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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
Dark Ages warfare depicted with Cornwell's unflinching realism; battles, raids, and personal combat throughout
Language
Some
Adult language
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships; some sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Some drinking in the period setting
Emotional Intensity
Some
The psychological weight of a man trying to build civilization in a world that keeps destroying it
What this book is about
Derfel Cadarn, an old monk in Saxon Britain, writes the true story of Arthur: not a king, but a warlord called the Lord of Battles who tried to hold a fragmenting country together after the Romans left. Cornwell's Arthur is convincingly human—brilliant, flawed, in love with the wrong woman, trying to hold impossible alliances against impossible odds. The first in the Warlord Chronicles, and among the finest retellings of the Arthurian legend in print.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Extreme battle violence in every chapter
Dark Ages brutality depicted realistically
Not for readers who want the sanitized Arthurian legend
Reader Verification
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