The Shadow of a King

IntroductionThanks so much for choosing to read The Shadow of a King, I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I think I should point out to readers of Shadowland, the first Uther story, that, The Shadow of a King, is not a direct sequel, but is a 'standalone' tale incorporating some of the later events in the life of Uther Pendragon. Although it isn't strictly necessary to have read Shadowland before this, I would, of course, recommend that you do! The Shadow of a King is a work of historical fantasy, not historical fiction, so being fantasy, I get to throw in a few strange and fantastical things to entertain myself as I'm writing and for you as a reader; I hope that's going to work for you. As it is historical, I try to use as many of the known 'facts' of the time as I can, but this is the time known as the Dark Ages, because there are very few facts and written accounts with which to work. These were the years, roughly speaking, between 476–800 AD when there was no Roman emperor in the West and their empire was ending. However, before they left, the Romans, and especially Caesar, wrote much about the British tribes, how they lived and how they fought. Within the tribes, their history was mostly of the oral tradition with stories and legends told by travelling bards around crackling fires on dark nights. Much of what I draw upon to form the basis of my book comes from the old stories and legends of Uther, stories that these bards may well have told. Eventually, they were passed on and then written down hundreds of years later in books like the Mabinogion, a collection of eleven ancient Welsh tales that were transcribed around the year 1400 AD from tribal folklore. We know that the bards were Druid trained for twelve years to recite stories, histories, poetry and songs upon the Isle of Mona, which was known as Ynys Mon in the old British tongue as well as current Welsh or better known these days as Anglesey Island. It lays a little way off the north-west coast of Wales. The bards in the tribal days would travel among the villages and settlements reciting their stories, singing their songs and telling the news of the time. They were the town criers or newspapers of the age bringing news and information to people who had little or no contact with the bigger world beyond the horizon. I have written The Shadow of a King after researching and reading some of the legends handed down by the Bards. It is worth noting that a legend is not a myth, but a folk tale with some historical grounding that has been retold over the years. The historical grounding within The Shadow of a King is that Uther Pendragon did exist. His name was first mentioned in the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) compiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh cleric who lived between 1100 and 1155 AD. Geoffrey claimed he was merely translating into Latin a far more ancient text, which makes it legend. Whatever the case, it is from this book that most of the poems and stories regarding the exploits of Uther and Merlyn and even Uther's more mythical son, Arthur, have come. Certainly it is where I have based a lot of my story, with a very tongue in cheek offering of what might have taken place if these legends had indeed taken place, for who is to say what actually did happen, these after all were the Dark Ages and the Druids were… well, ask Uther about Druids… Oh that I could see to the Other Realm – that I could learn the magic of the Ancients. Oh that the secrets of the Druids could be whispered in my ears that I might know their beauty and their power – that I might love again this land and hear the voices of the Goddess and the God in the trees and in the rivers. Damh the Bard **