Spear by Nicola Griffith

Publisher - Tor

Published - Out Now

Price - £15.99 hardback £7.78 Kindle eBook

She grows up in the wild wood, in a cave with her mother, but visions of a faraway lake drift to her on the spring breeze, scented with promise. And when she hears a traveler speak of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she decides her future lies at his court. So, brimming with magic and eager to test her strength, she breaks her covenant with her mother and sets out on her bony gelding for Caer Leon.

With her stolen hunting spear and mended armour, she is an unlikely hero, not a chosen one, but one who forges her own bright path. Aflame with determination, she begins a journey of magic and mystery, love, lust and fights to death. On her adventures, she will steal the hearts of beautiful women, fight warriors and sorcerers, and make a place to call home.

We tend to think retellings are a modern phenomena but in reality stories have been getting revisions and different versions for a very long time. So many folk tales have taken different paths over centuries and even the ‘big myths’ like Robin Hood or especially King Arthur have a lot of versions with some very strange differences between them. Exploring the differences is fascinating and as always tells us about our own age too. In Nicola Griffith’s entrancing fantasy novella Spear we get a take that I suspect within just a few pages will pull you into reading it and give you a fascinating unfamiliar trip into a story we think we know so well.

In a remote valley lives Elen and her daughter who she called for now Dawnged. They keep away from everyone especially the strange humans and live long days among nature and Dawnged gets told of many legends of the Tuath De a powerful magical group always infighting and seeking lost objects. Dawnged though feels the call of these humans and as she grows with immense speed, strength and the ability to feel the thoughts of any living thing she starts to roam ever closer; despite her mother’s fear that her father will finally find them.

Dawnged gets involved rescuing a group from bandits and discovers they are Companions of the King Arturus who in his fort of Caer Leon with his wife Gwenhyrfar are trying to bring order to the land despite so many invaders on the borders. Dawnged wishes to join and does not reveal she is a woman and instead adopts the name Peretur. Peretur is told they must do deeds that justify joining the Conpanions and so Peretur begins the long process to protect people, understand the mysteries of Caer Lion and ultimately involved on a quest to find a cup of immense power.

This novella is really two adventures subtly joined together. The first part is Peretur finding out who they are and we get to know them too. Griffith adopts an absolutely exquisite tone to describe every scene - helped by these early sections have so few characters to talk to Peretur. The use of nature and the terms used to describe it were a joy to sit back and savour. We have a Ancient Welsh world that hums with magic; myth and history. Griffith ensures we understand we are not in the faux-medieval period that Arthurian legend now dwells in and instead this is a time of roundhouses; metal being rare and also one were Celtic and Irish myth merge across. This is storytelling at its finest just to capture the audience and make us see Peretur not just as a functional knight in waiting but a woman who is just discovering the world who she is and also what she wants to be. By understanding her we are all willing her to succeed and feel her pain at having to decide to leave her mother to find older own path.

The second half of the story is more focused around Peretur then wanting to be a Companion and then discovering the wider problems plaguing the court of Arturus. There is a brilliant dissonance that we half recognise all the names but the setting and the plot points all are both familiar but unexpected. The benefit for the reader then is that this isn’t the Camelot we think it will be. Where the story goes is both linked to the more familiar myths of Arthur, Percival and the Grail; but Griffith adds a what to me feels a rawer and less ornamental take on the story. The setting and period make this feel far more a lost ancient history than Hollywood glamour and Griffith makes their characters with that immediately more interesting. Peretur is gay and starts to fall in love; Llanza the best of the companions (who we will recognise as nod to Lancelot) fights but with a strong leg injury so is a disabled character with a major part to play; certain love triangles are played with too. All of which makes the story feel fresh and considering it’s 1500 years in the making that’s again rather brilliant.

The second half loses some of the lyricism as there is a lot more action and plot to unravel. I really liked how we see Peretur with their unusual abilities starting to realise they are not quite human and having to decide where they stand with us. On top of that we get more magical players of legend entering the story for its powerful finale that skilfully wraps up an ancient tale and also sets up the endgame of arthurian legend. Plus throw in many duels, bandits and a dangerous Red Knight to battle to the death - it is never dull!

Spear is a read to savour. Dazzle in the language and also the ingenuity of how Griffith has created a story we thought we knew and made it both feel more real; modern and also as if it truly was an ancient myth for the first time rediscovered. Fans of history may also really enjoy the notes and afterword at the end explaining the process this tale came about. In some hands this would have been a three book trilogy of many pages but Griffith creates an epic in novella form that I think gives the reader a far more enjoyable and entrancing experience. Strongly recommended