The Winter King - Characters in "The Winter King"

Characters in "The Winter King"

• Derfel Cadarn – the narrator of the story, he began as one of Merlin's orphans and worked his way up to one of Arthur's captains and then to the title of lord. He is a disciple of Arthur and even though he sees Arthur's flaws, he recognizes greatness and knows that Arthur is the only hope for Great Britain.
• Arthur – the illegitimate son of King Uther, he believes that a leader's power comes from those he rules, not from the might of his own arm. "I learned that a king is only as good as the poorest man under his rule" (Cornwell, 321). He is more than a warlord; he is a politician and strives for widespread unity through peaceful ways such as marriages not battles. However, he is not opposed to fighting and is a smart, brutal warrior but has the bad tendency of trusting his opponents too much once the battle is done. . His mistress gives us insight into Arthur's character, "…Arthur will make his usual mistake of forgiving his enemies" (Cornwell, 334).
• Guinevere – Arthur's wife who aspires to be queen and on insists on everyone calling Arthur "Lord Prince" because it gives her a sense of power and prestige. She is a hard, ambitious woman who balances Arthur's optimism with her realistic view. "There have been many more beautiful women, and thousands who were better, but since the world was weaned I doubt there have been many so unforgettable as Guinevere… And it would have been better, Merlin always said, had she been drowned at birth" (Cornwell, 172). She carries herself with assurance and cares very little for others and only wants power and a high social status.
• Merlin – the old wizard who trained Arthur to be the type of warlord he is. However, even though he cares for Arthur more than most other people, Merlin really only cares about finding the lost Treasures of the Gods. He is desperately trying to bring back the old pagan religion and loosen the hold Christianity has over the people and doesn’t care about the people he could be helping instead. ""…if I find saving Arthur's life helps me find the Treasure, then be assured I shall come to battle. But otherwise?’ He shrugged, as though the war was of no importance to him" (356). His first allegiance is to the Gods and he won’t let anyone stand in his way.
• Mordred – crippled child King
• Nimue – another of Merlin's orphans who later became his priestess and his lover. She is also Derfel's childhood friend and first love. They grew up together and have always tried to take care of each other but Nimue starts to drift away as she goes through the trials and pains to become a priestess, such as getting raped and losing her eye then eventually becoming insane. But Derfel saves her from insanity because he promised to protect her even though her first loyalty must be to the Gods, they are friends and bonded by their twin scars.
• Uther – High King of Dumnonia, the Pendragon
• Morgan - Arthur's sister and also a priestess of Merlin. She is dreadfully lonely at the top taking care of Merlin's affairs while he is away. She was disfigures in the fire that killed her husband and so became a priestess but throughout the book she is slowly losing touch with the Gods which makes her even more jealous of Nimue then she ever was before. She is bitter and mean but there are reasons for her moods and she loves her bother deeply.
• Lancelot - The heir of King Ban of Benoic. He is very handsome and charismatic like other Arthurian stories but in The Winter King he is not the brave, loyal, and kind Lancelot that most people think of him as. Instead Sir Lancelot is a coward who lies about his role in battles and pays bards to sing about his heroic deeds that never actually happened. His mean nature extends even to his immediate family. He left his father to die when their castle was besieged and overthrown and blamed its fall on his half-brother Galahad. He has none of the good characteristics of Lancelot in earlier Arthurian books that helped to redeem him for his affair with Guinevere and so, in the first book at least, Lancelot is despicable through and through.