A Review of Erin Thompson's "Camelot" - Rose Garden Publishing, 1893.
Ms. Thompson is an unknown author who’s bewildering success with her first book, Camelot, (Rose Garden Publishing House - 1893) baffles all conventions of taste and common decency. Her tale is a country-fair mirror house rendition of some parts of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, as well as other tales of the Arthurian Cycle, where, though the classic characters of the canon (Lancelot, Mordred, Queen Guinevere, and King Arthur) appear, they are relegated to the side, appearing in only a few scenes as supporting characters.
Instead, the protagonists are the duality of Sir Kai, King Arthur’s Seneschal, and Squire Caradoc, son of King Caradoc, who first rebelled but finally submitted to King Arthur during his ascension to the Throne of Camelot. Both are, admittedly, written excellently, Ms. Thompson convincingly writes brave and noble Knights, though in her Round Table, these are found as often as not. We learn in the early chapters that, though the Knights of the Round Table were once the heroes we know, they have since begun to rest on their laurels, undertaking on fewer and fewer quests, and participating only in show tourneys. It is only the younger knights and squires, the Caradocs and Sir Percivals and Sir Gaherises of the Knights that still roam the land in search of fair maidens to Rescue and of Black Knights to Fight. Sir Gawain and Sir Launcelot are the most obvious examples of this butchery of the myth, Gawain wasting no opportunity to retell his duel with the Green Knight, and Launcelot mooning about, chastely presenting flowers to every lady of the court and reciting empty, vapid poetry, and polishing his gleaming armor and sword, and King Arthur himself sits on a throne, growing ever more distant from the people he rules.
Sir Kai is presented as a Grizzled Veteran of many wars, who is content to be at peace, and begins willfully blind to the decay of the Court of Camelot. He is more interested in finding a proper husband for his daughter, the beautiful and vivacious Ginny (Ginevra, so named after the queen, we are told.) He disapproves of her favourite suitor, the young Sir Caradoc, believing that the son of a defeated foe is not worthy, and that one of Sir Gawain’s Brothers would be a far more suitable match. To dissuade Caradoc, Sir Kai organizes a tourney, knowing that Gawain’s Brothers are far more skilled at horseplay than the young knight. Surprisingly enough, Caradoc does not win. Instead, in a thrilling display of bravery and honour, he is injured while saving a young boy who wanders into the field of tourney. That night, Sir Kai organizes a feast to announce the betrothal of his daughter Ginny to Sir Gareth. Disaster strikes the feast, an enchanted sleep overcoming the entire court, a curse cast by an unknown enemy. The only ones to have escaped the curse are Sir Kai, who had left the hall to organize the next course, Caradoc, who had been recovering from his injuries, and Merlin, the Wise Wizard of the Court, who had managed to ward himself from falling to the curse. Merlin speaks enigmatically, telling them that there is only one person able to cast such a curse, and that is Vivian, his former apprentice. To make matters more dire, a Green Knight, no doubt in the employ of Vivian, had entered the hall while the curse was befalling its occupants, and had absconded with Ginny. Sir Kai and Caradoc implore Merlin to help them, but he only gives them a direction, telling them that Vivian’s citadel is located far to the East, in the cold and brutal lands ruled by the cold brutal Khan of the Tatars. Merlin Implies that he must stay behind to be the caretaker of the sleeping court, and that it falls upon the Knights to travel to the East and bring Ginny back, thus ending the curse.
What follows is a seemingly interminable voyage, in the manner of a medieval immram, where Sir Kai and Caradoc travel the courts of Europe, visiting numerous kings of myth, including Beowulf, old and infirm, readying himself to take on the dragon that will slay him. They offer to help, but he sends them along: It is his fight to win or lose, a statement on chivalry if there ever was one. They also travel through the court of Vlad Dracula, an immortal King, a monster, who lives off the blood of his peasants, but who daily sacrifices himself to protect them from the far worse monsters clawing at his gate, only to rise again at night, starting the cycle again. The last king they visit before reaching that of the Khan of the Tartars is the Sultan of Arabie, whose court is beset by foul djinni. Sir Kai and Caradoc together defeat the demon, with the bonds of friendship and brotherhood they have developed over the course of their travels serving as the final instrument to defeat the it. They learn that it was also in the employ of Vivian, and that many of the creatures they have fought along their peregrination also were, employed to slow them down and to test their true faith and chivalry. They also encounter the Green Knight numerous times, each fighting it individually, and each being soundly beaten. Finally, Kai and Caradoc arrive at the court of the Khan, where they fight their way through hordes of animated frozen statues to the Tatar Khan’s Tent. Entering it, they find that the inside is a perfect replica of the Throne Room of Camelot, and that Ginny is bound upon the throne, the Green Knight standing helmetless. Beneath the Featureless green helm we’ve grown to hate is the Face of the Khan of the Tatars, who taunts both Sir Kai and Caradoc about their defeats at his hand many times before.
They realize that only working together can they defeat this fiend, and, after another thrilling fight (For all her faults, Ms. Thompson excels at painting vivid pictures within the text) the defeat the Khan. Ginny, bound on the Throne, claps in delight, and, as Caradoc prepares to Behead the fallen Khan, Merlin appears between them, waving his hands. The Illusion falls, and the Khan is revealed to be King Arthur, who is beaming proudly at their feats of strength. Merlin and the King explain to Sir Kai and to Caradoc that Ginny, who has taken the name Vivian in her apprenticeship to the old wizard, had seen the decay creeping into the court of King Arthur, and had foreseen that a great evil would soon befall the court, leading to their ruin, unless something was done. She and Merlin presented a plan, a deceit, of sorts to the King, who had also seen that his court was growing indolent. They would present an enemy, a quest, to two brave souls, who would then travel together to reignite the brave fighting spirit of the round table. The Sleeping court is woken, Caradoc is knighted, and marries Ginevra. The book ends with a lavish feast, even as a cold and evil wind stirs in the north.
Ms. Thompson paints beautiful pictures with her words, of that there can be no doubt. She describes the immense vistas and haunted forests of medieval Europe with as much loving detail as she does the meticulously researched feasts and dresses and castles. The accuracy, the attention to detail that most would find extraneous, according to one medieval historian at the University of Savannah, is beyond compare, which makes her complete and utter disregard for nearly all the conventions of the Arthurian Cycle, and, truly, of proper narrative, infuriating. There is no proper antagonist, and the heroes are sometimes as flawed as the villains. The women often have as much agency as the men, and, in fact, unlike classical romances, do not serve as either damsels to be rescued or as vile temptresses or sorceresses (though some of both do appear, they serve more to enhance the reflection towards the other characters.) None of the characters fit their proper social mold: The young peasant boy Caradoc saves at the beginning is taken by Sir Kai as a Squire, and will one day be a Knight!
It is, then, with appalled wonder that we at the Times note that this book has outsold in one month every other book, aside from the Good Book, published in our beloved Dixie. It has even found many converts in foreign lands, and, we note, has already been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. That this book would find its way into the hearts of women is understandable, perhaps, written as it was by a woman, and with womanly sensibilities at its core, but that it has found refuge within the libraries of many an educated, otherwise sensible Red Blooded Confederate Gentlemen is confounding. In fact, only last week, I found myself forced to leave a dinner between a noted General, a Senator, a Judge, and myself, when the conversation turned to the Topic of “Camelot.” If the Knights of the Round Table were in a state of Decay at the beginning of this book, I cannot help but wonder if the Proud State of Dixie is in a similar state at its end.
- Lesley Harrison, Editor, Savannah Times, December 1893
