Gwenevere's Knights- The Complete Knights of Caerleon Trilogy

by Jesikah Sundin

  AND since our series revolves around so much Grail lore, we decided to go with the original Grail Quest characters: Arthur, Lancelot, Percival, and Galahad . . . but refashioned by our clever fairy tale re-telling brains, if I do say so myself *high-fives Claire*

  MORGAN LA FEY

  Her origins are as misty as the Otherworld, especially as her name is linked to the Celtic Morrígu (aka The Morrígan), the goddess of war and death, and one of the three sisters in the triple goddess head, The Morrígana. In Irish mythology, she would shape-shift into a crow, shriek over the battle field, and collect the heads of fallen soldiers as trophies. Um . . . that’s some creepy shit. The Celts were dark, though. And not afraid to die, or apparently have their heads collected by a shape-shifting sídhe. But, I digress . . . The name Morgan (male) / Morgain (female) means “water nymph” in Breton (Celtic Cornish / Welsh)—which makes sense, since most Celtic deities were water born. But Morgan being a strictly male Celtic name was lost in translation with the French and, thus, they crowned The Morrígan, Morgan la Fey. Despite her circling carrion crow form, she wasn’t a feared goddess. Rather, The Morrígan was also revered as the patron goddess of art and beauty, because that totally makes sense given her decorating tastes.

  Interestingly enough, in most Arthurian tales, she’s not evil. That’s more of a neo-pagan / modern fairy tale view of her. In the original Arthurian Cycle stories, she had two older sisters (Morgause and Elaine *points to The Morrígana explanation*), and she loved her half-brother and even brought Arthur to Avalon for healing when he was mortally wounded in the Battle of Camlann. Still, Claire and I went with the more modern take on Morgana. Because evil is fun. And she was such a fun, sexy villainess to write.

  DONAL O’LYNN

  Clann O’Lynn are a real, historic clan from Ulster, y’all. And, they are possible descendants of Colla Uias, the famed 4th century High King of Ireland. The Irish Gaelic version of their name is Ó Fhloinn (which I think is pretty) and they were part of the Tuírtri area from the northern region of Ireland (now incorporated into Antrim), and originally hailed from Lough Insholin in Derry (Londonderry), which means “Lake of the O’Lynn Island.” Savvy? Cool. So, eventually they conquered and inhabited most of County Antrim sometime in the 12th century—even Fionna’s area in the Glens of Antrim. And they ruled this region until the 15th century when the MacDonnells swept in. See what I did there? Donal O’Lynn . . . MacDonnells defeated the O’Lynn . . . he was his own worst enemy. #HistoryGeekGirlHumor. Now, I’ll be honest . . . the 12th century is a hazy date. O’Lynn was a prominent clan in the area and their expansion/settlement into Antrim might be earlier, like when we set our story: the mid-1000’s. If you’re an O’Lynn of Antrim, let me know! And, we hope you didn’t mind us making a fictional descendant a villain. Your ancestry tied so well into our Ulster Cycle-inspired Fionnabhair. Bad guys are cool, right?

  THE FOUR ANCIENT ARTIFACTS OF IRELAND

  Also called “The Four Magical Treasures of the Túatha dé Danann.” The more you dive into Celtic and Irish mythology, the more items in British Isles fairy tales and folklore begin to make sense. Especially in Arthurian Legend tales. Here’s a quick overview without getting too detailed with the mythological stories behind each artifact (and I’m presenting them out of order, sorry Irish scholars):

  1) The Sword of Light “Shining Sword” (Sword of King Nuada of the Túatha dé Danann) was a weapon that symbolized and “illuminated” truth, justice, law, and punishment to Ireland’s enemies during conflict.

  Arthurian Treasure: Excalibur

  2) Lia Fáil “Stone of Destiny,” also known as the Stone of Scone and the “Talking Stone,” was originally on the Hill of Tara and where the ancient Kings of Ireland were coronated. But only after the stone roared, which it would only do if the rightful king stood upon it. The Lia Fáil was eventually brought over to England by Edward the 1st in 1297 and is now the Coronation Stone in Westminster Abbey.

  Arthurian Treasure: The Stone, as in The Sword in The Stone.

  3) Sword of Lugh “Invincible Spear” or the “Spear of Victory” belonged to the Celtic sun god, Lugh of the Long Arms. The longer the spear was held, the hotter it would become. And, its perfect targeting powers also thirsted for blood. So much so, it wept blood. This spear is later used in Grail stories and connected to the spear that pierced the side of Jesus of Nazareth during his crucifixion (the son of god vs the sun god).

  Arthurian Treasure: The spear that wept blood during the Grail Maiden’s odd and fantastical Grail procession, and the spear that maimed the Fisher King.

  4) The Cauldron of the Dagda is a magical vessel that could heal through food and drink to whomever deserved such blessings. And raise the dead too, just for kicks and giggles. The food and drink never ended, either . . . as the cauldron was bottomless. Hence the saying, “bottomless pit” to describe those who are always hungry and pack in their meals.

  Arthurian Treasure: The Holy Grail. A grail (graal / sangrael) a small, common household bowl (aka cauldron), which later became synonymous with the bowl used by Jesus during the Last Supper (Cup of Christ) and the vessel Joseph of Arimathea used to catch the blood that spilled from Christ’s pierced side. If you drank from the Grail, you would be healed of all your ailments and injuries and, perhaps, even gain immortality (think communal wine and bread).

  And, for fun (yeah, this is fun to me), I want to address a few misconceptions about hygiene in the Middle Ages as well as homosexuality within Celtic cultures, especially among warriors. As a refresher: Celtic culture in this context are the people of Ireland, Scotland, and Briton (Cornwall, Wales, and parts of western Scotland). The Norse are the Vikings, from the Nordic/Scandinavian lands as well as those who settled in the British Isles.

  DID PEOPLE BATHE REGULARLY IN THE MEDIEVAL ERA?

  Yes! Big, emphatic YES. In fact, in Celtic, Norse, and Mediterranean cultures, good hygiene was part of daily life. The movies consistently paint dirty, grimy peasants with blackening teeth and shiny-faced nobles with perfect smiles (remnants of Victorian classist culture). According to the Medievalist, there are extensive medical texts waxing poetic the benefits of bathing—for the common and noble man alike. They even understood that washing your hands and face before meals was essential for better health. By the medieval era, bathing culture across the Isles was a thing, hence all the funny tapestries and art depicting people in tubs.

  And this well-known poem, dating back to the 1300’s:

  Hey! rub-a-dub, ho! rub-a-dub, three maids in a tub,

  And who do you think were there?

  The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,

  And all of them gone to the fair.

  “Three men in a tub” who “were out to sea” was a change made in the late-1700’s to be “safe for children.” Which begs the question: what was this poem really about? You’re gonna love this. *clears throat* Men of industry who were going to the village fair to see a peep show of naked, young maidens bathing each other in a tub. Sexy times!

  DID CELTIC CULTURES ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALITY?

  They didn’t even bat an eye at two men as lovers, or two women for that matter. Sexuality wasn’t a complex issue to the Celts. Partly because marriage in Celtic cultures was for childbearing only. Brehon Law (ancient Irish law that existed through the 17th century and that bled into other Gaelic lands) permitted married couples to have lovers outside of their handfasting vows. And why this allowance? The Celts saw marriage as a necessity for politics and clan building, but lovers were for the soul. And so, many had lovers, including same-sex partners. But homosexuality was observed most among the warriors. It was so common, Warrior Lovers became a well-noted thing, even causing the non-homophobic Greeks to raise an eyebrow. This changed in the late-Middle Ages with Christianization, however. Now, open sexuality was ONLY among the Celts. The Norse didn’t practice homosexuality as a culture. Like today, the Nordic land’s equivalent to “gay” was an insult to a man’s masculinity.

/>   WAS MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE ONLY RESTRICTED TO HERBAL LORE?

  Uh, no. Some of the best artifacts from the Middle Ages are all the fantastic medical texts. So. Many. Medical. Texts. Their illustrations are wonderfully entertaining too. Medieval people practiced all manner of surgeries, even cesarean births. And the believed cures for various ailments or concerns (like wrinkling skin) are sometimes hysterical. They even washed their hands before medical procedures. Modern scientists are now looking back at the texts and folklore from the Middle Ages as they’re finding interesting leads to medical discoveries, such as the “healing soil” in Ireland once used by druids, which was recently documented as effective treatment for four of the six world’s superbugs.

  Whew! We did it. We covered all the major Celtic culture and Arthurian Lore tie-ins.

  But as this is fiction, and fantasy fiction no less, there are some historical inaccuracies. J’accuse! Heh. The biggest one? At no time, that we know of, did a war camp from Clan O’Lynn travel to southern Wales. We bent history for our plot. Sorry-not-sorry. As mentioned above, Galahad was the son of Lancelot du Lac and Percival was “The Chaste” before Lancelot and his son stole the Grail Quest show. The small, nameless villages mentioned outside of Caerleon are from the fictional realm inside my and Claire’s heads. The village Inn is also a fast-forward into history, as medieval inns didn’t appear until the 14th century. The UK does not have chipmunks (I feel sorry for you, UK friends. They’re sooooo cute!). Still, we used this nickname for Galahad because it just felt perfect. If you can suspend belief for faerie magic, then pretending adorable, chubby-cheeked chipmunks roam the UK shouldn’t be too hard a task. And I’m sure there are other historical inaccuracies too, though I tried to keep proper details intact for the most part.

  All errors that may exist while trying to represent Celtic and Welsh culture, mythology, geography, and Arthurian Legend elements are entirely mine. I am a storyteller, weaving together information that builds and forms worlds in our imaginations. In the famous words of Nennius, a 9th century Celtic monk, “I have made a heap of all that I could find.”

  Your Knights of Caerleon lore keeper,

  Jesikah Sundin

  .

  To Team Claire & Jesikah:

  Writing a book takes a village! And, in this case . . . an international one!

  Our hearty thanks to Gareth Thomson of North Lanarkshire, Scotland for helping us craft Percival’s lyrical language. We had so much fun pouring over the list of words and slang you so wonderfully provided us.

  And, our eternal gratitude to fellow author Dierdre Reidy of Dublin, Ireland for reading a beta copy of The First Knight to provide feedback on the Irish elements in our story, including the language.

  We also appreciate Deborah Wood of Norway for her insight into Scandinavian culture to help shape Galahad into the loveable Norseman that he is, and Katie Kent of Seattle, U.S. for assisting us with our druid research (as she’s in druidic bardic studies) as well as lending us the book, “Arthurian Magic” by John & Caitlin Matthews.

  An audiobook is also in the works and will be narrated by Cornell Collins and Gabrielle Baker, released by Tantor Media in late Summer and Fall of 2019.

  All right . . . time to get back to writing :)

  Happy reading!

  Claire Luana & Jesikah Sundin

  Thank you, Readers for giving our Arthurian Legend reverse harem tale a try. We hope you enjoyed Fionna and her brave knights! Please leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever else online you talk books. Reviews will help other readers find our book and is a wonderful way to thank an author for entertaining you. Keeps us in business, too . . .

  INTERVIEW BY OUR READERS

  When not keyboard deep into writing stories for others to enjoy, we both like to have fun with our readers. Authors are often interviewed by blog sites and promotional companies. But we are rarely interviewed directly by our readers. And so, we decided to change this :) At the end of August 2018, we opened up our social media for our readers to ask us anything. Seriously . . . anything.

  And here are their questions:

  Kyra Roy from Bothell wants to know: how much tea/coffee do you consume in a single writing session? And what's the ratio of caffeine to words written? lol :D

  Jesikah: Uuuhhh *hides face* I can personally consume 1-1.5 pots of coffee per daily writing session. While caffeine aggro, I can push out 1500-2000 words. If I’m coffee zen, then it’s a more leisurely number around 500-1000 words.

  Claire: At least one cup of tea per chapter written. I gave up coffee a few months ago *sobs* so I stick to the leafy stuff now!

  Chani from Seattle, WA, USA wants to know: boxers or briefs?

  Jesikah: Boxer briefs. *says like Austin Powers* Yeah, baby!

  Claire: Um, briefs…(runs away from conversation)

  Tammie Lou from Wyoming wants to know: when it comes to characters, what is your favorite one and why do you chose this one?

  Jesikah: I love bad boy characters. Not the alpha, dominating, toxic masculinity type, but more like the artsy punk boys with snarky, intelligent humor. Dark and broody on the outside, vulnerable and heart-of-gold on the inside. *le sigh* I could write and read these types of characters foreverrrrr . . . But, in the The Fifth Knight? This would translate to a combination of Galahad and Lancelot.

  Claire: My favorite character in The Fifth Knight is definitely Fionna, she’s such a bad-ass and was super fun to write! I have fun writing characters with big bold personalities that are unapologetic about who they are. I like to write more subtle characters too, but it’s just a lot harder.

  Nicole from Monroe, WA, USA wants know: What's your favorite thing to throw at someone?

  Jesikah: I like to throw Claire at people. She’s fierce!!! And, I only have to throw her once for people to get a clue. Okay, seriously . . . sometimes I need to throw her twice. But if I’m really honest? I like to throw compliments at people. We need more kindness in the world.

  Claire: I don’t know, I’m so disoriented from Jesikah throwing me at everything...haha! No, for real, I have terrible hand eye coordination so I try not to throw things at people because I will totally miss.

  Rebecca Bingham from Worthington Ohio wants to know: what are your tricks for getting past writer's block.

  Jesikah: I like to take walks and allow nature to bring my stress levels down. I often find acute stress likes to dampen my writing sessions. But sometimes I don’t have a firm grip on my story or character yet. If that’s the problem, then I take a writing break and read--anything. The brain is wired for story and sometimes it just needs a little recharge in a world not of my own making.

  Claire: I get two kinds of writer’s block. One is where I’ve been working too much and am grumpy about having to write instead of doing something more fun, and the other is where I don’t know where my story is going next. The first one is best solved by taking a break, or sometimes I dictate the scene on my phone, because it feels more leisurely to be writing laying on my couch with my doggies. The second I solve by spending some time either plotting out what is coming next in more detail, or imagining the scene playing out in my head until I know what to write.

  Mary Schaal from Yuma AZ wants to know: What's the silliest crush on a star that you ever had?

  Jesikah: I was IN LOVE with Edward Furlong in the early 90’s and had his pictures from Teen Beat and Tiger Bop all over my walls. I think I was twelve when I saw Terminator 2 and he was a thirteen-year-old John Connor--a punk hacker boy who cried over a lethal android. I was done. DONE. I just knew we would get married one day. So, yeah, that didn’t happen. But I did marry a man in the tech industry who loves to watch cyberpunk as much as me.

  Claire: In high school I was nuts over Vin Diesel. (Hides face). The Fast and the Furious baby!

  Jessica Jett from Kentucky wants to know: how this collaboration came about