In 1558 while imprisoned in a remote castle, a young girl becomes involved in a series of events that leads to an underground labyrinth peopled by the last practitioners of druidic magic.

A single, consistent and accessible narrative of the Grail story, constructed from the principal motifs and narrative strands of all the original Grail romances. The quest for the Holy Grail is one of the most important elements in the story of King Arthur. Yet even among the many interested in the stories of the Round Table, very few have read at first hand the medieval masterpieces whichover a period of some forty years, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, together became the foundation of the legend of the Grail. These romances, full of bewildering contradictions and composed by a numberof different writers with very different preoccupations, dazzle with the sheer wealth of their conflicting imaginative detail. In this new compilation, the enthralling material becomes truly accessible through his interweaving ofthe principal motifs and narrative strands of all the original Grail romances to construct a single, consistent version of the Grail story, while clearly tracing the development of its enigmatic and potent theme. All the mystery and drama of the Arthurian world are embodied in the extraordinary adventures of Perceval, Gawain, Lancelot and Galahad in their pursuit of the Grail. Told here as a unified, coherent narrative, the Grail legend reasserts its relevance as one of the great works of imaginative literature of the middle ages. NIGEL BRYANT's previous Arthurian books include The High Book of the Grail (Perlesvaus), Chretien de Troyes' Perceval and its Continuations, and Robert de Boron's Merlin and the Grail.

This chronological survey of major influences on T.S. Eliot's worldview covers the poet's spiritual and intellectual evolution in stages, by trying to see the world as Eliot did. It examines his childhood influences as well as the literary influences that inspired him to write his earliest poetry; his life as an American expatriate living in London from 1915 to 1930, including his ill-fated marriage and his intellectual engagement with the literary traditions of his new country; and the ways in which his intellectual pursuits fostered a spiritual rebirth that simultaneously reflected his past and revealed his future, demonstrating how the early Romantic revolutionary became a staunch defender of tradition.

"His most original contribution to an unravelling of a pagan Arthurian past lies in his appropriation of the fascinating evidence of standing stones and pagan cultic sites. The magical attributes of stones are exemplified in prehistoric standing stones, the real counterparts of the perrons of the French romances. This is dark and difficult territory, but certain events in the Arthurian cycle, which take place on and around Salisbury Plain, have correspondences with known prehistoric events. Building on these elusive clues, and tracing a range of sites around the river Severn and south Wales, John Darrah has added a significant new dimension to the search for the sources of England's great epic, the legends of Arthur and his court."--Jacket.

It should have been a celebration party, but now it's another mind-bending mission for Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance. Join them as they race across the globe by train, ship and bicycle to save their beloved Mr Benedict!

In the twelfth century, a French poet wrote a verse romance about a young knight who witnesses a mysterious procession centered on a radiant vessel, a "grail." Left unfinished, the poem inspired other writers of prose and verse, until the story was completely rewritten into the Arthurian romances, in which the vessel becomes a relic of the Last Supper, the Holy Grail. For hundreds of years, the Grail story has haunted the western imagination. But the original medieval texts are full of inconsistencies, as different writers attempted to complete the story in varied ways. This encyclopedia illuminates a path through the Perilous Forest of literature and legend. Entries summarize the stories of the principal characters, sacred objects and places associated with the Grail. An Afterword shows how mysteries of the grail continue to enchant the scholars and creative writers who have transformed the medieval legend into modern mythology.

The heavens and hells of the world's religions and the "far, far away" legends cannot be seen or visited, but they remain an integral part of culture and history. This encyclopedia catalogs more than 800 imaginary and mythological lands from all over the world, including fairy realms, settings from Arthurian lore, and kingdoms found in fairy tales and political and philosophical works, including Sir Thomas More's Utopia and Plato's Atlantis. From al A'raf, the limbo of Islam, to Zulal, one of the many streams that run through Paradise, entries give the literary origin of each site, explain its cultural context, and describe its topical features, listing variations on names when applicable. Cross-referenced for ease of use, this compendium will prove useful to scholars, researchers or anyone wishing to tour the unseen landscapes of myth and legend.

Just in time for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia comes an updated edition of Olga Hall-Quest’s classic. Hall-Quest provides an absorbing account of life in this first permanent colony of what is now the United States, and the struggles of those who settled there. Experts from the Jamestown National Historical Site have fact-checked every detail, and the curator has written a brand-new foreword--complete with recently discovered information about the colony.