Spear

A girl raised in secrecy in the wild country of sixth-century Wales knows neither her true name nor the identity of her father. Drawn by visions of a distant lake and stories of Artos, king of Caer Leon, she leaves her mother’s cave with a stolen spear and travels towards the king’s companions. Taking the name Peretur, she wins a place through skill and determination, falls in love, confronts warriors and enchantments, and discovers that the sacred vessel sought by the court is bound to her own concealed history.

Spear recasts the medieval stories of Percival, the Grail and Arthur’s court through a queer protagonist whose identity is chosen rather than passively revealed. Griffith places the legend in a Celtic-flavoured post-Roman Britain, using Welsh forms such as Artos, Myrddyn, Gwenhwyfar and Peretur alongside material drawn from Irish myth. The setting carries convincing sixth-century textures, but its supernatural beings and transformed legendary figures make it historical fantasy and mythological fiction rather than a reconstruction of documented events.