Pendragon is the follow-up to Excalibur, the first book in this Arthurian series. In that novel we met a young Arthur finding his way in a crumbling Britain. A country under a veil of darkness following the Roman departure in the first decade of the fifth century after four hundred years of rule. Pendragon continues to explore Arthur’s myths and legends, taking inspiration from early texts, such as ‘Y Gododdin’, an elegy for warriors of the Gododdin tribe from a region in south-east Scotland, Bede, the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons), written by Nennius, and the medieval work of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes.
Nennius wrote his Historia Brittonum sometime in the ninth century. It begins with the story of Adam and recounts the founding of Britain and a history of its kings. Nennius gives Arthur the Roman title dux bellorum, or lord of war, and provides the details of Arthur’s twelve battles. We saw the first of those battles in Excalibur at the river Glein, and we follow Nennius in Pendragon as Arthur fights two battles at the river Dubglas. Dubglas can be interpreted as black water, and there has been much debate over its location, but I have placed the battle on the south banks of the river Humber.
In Pendragon we meet more characters which readers will be familiar with from Arthur’s legends such as Guinevere, Lancelot, and Mordred. Morgan appears as Morgen in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Life of Merlin and as Morgan Le Fay in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur: Arthur’s half-sister and the daughter of Igraine and her first husband, Gorlois. Morgan is a character linked to Merlin in the mythology, and we shall see that aspect of her character develop in future novels in this series.
Arthur’s dog, Cavall, is a feature of Arthurian legend mentioned in Nennius because his footprint was preserved in rock whilst the hound pursued a great boar known as Twrch Trwyth. Like Arthur’s horse Llamrei, Cavall appears in medieval Arthurian texts and so I include him in the novel as Arthur’s faithful hound.
Arthur’s twelve battles are far from finished, and he must march again to defend Britain against the encroaching Saxon threat. In the next novel, we shall see more of Lancelot, Guinevere, Morgan, Nimue and Mordred as Arthur continues his journey from spearman to legend.