M. K. Hume gave me an example of how she combined Arthurian lore with Ancient European history in her new Merlin trilogy of novels.
She said that during Merlin’s “lost years” he might have crossed from England into Gaul at the time of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, in 451 AD.
Merlin would have followed the road to Paris. The emporer’s men would probably have asked him who he was and what he was doing there. Then he would likely have been pressed into service as a physician in the emporer’s battles.
She said Merlin had the ability to heal broken limns, and would have been regarded as having magical powers because of this skill.
M.K. Hume’s fiction tends to eschew magic and the supernatural. So although her books have been called fantasy novels, they could also be called non-fantasy. Whatever genre her novels fall into, the Merlin trilogy is a prequel to the Arhurian trilogy already published. This started with King Arthur, Dragon’s Child. Then came King Arthur: Warrior of the West. And then King Arthur: The Bloody Cup .
Ms Hume gave a lot of reading tips. Her reading is voracious. She had a PhD in Arthurian literature, but she was also big on mystery and crime. As far as Arthurian literature went, she’d read everything since the Black Book of Carmathen written around 1250. It contains various poems, some religious, others connected with Welsh heroes and the legends of Arthur and Myrddin or Merlin. One poem mentions the Battle of Llongborth and Arthur’s involvement with it.
She had also read stories like Culhwch and Olwen, a fragmented version of which comes from 1350. It’s a Welsh tale about a hero linked with Arthur and his warriors.
Ms Hume described her reading as catholic. I should be a more catholic reader. Not to mention a better Catholic. See the next page for a big list of reading tips.

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-copyright Simon Sandall.