Cranial Gunk

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

I worried that my ignorance of Arthurian lore would make it difficult to read Kieron Gillen’s Once and Future* series. Happily, this wasn’t the case. While I’m sure familiarity would make the story even more enjoyable because I’d pick up on nuances specific to the mythology, through Duncan, Gillen’s museum curator hero, I have enough to get the gist without stopping to Google every reference.

One of the things I did have to Google was the notion that King Arthur would return in England’s darkest hour. Wikipedia has an informative entry about “King Arthur’s messianic return,” including how it was given life beyond literature and influenced politics.

This idea of Arthur’s return in the catalyst of One and Future’s story. In the story, Mary Macguire and her recruited group of white nationalists perform a ritual to raise King Arthur from the dead. They see the current day as England’s darkest hour. They raise Arthur with the hope that he will reunite the country.

They succeed but the 21^st Century version of Arthur that they’ve come to believe is not the medieval Arthur they raise. The revived king promptly slaughters them because they are Anglo-Saxons and not Britons.

As Mary’s mother, Bridgette (I refer to her as “Gran”) explains it:

“He’s (Arthur) said to return in England’s darkest hour… Never trust a prophecy that can be taken in two ways. He could return because it’s Britain’s darkest hour sure or his return could cause it.”

Bridgette, is a retired agent in a covert government monster-hunting department called “The Accord.” She comes out of retirement when she learns her daughter has raised Arthur from the dead. At gunpoint, she recruits her grandson, Duncan, and his girlfriend, Rose in her mission to stop Arthur from becoming king of a united “Otherworld” and real world.

Unfortunately, my grasp of the content became unclear in Volume 4, Monarchies in the UK. What are the rules for keeping a story real? For ending one? The idea that characters from stories can be made real is established in Volume 1. Bridgette raises Duncan to be her “Percival” and Mary begins as Elaine, Lancelot’s unrequited lover, with Arthur and becomes Nimue, the Lady in the Lake, with Merlin.

Volume 4 introduces multiple conflicting versions of Arthur and his knight. I am assuming they exist because the King Arthur legend has been told and retold with slight variations over the years, but am unsure.

Also, Volume 4, introduces stories that are seemingly unrelated to Arthurian legend. For example, the refugees hiding in the Grail castle are attacked by the giant from the “Jack and the Beanstalk” fairytale. The appearance of a gorgon is explained as the result of Roman occupation in 43 AD.

(I’m going to note here that I did not read Volume 2, where it seems Beowulf and Grendel were introduced.)

*I read Volumes 1, 3, 4