Live the Legend!

Tales of the Island of the Mighty

These stories took place in the distant past for the characters in my Matter of Britain novels. They explain where all the Treasures of Britain came from, and how they were lost, and they flesh out some of the details from The Hawk and the Wolf and the novels that will follow. You can tell I was influenced by Tolkien's The Silmarillion when I wrote them (more than fifteen years ago!), as well as by Shakespeare (particularly Kenneth Branagh's movie version of Henry V), but my main source was Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. My view is quite a bit different from his, however.

I. Silvius and the Birth of Brutus

II. The Trojans Unbound

III. The Freedom of the Trojans

IV. The Voyage to Armorica

V. Corineus and Argante

VI. The Origins of Albion

VII. The Trojans' Arrival in the Promised Land

VIII. The Death of Brutus

IX. The Ill-Fated Marriage of Locrin and Gwendolyn

X. The Blemished King

XI. How the Bridle of Gwynn Was Lost