I'm Natania Barron, a fantasy author and fashion historian who loves monsters, magic, and mayhem. My books are almost always historical in some capacity, unapologetically queer, and full of fabulous costumes, adventures, and found family. My background was originally in academia, primarily focused on medieval literature, but I'm a big fan of the 19th century as well. I read voraciously, garden enthusiastically, and love traveling. At present, I live in North Carolina with my family.
2. You've written a fair amount of fantasy before tackling the Queens series. Why the jump to Arthuriana? What's the appeal?
This is the funny part about publishing. Chronologically, I've been working on the Queens series longer than almost anything else. The first draft of Queen of None was written in 2010, but it languished with me for about ten years, living in a state of limbo. It was, in many ways, the thesis I wish I'd written in graduate school, resurrecting a character I'd found in Geoffrey of Monmouth--which is a 12th century quasi-history that features King Arthur--named Anna Pendragon. Anna was the full sister of Arthur, with the same parents (Igraine and Gorlois). So, in a sense these books have been with me all along. In fact, keen eyed folks will notice quite a few Arthurian nods in some of my other works, including in Pilgrim of the Sky and These Marvelous Beasts.
Arthuriana has always appealed to me, as I grew up loving fantasy and it was a natural progression in my academic pursuits. For me, it's about the tension of the Matter of Britain (the fancy term for Arthuriana) between the golden age and its inevitable fall, the strong king and the affair that shook the kingdom, the ever-changing characters who go from most renowned to reviled and back again. Courtly love itself is walking contradiction! I often speak of Arthuriana as an amoeba, and certainly as fanfiction. From the 12th century onward, it traveled across Europe and beyond, capturing imaginations right and left. And every time it was retold, it changed shape. I mean, truly, so much of what we know about King Arthur are not Welsh or English in nature, but decidedly French. This amalgamation of myth over the next near millennium has shaped so much about how we think about fantasy, kingship, and romance. And it's delightfully episodic, so you have the opportunity to zoom in or out in the story as much as possible, which is wonderfully appealing as a writer. I'd love to continue the series at some point in the vein of what Joe Abercrombie does with his interconnected novels, and I feel like the genre is absolutely built for it.
3. The central logline of the trilogy are three Queens. What prompted you to tell your take on their stories in the Arthurian Cinematic Universe
Women are both plentiful and invisible in much of the Matter of Britain. They are most often used as mediums for succession, or as political pawns. Mothers, in particular, are everywhere and yet nowhere. Once a woman has done her duty to have a child, typically by a knight or king, she is of no use in the narrative. But their stories matter, and they're all there in the margins. The three women in the story are all queens in their own right, or should be, but their queenliness is more than their genes. Anna surrenders her throne; Hwyfar learns to claim her own; Morgen's realm is not of the mortal plane. Anna is a mother, Hwyfar is a maiden (in that she is unmarried), and Morgen is the crone. They are all powerful, but in vastly different ways. And their actions and alliances shape the very foundations of the overall myth. That was one of the really joyful parts of writing the third book, which occurs 20 years after the first, being the ability for me to tie up all the loose ends. And usher in a new generation! Because that's one of the other fun things about writing in this genre: it takes place over a fairly long stretch of time, and there are different phases of folks involved.
4. The time frame of most fantasy novels is months, or even weeks. Having books that take place over years or lifetimes is rare. What models and inspirations in fantasy and mimetic literature did you have in telling the lifetime stories of your characters
Well, in-genre there is certainly T.H. White, who has a similar approach in The Once and Future King. Each section follows a different character or characters, and we begin with Arthur as a boy, and the story reaches all the way until his departure to Avalon. I think, if I'm being academic about it, it's sort of woven into Arthurian DNA to both expand and contract time as needed. In my approach, the first book spans about 10 years; the second is just a few months; the third is a few weeks. But there are breaks of time between each one, so I can zoom in and zoom out as needed. The timelines get more complex, though, even though the time spent is less. By the time we get to Queen of Mercy, there are even dual timelines to contend with, as Morgen's story is happening in the background of the story happening at Carelon with Gawain, Hwyfar, and the triad of Galahad, Percival, and Llachlyn. I don't think anyone does complex timelines as well as N.K. Jemisin, I'd say, outside the Arthurian genre.
Oh, there's so much. In fact, there are so many mythological Easter eggs that I stumble into some I had totally forgotten about when I'm re-reading or listening to the audiobooks. A big theme in the stories is around the contradictions of chivalry and courtly love in the face of a world experiencing magic that is both vanishing and changing shape. I poke plenty of fun at Arthur's very simplistic view of Christianity, but show how well it molds to certain minds looking for straightforward answers. The magic of Avillion is complex, old, and very matriarchal--save that their king is a man. There are heroes, and there are anti-heroes, but there are very few true villains in the story. One of my favorite frameworks is the escape to the wilderness/descent into madness cycle that you see very often in the Matter of Britain. Both Lancelot and Yvain have moments where their minds, essentially, experience a psychotic break. The wood is both healing and challenging in their subsequent adventures. I got to work through Yvain's story a bit in the last book, which was quite the adventure.
I suppose, the biggest theme is the magical woman--the woman of both actual and perceived power. So often, especially Morgan le Fay is associated with seduction and sexuality, and I wanted to change that. In much of the Arthurian canon, powerful women are rarely revered. They are feared, othered, and often looked at as obstacles rather than healers or wise women. In the Vita Merlini, which is from the 12th century and her first large appearance in literature, she's a powerful woman who clearly comes out of the Celtic past, an herbalist, and respected for her work. She's not described as wily or difficult or hedonistic. That all comes later. So I wanted my version of Morgen, who appears within the first chapters of Queen of None, and conveys throughout, in a similar way. She chooses, when Merlin spurns her, to work as a midwife at Carelon. Her magic is not just the magic of Avillion, but blended powers she learned from Merlin as well as her own connection with Death itself. She is called the "midwife of souls" for that reason, and I pulled a lot of my inspiration from the triple-goddesses of death you see in some religions, and especially in Celtic lore.
6. Arthuriana is a vast place and perhaps daunting for readers to find their way in, at least beyond the usual ones. Where you do suggest readers who have read your trilogy wade in next?
Some of the books I suggest run the gamut from faithful retellings to general vibes, and I love that. There's a Palamades even in Gideon the Ninth and plenty of Arthurian echoes. Tracy Deonn's Bloodmarked series is a fantastic YA modern take on the Arthurian inheritance. Of course, Lev Grossman recently wrote The Bright Sword, which has a lot of the humor that I love in writers like T.H. White, but shaped in a way that is very much his own
7. The sheer diversity of differences in the Arthurian mythos from book to book and story to story is breathtaking, and your works add to that tradition. Why do you think that remixing and reinterpretation is so popular?
Given the time it was created, it's surprising to many how diverse and far-reaching Arthuriana is. As a medievalist, that's not shocking. The medieval world went far beyond the borders of Britain. And indeed, the West's "Dark Ages" were far from homogenous (or, as the quotes indicated, "dark" to begin with). Indeed, in the Middle Ages, people were asking many of the same questions we're still positing about gender, religion, faith, power, and patriotism. Because of all of this, and its historical context, Arthuriana is built flexibly, diversely, and with a great adaptability. In many ways it's similar to the adaptation and appropriation you see when the Catholic Church really sinks its teeth into the West, and you see all these Celtic and pre-Christian figures remixed as saints. It's deeply location-based and very personal. Knights, ladies, villains, monsters... these can all be absorbed into Arthuriana, as well. We like our own context, and the way these stories are written and shared really welcomes such remixing.
And what's fascinating to me, at least, is seeing it reshaped to either combat or acquiesce to current political, religious climates, etc. Courtly love was adored by the French, and during the 12th and 13th centuries, Lancelot and Guinevere's relationship was seen as sacred even though it very much lived outside the Christian marriage pact. But it shifts, especially by the time you get the Malory--and of course, it's primarily Guinevere who is demonized in that instance. Women are blamed for their power over men, rather than men given responsibility for their actions. So these changes aren't always for the better, but they do tell us a great deal about the cultures from which they're told. I'm curious to see what direction Arthuriana goes, considering the current political climate. Might vs. right has never been so essential.
We see it happening in real-time, to some extent, with comic books and superhero movies, film, and books, in the 20th and 21st centuries. They're, of course, building on thousands of years of myths, but given the acceleration of media production, we get remakes and retellings at breakneck pace. We no longer have to wait for the next minstrel hit to literally travel leagues, changing all along the way to better suit the audience.
8. What's next for you now that you have completed this trilogy?
The third book in my queer Regency witches series (Love in Netherford) is called The Game of Hearts, and that should be out later this year or early next. Then, well, I'm always working on something. I have a secondary world romantasy that needs some revisions, but I also haven't given up on Arthuriana yet. Lately, Palomydes, Tristan, and Isolde have been gnawing away at my consciousness. I've even been dreaming about them! And lots more of the Questing Beast. In addition, I have a few nonfiction projects I'd like to tackle. Ideas are never the issue!
9. (and the soft outro): Where can readers find you and your work?
My website is nataniabarron.com, and I'm @natania.bsky.social on BlueSky, @nataniabarron on Instagram, and @nataniabooks on TikTok. Both the Queens of Fate series and the Love in Netherford books can be found online, or at my publisher's website (Solaris/Rebellion - https://rebellionpublishing.com/)
Thank you, Natania!
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
