The Seeing Stone

The Seeing Stone (2000) a young adult fantasy novel by the English author and poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, is the first installment of Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy, a retelling of the legend of King Arthur. The book won the Guardian's annual Children's Fiction Prize, along with the Tir na n-Og Award given to books targeted at children with an "authentic Welsh" heritage.

The book tells two parallel and interlocking stories. The first takes place in 1199 at a country manor near the border of Wales and England. The continent is on the verge of the Fourth Crusade, an armed assault on Constantinople organized by the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Innocent III. The protagonist is thirteen-year-old Arthur de Caldicot, the second son of a land-owning knight of some repute. Because Arthur is the second son, he has no claim to inherit any land from his father. If he wants to be a knight, he will have to learn jousting and swordplay, referred to throughout the book as "yard-skills." He will then work his way up from a squire into a knight. Unfortunately, Arthur's yard-skills leave much to be desired. He is far better suited to scholarly pursuits. Meanwhile, his father seems to have given up hope that Arthur will be a knight, preferring instead to encourage the boy's reading and writing so he can eventually become a scribe.

Everything changes for Arthur on his fourteenth birthday when he discovers that his father is not the man he always believed him to be. Sir William de Gortanore murdered Arthur’s real father and then married Arthur's natural mother. The good news is that Arthur is now in a position to inherit the Gortanore manor and estate. The bad news is that Arthur had been previously betrothed to Grace, who is Gortanore's daughter. The engagement is called off following this revelation.



Despite this news, Arthur continues his efforts to become a squire and later a knight. By the novel's end, Arthur is squire to Stephen de Holt, a knight known as the Lord of the Middle Marches.

Meanwhile, a parallel plot develops alongside the main plot of Arthur de Caldicot. Arthur de Caldicot observes this plot in a "seeing stone" given to him at a young age by the wizard Merlin. In the seeing stone, Arthur views the life of King Arthur, starting with the marriage of Arthur's parents, King Uther Pendragon and King Uther Pendragon and Ygerna, and their conception of the child. To protect Arthur and prepare him for the trials that await him in life, Merlin takes the young child to a foster family.

From that point on, Arthur lives with his foster father, Sir Ector, and his foster brother, Kay. Arthur de Caldicot cannot help but notice the similarities between his life and the life of King Arthur. He wonders if the two lives might be connected in some way. Especially as the young King Arthur learns to be a formidable knight, Arthur de Caldicot is excited about the possibility that he is headed for the same glory and repute as his reflection in the seeing stone. Nevertheless, Arthur de Caldicot couldn't possibly prepare for the sight of his reflected personality drawing the legendary sword from the stone and being pronounced the King of England by his fellow Britons.



When the book ends, Arthur de Caldicot is excited by the prospect of becoming a king, but also nervous. He has just discovered that his real father is a man he despises and that he can no longer be betrothed to the woman he expected to marry. He talks to Merlin about his predicament. Merlin asks him, "But who are you? And who do you want to be? That's what matters."

The Seeing Stone is a fascinating children's fantasy that shows contemporary readers both a life told in legend as well as a faithful historical retelling of life along the Wales-England border at the turn of the eleventh century. The result is a book that allows youngsters the chance to see how legends, fairy tales, and historical tales can affect and provide commentary on their own lives.