Hawk of May

Hawk of May is the first installment in Gillian Bradshaw’s Down The Long Wind trilogy. Published initially in 1980 by Simon and Schuster, Hawk of May is a bildungsroman set in the time of King Arthur and centered on Gwalchmai ap Lot (Gawain, as he is better known).

Plot summary

Britain is a land divided into small Celtic kingdoms in the process of being conquered by the more united Saxon invaders. When Uther, the Pendragon or High King, dies without legitimate sons, any semblance of a unified defense vanishes. Only Arthur, Uther's son, continues to fight the Saxons, but as a bastard, he can only rely on the support of his late father's warband and the kingdom of Dumnonia. A civil war is in the offing as the rest of the underkings plot to claim the vacant throne.

One of the most powerful of the schemers is Lot, King of the Orcades in the far north. He has three sons by his wife, Morgawse, Uther's legitimate daughter and a notorious witch. Agravain, the eldest, is a straightforward, gifted warrior. The second, Gwalchmai, is clever, but a poor fighter, favored by his mother. Finally, there is Medraut, who resembles Lot so little that many question his parentage.