Bernard Cornwell · 1995 · overland

Bernard Cornwell's 1995 novel, first of the Warlord Chronicles. Uther dies leaving an infant heir, and Britain begins tearing itself apart between christians and pagans, Dumnonia and Powys, and the Saxons pushing west. Arthur comes back from Brittany to hold the kingdom together for a child - and the telling is by a spearman who was there, writing it down as an old monk.

1. 1
   Ynys Wydryn

   At Merlin's hall on the isle in the marshes, Derfel grows up among druids, orphans and the old religion - the household of Dumnonia's strangest and most dangerous man, in a Britain where the gods still hold.

2. 2
   Caer Cadarn

   At the royal hill of Caer Cadarn, Uther's infant grandson is proclaimed king on the stone, and the kingdom is left to a council of men who all want it - and Arthur, the bastard son nobody has counted on, is sent for.

3. 3
   Caer Sws

   Peace with Powys is bought with a marriage, and Arthur breaks it on the day of the betrothal for a girl he has just met - the single decision the whole trilogy proceeds from, and it puts two kingdoms at war.

4. 4
   Lugg Vale

   In the narrow valley at Lugg, a shield wall of Dumnonians holds a Powysian army all morning until Arthur's horsemen come down on their flank - buying the child king a few more years of a Britain already ending.