KNIGHTS OF LORE SERIES: KING ARTHUR, the once and future king

Alright, alright, technically King Arthur was a king and not a knight. I will concede that point. However, Arthur, accordingly to legends, fought like a knight, led knights into battle, sent them on quests and created a force so great it is still being talked about, and even copied today. Just look at Marvel Comics Avengers and D.C. Comics League of Justice. Don’t think they borrowed the idea of heroes gathering to save humanity from lurking evil from the Knights of the Round Table? I would beg to differ.

By most accounts, the story, legend, myth of Arthur is the first and perhaps greatest mainstream story of medieval times. However, much is still in the air about Arthur. No one knows for sure when he lived, or if he even lived at all. They didn’t call it the dark ages for nothing!

The Arthurian legends begin in the 5^th Century CE. Whatever exploits he had at the time were kept alive by bards, singing poems about him around hearths and bonfires. It wasn’t until the 12^th century that the once and future king became immortalized in print. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh monk penned ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’, and in that tome, Arthur became perhaps the first non-conquering king to become forever renowned in world history.

Before that there was Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Caesars of Rome. Arthur was different. He fought for his people and to save his homeland. That was all he ever wanted. That is why he is still beloved today.

In the darkness of the 4^th century, Britain gained its freedom from Rome, the great city-state of the day, whose fingerprint is still felt in the world. Because of the power vacuum left by Rome’s abandonment of Britain, Saxon’s from the North Country and Picts from Scotland decided to move in, push the Brits out and stake their claim. Uther Pendragon was the King of Britain at this point. He was a worthy king, strong but maybe too headstrong.

Merlin enters the picture and uses his magick to trick a rival king’s wife into thinking Uther was her husband. They slept together and Arthur was conceived. In return for this favor, Uther promised Merlin the child. Merlin, the great druid seer, knew that Uther would not be able to totally defeat the Saxons because he was too arrogant. So he took Arthur to live with some country folk, not only to keep him from harm’s way of the ever-invading Saxon’s, but also so the boy could learn humility.

Everyone knows how the rest of the story goes. Uther dies, Arthur is not yet a man, and is still unknown. Merlin sets a magickal sword inside a stone and proclaims that whoever pulls it out shall be King of Britain. When Arthur loses his older brother’s sword just before a great festival and knight games, he sees the Sword in the Stone and pulls it out. Without even knowing it, he becomes King of Britain and changes the world forever.

The boy king is challenged by all the other kings of Britain and defeats them all to become the One King. After garnering his power and emboldening his people, he decisively defeats the Saxons and sets the stage for his homeland to experience a golden age. All is right with the world, peace has come at last, the harvests are plentiful, and churches begin to pop up.

This great time reaches its apex when Arthur marries the Welsh noblewoman Guinevere and creates the Knights of the Round Table. What follows is one of the greatest dramas ever written, even though it has been re-written hundreds of times. Betrayal, lust, greed, evil magick, incestuous relationships; it’s all there. In the end, Arthur and his evil bastard, incestuously born son, Mordred slay each other in battle over who should be King of Britain. Arthur’s sister (who happens to also be Mordred’s mother) takes the fatally wounded King Arthur to her veiled utopian society called Avalon, where she serves as the high priestess of her pagan gods and goddesses. (Note: In some versions Mordred is Arthur’s nephew who has an affair with Guinevere, in other’s it is Arthur’s trusted knight Lancelot who betrays him with a tryst with the king’s wife.)

That is where most stories would end. But how you can ‘end’ a story about a once and future king? Arthur’s destiny is to come back to defend Britain when she needs him most. Seeing how he didn’t come back during World War I or II, it makes you wonder how bleak things will get before he actually returns to protect his homeland once more.

For those of us who do look forward to the return of King Arthur of Britain, that wait might soon be over. The second in line for the British throne is none other than Prince William Arthur. Coincidence? Perhaps Princess Diana and Prince Charles tempted fate by naming their son Arthur, or perhaps destiny says this is the right time. Now where is Merlin?

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KNIGHTS OF LORE SERIES: ZOMBIE RAVEN KNIGHTS

According to my readers one of their favorite characters in Suffer the Witch Chronicles Vol. 1. Rise of the Raven Knights, is Sir Giovalde. Giovalde is the sergeant at arms of a mob of undead souls who were cursed by a witch to spend eternity trapped in the bodies of ravens.  But these ravens weren’t meant to be prisoners; they were enchanted into becoming immortal warriors at the witch’s service against an enemy coven that wants to kill her. Whenever their master’s blood is spilt they shape-shift into supernatural knights armed with impenetrable onyx armor and swords that can cut through steel.

Generosity

When the witch that cursed the Raven Knights into her servitude dies, the immortal Knights are left in limbo. Their hopes now lie with a young boy named Gazzy Windstorm, who tried to save the witch from her fatal accident. With her last wish she bequeaths the boy all her paranormal powers.

Nobility

The Raven Knights lay in wait until many years later when the boy grows up and finally realizes his special powers are, in fact, supernatural, and learns the secret that has been kept from him his entire life: that he is actually the heir to the witch that gave him these gifts. He recruits his sister, Lori, to help him explore the late witch’s creepy mansion and finds the Raven Knights waiting for them.

Loyalty

When Gazzy and Lori’s shock finally subsides they understand that their magical powers, combined with the cunning savagery of the Raven Knights, could be used for the greater good of humanity. The Raven Knights, however, have other plans. They seek to avenge the death of their late witch leader so their souls can be released to the afterlife.

Honorabilty

It doesn’t take long for the murderers, the rival witch coven, to attack Gazzy and Lori, forcing them to join the quest of the Raven Knights. In return, the Raven Knights agree to help their new masters right the wrongs in the world we live in.

Chivalry

The reason I think the character of Sir Giovalde is so beloved by my readers is because of his sense of unfailing sense of duty, something that is as rare as pure gold in today’s world. He has morals, as knights are supposed to.

Understanding

Gazzy, as most young wizards are, lives life by the seat of his pants. Some of my readers have even told me his antics pissed them off at points. But luckily for him, Sir Giovalde is there to encourage him to find the right way to do things.

Bravery

You see, Gazzy has the amazing magical gift of shape-shifting into a fire breathing dragon, making him the most devastating force alive. But he has no experience whatsoever and the evil coven he’s become the target of is cooking up a plan to resurrect the spirit of one of Hell’s greatest demons, Lilith, to destroy him and conquer the world. Sir Giovalde and his Raven Knights are at the ready to come to his rescue, even if it costs them their one chance at redemption and peace.

I hope that my brief description of Sir Giovalde and his Raven Knights inspires you to pick up and read a copy of Suffer the Witch Chronicles, Vol. I. Rise of the Raven Knights. It the kind of action packed dark fantasy that you won’t wish to put down.

I also hope you take a journey with me to learn more about knights, especially knights of and older age, when doing the greater good actually meant something. This is the first in a series of blogs I will post in the coming weeks about knights, as I dig deeper to increase my own knowledge of the lore of knights, such as the Knights of the Round Table, the Knights Templars, Dark Ages Knights and others. I want to find out what they wore, how they fought, what weapons they used, what the shield wall smelled like and to also learn why on Earth they would don such heavy, restrictive armor to do battle against other blood thirsty knights on battlefields across Europe and Asia.

So, until next time, follow the example of Sir Giovalde and open the door for a lady, help a little old lady cross the street, give a homeless person some coin, let someone cut over into your lane, give something away for free on craigslist, stand with a harassed person against a bully or whatever else you can do to help the greater good.

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Dragons of Lore Series: Apep, Enemy of the Egyptian Sun God Ra

I love Egypt. The mysterious pyramids, the pharaohs, Cleopatra, the gods, the goddesses, hieroglyphs, the biblical Moses story, the mummies, the Nile…the list goes on and on. Oh, and they also have an incredible dragon myth. For those of you that didn’t know that, let me introduce you to Apep, the greatest enemy of the sun god, Ra.

In Egyptian mythology, Apep is a serpent dragon and the chief demon god of the underworld. Every night when the sun sets, Ra would have to travel through the underworld in order to bring back the sun the next morning. Apep would be waiting to destroy him. Of course, Ra, with the help of his lesser god and goddess buddies would always emerge victorious, slaying the dragon Apep, who would inevitably come back to life to battle Ra again the next day.

Apep became part of Egytpian mythology in the middle part of the pharaoh dynasties, replacing the demon-god Set as lord of the underworld, the leader of demonic armies and the bad ass icon of all things evil. At that point, Set joined forces with Ra and Apep became supreme god. But the trio of Ra, Set and Isis wanted to share that power with him. He refused, so they attacked. When they cast him into the underworld, he made it his mission to destroy Ra. Luckily for us; he hasn’t been able to…yet.

Apep used many weapons to battle Ra. The cold darkness of the underworld was his first choice, but there were more tricks up his sleeve than that. He also used sandstorms, thunderstorms and earthquakes to steal the light from the sky. Probably the most stunning of his weapons was his use of solar eclipse to bring darkness to the world of humans. In this case Ra would call upon his own minions to save him, such as Bast, Isis and Horus. They would use swords to cut the serpent to pieces and free the life giving sun from eternal hell.

The people of Egypt also helped Ra. They would hold a ritual called Banishing Apep and other spells from the Book of Apophis to protect themselves from his wrath and bless their main god. Ra’s priests and worshippers would make an effigy of Apep and destroy it to symbolically show their love for their god and to protect both the living and the dead.

Apep was depicted in hieroglyphs as a giant serpent and sometimes as a circular ball that represented his evil eye. Usually he is shown being cut to pieces by a cat with a knife. An all-powerful god, Apep could be temporarily defeated, but never be totally destroyed. He always came back to life to bring the battle back to Ra.

This great dragon-demon was not just known to Egyptians. The ancient Greeks called him Apophis, In today’s world, a near Earth asteroid bears his name.  Apophis has a small chance of impacting our planet in 2029 and again in 2036 and 2068. If it somehow does hit us, the resulting explosion of dust it would fling into our atmosphere would surely entrap Ra in darkness…for a time.

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Number 1 Witch of All-Time: Morgana Le Fay of Camelot

Unattributable to any one author, but originally credited to twelfth century author Geoffrey of Monmouth, the legend/myth of King Arthur’s Camelot is the greatest fantasy story of all time, in my opinion. There are so many great characters from the story, but the one we will touch on the most in this blog is Morgana Le Fay, the number one witch of all time.

Morgana was the daughter of Duke Gorlois of Cornwall and Lady Igraine. Uther Pendragon attacked Gorlois because he wouldn’t submit to Uther’s goal of gaining kingship of a reunited England. As battle loomed, Merlin caused a great fog to form between the armies and then used sorcery to disguise Uther’s face to look like Gorlois’, so Uther could sleep with Igraine. In return for the favor, Merlin got the child conceived during that liaison.

If Uther would have waited he would have gotten Igraine anyway, as Gorlois was slain in the battle, thus giving Uther the role of first unified King of England. He married Igraine, and sent Morgana to a convent. It is said that Morgana received her early witchcraft training at that convent. When Arthur was born to Uther and Igraine, Merlin came and forced Uther to live up to the agreement and give him the child, which he reluctantly did.

With the help of Merlin the Magician, Wizard, Druid, Prophet, madman, what have you, Arthur Pendragon grew up, pulled the mythical sword from the stone and inherited his rightful throne as King of England, after Uther, the father he never knew, was killed. King Arthur then became one with the land, gathered widely celebrated knights and went on a quest for the holy grail.

Everything was good until Arthur's evil half-sister, Morgana Le Fay returned to the scene, and decided to finally act upon her livelong jealousy of Arthur, by tricking him into sleeping with her at a pagan fertitlity ritual, a tryst which begets him a son who will eventually be the death of him. (note: many Arthur stories, especially older ones, cite Morgause as Mordred’s mother.)

The only person standing in Morgana’s way now is Merlin. How does Morganna do him in? She does what any beautiful royal lady and aspiring witch would do. She shows interest in his sorcery and persuades him to tutor her in the dark arts of Druidry. She then seduces the great wizard and eventually discovers his weakness. Morgana uses her newfound power to freeze Merlin and all his magickal knowledge and power in ice for all eternity and takes her role as the most powerful druid in England.

How important is Morganna? She has been the subject of countless novels by numerous authors, plays, movies, songs, comics and even a heavy metal band. Check them out: http://morganalefay.com.

Morgana has set the standard for witches for thousands of years. Her name Morgana comes from a derivative of the Welsh words for water sprite and Celtic for war goddess. The word ‘le fee’ means fairy. These spirits are as ancient as written history, if not older, and are still spoken to this day.

Perhaps more importantly, Morgana was and is a role model for women as a very dominant character. She was involved in the highest levels of English royal circles and political scene and she used her position along with cunning, intuition, and witchcraft talents to double-cross her enemies and influenced Anglo-Saxon history in the process.

Think about this: If the Arthurian legends are real, and there is no evidence I’ve seen that they aren’t, then we have a spectral war going on between Morgana and Merlin that set the stage for the end of open paganism in Anglo-Saxon Europe and helped usher in the age of Christianity. That is some huge influence right there.

Imagine how differently things could be right now. Mordred came so close to defeating his father in the battle of Camlann when he near fatally stabbed Arthur but was simultaneously killed by his father. If Morgana’s plan would’ve worked, Christianity might not have had such an easy path through Europe with Mordred ruling England.

So what happened to Morgana? After Mordred was killed and Arthur near-fatally wounded, the story goes that Morgana took Arthur by boat to the enchanted island of Avalon, where Morgana was high priestess of a society of female sorceresses. Neither was ever seen again and the island of Avalon drifted beyond the invisible veil that separates this world from the spiritual world.

Even after her dreams of uniting England as a pagan society were ended with her son’s death, the love and sympathy for her brother stayed true, as she nursed him back to health in her mystical paradise so he could return again someday as Once and Future King. And I guess that makes the answer to the question of whether she was evil or not, simply a matter of perspective.

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