Instead of basing The Kingmaking on the familiar medieval sources of the King Arthur legend, Helen Hollick mined the tantalizing snips and snatches of story in the earliest Welsh tales, supplementing these with archaeological discoveries and recent historical scholarship. Her Arthur is not the chivalrous hero celebrated by twelfth century troubadours, but an untried young warrior with a wandering eye for the lasses, prone to drinking more than is good for him. There is no Merlin; the plot owes little to the later medieval tales of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes and Malory.
Romance, however, is not missing. The style of the novel draws heavily from the historical romance genre—currently favoring spirited heroines who can fight alongside their menfolk. More than Arthur, Gwenhwyfar (this early Welsh name morphed into the medieval Guinevere) is the central character. "Arthur was thinking how pretty Gwenhwyfar was. A child still, with only the subtle hints of womanhood touching her face and figure, but it was there, the beauty, waiting to open like a flower from its budding.... Gwenhwyfar's beauty would be softer, more like the gold and russets and warmth of a sunlit autumn day, with all its toss of wind swirled leaves and crackling orange flamed fires. Aye, and have the touch of frost that nipped your fingers of a morning and caught your breath sharp in your lungs!"
On the Ruin of Britain by Gildas (6th century).
Excerpt from the Welsh Triads about "The Twenty-Four Knights of Arthur's Court" at the Celtic Literature Collective website.