A preamble to THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY
I decided to write a little bit about what you might find within the pages of my serial novel THE SHIELD OF LOCKSLEY because, well, I have so many more readers now than I did when I first started it..
Because this story’s Paywalled, I thought I’d tell you about some of the background…
I write these beginnings because I have a lot of people on my Substack now. It’s sad that not everyone reads what I put out, but that’s the way it is. In fact, it’s not even close! I’m lucky if 28% of all the subscribers I have, open their emails; it’s even sadder that only 4.3% of total readers are behind the Paywall. FOUR POINT THREE in case you read that wrong. That’s why I make these introductions. Because this is a paywalled post, and if you haven’t upgraded, you’re not reading Diddley-squat after this. I wanted to at least give you something that might entice you into reading more. I mean, just saying it’s good, isn’t good enough, is it? Otherwise you’d all up-grade.
The other day, someone put up a post with the names of the all the major characters he had in his series. I thought, why don’t I do that? I mean, people seem to know King Arthur, but what do they really know about all those knights, and their backstory? Not a lot, I bet. So let’s start with the characters in my story, not the ones in the book about King Arthur, but the ones in mine, the book about Sir Locksley.
The hero of my story — as you’ve probably guessed from the title of the book and the intro to this intro — is Sir Locksley, Knight of the Field, Prince of Ivanore, yada, yada, yada. He’s the one time Squire to his uncle Sir Grummer Grummerson, and sometime Squire to Grummer’s friend, Sir Bedivere. Those three are the characters the story revolves around, although the story is more or less, about the young knight, Sir Locksley.
The main, underlying issue, of the story however, is the plot against Sir Lamorak de Gales, the son of King Pellinore. The hidden story within the story, is the plot to kill him. It’s more or less why the things that are happening, are happening. It’s just that no one knows it yet; they haven’t quite figured it out.
Now Locksley, as a young knight, is on his way to Camelot as we all know, where he hopes to take part in the Tournament of Youth. On the way down, he’s in the company of his uncle, Sir Grummer, and The Boys, who are Sir Grummer’s Men-at-Arms, and who accompany him everywhere he goes. They’ve been with him for years, and through a lot of drunken escapades, because Uncle Grummer, well, he likes a wee bit o’ the dram, as they say. But then, so does Bedivere, but he’s not with them at the outset of the story.
Instead, we meet Ector deMaris, the half-brother of Lancelot — who unbeknownst to Ector, has left Camelot in order to go a-roving. Ector doesn’t have a Squire to see to his needs. You see, not every Knight can afford to keep a Squire, or Men-at-arms — footmen — for that matter. It’s a huge expense, feeding and keeping the extra mouths, as well as all those horses, and not every Knight can afford it.
The thing about these Knights of the Round Table, is that most of them are old. They’re in their fifties, or late fifties. They all have a past with a full history. They’ve all suffered through personal loss and trauma; they’re worn-out, and old. Knights like Grummer and Bedivere are well-travelled knights. They’ve sold their services to other realms. They’ve been to the walls of Constantinople; seen the Vatican, where Bedivere was injured and they took a year off while he recovered from his wounds. (Grummer, during that time, learned to read and write Latin; he has a copy of Marcus Aurelius in his bag.) They’ve been to the Holy Land.
Also, it’s about now that we meet The Orkney Knights. The Orkney Knights are the sons of the late King Lot, who died, supposedly, at the hands of King Pellinore (Lamorak’s father). They have sworn to avenge their father’s death. And to further complicate things — or, better still, as luck would have it — Lamorak has met their mother and they’ve since become lovers. Their indiscretion is discovered however, and that’s why the Orkney Knights want to kill Lamorak, as well. They can’t stand the idea that the son of their father’s killer, has been dinking their mother.
The Orkney Knights are: Gawain, the oldest; Gaheris, the second; Agravain, the brother who can’t win for losing; Modred, the bastard son of Arthur — his mother’s half-brother; and Gareth, the youngest. They are the second generation of Knights, eager to take their place at the Round Table. Gareth, in fact, is coming to Camelot to also take part in the Tournament of Youth.
And behind all of this, standing in support of the Orkney Knights, is Queen Morgan LeFay, the wife of King Urien, an ally of the True King, Arthur. Their son Uwain is also taking part in the Tournament. Now, Morgan LeFay would like nothing better than to be the wife of the late king Urien. In other words, a widow, but she doesn’t dare make a move against her husband. She is, however, willing to make a move against her half-brother, Arthur. And yes, she is the full sister of the late, lamented King Lot’s wife. (Morgan also slept with him once upon a time in the past.)
Morgan would like nothing better than to usurp the crown and place her own husband in Arthur’s place, at which time she would finally become a widow and her son would take over as king. She has ambitions, and she does use the Ancient Druid craft to get her way. The problem with this however, is that time and time again, it seems that her plots fail.
Now, throw into this mix, the start of the Christian movement. The Pagan sect of the Druids are scattered across Briton since the loss of their one time leader, the Myrddyn (Merlin). In his place is Nimue, The Lady of the Lake. The first time we meet her she is in Lamorak’s tent.
This is after the Orkney Knights have attacked and captured both Grummer and Ector, throwing them into the dungeon of a miscreant knight, Tarquin. They were attacked while visiting a whore house. At the whore house, Locksley takes on a young boy, Brennis — Breunor being his real name — as his Squire. The Boys approach Lamorak and his Squire, Vergil, introduce him to Locksley, whom he knows as his father’s saviour. (There’s a rumour, early in the story, that Locksley was made a Knight of the Field for saving Pellinore’s life, and killing King Lot. It’s something Grummer is trying to keep quiet.)
But Nimue sees the boy Brennis and claims that he’s the son of her sister. She promises that he’ll be a great knight one day, and that she’ll always be there when he needs her most. She walks off into a huge acre of water — a puddle — and simply dissolves.
And with all of this, let’s throw the main love interest into the tale.
Gwenellyn.
She is the niece of King Pellinore, and he is escorting her, along with his daughter, Miriam, to Camelot in order to find them husbands. As they travel the roads, they come across the Queen, who is out searching for Lancelot. The camp is large. As well as Pellinore, there is King Mark of Cornwall’s wife, Isolde, and her escort, Tristan. Isolde stays with her own, but Pellinore is a long time friend of the Queen, and he joins her for breakfast with the girls, and as he relates a story, suffers a stroke.
These are the characters, for the most part. It is while Gwenellyn attends her uncle that we discover she is a victim of his abuse. As is her mother. There is a lot of past history between the different characters.
The knights, for the most part, are drunken louts. Most of them suffer from some sort of trauma stemming from the Saxon Wars as well as The War of The Twelve Kings. These are men used to getting their way. The drink, a lot. It’s probably to hide from their own storied pasts. They’re just as likely to be rapists and murderers as they are pious. They are petty; they are noble; they are dedicated to the King and believe in him fiercely.
These are not the knights you remember from your childhood. It’s not PRINCE VALIANT any more than it’s Mallory’s LE MORTE D’ARTHUR, or Tennyson’s IDYLLS OF THE KING. It’s dark, and it’s violent; the women are often victims until they take matters into their own hands. They swear, blaspheme, rape, kill, plot, scheme, and commit treason.
Read the first part for FREE, and then tell me why you don’t want to upgrade.