For the past six months, I’ve been reading The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen R. Lawhead in a mad frenzy punctuated by weeklong breaks to try to finish the series before the Dailywire+ adaptation comes out sometime this year. Now that I’ve finished it and can finally give my take on the series as a whole (minus the sixth book Avalon which I couldn’t find anywhere), here are my thoughts on it.
#1: Taliesin
Interesting enough, Taliesin was a real person who lived in the 6th century and wrote the Middle Welsh manuscript called The Book of Taliesin and is believed to have sung in the courts of at least three kings, which was alluded to in the book, though it obviously wasn’t all historically accurate.
This book is split between two narratives, one being narrated by the titular Taliesin, and the other being narrated by Charis, the princess of Atlantis and the Lady of the Lake. This was honestly one of the best parts of the story, especially as the two characters start to move together after the destruction of Atlantis. The differences in their cultures shines through really well in their descriptions of how life worked in their homelands, which makes Charis and Taliesin’s eventual marriage even better because you can see that it is a historic event in the story as a dying people are officially integrated into the rest of Britian/Wales through the coming of Merlin, who would help bring in the Summer Realm (more on that later).
I also really liked the conflict that we get in the second part of the book that sets up the differences between Charis and her half-sister, Morgian (Morganna). When we first meet Morgian, she’s a young child growing up in her father’s court and she doesn’t really hang out much with Charis due to their massive age gap (Charis is around 17 to 18-years-old when she first meets her half-sister). After Atlantis is destroyed and all the Atlanteans have sailed to Britian (which why they didn’t just sail somewhere closer such as…oh, I don’t know…anywhere else in or around the Mediterranean), the rift between Morgian and Charis deepens as Morgian seeks the ancient knowledge of sorcery from Annubi (one of the scribes of Atlantis) while Charis starts her relationship with Taliesin. Things get even more complicated as she becomes jealous of Charis and wants Taliesin for herself, finally successfully plotting to kill him at the end of the book (How dare you, Lawhead? Charis and Taliesin were so cute together!)
However, one of the problems I have with this book was the introduction of the Christian priests, who come bearing the Gospel to the Cymry (Welsh) and the Fair Folk (the Atlanteans that escaped being destroyed). Already we’ve been introduced to the Druidic powers of Taliesin and his teachers and the magical longevity of the Fair Folk, so the introduction of Christianity to this story seemed kind of odd, especially since Taliesin – even after accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior – still continues to use his druid powers. You could make the argument that because Taliesin is now a Christian, Jesus is just using his powers for the purpose of converting the heathen, but even then, those powers still came from an unbiblical source, making much of Taliesin’s message feel iffy to me. One of the only parts I liked concerning Christianity in this book was Charis’s conversion where she’s reached her breaking point and is literally screaming for God as it feels that he’s not there. That was something that I thought carried a lot of emotional weight for the story and I would give that an A+.
#2: Merlin
Towards the end of Taliesin, Charis gives birth to Merlin (or Myrddin as he’s called in the story) and he is the most important character in the entire series. Thanks to his mother, he has the almost immortal lifespan of the Atlanteans and thanks to his father he has the super-cool druid/bard powers that made Taliesin so famous, only this time they’re cranked up to 11.
To be honest though, Merlin was my favorite book in the series, and I am excited to see it adapted on-screen in the first season of the Dailywire+ adaptation. Despite the strange mixing of Christianity and druid practices that are very, very prevalent in this book, Myrddin’s character arc is awesome and it’s one that continues into the third book. He goes through a lot, including the death of his pregnant wife, Ganieda, (which was brutal) and he’s forced to basically reexamine his life to get back on track (sort-of), especially as Morgian starts coming to power as she’s signed her soul away to the devil. It’s this continuous character arc that makes him great when it comes to helping raise Ygerna and Aurelius’s son, Arthur after both Aurelius and Uther (Arthur’s uncle and step-father…it’s complicated) are killed.
#3: Arthur
Can you guess which character this book centers around?
That’s right. The famous British king himself or rather…his early adult years trying to come to power and gather all the lesser kings together in unity under him and the church. In this book, Myrddin is basically acting as Arthur’s babysitter to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. His job essentially goes from being a warrior bard to being the dude who makes sure everything goes as smoothly as possible to establish the Summer Realm.
Now, ever since Taliesin, everyone keeps talking about this famed Summer Realm and why it’s so important, but what is it? Well, to sum it up, the Summer Realm is a land of peace and light, a vision of a united Britian under Cristendom or something. Or maybe it’s heaven. Or maybe it’s actually Western Civilization. It’s never explained super well and while it’s mentioned time and time again, it honestly feels more like a random plot point that everyone’s chasing and never really seems to reach. It’s constantly under threat from the forces of evil and since Morgian can’t exactly be killed because she’s pretty much the devil’s female counterpart at this point (She is defeated once in this book by Merlin at the expense of his buddy, Pelleas’s, life, but comes back in Book 5. Furthermore, from my research, Avalon is basically the story of how Morgian and all the other characters come back to life in the late 21st century), it feels incomplete.
Throughout Arthur, you’re wondering when the Summer Realm is ever going to be established and at almost every beat you’re asking “Okay…now will it be established?” but it never is. It’s effective in getting the readers to become as infuriated as the characters must be at that point and want to go run towards some bad guys just to get the frustration out. While I don’t think this necessarily destroys the book as a whole, it is annoying and made it somewhat hard for me to read for long periods of time.
On the bright side, it had tons of good battle scenes, which is something that Stephen R. Lawhead is really good at writing. Because the book is written in 1st person, you get to see the wheels turning in the narrator’s head as he reacts to what different people are doing. The battles are long and thought out and complicated, with plenty of descriptions about what people are doing and feeling.
#4: Pendragon
This is the tale of how Arthur defeated the Vandals that were coming into Britain and Ireland. If it was a standalone book, it would be okay, but unfortunately it wasn’t and was kind of confusing to read because of the timeline.
For those of you who haven’t read The Pendragon Cycle, the first two and three-quarter books follow a very well-structured timeline. Everything flows smoothly and we know at what point in the character’s life things are happening. Then at the end of Arthur, we hear about how Arthur, Myrddin, Gwenhwyvar (Guinevere), and some other people sail off to Ynys Avallach – the home of the Fair Folk – to heal Arthur, but he never comes back. Gwenhwyvar is eventually kicked out of Britian because she’s Irish and the people no longer trust her; the Holy Grail (the biggest part of Arthurian Legend) is seemingly never found; and Ynys Avallach fades into obscurity, taking Arthur, Myrddin, Charis, and a bunch of other characters with it, never to be seen again. Then we enter Pendragon expecting to find out what happened to these characters, but instead get a story about how Arthur defeated the Vandals, was mortally wounded, had to sail to Ynys Avallach, and was miraculously healed by the Holy Grail. While I think there’s the possibility that the narrator of the last third of Arthur was possibly referring to the end of Arthur’s reign, by itself, it doesn’t flow particularly well into the rest of the narrative. Instead, it feels like Pendragon just retconned its predecessor.
Pendragon also has more problems when it comes to the “Christian” messaging in it. Though Myrddin is the great bard who is a warrior for Christ, he’s still messing with the Awen, the source of his bardic/druidic powers, something that I don’t think God would be too pleased with in real life. While it did make for some good emotional scenes, I still find the theology presented in this book to be messy because though it’s trying to present Christianity in one way or another, it’s drawing off of Catholicism and the Celtic belief systems of the time. That leads to a confusing view of God that no one should be taking seriously.
#5: Grail
Finally, we’ve reached the end of The Pendragon Cycle (minus Avalon) and Morgian is back, but this time, she’s come back through her daughter, Morgaws. Don’t ask me how to pronounce that, I don’t know.
This book is probably the most familiar to those of us who know the more mainstream story of King Arthur because it focuses on the Holy Grail and the frantic search for it that takes place after Morgaws steals it to make sure that the Summer Realm never comes and Morgian can rule forever. However, most of this takes place at the middle marker of the book then continues onwards because the first half was spent talking about how Arthur built a shrine to keep the Grail in and how everyone is trying to figure out who the heck Morgaws is and where she’s from.
Once again, this book has some really good fight scenes and isn’t afraid to show the brutality of war, and when it isn’t talking about how horrible war is, it often talks about the power that pretty women can have over men. To Lawhead’s credit, he never makes the sex scenes in his books super graphic – he’s very good at telling the audience what’s happening without showing the audience what’s happening, if you get my drift – but in this book, there are three or four scenes where the guy is confronted by a naked woman (usually Morgaws) and he very much wants her, so if you don’t want to read that, those scenes are somewhat skippable. However, they do paint a picture that shows the opposite of female virtue, showing how women will sometimes use their looks and sexuality to make men participants in things that they otherwise wouldn’t do, which is something that I could do an entire blog post on.
Lastly with this book, where the heck is the Summer Realm? Morgian has finally been defeated (sort-of), so why isn’t the main driving force for the book finally reached? Perhaps this is because I haven’t read Avalon yet, but the story felt incomplete. The lesser kings of Britian have been united under Arthur and it’s now a Christian country. Is that what the Sumer Realm is? Is it the united Britian? Was the real Sumer Realm the friends we made along the way? I just don’t know. This is a biggest weakness with the entire series. Because the idea of the Summer Realm isn’t super flushed out, you’re left to wonder what it is and if the characters have reached it yet, making the ending somewhat unsatisfying.
Conclusion
Other than the glaring flaws in the theology and the idea of the Summer Realm, The Pendragon Cycle is a good series. Yes, it requires patience to read, but it’s an entertaining series that I think can be adapted into a show with good results if done well.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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