And we're back to Arthur. This time around, my book centers around Gwenhwyfar (try saying that three times fast), instead of a Lady of the Lake. Lackey puts an interesting spin on the legend, and I have to say that, having read this novel, I feel like I need to go back and find different versions of that tale other than the one I know. I never really realized that there was more than one version of the legend of Arthur and Guenevere (alternative spelling), nor that there could be other reasons for the "treason" committed by Guenevere and Lancelot. I got a swift kick to my academic mind with this novel, and I almost feel like I need to go back to school for a longer lesson on Arthurian romance.
The spin that Lackey puts to this tale is that Arthur is married, not once, but three separate times, and each time, it's to a woman named Gwenhwyfar. The story I know has him married only once, and he dies without an air, if you don't count Mordred (Medraut in Lackey's novel). This story is much more interesting because his first wife bears him twin sons. The second leaves him for some random tribal king, and the third is the one that the novel is most concerned with, and she is the one I sympathize with.
Gwenhwyfar's life is not easy. She is the third of four sisters, and her youngest sister is a complete brat who makes her life a living hell on a daily basis. Everything Gwen has, her sister, Little Gwen, wants, even if she'll have no use for it. The only thing that Gwen really wants for herself is to be a warrior, like her idol, the famed horsewoman Braith, but she thinks that her father will never allow it. Luck is on her side, and she gets her wish, but her journey to become the warrior she knows she can be is where you see what kind of person Gwen really is. Out of Little Gwen's reach, she blossoms: she has a discipline that a girl of 12 years would not normally show, and she excels at most of the new skills she learns. Unfortunately, she has to contend with the fact that her father is a king, and she is a princess, which puts a rank barrier between her and her fellow squires. She changes her entire personality to gain their respect, and as her life goes on, she become an invaluable resource to her father and her lands.
I like that Gwen is not the typical Guenevere that the most common tales of Arthur talk about. Yes, Gwen is pretty, but she has spunk, and a warrior spirit, and actual intelligence, rather than being an accommodating, fickle female. Gwen knows how to put her owns wants and needs aside to do what is best for her people, but ultimately, this is what leads to her breaking point. She is selected to be Arthur's third wife, the unwanted part of a desirous horse trade. She knows that by doing this, she will have to give up everything she has worked hard to achieve: the respect of her people, the loyalty of the men she led, and her life on the warrior path. Gwen will have to become a woman, in all senses of the word, which is a role she was never meant to play.
The 7-8 star rating is due to a couple of things. The first is that getting through parts 1 and 2 took forever. They were very important to set up the events that happen in part 3, but I wasn't completely hooked. I felt like there was some element of excitement that was missing, or maybe it just wasn't necessary, but I wanted it to be there; I hoped for something more. The second reason for my indecisiveness is the strange rearrangement of some of the elements of the traditional Arthur tale. Merlin sounds like a common old man, and no one is sure what kind of magic he's ever done. Morgana, who is usually Mordred's mother, is now his aunt, and his real mother is Ygraine's (Arthur's mother) daughter, Anna Morgause. Most of the Knights aren't named, and somehow, Mordred is one of them. These aren't real reasons to not like a book, but the inconsistencies in my head just kept lurking and bothering me.
However, the battle Gwen fights with herself over Lancelin (Lancelot) is what truly drew my attention. She clearly is attracted to him, but believes that he'll never see her as a woman-warrior, just one or the other, and he'd only be attracted to the woman part of her. This is something she couldn't do; she couldn't be one or the other. Gwen had to be both, and though this breaks her heart, she sticks to the path she's chosen. Their affair is short, and their love for each equally so, but Gwen's inner battle with how to live her life, according to her own will or the will of the people, was possibly the best part of Gwenhwyfar for me.
So, I've learned something out of all this: I need to find out what other stories I "know" that have alternative tellings. Just because a legend is common (i.e. Guenevere cheating on Arthur with Lancelot, and being banished or what not), does not mean that it is the only possibility of what happened. Maybe Arthur never loved his Guenevere, or maybe Lancelot's loyalty for Arthur squashed his feelings for Gwen, or maybe Arthur and Lancelot were lovers, and just used Gwen as an scapegoat. Who knows? With a tale like this, there is never going to be an answer. I just have to decide what version I believe.
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