The greatest delight and challenge of working within Arthuriana is balancing my own personal wish for accurate historical representation with the creative fictions of the canon. The Legendborn Cycle navigates this balance in many ways: For one, Camelot as a “castle” with balconies of stone did not exist in sixth century Wales, nor did the “Round Table,” but I could not resist the imagery. Arthurian writers often generate the roster of their own Table, incorporating knights that were created centuries apart from one another. (Lancelot du Lac, for example, first appeared from Chrétien de Troyes in the twelfth century, and in France, but he is frequently presented as an “original” member of Arthur’s Table.) In my case, I wanted Bree to meet the same knights in Arthur’s blood walks that make up her court today. I decided to work with my Welsh medievalist, bardic tradition consultant, and translator, Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird, to create sixth-century Wales “origins” for the names of knights whom we may now know by other names, echoing the globalization of Arthurian traditions in the real world. So, Sir Lancelot in the Legendborn Cycle began as “Llancelod” and Sir Lamorak began as “Llameryg,” et cetera.

All credit goes to the incredible Dr. Morus-Baird for modernizing the orthography of Marwnad Owain ap Urien, the very real ancient elegy originally written in Old Welsh by the sixth-century poet and bard Taliesin and recited by Aldrich and Bree during the Bloodmarked funeral scene.

ROOTCRAFT AND VOLITION

It bears repeating that I drew on my own life experiences and African American history and spiritual traditions to create the fictional magic system of rootcraft. Rootcraft is not represented as an institution, because that doesn’t make sense or feel true to the inspirations. I do see Rootcrafters as a sort of flowing coalition, with communities that may overlap around core tenets. In this spirit, I created the fictional plantation site Volition as a place that could be reclaimed in the name of common values by a group of Rootcrafters.

Volition is imagined to be in the southeastern United States. As Mariah says, Volition was a site of subjugation. As a living cemetery, it centers the ancestors who died enslaved on its grounds and what they might wish for as spirits, rather than centering the enslavers, the historic plantation, the land itself, or modern-day visitors.

Volition is also the site where I chose to crystallize the specific tensions Bree is navigating, of seeking to understand our ancestors’ choices and contexts while giving ourselves permission to build on those choices, and perhaps seek different ones. She, like many of us, lives the challenge of honoring the path her ancestors walked while doing her best to forge a new one.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS