The Winter King - Themes in "The Winter King"

Themes in "The Winter King"

• Love - There is the love between Arthur and Guinevere, the love Arthur has for his men and vice versa, the complicated love Derfel has for Nimue, and the unclear love between Merlin and Arthur. Love is great but often gets the characters into trouble. The passion Arthur has for Guinevere is the cause of Britain's inter-kingdom war and Derfel's love of Nimue is why he travels to the Isle of the Dead. These troubles, however, are what shape the characters into stronger and more rounded people. Love reveals both strengths and weaknesses in the characters such as when Arthur puts his love of Guinevere before the need of his kingdom and when Derfel finds his courage to save Nimue from the Isle of the Dead, where no one has ever gone before and returned. The only type of love that is not central in this book is courtly love. Courtly love is emphasized in most other Arthurian legends and books because it was so famous during the Middle Ages. Courtly love is defined as "Properly applied, the phrase l'amour courtois identified an extravagantly artificial and stylized relationship - a forbidden affair that was characterized by five main attributes" (Simpson).
• Religion - There is a lot conflict between the Christians and the believers in the old Gods, such as Merlin, Nimue, and Morgan. "…only one traveler dared challenge our authority, a fierce-bearded priest with his ragged following of wild-haired women" (42). Morgan, Nimue, and Merlin are druids and so don’t have solid political ties to kingdoms but are allowed to travel across any boundaries. While Nimue and Morgan are loyal to Arthur, Merlin exercises his free will and is more concerned with bringing back the old religion by finding the Treasures of the Gods than supporting either side of the war. In most pagan religions there is reference to treasures of the gods and Davidson says "The tradition of the treasures of the gods is remembered among the myths of the beginning" (Davidson). There is not much detail given about these treasures in The Winter King but it is obvious that the religion war is dividing Great Britain in a different way than the war over kingship and the only way to restore paganism to its former glory is to find the ancient treasures. There are both pagans and Christians in every kingdom and they are splitting the nations apart from the inside because both are trying to gain political control Arthur's way of dealing with the tension is to support both religions.
• Might vs Right- Throughout the book, Arthur is trying to create a utopian society of peace and prosperity, right not might. He believes strongly in the idea that even though warriors have power doesn’t mean they should use it to dominate but instead use it as a tool to help the less fortunate. Instead those with power should use it to bring happiness and prosperity to his people. This idea has been around for centuries, as noted in a student essay on Bookrags "An old fable reflects the ideas of might vs. right, the mouse and the lion" (Might vs Right). Right is what matters most and so even though Arthur could be king, he fulfills his duty to protect the baby Mordred, heir to the throne, and keeps his title of Lord instead of taking over and becoming king. To keep Mordred safe he even fight King Uther's champion Owain and miraculously kills him despite Owain's superior size. Arthur keeps his word because it is right and so he uses his might to protect Mordred's title no matter what.
• Knight v. Warrior - According to the scholarly source Celtic Warrior, Legendary King, " know from archaeological and other evidence that their advances were stopped for a time, and there was a period of relative peace for Britain. This could not have happened without a courageous and skillful military leader directing the opposition "(Lupack). In the article the author does not refer to Arthur as a king, yet as a "skillful military leader". Translate that into medieval words and one could say the same qualities of a military leader are reflected in the warriors in The Winter King. Compared to the definitive Arthurian story, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'A rthur, there are no knights in The Winter King. Instead, with Cornwell, there are warriors. It can be inferred that Malory believes Knights should be chauvinistic, forceful and powerful. Cornwell portrays the opposite. In The Winter King, Arthur sarcastically describes what a warrior is, " If you’re a warrior and you want a man's daughter you take her; you want his land, you kill him; after all you’re a soldier…and he's just a poor weak man" (Cornwell 143). The warriors of The Winter King are less medieval; the harshness of Arthur's word emphasizes how Arthur perceives the expected qualities of a warrior to be distasteful and barbaric.