I have mixed feelings about this book by master storyteller, Jane Yolen. It’s not so much a retelling of the Arthurian legend, but rather a rethinking of the tales. She takes elements of the original legend — most specifically the sword in the stone — and turns it upside down and inside out. I liked what she did with it, but there was a part of me that felt dissatisfied in the end.

Arthur’s been king for four years, and still there’s unrest in the country. Not everyone — most notably, Morgause (in her typical role of North Witch, master of the black arts) — is convinced that Arthur should be High King. So his mage, Merlinnus, devises a plan: put a sword in a stone, with some writing on it that declares that the person who draws the sword will be king, and challenge anyone to pull it out. Of course, only Arthur can, since Merlinnus put a spell on it so that would be the only possible solution.

Yet this book isn’t so much about Arthur, as it is about Gawen. He shows up near the beginning, desiring to become one of Arthur’s knights. He gets shuffled off — because of his size and quick wit — to be Merlinnus’s assistant instead. There’s something puzzling about Gawen… how he knows so much, his observations, his becoming one of Arthur’s trusted advisors.

I liked Gawen… I liked him even more at the end, even though I felt the ending was a bit rushed. (Yes, there is a secret there, but I had my suspicions about a third of the way through, and figured it out a little more than halfway, so it’s not really that big of a secret.) It had the elements of everything I like: intrigue; magic; Merlin as his old cranky self; Arthur as a loveable, bear-like king; and I admit I didn’t even mind this Morgause too much. I really liked Gawen. But maybe that was it: Gawen was too perfect, to pert, too right, too observent, too… too much. And in the end, I thought it just was a bit unbalanced. Maybe a little less would have been more here.

Still, it’s a interesting — if imperfect — interpretation of the Arthurian legend.