Bernard Cornwell is well known and admired for the realism and imagination with which he brings earlier worlds to life.Īnd here he uses all these skills to recreate the world of primitive Britain and to solve the mysteries of who built Stonehenge, how and why. Stonehenge: A Novel of 2000 BC is first and foremost a great historical novel. Saban' s love for Aurenna, the sun bride whose destiny is to die for the gods, finally brings the rivalries of the brothers to a head.īut it is also his skills that will build the vast temple, a place for the gods, certainly, but also a place that will confirm for ever the supreme power of the tribe that built it. Camaban becomes a great visionary and feared wise man, and it is his vision that will force the youngest brother, Saban, to create the great temple on the green hill where the gods will appear on earth. The eldest, Lengar, the warrior, harnesses his murderous ambition to be a ruler and take great power for his tribe. The three sons of Ratharryn's chief each perceive the great gift in a different way.

Camaban becomes a great visionary and feared. One summer's day, a dying stranger carrying great wealth in gold comes to the settlement of Ratharryn. The eldest, Lengar, the warrior, harnesses his murderous ambition to be a ruler and take great power for his tribe. Bernard Cornwell's new novel, following the enormous success of his Arthurian trilogy (The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur) is the tale of three brothers and of their rivalry that creates the great temple. Bernard Cornwell OBE (born 23 February 1944) is an English-American author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign.

Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwell