7101 Hwy 71 W #200 Austin, Texas 78735 512/288-8555 [email protected] www.readerviews.com Interview with Kathleen Cunningham Guler Author of The Anvil Stone Reader Views is very happy to talk with Kathleen Cunningham Guler, award- winning author of the popular Macsen’s Treasure series. She has just finished her third book in the series, titled “The Anvil Stone.” Juanita: Thank you for talking with us today Kathleen. Give us an idea of the storyline in “The Anvil Stone.” Kathleen: Thanks Juanita! “The Anvil Stone” is set in fifth-century Britain, in the period leading to King Arthur’s rise to power. It intertwines the search for Excalibur with the continuing need to unite Britain’s many factions and teach them to stand together against the increasing encroachment of Saxon settlement and revolt. Marcus, the main character, uses clever ruses and manipulation to keep the factions’ fragile unity from crumbling further. At the same time, Claerwen, his wife, discovers the factions are also looking for a sword (Excalibur) that is considered sacred to the high kings. The factions want to steal it to gain power. Because the future high king Arthur’s reign has been prophesied as one that will save Britain from the Saxons, Marcus and Claerwen believe the sword must be found and saved for him, otherwise he might never come and Britain will be lost. Juanita: Give us a little insight into the lead characters of Marcus ap Iowerth (‘ap’ meaning ‘son of’) and his wife Claerwen. Who are they and what motivates them? Kathleen: Marcus is a minor-ranking prince. He’s well educated for his time and street- smart when it comes to people, whether it’s a king or a farmer. He’s earthy, gutsy, a little sarcastic, a little crazy, intensely loyal to his ideals, terribly in love with his wife, and has a need to keep Britain united and free from foreign invasion. This need comes from experiences he’s had in dealing with Saxons since his childhood. One of those tragic experiences comes to light in “The Anvil Stone,” and partially answers why he became a spy. Claerwen, Marcus’s wife, is driven by two things. One is her gift of visions, which I’ve dubbed “fire in the head” after a term for second sight found in old Welsh poetry. The other is her bond to Marcus. She can’t stand being left alone at home to wait for him while he’s off doing his work and has found a knack for helping him. She doesn’t see herself as a spy, yet she’s actually quite good at it. She is generous of spirit, compassionate, and her “otherworldliness” is a balance to Marcus’s earthiness. Juanita: This is the third book in the Mascen’s Treasure series. What is Macsen’s Treasure? Kathleen: Macsen’s Treasure is a five-piece set of symbols sacred to the ancient high kings of Britain. It includes a torque, spearhead, sword, grail and crown. The treasure is purely fictional—it doesn’t appear in either historical documentation or Arthurian legend. However, crowns, swords, scepters and the like have been symbols of royalty in every age, place and culture, so it is very likely that high kings in the Arthurian period would have had them as well. I named the collection “Macsen’s Treasure” after Magnus Maximus, known as Macsen Wledig in Welsh, because he was a hero to the Welsh for having fought back an army of Picts and Scots in the fourth century. With the increasing unrest after his departure for Rome in 383, I’ve purported that the treasure was split up and hidden for safekeeping until times would hopefully improve. The sword becomes known as Excalibur and the grail as the Holy Grail. Except for the crown, one piece figures in each of the four books in the series. Juanita: What is the “Anvil Stone” and how does it pertain to the story? Kathleen: Well, you’ve heard of the “sword in the stone”? There has also been the “sword in the anvil” in various versions of the legend as well. Scholars have debated on which motif is truer to Arthur’s legacy, but like everything else in legend, no clear conclusion can be made. So, (I’m grinning here) I decided to give Claerwen, through her visions, the image of one of Britain’s ancient standing stones in the shape of an anvil as a clue to where she and Marcus might find Macsen’s sword (aka Excalibur). Juanita: What is the time/date that this series takes place? Kathleen: The series is set in the second half of the fifth century, in what is considered the “pre-Arthurian” period or what I prefer to call the “early Arthurian” period. The historical Arthur, if he existed, likely lived anywhere from around 470 into the 540’s, with his most prominent time being around 500. The entire Arthurian period is considered to be AD 400-600, taking in the full post-Roman era up to the Saxon conquest. Juanita: There seems to be a large lack of factual information regarding this Arthurian era, and much of what is out there is questionable. How did you go about researching for “The Anvil Stone” and the Macsen’s series, and how much is true to what is generally understood as the Arthurian legend? Kathleen: Oh, gosh, this era is so difficult to research. No true source documents survive, if there were any to start with. Celtic tradition had always been oral, not written, and some of the beliefs still in play at that time may have made writing down knowledge taboo. I’ve relied on archaeology to give me details about everyday life of fifth century people—what they wore, what they ate, how they lived, could they read, what languages they spoke, and so on. For calculating Arthur’s life and those of the folks around him, I’ve picked out the scanty kernels of information in the oldest accounts, which include the early Welsh poem “Y Gododdin,” Nennius’s “The History of the Britons,” and the monk Gildas’s “de Excidio Britanniae” (The Ruin of Britain). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede’s “Ecclesiatical History of the English People” backup some of the information in the other three sources, but these all contain merely hints of Arthur—most don’t even mention his name. There is no proof whatsoever that he actually existed. However some scholars have made a good claim of his existence through intense analysis of these bits of information. Unfortunately it is still all conjecture, and after that, everything else is legend. I’ve always gravitated towards the historical side of King Arthur rather than the fantasy/mythological side that developed in the later middle ages. Yet I didn’t want to exclude some of the most basic elements of the tales. I wanted to keep Merlin involved, so I based the Macsen’s Treasure series loosely, and I do mean loosely, on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “History of the Kings of Britain,” written in the 1130’s. This included the story of Arthur that catapulted the legend into widespread fame. Some of the narrative may be based on facts found in the earlier sources I’ve named, plus others that are unknown, but a lot of it is probably based on old tales handed down over several centuries. Juanita: What are some of emotions and themes in “The Anvil Stone” that may be relatable to readers in their experience of life today? Kathleen: One important emotion here is how shell-shocked Marcus becomes. In all the years he has been working as a spy he has not even realized it himself until the assassin called Handor says a particular phrase in the Saxon language. That sets off a reaction in Marcus that is much like a present-day soldier’s flashback to war. He starts to drink more heavily, and he puts himself in dangerous situations that make Claerwen believe he’s becoming suicidal, and she can’t figure out why or what to do about it. I don’t want to get into current politics here too much, but it’s always struck me how society in the Middle East is still so tribal and medieval in its thinking, and in that regard, it gives a window into the tribal nature society had in the early middle ages. The constant bickering and violence among the Celtic kingdoms of Britain in the fifth century is hauntingly similar. Some things never change, only the location and the technology. Juanita: This whole series revolving around Arthurian Legend, Celtic lore, and the dark ages of Britain is an enormous undertaking, yet you have managed to tell the story with such vivid description, historical accuracy and intriguing characters. What inspired you to write not only “The Anvil Stone” but the whole Macsen’s series? Kathleen: A cumulative love of history, good storytelling and curiosity is the foundation of my inspiration. Then when Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy came out in the 1970’s, I became intrigued with the Arthurian period. I was also interested with the late middle ages and the Renaissance in Europe at the time. It wasn’t until the early 1980’s though that I considered writing book length fiction seriously. After mulling it over and making a few false starts, I knew I needed to pin down a time period and concentrate on it. So I asked myself, which era is the most intriguing? I kept coming back to the early Arthurian period.