P
IP AND I WERE UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE CLOUDS
. Opening their fingers and closing them, stretching them again, like huge sky-women kneading dough.
There were pockets of blue. Little muzzy promises.
Around us, rabbits scurried and sprintedâthey never touched the ground. Arrogant cock pheasants prinked and stalked, allowing us to come close, but never closer.
Each silly, tender leaf. Each petal of hawthorn blossom.
But as soon as we came over the ridge, we ducked right under the wind.
And there it was.
Catmole.
The manor house ensconced on its shapely mound, almost growing out of it; its walls, mossy and oaten, buttermilk in the sunlight; the little flag, scarlet and white, thrilling to the wind.
First you cross a sloping field thick with sandy, sloppy cattle. Pip splashed straight through a pool of first-day dung.
You come down to a curling river, and that's where England ends and Wales begins.
Someone was standing on the wooden bridge. He was wearing a dark hood, but as I rode up to him, he swept it back.
“Merlin!” I shouted.
At once I dismounted.
“Is it really you?” I exclaimed. “Where have you been?”
Merlin inspected me and smiled. “I am where I'm needed,” he replied.
“Here and now!” I said firmly. “I need you.”
“Young kings often do.”
“I'm no king.”
“But you've discovered the king in yourself,” Merlin said. “Haven't you? And isn't this Catmole yourâ¦Camelot?”
“I know! It is!”
Merlin smiled an inward smile. “You have grown into your name,” he said, “as each of us must. You've understood the stone's meaning.”
“Wonderful. Terrible.”
Merlin sighed. “Just like life,” he said. “Well! You know its story now.”
“But there's so much I don't know.”
Merlin looked at me with his mysterious silver-grey eyes. “There always will be,” he told me. “But it's time to give the stone back.”
“Give it back!”
My seeing stone has been my day-and-night companion for the last four years.
“The king has gone into the hill,” Merlin said gently. “The stone has nothing more to show or say to you.”
“I thought it was mine,” I said.
I delved into my saddlebag and pulled out the obsidian in its dusty saffron cloth. I cradled it between my hands and squeezed it as hard as I could. Then I handed it to Merlin.
“It is yours,” said Merlin. “Its story will never end in you, will it? But there's always someone else just ready for this stone.”
“You will stay here?”
Merlin nodded. “For a while,” he said. “Provided you treat me just as well as Sir John did! And you, Arthur, you'll keep asking? Asking the right questions?”
First you cross a sloping field.
You come down to a curling river.
You pass over the wooden bridge and step into a little watermeadow so impossibly bright green, everything seems possible.â¦
And there she was, my mother, as she said she would be, standing by her croft, wearing a white cloth cap, holding a hoe.
I strode, then I half-ran towards her.
I held her to me, and in a low voice I said-and-sang:
“That lark! It was singing its heart out.
And we were clinging, winging, half-wild.
Ring-giving mother unending you are.
King of the Middle March I will be.”
All around us the people of Catmoleâforty-three souls, Lady Alice saysâwere leaving their strips and crofts and cottages, and walking towards us. They came from the stables, the sty and the sheepfold, the fishnets stretched from bank to bank; they came from the hives and the herb garden, the orchard, the headlands and open fields.
I greeted them. Each one of them.
Across a sloping field and down to a river, silver, sizzling in the sunlightâ¦over the wooden bridge and into a water-meadowâ¦you come to three huge oaks sinking their claws into the ground. You follow a track along the foot of the mound, and now it doubles back, rising to the courtyard and the manor house.
My mother and I led the way, and everyone fell in behind us.
The ribbed oak door was wide open.
“Welcome-wide,” my mother whispered. That ghost of a smile again.
I took a deep breath and walked in.
Around me, spacious whitewashed walls; above my head, the cruck-roof, soaring; beneath my feet, rushes strewn with cowslops, primroses, rosemary, violets.
There was a long table. Something lay on it, shining.
Obsidian and gold. Ivoryâ¦
I caught my breath.
King Arthur's own reading-pointer!
“Merlin!” I called out. “Where are you?”
Merlin appeared in the doorway. A dark icon framed in sunlight.
“Well!” he said in his deep voice. “Do you see?”
I picked up the shining pointer. The little triangle of ice and fire grew warm in my left palm.
I planted it between my thumb and king-finger, and drew a loop around my people.
I waved it like a wand. I made words out of air.
AEOLUS
in Greek mythology, the god of the winds
AKETON
a quilted garment of buckram worn under a mail-shirt and reaching to the knees
ALUM
mineral salt used as a fixative by cloth manufacturers
ARGENT
in heraldry, the color silver or white
AZURE
in heraldry, the color blue
BALLISTA
(PLURAL: BALLISTAE) a kind of huge crossbow, used for shooting missiles
BARB
breed of horse that originated in Morocco, and was the mount of the Muslim Berber horsemen
BRACER
a leather guard for the wrist, used in archery
BRAIES
baggy linen drawers
BUR
a small, round plate on a spear to protect the hand
BYZANTINE
(ADJECTIVE) of Byzantium or Constantinople
CALTROPS
iron balls with four sharp prongs (strewn on the ground to wound foot soldiers and horses)
THE CATEGORIES
The Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that meaningful language consists of ten categories (
substance, quantity, quality, relationship, place, time, position, equipment,
and the active and passive tenses).
Substance
stands on its own; the other nine belong to
substance
and depend on it for their meaning.
CHAUSSES
leggings made of mail
CHIN-PIE
rubbing the chin (usually someone else's) with the hand until it feels hot
CITOLE
a stringed instrument, similar to a lyre
COLLOPS
small slices of meat
COSTREL
a large bottle with an ear so it can hang from a waist-belt
COWSLOP
Middle March name for
cowslip
CRUCK-ROOF
a roof with a framework made of pairs of curved and arched timbers
CUISSES
thigh-guards made of quilted linen, worn over the chausses
DAMSON
a small plum with a dark purple or black skin
DESTRIER
a warhorse
EXCOMMUNICATION
a sentence of exclusion from the communion of the Church, including the sacraments
FARRIER
a man who shoes horses
FARTHING
a coin valued at one quarter of a penny
FIRST NIGHT WATCH
a period of duty aboard ship lasting from 8 P.M. until midnight
FLEUR DE SOUVENANCE
(FRENCH) a flower, sometimes made of jewels, to serve as a reminder or keepsake; used here to mean a kiss
FONTANEL
a membrane-covered space between two bones, especially the spaces between the bones of the skull
FORUM
an open space on deck around a ship's mainmast where people can assemble
FUSTIAN
a coarse cloth woven from cotton and flax, first made in Fustat (a suburb of Cairo) in Egypt
GALINGALE
the aromatic root of an East Indian plant, used in medicine and cookery
GALL
a bitter excrescence on trees produced by the action of insects
GIZZEN
to grin audibly
GOGONIANT!
(WELSH) Glory be!
GOLDCREST
a golden wren
GRAIN OF PARADISE
a West African plant used as a spice
GULES
in heraldry, the color red
JOUST
a war game in which two mounted men try to unseat one another, using lances
KEEN
to wail or mourn bitterly
LANCET-WINDOW
a tall and narrow window, pointed at the top
THE LAND OVERSEA
the name for the territory, including Palestine and the Nile Delta, over which Christians and Muslims fought during the Crusades
LAST
a wooden model of the foot, used by shoemakers
LATEEN SAIL
a triangular sail suspended at 45 degrees to the mast
LEUCROTA
a fabulous beast, which combines elements of a donkey, stag, lion, and horse, and makes a noise resembling human speech
MANGONEL
an engine of war designed like a huge catapult, used for throwing stones
MARK
two-thirds of the pound sterling
MAST
nuts that have fallen to the forest floor
MOLE
a stone pier or breakwater
NAKER
a kettle-drum
NOVICE
in religious orders, a person (often a child) under probation, prior to taking monastic vows
OBSIDIAN
volcanic glass, usually black, believed by some cultures to have magical powers
PATEN
a shallow dish used for bread at the celebration of the Eucharist
PEL
a wooden post against which squires practiced swordplay
PETRARY
much the same as a mangonel
PILLARS OF HERCULES
the huge rocks standing at the entrance to the Mediterranean, one in Spain, the other in Morocco
PYX
a box or vessel in which bread consecrated at the Eucharist is kept
QUINTAIN
a post, or the object attached to it, used for practice at jousting with a lance
READING-POINTER
a little rod, like a pencil, with which to follow text word by word
REBEC
a stringed instrument played with a bow
RECKLING
the smallest or weakest animal in the litter
ROUNSEY
a strong horse without special breeding used mainly by knights and travelers
SAIS
(WELSH) Saxon, or Englishman; sometimes used as a term of abuse
SAMITE
heavy silk, sometimes threaded with gold
SHAWM
a kind of oboe, with a double reed in the mouthpiece
SHEEP-RUN
a track made by sheep
SHRITHE
to move in a supple, sinewy, threatening way
SOLAR
a withdrawing room, where one can be alone or talk to people in private
STINK-HORN
a foul-smelling fungus
STRAITS OF MOROCCO
Straits of Gibraltar
TERCE
a set of prayers said or sung at 9 A.M. In all, nuns and monks attended seven services during each twenty-four hours: Matins/Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.
TINCTURES, THE SEVEN
a term used in heraldry to describe colors, metals, and furs, each of which have their own names:
azure
(blue),
gules
(red),
purpure
(purple),
vert
(green),
argent
(silver/white),
or
(gold/yellow), and
sable
(black)
TORMENTUM
(PLURAL: TORMENTA) a stone-throwing machine, worked by making a spring out of twisted ropes
TOURNAMENT
a magnificent sporting and social occasion at which knights engaged in a series of contests
UNDERCROFT
an arched space under the ground floor of a building
VELLUM
the best kind of parchment, made from the skin of calf, lamb, or kid
VERJUICE
the acid juice of unripe grapes and other sour fruit, used in cooking
VERMILION
bright red or scarlet
WATER-MEADOW
a pasture periodically flooded with water from a stream or river
406-7 | The Romans withdraw from Britain. |
c. 500 | The legendary Arthur defeats the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon. |
c. 597 | The missionary Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory I, lands in Britain. |
1076 | Jerusalem is captured by the Turks. |
1095 | Pope Urban II proclaims the First Crusade; Usamah ibn-Munqidh, friend of Saladin and author of Memoirs , is born. |
1096-1102 | The First Crusade |
1099 | The crusaders capture Jerusalem. |
c. 1118 | Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, is born. |
1122 | Eleanor of Aquitaine is born. |
1134 | Sir William de Gortanore is born. |
1136 | Geoffrey of Monmouth completes his History of the Kings of Britain. |
1138 | Saladin is born. |
1147-9 | The Second Crusade |
c. 1150 | Geoffrey de Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne and author of Conquest of Constantinople , is born. |
1154 | Henry II is crowned. |
1158 | Richard I (Coeur-de-Lion) is born. |
1170s | Chrétien de Troyes, author of Erec and Enide, begins to write his Arthurian romances. |
1180s | Marie de France writes her lais or short story poems. |
1183 | Saladin unites Syria and Egypt; ibn Jubayr chronicles his pilgrimage to Mecca (1183-5); Serle de Caldicot is born. |
1185 | Tom de Gortanore is born. |
1186 | Arthur de Caldicot is born on March I. |
1187 | The Sultan Saladin captures Acre and Jerusalem; Gatty is born; Lady Tilda de Gortanore dies in giving birth to Grace de Gortanore. |
1188 | The Saladin Tithe (tax) is levied to help finance the Third Crusade; Gerald, author of The Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales, travels with Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury; Sir William de Gortanore marries Lady Alice; Winifred de Verdon is born. |
1189 | Henry II dies, and Richard I (Coeur-de-Lion) is crowned. |
1189-92 | The Third Crusade, led by Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, Philip Augustus of France, and Richard Coeur-de-Lion of England |
1191 | Sian de Caldicot is born. |
1192 | Richard Coeur-de-Lion leaves the Holy Land and is imprisoned by Leopold of Austria until 1194. |
1193 | Saladin dies, aged 54. |
1199 | Richard Coeur-de-Lion is wounded at Chalus and dies; his brother John (b. 1167) is crowned; Pope Innocent III proclaims the Fourth Crusade, and Fulk de Neuilly preaches it. |
1200 | Lord Stephen de Holt chooses Arthur de Caldicot as his squire, and they take the Cross at Soissons. |
1201 | The Venetians agree to build the crusader fleet, and Arthur de Caldicot and Lord Stephen return from Venice in April; Thibaud de Champagne dies, and Boniface de Montferrat is chosen to lead the Fourth Crusade. |
1202 | Arthur de Caldicot and Winifred de Verdon are betrothed in April; the crusaders muster in Venice; on July 27, Arthur de Caldicot is knighted Sir Arthur de Gortanore; the crusaders sail for Zara early in October. Zara falls on November 24. |
1203 | Sir Arthur de Gortanore returns to the Middle March. |
1204 | Christian Constantinople is wrecked and looted by the crusaders; Eleanor of Aquitaine dies. |
1205 | The crusaders return home without reaching Jerusalem. |