I Am Mordred - Softcover

Springer, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340749598 ISBN 13: 9780340749593

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books, 2000

Synopsis

Mordred is the nephew and son of King Arthur, by his half-sister Morgause. Conceived in sin, Mordred is fated to kill his father and king. As a threat to the throne and his holy office, Arthur sets the newborn child adrift on the sea, hoping death will follow quickly. Yet the infant Mordred survives. Coming of age, he travels to Camelot to become a Knight of the Round Table for a king who can never recognise him as his son. But Arthur is a good king - wise, generous to his subjects and to those loyal to him - and, torn between these facets of his father's nature, Mordred finds the courage for his quest: to turn back the tides of what is to come by finding those with the power - Morgan le Fay and the lost Merlin himself - to change fate. But despite his noble intentions, Mordred succeeds only in triggering a string of betrayals that ends at Hastings, where the soul-dead son finally confronts and kills his father...

About this title

Review:

In language worthy of her heroic subject, Springer reworks Arthuriana to craft an original tale resonant with archetypal themes of love, loss, betrayal and reconciliation. Her strong female characters and bold recasting of traditional villains and heroes will draw the rapt attention of both sexes. (Publishers Weekly)

This is an involving, moving story. Although many of the characters have magical abilities, they are portrayed as real human beings. A complex... novel that will reward serious readers. (School Library Journal)

A thoroughly captivating and poignant tale. (Booklist)

This is an unusual but sympathetic view of Mordred, beautifully written with magical images and characters... (Teacher Magazine)

A thrilling and original take on the Arthurian legend, Springer's prose has poise and insight. (TES Primary)

From the Author:

Born Guilty
Are all children born innocent? Not according to the medieval worldview. A child born wrongfully -- out of wedlock, for instance -- could be assumed to be bad to the bone right from the git-go. (We retain vestiges of this belief when we call someone a "bastard" or "son of a bitch.") When young King Arthur, then, made the mistake of having sex with his sister, the resulting child was assumed to be morally evil. The king's son and also his nephew? Monstrous. Mordred was born guilty, condemned before the fact of being his father's killer.

For me, a post-Freudian writer accustomed to dealing with psychological character motivation, it was fascinating to approach the traditional Arthurian material from the modern point of view that Mordred was born innocent, as good-hearted as any kid who ever ran along a seashore or loved to ride a horse. The story as experienced through Mordred's growing pains assumes a whole new perspective. King Arthur, the one who put forty babies in a boat and pushed them out to sea -- he's the good guy? And Mordred, who has never done anything except try to do his best -- he's bad?

How does a lonely, sensitive boy turn into a father-killer? In writing Mordred's story, I found a whole new meaning to the words "self-fulfilling prophecy." And while Mordred's story takes place in Camelot, I was thinking as I wrote of modern teens, assumed guilty, deprived of constitutional rights the moment they enter a school door, discriminated against in ways that no other American has to tolerate -- imagine if the convenience store sign said that only two of your demographic group at a time could enter? I was thinking of young people in general when I dedicated the book "to oddlings everywhere."

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0340749598
• ISBN 13: 9780340749593
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192