Mr Cornwell
I’ve recently finished you Warlord Chronicles, and after initially being a little apprehensive, because my only knowledge of the Arthur legend was the Disney and 12th century stories, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy them. However, not only did I enjoy them, but they’re now my favourite books!
I live in Cwmbran, a small town in Gwent, so immediately felt a connection to the story. After reading The Winter King I done a little research and discovered that Saint Derfel (Gadarn), the 6th century warrior monk, is the Patron Saint of Cwmbran and he founded a church there. A local society recently raised a statue in his honour at Thornhill, near Llandderfel, where the church was said to have been.
I was quite surprised by the amount of information I could find out about Derfel Gadarn from multiple sources, and wondered if you thought this was more evidence to support your theory that the Christians tried to write Arthur out of history (because Derfel was or became Christian, and he seems to have lots of scholars, probably Christian, writing about him) or if you think that it is evidence that Arthur didn’t exist, because there simply isn’t much historical evidence?
P.s I recently read “The Fall of Arthur by JRR Tolkien”, written in the 1930’s, before he published The Hobbit. It wasn’t 100% finished at the time, but it has been very well edited together by his son, and I would highly recommend it.
Best regards
Clayton
South Wales