In his Magicians trilogy, writer Lev Grossman put his own spin on the portal fantasy genre.
And now, with his new epic fantasy novel The Bright Sword (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), Grossman is doing the same — albeit in a very different way — to the legends of King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table.
In the following email interview, Grossman discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why it’s about Arty and not some other King.
Photo Credit: ©️ Beowulf Sheehan
To start, what is The Bright Sword about, and when and where is it set?
The Bright Sword is a novel about King Arthur. But the story doesn’t start with The Sword In The Stone, it starts with Arthur’s death, and much of it takes place not at Camelot but in the dark, chaotic world Arthur left behind, where a little band of odd unheralded knights has to try and set things to rights, rebuild Camelot and crown a new king.
We also tell Arthur’s story, in flashback, but with a new interpretation of who he really is and the real story of how he fell.
So, did you set out to write a new adventure for the Knights Of The Round Table, and The Bright Sword is what you came up with, or did you come up with the idea for the plot of The Bright Sword first and then realize it would work really well, or maybe even better, if it involved King Arthur and his coworkers?
This was only ever a King Arthur story. It’s about a succession crisis, and a love story, and a lot of coming-of-age moments, but I always knew it would only work in Arthur’s world.
One of T.H. White’s strokes of genius was to tell the story of Arthur’s childhood [White is the author of the classic King Arthur novel The Once And Future King]. No one had ever done that before — he filled in a blank space on the map. Part of the point of The Bright Sword is to explore another blank space: the one after Arthur’s death.
Why did you want to tell a story about King Arthur’s BFFs?
One of the fascinating things about the Arthur story is that it means different things in different eras. I’s set in the past, but it’s always on some level about the present in which it’s being told. For T.H. White, Arthur’s story was about the problem of war and violence. For [Alfred] Tennyson [who wrote the poem cycle Idylls Of The King about King Arthur], it was about innocence and experience. I wanted to know what Arthur would be about if I told the story now.
And then where then did you get the idea for The Bright Sword‘s plot
The idea came from several places at once. One was [George R.R. Martin’s] A Song Of Ice And Fire: the whole plot of that series is kicked off by the death of the king (either Aerys II or Robert Baratheon, depending on how you look at it), and the succession crisis that follows. And I asked myself: what if that king were King Arthur?
And then also I was thinking of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead and Wide Sargasso Sea, retellings that turn things around with a different point of view.
How then did you decide which of the Knights Of The Round Table would still be alive, and what the new Knights would be like?
Again, it became about blank spaces on the map. I always think about, for example, the fact that T.H. White was gay, but there are no gay relationships in his Arthurian books. It was a whole part of his life and his identity that he had to erase when he wrote. Back then the world wasn’t ready for gay knights. But it’s ready now. It’s new territory to explore. The Bright Sword is about lives like that, which tradition has always erased, that need to have their stories told.
And then, at the same time, there were just all these knights who I always wondered about. Like Palomides; he’s mostly there as the comic relief in the Tristram and Isolde story. But what’s he doing in Britain? How does it feel to be one of the few non-white, non-Christian people in Arthur’s world? And Sir Dagonet, who’s Arthur’s fool. Everyone’s always laughing at him, but he never gets a single line in Le Morte d’Arthur. It’s time we heard his voice.
And should we read anything into how one of the knights is named Collum, which is really close to Gollum?
Probably not. But maybe it’s an unconscious thing. I’ll ask my therapist.
It sounds like The Bright Sword is an epic, medieval fantasy story…
I often say that it’s an epic fantasy, but really the genre is King Arthur. One of the signatures of Arthurian stories is that they tend to happen at lots of levels at the same time. So The Bright Sword is a giant epic world-shaping war story, but it’s also a love story, and a story about a family, and all these very private personal struggles. too.
The Bright Sword is your eighth novel. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Sword but not on anything else you’ve written?
This is an interesting question. I would definitely say that about some of the Arthurian sources: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien de Troyes, the old Welsh tales. I think I would say it about Hilary Mantel, too. Reading her really unlocked my voice as a historical fiction writer — the way she creates the physical realities of the past — the stone, the velvet, the metal. Somehow she knows how everything feels.
What about non-literary influences; was The Bright Sword influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because it kind of reminds me of that movie The Kid Who Would Be King.
It was definitely influenced by The Last Of Us. That game, and the show too, made me realize I wasn’t just writing an Arthurian story, I was writing a post-apocalypse story. Like The Last Of Us, The Bright Sword is set in a disaster world, a wasteland, where the worst has happened. The center has not held. And The Last Of Us is really very Arthurian too, with its two knights errant traveling through that world; Ellie is the Grail Knight of that world.
And how about your increasing number of cats? How, if at all, did they influence The Bright Sword?
There’s really only two cats, a Siamese named Emma and a British shorthair named Gandalf. But the number does seem to be increasing unpredictably.
I suppose they might have to do with the friendly lion that Collum meets. And Arthur, in his first appearance, makes a joke about an evil cat he once had. Gandalf, I hope you’re listening.
There’s also an Old Welsh tale where Arthur actually slays a giant house cat, but I left that out, out of deference to the cats’ feelings.
Emma, Gandalf
One person who influenced this story — and is not a writer, a movie or TV star, or a character in a game — is your son Ross, who came out to you as trans while you were writing this story. If you don’t mind, talk a little bit about how Ross influenced the character of Sir Dinadan.
I’d already been working on Dinadan’s story for a few years when Ross came out to me as trans. It was one of those strange convergences, and it didn’t change Dinadan’s character, but it made his story a lot more personal to me. The feelings went a lot deeper. And of course he helped me understand what Dinadan was going through. When Ross read the Dinadan chapter, he pointed out to me the moment when John Punch, a fairy, looks at Dinadan and sees that he’s really a boy. For me it was just a throwaway moment, but actually no one had ever seen Dinadan that way before, for who he really was; not his parents, not his brother, no one. John Punch is the very first one. Ross had to explain to me what a big deal it was to be seen in that way for the first time.
And I have to ask: When your other kids heard Ross was kind of in the book, did they ask to be Knights too, or were they like, “Dad, keep us out of it. You are so weird. Leave me alone.”?
It was that second one.
You’re not the first person to write their own adventure for King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table. Last year, for instance, Thomas D. Lee wrote a really engaging one called Perilous Times. What do you think makes The Bright Sword different from other people’s King Arthur stories?
I’m really looking forward to Perilous Times! I put off reading it till I was done with The Bright Sword. Robin Sloan’s new book Moonbound is another one.
The big difference between those books and The Bright Sword is really just the fact that The Bright Sword keeps going after Arthur’s death. It’s not just about the tragedy, it’s not just about mourning the loss of Camelot, it’s about what it takes to survive what is in effect the end of the world — to live on after the worst has happened.
Now, the cover of The Bright Sword says “A Novel Of King Arthur.” Does that mean that Sword is the first book in a series?
Probably not. Though I said that about The Magicians too, and I was wrong.
I really tried to give readers all of Arthur in this book. His origins, his life, his death, everything it meant…I’m not sure there’s any more Arthur to write about. I could keep going but I don’t know if what comes after would be Arthurian. I may have run out of Arthur.
Now, a TV show based on The Bright Sword is currently being developed by Lionsgate. They won’t, but if the Lionsgate people ask you for casting suggestions, who would you suggest they get to play Gollum, I mean Collum, and the other main characters?
I don’t know about casting Collum. Whoever he is, he needs to pass for 17, and I don’t know a lot of actors that young. But Emily Bader from My Lady Jane would be brilliant as Nimue. The only other character I cast in my head is [Game Of Thrones‘] Sean Bean as Bedivere. I can promise that no one will cut off his head.
So, is there anything else someone might need to know about The Bright Sword?
Only that you don’t need to know anything. I wrote it with both King Arthur experts and King Arthur newbies in mind. There are tons of Easter Eggs for the experts, but for those who are new to the story, I slipped in plenty of exposition.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Bright Sword, and it’s the first book of yours they’ve read, which of your other books would you suggest they read next?
Oh, definitely the Magicians trilogy. And the Silver Arrow books [The Silver Arrow and The Golden Swift], if you have kids. That’s it; the rest of my books are optional.
