HAWK OF MAY

by Gillian Bradshaw ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 1980

The first book of a trilogy apparently to be devoted to the exploits of the hero known in the Welsh Arthurian legends as Gwalchmai and in later English romances as Gawain. Though nowhere near the stature of T. H. White or even Thomas Berger (Arthur Rex, 1978), Bradshaw's attempt is several cuts above most of the pedestrian quasi-historical Arthuriana that has been coming at us lately. Her Arthur sees himself as a Roman ""emperor"" nursing the spark of civilization in Britain, a convenient enough historical underpinning to the sequence of campaigns she narrates. But her handling of Gwalchmai's story is more in the heroic-fantasy vein, with the sorceress Morgawse (Arthur's sister, and mother of Gwalchmai and Medraut, a.k.a. Mordred) locked in dark battle against Lugh, lord of the Sidhe. Fleeing the dreadful magic in which she has trained him, Gwalchmai comes to the Isles of the Blest and is sent back to Earth to join Arthur in the cause of ""Light."" Arthur, suspecting some trick of Morgawse, refuses his service; the last part of the story is taken up with Gwalchmai's efforts to win his uncle's trust. The blend of sword-and-sorcery with highly unsystematic history and borrowings from Celtic legend works pretty well but would work far better if Bradshaw's prose could rise a bit higher than ""The cold anger in his stare had become white hot."" Moreover, there's a lack of texturing detail (the preface claims that ""geography is not that important,"" but wars and campaigns need to be grounded), and the loftily but vaguely imagined conflict of ""Light"" and ""Darkness"" is distinctly sub-Tolkien. Still, Bradshaw is a spirited storyteller, and this is certainly one of the more successful recent minings of the ever-popular Arthurian vein.

Pub Date: May 9, 1980

ISBN: 1402240708

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION