J.P. Reedman
Scribe
My novel, STONE LORD, should be out within the next month (approx) from Mirador.
It's a retelling of the perennially popular Arthurian legends...but with a twist. It's not set in the Dark Ages or quasi-medieval fantasy setting...it's set in the era of Stonehenge, the early British bronze age. By looking at associated myths and linguistic roots, I have managed to write a historical/fantasy novel that examines the very genesis of the Arthurian mythic cycle. I have also studied Stonehenge and similar monuments for many years and have participated in archaeological digs/surveys in the area--hence the sites, clothing, rituals (such as ancestor cults and water deposition) are all based on real archaeology. The rites of course are invented but based on comparative anthropology combined with British folklore.
Why Arthur & Stonehenge--well, I always thought is strange that the monument kept appearing in Geoffrey of Monmouth. By Arthur's time it would have been out of use almost 2000 years. But weirdly, Geoffrey seemed to know that some of the stones were from the far west...something not known again till the 20th C, and that there was a burial ground there. Was this long standing oral tradition, perhaps about an earlier bronze age Arthur-protype, perhaps the tall man buried nearby with a golden breastplate and ceremonial mace? Aid you know Stonehenge for instance has a 'sword in the stone'? It does! There is an extraordinary carving of a long dagger on one of the primary inner trilithons...
For more information my blog is at stone-lord.blogspot.com
It's a retelling of the perennially popular Arthurian legends...but with a twist. It's not set in the Dark Ages or quasi-medieval fantasy setting...it's set in the era of Stonehenge, the early British bronze age. By looking at associated myths and linguistic roots, I have managed to write a historical/fantasy novel that examines the very genesis of the Arthurian mythic cycle. I have also studied Stonehenge and similar monuments for many years and have participated in archaeological digs/surveys in the area--hence the sites, clothing, rituals (such as ancestor cults and water deposition) are all based on real archaeology. The rites of course are invented but based on comparative anthropology combined with British folklore.
Why Arthur & Stonehenge--well, I always thought is strange that the monument kept appearing in Geoffrey of Monmouth. By Arthur's time it would have been out of use almost 2000 years. But weirdly, Geoffrey seemed to know that some of the stones were from the far west...something not known again till the 20th C, and that there was a burial ground there. Was this long standing oral tradition, perhaps about an earlier bronze age Arthur-protype, perhaps the tall man buried nearby with a golden breastplate and ceremonial mace? Aid you know Stonehenge for instance has a 'sword in the stone'? It does! There is an extraordinary carving of a long dagger on one of the primary inner trilithons...
For more information my blog is at stone-lord.blogspot.com
