The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur

The Bright Sword (2024) is an epic fantasy novel by Lev Grossman that retells the story of King Arthur from an unusual perspective. Combining history, mythology, and folklore, the novel tracks young Collum, who arrives in Camelot to seek a spot at Arthur’s Round Table, only to learn that the king is dead and the land is broken. Collum now has to ally himself with the ragtag bunch of outsiders who are the surviving knights of Arthur’s company and go on a perilous quest to find answers for Camelot’s future. Filled with duels, fairies, and journeys to weird worlds, the quest provides Collum and the knights with an answer, though it is not the answer they hoped to find.

Released to critical acclaim, The Bright Sword draws on the large literature around King Arthur to explore a post-Arthurian landscape. In the process, it turns many marginal characters into heroes while subverting heroic truths. Exploring themes of the necessity of change and the role of stories in building narratives of power, the novel uses its mythological context to make observations about the world’s current state.

This guide refers to the 2024 Del Rey, Penguin Random House UK paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, rape, child abuse, death by suicide, transgender discrimination, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Collum of Mull, penniless and a young sword prodigy, arrives at Camelot to seek his fortune as a knight, only to learn that King Arthur is dead and that the kingdom is in disarray. After Arthur’s best knight, Lancelot, was found in Queen Guinevere’s bedchambers, Lancelot fled Camelot. Arthur chased Lancelot to France but returned when he learned that his son, Mordred, had seized the throne. Arthur met Mordred in the Battle of Camlann, where the king was slain by his own son. Mordred and most of Arthur’s knights died in battle as well. Now, Lancelot is missing, and Guinevere has been exiled to a nunnery. All that is left of Arthur’s famous Round Table are the least well-known of his knights, such as Sir Bedivere, Sir Dinadan, Sir Palomides, Sir Constantine, and Sir Dagonet. All hope seems to have ended, but Collum refuses to accept this bleak fate.

Collum prays for a miracle that will reveal the next king of Britain, and a Green Knight appears on the scene, leading Collum and the Round Table knights on a quest. Filled with renewed hope, the knights accompany the Green Knight to the Otherworld of Morgan le Fay, one of King Arthur’s three half-sisters and the queen of the world of Fairie.

Beautiful and strong Morgan wants to be ruler of both the human and fairy realms. She tells Collum that Roman Christianity has trampled over British magic for too long. With the death of Arthur, magic is returning to the British Isles and will have its due. Collum refuses to support Morgan’s bid, though he is sorry about what happened to her family. King Uther, the Christian King, forcibly married Morgan’s Pagan mother, Igraine. Uther made Igraine’s daughters forget their language and customs. After Uther and Igraine’s son, Arthur, was born, Uther separated the boy from the family. Morgan escaped from this oppression when she was a teenager and learned witchcraft to enter the fairy realm.

After Collum defeats Morgan’s fairy nights in the Otherworld and rescues his party, he is transported to Camelot, where a rebel king is attempting to seize the kingdom. Collum and the Round Table knights win the battle with the help of Nimue, Arthur’s chief sorcerer. Nimue is famed for killing Merlin, the legendary wizard who was her mentor. Nimue reminds the knights that they must quickly find a God-ordained ruler for Camelot, as rebel factions are gaining ground.

A clue to find the next ruler arrives when a medal that Collum took from a knight he slayed before reaching Camelot begins to bleed, indicating that the group must seek the Holy Lance, the spear that is believed to have pierced Jesus’ side on the cross. The knights and Nimue embark on another quest, although Dagonet and Constantine are doubtful of the Lance’s fate. The two knights have grown weary of quests. In the last great adventure, which took place a few years before Arthur’s death, the knights spent ages looking for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. By the end of the quest, many knights were dead, and Sir Galahad, the pure warrior who found the Grail, perished as well. The Grail itself disappeared, with angels proclaiming Camelot unworthy of it.

Despite these reservations, the knights persist in their search for the Holy Lance, and they chance upon Merlin’s grave. It turns out that Merlin is not dead, only buried alive by Nimue. Nimue defeated Merlin in a long and exhausting magical battle after he tried to rape her. She could not kill him, as Merlin cannot be slayed by a woman. The twist—which no knight except Sir Dinadan knows yet—is that the fairies have assigned Dinadan the task of killing Merlin. Dinadan was assigned female at birth.

Meanwhile, The group overcomes all obstacles to arrive at an ancient wooden chapel in which Longinus, the soldier-turned-saint who pierced Jesus’ side, awaits with the Holy Lance. Longinus is about to hand over the spear to the knights with the promise that God will assign a ruler for Britain when the chapel ceiling bursts open and Morgan and her army of fairies pour in. A cataclysmic battle takes place, with angels descending from heaven to defend the spear. Despite the efforts of the angels and knights, the fairies win. Morgan breaks the Lance, which means that God will not be able to ordain a ruler for Britain. Dagonet dies in the battle.

Dejected, the knights return to Camelot, where they find that Lancelot has returned to assume the mantle of king. The knights are relieved because Lancelot is a better choice to rule Britain than any of the rebel kings. However, Lancelot attacks the group, revealing that he wants to reverse Arthur’s policy of kindness toward Pagans and plans to usher in a new era of religious zeal. Nimue buys the group time by turning a fire demon on Lancelot. The group flees and is rescued by Queen Guinevere arriving on a flying ship.

Guinevere reveals that it was Lancelot himself who planted the rumor about his affair with her so that Arthur would be forced to leave Camelot to chase him. Lancelot was never in love with her, he is only hungry for power. The ship is taking the group to the mystical island of Avalon, where Arthur, though grievously injured and unconscious, is still alive. Collum is shocked to see Morgan at Avalon. It turns out that Morgan helped rescue the injured Arthur after Camlann. Morgan has never been Arthur’s enemy—she only despises the Christian subjugation of Pagan Britain.

Bedivere, Guinevere, and the others ask Arthur for guidance. In a dream, Arthur tells them that he is not coming back. However, hope is not lost. Though Gods and fairies are retreating from their lives, they will still be able to find magic, but the hard way. The knights let Arthur pass away in peace. They leave Avalon on their flying ship but are brought down to sea by Merlin, who has escaped from the hill and joined forces with Lancelot. Struck by a brainwave, Collum dives underwater. He finds the Lady of the Lake holding Arthur’s famous sword, Excalibur, which Bedivere threw into the sea after Arthur’s death. Collum wins the sword the hard way, as Arthur had suggested, and swims up to the surface to find his friends captured by Lancelot and Merlin.

In the final battle, Collum defeats Lancelot with Excalibur, and using the sword’s authority, he declares Guinevere queen of Britain. An opportunistic Merlin tries to join the winning side but is stabbed to death by Dinadan. Collum and Nimue begin a romantic relationship. It is revealed that Collum has both royal and fairy heritage. His mother was a fairy, while his father was the same knight from whom he took the medal. As the novel ends, Morgan prophesizes that the Germanic people arriving in Britain will soon dominate its culture. The way forward is only through change and assimilation. She declares that no one should dismiss a foreign people as intruders, as everyone arrives in a land from somewhere else.