Review of Camelot's Frontier: Arthurian Legend in the Border Lands of Scotland and England
1999, Longhirst Press, ISBN: 0-946978-02-6., Retails for UK 8.99
Peter McKenzie's book must be reviewed in two parts: first for the text, and second for the photographs, as McKenzie both wrote the book and took the accompanying pictures.
McKenzie's scholarship is impeccable as he builds a case for connecting the Scottish border lands with Arthurian legends. He has thoroughly researched the matter, but even better, he has synthesized it and made it accessible.
McKenzie identifies three strands to the mythos of Arthur: Arthur himself, Merlin the magician, and the quest for the Holy Grail. He gives a brief overview in which he traces the growth of the legend from other traditions, and then launches into an attempt to extricate the three strands of the legend from one another.
In his chapter on Arthur, McKenzie gives an overview of the early sources of the Arthurian legend and delves into a discussion of the twelve battles attributed to the king. McKenzie begins identifying places along the Border as sites of the battles, and making other associations between the legend and the Borderlands. He draws a number of correlations between places along Hadrian's Wall and the legend as well; this is interesting because Hadrian's Wall is often neglected in the Arthurian matter, even though the Wall was there during Arthurian times and may have been a valuable military asset to whomever held the borderlands.
It's clear that McKenzie has a strong interest in placing Arthur on the Border, in the tradition of Norma Lorre Goodrich, though perhaps he does not hold it as assiduously as she. It's a theory that I am not personally comfortable with, as there is just not enough evidence or reason to throw all of one's weight behind one singular theory. McKenzie says it best at the end of his chapter on Arthur: "it is probably better that he [Arthur] remains a shadowy figure at the core of an inspiring legend." I wholeheartedly agree.
McKenzie's treatment of Merlin and the Grail is briefer than his treatment of Arthur. There seems to be less evidence at hand to link Merlin with Border stories and places, though he does briefly cover the ground of Arthuret (a battle which had nothing to do with Arthur and potentially everything to do with Merlin. I would have enjoyed a more thorough delving into that, but what is provided is sufficient. On the subject of the Grail McKenzie seems to find even less to connect it with the Border, and gives a general overview of the origins of the Grail legends.
On to the pictures. They are quite lovely, and document the Arthurian related sites in the book quite well. If anything, I could wish that they were a little larger, but they give a great sense of the borderland and the sorts of vistas you could expect to find if you decided to go looking for Arthur there.
Overall, I find the text to be a valuable addition to my reference collection on Arthur, for the treatment of the Twelve Battles and the map at the end alone. Additionally, there are a few facts that I found new and useful (and a few I found debatable-- most notably accusing Henry II of faking the grave at Glastonbury, which is certainly a possibility, but not necessarily a fact). Overall, if I wanted to give someone an even-handed overview of Arthur (including a "couldn't have said it better myself" section that answers the indefatigable question "Was Arthur Real?"), I would give this book out by the crateful. Unfortunately for the masses who ask this question, I can't afford to do that, though nothing would please me more.
