The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood, by H.G. Parry

In the depths of the Blitz, Britons have started to dream of King Arthur. Everyone except Elaine Ambrose. It’s a little ironic, given deeply our protagonist will be pulled into the legends of Arthur in H.G. Parry’s brilliant new novel, The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood. Parry pulls us in, too, as she spins the many versions of Merlin, Nimue, Morgan Le Fay, Lancelot, Mordred, and others into an incredibly fresh retelling that spans centuries. No one does metafiction the way Parry does.

We’re only in London briefly before we are whisked along with Elaine to a manor house in the Welsh forest, Camlan House. Elaine is under orders to catalog the house’s library, so that it can be used to replace books lost when the British Library is bombed. She doesn’t want to go. What does it matter if a library has an up-to-date inventory when there’s a war on? And yet, she goes. And things get weird once Elaine arrives. First of all, she begins to dream. She doesn’t dream of Arthur, like everyone else, but of Nimue. Nimue is a villain in many of the Arthurian legends because she traps Merlin in a tree, where he can no longer help Arthur. Within days of her first dream of Nimue, Elaine finds a questing beast in need of rescue. Later, Elaine is chased by the terrifying Cŵn Annwn of Welsh legend and has to be rescued by Maid Marian and Robin Hood. Something is bringing the old stories back into the world.

Thankfully, Elaine has a friend to help. Tom Wilder, the man of all work at Camlan House, is out of the war after a devastating crash during a dogfight. Like Elaine, he’s also kicking himself for not doing his bit for Britain. He looks fit for duty, but suffers from headaches and his vision never completely recovered from the crash. But when Elaine needs him to help save the questing beast or get her to T.H. White in neutral Ireland to ask crazy questions about Merlin or even just provide a sounding board as Elaine puzzles out what the hell is going on, Tom is always there.

The chapters in The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood alternate between Elaine in 1941 and Nimue, sometime back in the deep middle ages (timing is always imprecise in the Arthur stories). The dreams of Nimue give us a fresh spin on her story, a new reason for why she would track down Merlin and eventually trap him in a tree. Where Elaine struggles to find her purpose, Nimue has a few too many purposes to choose from. She was raised by her mother, Morgan Le Fay, who tells her that she is destined to be Merlin’s doom. And yet, after Nimue (in her disguise as Vivian) bargains for a place at Camelot as Merlin’s apprentice, she sees the other side of the story she’s always been told. Merlin is much more complicated, for one thing. For another, Nimue finds that she enjoys learning magic from him, taking on the appearance of different animals or sneakily helping out the knights in their quests or simply helping to perform the rites at Midsummer. The longer Nimue spends from Morgan, the more she wonders if there’s a way around her fate. Can she change her story?

H.G. Parry’s The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood works magic with the inconsistent, anachronistic Arthurian tales. It’s a marvel how Parry is able to create something faithful and original. Above all, I adore what Parry’s story says about the power of legends. They tell us that people have always found a way through to the other side. They can give us hope. They can inspire courage. And, sometimes, they show us that we can even do the impossible, when all the odds are stacked against us.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.