Excalibur Quotes
"History is a story told by men and of men’s making, but in this tale of Arthur, like the glimmer of salmon in peat-dark water, the women do shine."
"It took both a man and a woman to bring Britain low, and of the two it was the woman who did the greater damage."
"Lust does not vanish with happiness, Lady. Besides, what merit is there in fidelity if it is never tested?"
"Fidelity is a gift we offer to those we love."
"Arthur gave it to Guinevere, but she could not return it. She wanted something different."
"He just wanted a piece of land, a hall, some cattle, a smithy of his own. He wanted to be ordinary."
"If Merlin could not summon the Gods then Britain was surely doomed."
"A man offers me what is already mine! What kind of an offer is that?"
"Be glad that you still have one hand. And as for my debt to you, Loholt, I shall pay it with Hywelbane."
"The existence of tricks does not imply the absence of magic, but magic is not always granted to us by the Gods."
"All religions use death, and usually it was human. Some were burned alive, others put into death pits."
"The old religion demanded much blood, and usually it was human."
"History records that the Romans killed Cefydd and all his army and then destroyed the Druid's groves on Ynys Mon."
"Our own God sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ, and even demanded that Abraham kill Isaac."
"Death is the most powerful magic. A merciful God would not allow it, and our God ended it by his own Son’s death."
"Merlin has not gone beyond death, Bishop. He does use it."
"On Samain Eve the souls of the dead are freed to wander and cannot be harnessed."
"The Gods are now so far gone into Annwn’s chasm that the Treasures by themselves do not work."
"If Merlin’s scheme works, there won’t be a war. Just a slaughter led by the Gods."
"Arthur says not. He believes they don't trust each other, so they'll want to stay close together to guard against treachery."
"It's simpler, surely, to move whatever is valuable from southern Dumnonia?"
"All I ever wanted was a hall, some land, some cattle, crops in season, timber to burn, a smithy to work iron, a stream for water. Is it too much?"
"I wear myself out getting ready for a war no one except me believes we can win."
"I always used to think you were a dull man, Derfel, dull, unwashed and stolid. Now I've begun to like you, so please don't make me think I was right about you all along."
"Pray that the Saxons don’t hear of it, and pray that they stay where they are."
"I have two hundred spearmen a mile or so behind!"
"I want to feel there's something biting back."
"I think you have been a better friend than I ever knew, Derfel."
"Two throngs of men were locked together, and those in the rear were shoving the ones in front and the ones in front were struggling to loosen their spears and thrust them forward again."
"Cuneglas stepped onto the rampart and turned to face us. ‘I’m not a man for speeches,’ he shouted."
"The ground was tussocky, steep and rough. We did not go down in any order, but raced each other to reach the bottom."
"I had drawn Hywelbane and was holding her by the upper blade in my left hand, letting the shield hang on its loops from my forearm."
"A terrible hate wells up in battle, a hatred that comes from the dark soul to fill a man with fierce and bloody anger."
"I wanted men to look at me and say, there is the warrior who broke the wall at Mynydd Baddon."
"We were all bleeding, all bruised, all dry-mouthed, and when the enemy backed away we were grateful for the respite."
"The shield wall breaks and death rules, and so we killed till our arms were too tired to lift a sword."
"We had lost scores of men and our wall would be thin."
"I had helped win a great victory, and was inexpressibly sad."
"He could not smell ale. This battle was too early in the morning, the Saxons had been surprised, and they had not had time to drink themselves into courage."
"Arthur and his horsemen rode those fugitives down mercilessly."
"For a heartbeat I wanted his gratitude, but then I remembered my daughter’s dying face and a shudder of rage made me tremble."
"Arthur is remembered as a ruler, but Lancelot is called the warrior."
"He could see nothing from the valley, for our men were hidden behind Mynydd Baddon’s low ramparts."
"A God is a God, and why should it matter to us which one rules?"
"You will be flattered, and behind your back, mocked."
"I always wanted Arthur to be the High King and for Gwydre to succeed him."
"Merlin was right. When a woman wants something, she gets it."
"Whether they're married or not, they'll make trouble."
"He was a proud man, and he knew what he had done for the country."
"The silence had been the first indication of horror."
"The only living things were the cats and the ravens, and they all fled from us."
"The slaughter was recent, for none of the bodies had started to bloat or rot."
"‘Who did it, Lord?’ one of my spearmen asked. ‘Mordred,’ I said bleakly."
"Mordred was throwing off his bridle, and that meant, surely, that after this slaughter at Dun Caric he must have gone east to find Sagramor, or maybe south and west to discover Issa."
"It is hard to describe that fury. At its heart was a cold hate for Mordred."
"We go home, Eachern,’ I said, ‘we go home.’ And by ‘home’ I meant Siluria."
"I felt guilt, hate, pity and an aching sadness."
"I prayed to Mithras for a chance to bring these folk a fitting revenge."
"‘I shall have your soul for what you did to these folk,’ I said, gesturing with Hywelbane at the blood that still lay black in Dun Caric’s yard."
"‘My brother would never forgive me for showing such mercy,’ he said."
"‘Merlin ordered me to save you, Lord,’ he said, ‘though he says you may not thank him for it.’"
"‘The Christian way! What halfwits you all are!’"
"‘All our lore must be remembered. Caleddin had it all written down, and that’s when the Gods began to retreat.’"
"‘The Gods come and the Gods go, Derfel, they go and they come.’"
"‘But Nimue won’t. She will go to the bitter end, Derfel.’"
"‘She wants it.’ He uttered a horrid little whimper. ‘I cannot even weep any longer,’ he said."
"‘In the silver mist, Derfel, in that silver mist, you will find no weeping and no time, just joy.’"
"It is to ourselves we must look, not to the Gods. They have their own amusements, and if we are not their toys, then we should be glad."
"If you keep walking down the stream, Lord, you will come to a track. Follow it down the hill and you will find a road."
"It took me two days to reach home; two days of bleak thinking without any answer."
"‘There must be hope, though,’ Gwydre tried to encourage me."
"‘I know, Lady,’ I said, trying to remember all the things Galahad had told me over the years, ‘that your God is a loving God, a forgiving God, and a God who sent His own Son to earth so that others should not suffer.’"
"‘I think the wife is called a saint by God.’"
"‘Do you believe Gwydre will live again if he is placed in the Cauldron?’"
"‘The Otherbody is a great magic and to counter it we need a magic just as great. Alas, I don’t have it.’"
"‘What do you know of my God, Derfel?’ she asked sourly."
"‘You will be baptized, Derfel?’ ‘Yes, Lady.’"
"‘God preserve us,’ Sansum said, and walked to my window from where the smear of smoke was still just visible in the east."
"‘We served her well,’ he said, ‘and now she must serve herself.’"
"‘Whenever you think everything is settled, it all seethes up again.’"
"‘The arts are long, life is short. I shall improve, Derfel. My fault is impatience.’"
"‘Stay alive,’ she told me. ‘For you,’ I said, ‘I will.’"
"You do not win the fight of the shield wall by being sensible and moderate, but by a Godlike rush of howling madness."
"The madness of battle was on us, the desperate madness of fighting men trapped in a small place, but it was the enemy who was giving way."
"It is the beguiling glory of war, the sheer exhilaration of breaking a shield wall and slaking a sword on a hated enemy."
"Battle is a matter of inches, not miles. The inches that separate a man from his enemy."
"You smell the mead on their breath, hear the breath in their throats, hear their grunts, feel them shift their weight, feel their spittle on your eyes, and you look for danger, look back into the eyes of the next man you must kill."
"The sun was gone, there was no moon shining, just the stars and the twilight sky and the silver-flecked sea and the dark-sailed boat, yet the mist did glow. Like the silver spindrift of stars, it glowed."
"And so my Lord was gone. And no one has seen him since."