History Literature / HereLiesArthur

* AdaptedOut: Staples of modern Arthurian stories such as Myth/{{Camelot}}, the Round Table, [[Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight Gawain]], Morgan Le Fay, Literature/TristanAndIseult, Lancelot and Galahad don't appear; in some cases like Camelot, the Round Table, Lancelot and Galahad they aren't part of the original legends and were inventions of much later writers, and otherwise they're just absent despite demonstrably having roots in the earliest Celtic Arthurian material.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Medrawt (Mordred) is actually one of the kinder soldiers in the warband, and rebels against Arthur only to [[spoiler:avenge his brother]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Arthur is a power-hungry, greedy tyrant and raider who will betray or murder his allies if it suits his purposes and ends up sending his loyal brother to his death.]]

* AdaptedOut: Staples of modern Arthurian stories such as [[Literature/SirGawainAndTheGreenKnight Gawain]], Morgan Le Fay, Literature/TristanAndIseult, Lancelot and Galahad don't appear; in some cases like Lancelot and Galahad they aren't part of the original legends and were inventions of much later writers, and otherwise they're just absent despite demonstrably having roots in the earliest Celtic Arthurian material.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Irishman has no other name given.

* PrettyBoy: Peredur.

* AerithAndBob: The book uses character's older, usually Welsh names rather than the Latinized, Anglicized or Gallicized names that modern audiences would be more familiar with.

** Gawain doesn't feature in the story as Arthur's favored nephew, but otherwise his nephew Medrawt is similarly high in the pecking order among Arthur's men due to both blood ties and personal qualities. [[spoiler:Much the same for Bedwyr.]]

* AnimalMotifs: Arthur is nicknamed "The Bear" and he lives up to it.

* TheAlliance: A generation ago, the mighty leader [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosius_Aurelianus Ambrosius]] united the squabbling warbands of Britain into a single great army to push the Saxons back into the sea. He failed, and his army splintered and fell into infighting almost immediately after he was killed in battle, but he did manage to halt the Saxons' advance for decades. Myrddin hopes to make Arthur the figurehead of another pan-British alliance, but Arthur is no Ambrosius...
* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Gwyna spends most of her childhood living as a boy and adapts to it pretty well. When she hits puberty and has to start living as a girl again she finds it very difficult, although she does appreciate the ability to be open and honest about her feelings. At the end of the story she starts living as Gwyn full-time. It's not clear if she is intended to be a trans male, a cis female who just got used to living as a male and finds it difficult to stop, or simply prefers the greater freedom and opportunities that men have.

** Gwyna is clearly the basis for Nimue, but also fulfils Bedivere's role as the one who throws Excalibur into the lake after the final battle. When she retells the story, she tells people that Bedwyr did it as she feels like it's the least she can do for him. Her male persona, Gwyn, may also be the basis for Gawain.

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Arthur defeats a rival warlord who also claims to be Dux Bellorum, he hangs the guy's severed head on his horse and rides around with it.

** Gwyna's first job for Myrddin is to swim underwater into the middle of a lake and hold Caliburn above the water, becoming the basis for the legend of Myth/TheLadyOfTheLake. A couple of times she considers telling people the truth, but realises that nobody would believe her. Later in the story she also does some of the other deeds attributed to Nimue, albeit not quite in the way the stories tell.

* ExcaliburInTheStone: Myrddin came up with the story of the sword in the stone years before the events of the book to portray Arthur as the rightful King of the Britons, even making it his personal sigil alongside the red dragon. At the start of the story, he has Gwyna pose as the Lady of the Lake and give Arthur Caliburn (Excalibur) to show a band of Irish pagans he wants Arthur to ally with that Arthur has the favour of the old gods. Myrddin starts telling the story of Caliburn at the villages he visits, only for someone who had heard the first story to point out the discrepancy. Myrddin smoothly replies that the sword from the stone was broken and Arthur needed a new one, then segues into another story that quickly gets everyone to forget the question. Although he doesn't show it, Gwyna can tell he's kicking himself inside for making a mistake like that, and it's an early sign that he's starting to lose control of his plans.

* ForWantOfANail: When he kills [[spoiler:Bedwyr]], Arthur also dispatches some men to kill [[spoiler:Medrawt]] before he can come back for revenge. As they are head to the target's house, their leader, the only guy who know what they were supposed to be doing, is killed in a random accident. This gives Gwyna enough time to warn him and let him get away, then return with an army to kill Arthur.

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Saxons exist as a looming threat to the East, but haven't left their captured lands in years by the time of the story. Arthur becomes overlord of Aquae Sulis after he defeats what is supposedly a Saxon raiding party that attacked it, but Gwyna later reflects that they were probably just another warband of Britons who Myrddin said were Saxons.

* HistoricalFiction: Set in post-Roman Britain in the fifth century. Could be considered HistoricalFantasy by default due to the Arthurian theme, but there's no MaybeMagicMaybeMundane wiggle room.

* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: The Irishman.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: A non-humorous version. Arthur executes [[spoiler:Bedwyr for sleeping with Gwenhwyfar]] where he finds him, which is in the old Roman baths under a statue of Minerva; he beheads him and then throws his head in the bath. To the largely Christian onlookers, it looks like he sacrificed a man to pagan gods and they see him as a wicked tyrant.

* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Medrawt and [[spoiler:Bedwyr are brothers here, whereas they are usually not related at all]].

** Medrawt is merely Arthur's nephew, rather than his nephew [[BrotherSisterIncest and son]]. This is akin to earlier medieval versions without the incest angle which developed later.

* RobbingTheDead: Looting the dead after a battle is standard practice. Gwyna [[spoiler:steals Arthur's jewellery and boots after he is killed]].

* ImpersonatingTheDead: [[spoiler:When Gwyna walks into the battlefield in the aftermath of the showdown between Arthur and Medrawt, she wears Myrddin's robe with the hood up, so when she finds Arthur dying he believes she's Myrddin.]]

* SympatheticAdulterer: ZigZagged. Gwenhwyfar's marriage to Arthur is a loveless and sexless political match, and follows her previous, similarly loveless ArrangedMarriage. They don't live together and Arthur doesn't even pretend to be faithful. This would all normally add up to her affair with [[spoiler:Bedwyr]] being depicted sympathetically but Gwyna believes she is selfish, partially because she has a crush on Gwenhwyfar's much younger lover herself; and also because Gwenhwyfar made sure she knew about it, meaning Arthur would kill her too if he even found out.

* RuleOfSymbolism: When Myrddin realises Gwyna is getting close to puberty and won't be able to pass for a boy for much longer, he takes her out on a long journey to give her time to readjust to living as a girl and let everyone back home forget what "Gwyn" looked like. When he returns he finds that a great feast-hall he planned to hold the Round Table has been built, but it is shoddily constructed and doesn't match his vision at all, indicating that Arthur has strayed from the plan while he was gone and isn't becoming the king he wanted him to be. Just in case we didn't get it, the hall then collapses over the winter.

* TheMistress: Arthur had a young HotConsort who Myrddin convince him to set aside to marry Gwenhwyfar. However, when Myrddin leaves Arthur alone for too long he brings the girl back and openly treats her as his wife in all but name. Ironically, she and Arthur were actually married before he even met Gwenhwyfar, just not in a Christian wedding.

** Gwyna's first job for Myrddin is to swim underwater into the middle of a lake and hold Cliburn above the water, becoming the basis for the legend of Myth/TheLadyOfTheLake. A couple of times she considers telling people the truth, but realises that nobody would believe her. Later in the story she also does some of the other deeds attributed to Nimue, albeit not quite in the way the stories tell.

** Malegant is a minor villain who kidnaps Guinevere in some versions of Arthurian legends. Here he appears as Maelwas of Dummonia, a petty king who Myrddin tries to win as Arthur's first major ally. Maelwas is depicted as a wise and level-headed ruler who knows Arthur is not the hero Myrddin portrays him as and uses tactful diplomacy to keep him at arm's length.

* DisabledInTheAdaptation: Kind of. In the early Welsh poems, Bedwyr had one hand, while in the book he has a bed leg. However, the original Bedwyr was a HandicappedBadass who could fight even without his hand, while in the book Bedwyr's career as a warrior is over after he breaks his leg.

Britain in the 5th Century AD. Rome and the Legions are long gone and when they departed Britain collapsed into a patchwork of warring kingdoms and fiefdoms, easy prey for the Saxon raiders who now control the eastern half of the island. However Gwyna, a slave girl from a small farm in the contested borderlands between some of the stronger petty kingdom, doesn't know or understand any of this; all she knows is that the farm has been raided by a warband and she needs to flee into the forest to survive. She escapes a soldier by diving into the river and swims as far as she can. Exhausted on the bank she is discovered by a strange man who introduces himself as Myrddin, personal herald to Arthur; ''Dux Bellorum'', King of the Britons and the man who just torched her home.

* HistoricalFiction: Set in post-Roman Britain in the late fifth and/or the early sixth century. Could be considered HistoricalFantasy by default due to the Arthurian theme, but there's no MaybeMagicMaybeMundane wiggle room.

* AerithAndBob: The book uses character's original Welsh names rather than the Anglicized or Gallicized names that modern audiences would be more familiar with.

** Excalibur -> Caliburn

** Gwyna's first job for Myrddin is to swim underwater into the middle of a lake and hold Cliburn above the water, becoming the basis for the legend of the Myth/TheLadyOfTheLake. A couple of times she considers telling people the truth, but realises that nobody would believe her. Later in the story she also does some of the other deeds attributed to Nimue, albeit not quite in the way the stories tell.

* HistoricalFiction

* PunBasedTitle

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Arthur defeats a rival warlord who also claims to be Dux Bellorum, he hangs the guy's severed head on his horse.

* AerithAndBob: The book uses character's original Welsh names rather than the Anglicizeduses character's original Welsh names rather than the Anglicized or Gallicized names that modern audiences would be more familiar with.

** Lancelot doesn't feature in the story, and so his role as Gwenhwyfar's lover is given to [[spoiler:Bedwyr]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of Myth/ArthurianLegend.

* {{Demythification}}

* Myth/TheLadyOfTheLake: Gwyna's first job for Myrddin is to swim underwater into the middle of a lake and hold Cliburn above the water, becoming the basis for the legend of the Lady of the Lake. A couple of times she considers telling people the truth, but realises that nobody would believe her.
** Later in the story she also does some of the other deeds attributed to Nimue, albeit not quite in the way the stories tell.