Jack Whyte (born 1940) is a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novelist of historical fiction. Born and raised in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Whyte has been living in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
since 1967. He resides in
KelownaKelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a native term for "grizzly bear"...
,
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
.
Whyte's major work to date is the
A Dream of Eagles series (as it is titled in Canada, but known as
The Camulod Chronicles in the United States and elsewhere). This series of
historical novelHistorical fiction is a genre in which the plot is set amidst historical events, or more generally, in which the author uses real events but adds a fictional character.-Overview:...
s presents the tale of
King ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
set against the backdrop of
Roman BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
.
Jack Whyte (born 1940) is a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novelist of historical fiction. Born and raised in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Whyte has been living in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
since 1967. He resides in
KelownaKelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a native term for "grizzly bear"...
,
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
.
Whyte's major work to date is the
A Dream of Eagles series (as it is titled in Canada, but known as
The Camulod Chronicles in the United States and elsewhere). This series of
historical novelHistorical fiction is a genre in which the plot is set amidst historical events, or more generally, in which the author uses real events but adds a fictional character.-Overview:...
s presents the tale of
King ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated...
set against the backdrop of
Roman BritainRoman Britain was those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and about 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia...
. This retelling of the popular legend eschews the use of magic (as in
T. H. WhiteTerence Hanbury White was an English author best known for his sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, first published together in 1958.-Biography:...
’s
The Sword in the StoneThe Sword in the Stone is a novel by T. H. White, published in 1938, initially a stand-alone work but now the first part of a tetralogy The Once and Future King. Walt Disney Productions adapted the story to an animated film, and the BBC adapted it to radio.-Plot summary:The novel is about a young...
) to explain Arthur’s ascent to power and instead relies on the historical condition (with some artistic license) of post-Roman Britain to support the theory that Arthur was meant to counter the anarchy left by the
Roman departure from BritainThe Roman departure from Britain was completed by 410. The archaeological records of the final decades of Roman rule in Britain show undeniable signs of decay. Urban and villa life had grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the fourth century, pottery shards are not present in levels dating...
in 410 AD and the subsequent colonization and invasion of Britain by various peoples from Northwestern Europe, including the
SaxonsThe Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans ; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; those in north...
,
JutesThe Jutes, Iuti, or Iutae were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time...
,
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
, and
AnglesThe Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
. Whyte incorporates both traditional Arthurian names, places and events (albeit in gaelic or Latin form) as well as the names of various historical figures that have been suggested as being the possible basis for the original King Arthur legend. The tacit implication is that Whyte's version of history is the true story that has become distorted over time to become the legend and stories of magic that we know today.
Jack Whyte served as the official
bardIn medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, paid by a monarch to praise the sovereign's activities....
of
The Calgary HighlandersThe Calgary Highlanders is a Canadian Forces Land Force Primary Reserve infantry regiment, headquartered at Mewata Armouries in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...
and performed several tracks of poetry and song on the 1990 recording by the
Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary HighlandersThe Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders is an authorized volunteer pipe band associated with The Calgary Highlanders of the Canadian Forces. For many years, the band was in actual fact a bona fide, and separate, military unit unto itself, with a separate Unit Identification Code...
entitled
Eighty Years of Glory: The Regimental Pipes, Drums and Bard of The Calgary Highlanders.
A Dream of Eagles (Camulod Chronicles)
- The Skystone
The Skystone is a historical fiction novel written by Jack Whyte, which was first published in 1992. The story is told by a Roman Officer called Publius Varrus, who is an expert blacksmith as well as a soldier...
- The Singing Sword
The Singing Sword is a historical fiction novel written by Jack Whyte, first published in 1993. It is the second novel in "A Dream of Eagles" series....
- The Eagles' Brood
The Eagles' Brood is a historical novel by Jack Whyte set in Post-Roman Britain. It is the third in Whyte's series The Camulod Chronicles....
- The Saxon Shore
The Saxon Shore is a 1998 novel by Canadian writer Jack Whyte chronicling Caius Merlyn Britannicus's effort to return the baby Arthur to the colony of Camulod and the political events surrounding this. The book is a portrayal of the Arthurian Legend set against the backdrop of Post-Roman Briton's...
- The Sorcerer Part 1: The Fort at River's Bend
The Fort at River's Bend is a novel published by Jack Whyte, a Canadian novelist in 1999. Originally part of a single book, The Sorcerer, it was split for publishing purposes. The book encompasses the beginning of Arthur's education at a long abandoned Roman fort, where he is taught most of the...
- The Sorcerer Part 2: Metamorphosis
The two volumes The Sorcerer: The Fort at River’s Bend and The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis were written as a single volume entitled The Sorcerer but were split for publication.
Golden Eagle (companion mini-series)
- Clothar the Frank
Clothar the Frank is a Canadian historical fiction novel by Jack Whyte that continues his Arthurian Cycle as told in A Dream of Eagles series of novels...
(titled The Lance Thrower outside of Canada)
- The Eagle
The Eagle is the final novel in the A Dream of Eagles series . The Eagle follows the continuing story of Clothar from when he meets Arthur Pendragon, to, and possibly after, King Arthur's death.The novel was released on November 19, 2005 in Canada and was released in the United States in 2007....
Other
- Uther, is a stand alone novel about the life of Uther Pendragon from infancy up until the end of events in The Eagles' Brood. It serves to answer lingering questions left open by The Eagles' Brood that result from the fact that the latter is told exclusively from the perspective of Merlyn Britannicus and as such is not able to explain actions and events of which Merlyn is unaware. In this way, Uther is also an effective companion novel to The Eagles' Brood as it follows the title character and others as they grow up and wage war on Uther's main enemy, Guhlrys Lot, King of Cornwall.
The Templar Trilogy
- Knights of the Black and White (Released August 1, 2006 in Canada)
- Standard of Honor (Released August 28, 2007 in Canada)
- Order in Chaos (Released in August of 2009)
New series on Scottish heroes
At a public reading in his hometown of Kelowna, British Columbia, on Thursday, November 8, 2007, Jack Whyte announced that he had, earlier that day, signed a contract for a new series of books on the heroes of his Scottish homeland.
Further information has it that the proposed trilogy will be called "The Guardians of Scotland", and will be set in 14th century Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence and will feature
James "The Black" DouglasSir James Douglas , , was a Scottish soldier and knight who fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence. He was a son of Sir William Douglas the Hardy, who had been a supporter of William Wallace...
,
William WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero....
, and Robert the Bruce.
He'll start the series following completion of the Templar series which is still underway.
Short fiction
Though primarily a novelist, Whyte has also written and published at least one
short storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
:
- "Power Play" in Paradox Magazine
Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction is an award-winning literary magazine featuring original short historical fiction in all of its forms up to novella length. This includes mainstream historical fiction as well as other genre fiction with historical themes...
, issue 8 (Winter 2005-2006), an exploration of the nature of power, set in RomanThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
.
External links
- Official website for Jack Whyte. Includes biography, bibliography, book excerpts, radio interview transcripts, and an active fan forum.
- Archived scan from web.archive.org for Jack Whyte's now defunct blog at the penguin.ca website. Includes questions by readers and Jack Whyte's answers to those questions, as well as general observations by Jack Whyte.