ragnelle which was so sweet i got cavities. he has a bunch of kids with her & gets to die in her arms at the end (weeping). the narrative is generous to gawain regarding his anger toward lancelot as well which i liked. by that i mean it indicates that if either of them knew guinevere was in danger besieged by mordred, they would have dropped their fight at once to help her, but they had no idea, so they fought to gawain's death. gawain's ghost then comes to arthur flanked by his polycule of angels who are glad to have his virile prowess in heaven (no lie that is the rationale it's awesome). overall i thought he was great, very few books manage to give him a satisfying arc & this did! wedding to ragnelle:

my boy kay gets to be his best self here. right from his childhood he was dissatisfied with his humble life in wales, so when the opportunity to be seneschal for arthur arises, he puts his whole pussy into it. lots of beautiful description of banquets he makes, the whole process of his management in the kitchen as well as surrounding fields, orchards, etc to make it all happen. he even baked & decorated gawain/ragnelle's fancy wedding cake it's adorable. when meleagant kidnaps guinevere, kay had been serving the women at the time & was overcome, so he heads out immediately after her & ends up in prison beside her, where they comfort one another through the bars (makes me a little insane, their friendship was so good). the relationship with beaumains is also well-developed here, & kay is skeptical of beaumains but not outright cruel to him, & eventually warms up to him as gareth is friendly & willing to work. optimal outcome! this kay isn't as great as cherith baldry's, but he's pretty damn good considering the horrors out there. fighting meleagant:

a complex/nuanced agravaine??? more likely than you think...i adore him. funny & brooding & jealous & kind of a dummy lol but what i find compelling is that some of his dislike for lancelot stems from the fact gawain was arthur's first knight & his recognition as such is eclipsed by lancelot in both the king's eyes but gawain's own as well. agravaine even expresses that he feels as if gawain loves lancelot more than him...ouch?? he's fiercely loyal to arthur & he's appointed as guinevere's personal guard for many years. this further explains his obsession with lancelot, as it's literally his job to keep her safe/protect her honor, & an affair threatens that. later, mordred is finally old enough to come to court, agravaine is the only unmarried brother so he gets to bunk with him, & he's so excited about it bc he's been lonely since the other 3 moved in with their wives (hello??? sob??). he's got a close loving relationship with arthur which is of utmost importance to me. in the end it's mordred who manipulates agravaine into cornering lancelot. but it almost doesn't work bc agravaine is so hopelessly in love that, on seeing lancelot in his night clothes, completely loses his train of thought & lancelot smoothly talks him out of it. flawless. uncle & nephew relationship:

overall this book is deeply flawed. berger makes endless asides to mention gender essentialism, race, sexuality. it's inexcusable. but he got the characterization of my faves so right & he's dead now so i'm not giving him any publicity or money by discussing the aspects i did like. overall i do think it's worth a read.

[gawrkin]

I finally pushed myself to looking into Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex

I may post stuff from there that I find interesting