About

About Author Scott Telek

Scott Telek is exactly the kind of person you can imagine reading nothing but the Arthurian legend for twelve years. He has been writing for a living for over thirty years, also dabbling in oil painting and video production. He was born in Detroit, lived in New York City for fifteen years, Chicago for five, and now lives in Ontario with his husband. He was the creator of the film review site Cinema de Merde [not associated with the currently live cinemademerde.com] and created the LGBTQ+ oral history video series Queer Profiles. 

About The Swithen Arthurian Novel Series

The Swithen is a series of novels that tells the authentic Medieval legend of King Arthur (defined as that written between the years 1136 – 1485) in what, if finished, will become the longest and most cohesive telling of the Arthurian legend in existence.

The series was created when author Scott Telek read deeply into the Arthurian legend, realizing that most people actually do not know what’s really in there, and that years of making aspects of the story suitable for books, movies and television have steadily removed what makes the original tales resonant and magical in the first place. 

Since the Middle English sources are not written with any notable psychology or character development, Scott realized that opportunity existed to write the stories in a way that could make the characters relatable to modern readers. He could also unify the story (most often created as disparate tales) and clarify the important family relationships that can be obscure in the sources. Women characters are also depicted superficially (if at all), and Scott realized that giving their psychologies and motivations equal prominence would also provide a vastly new reading experience.

Telek also realized that these stories need to be longer, not shorter, in order for us to understand the full impact of each individual tale that makes up the monumental saga.

Telek set out to challenge himself that he must remain faithful to the legend as set down between 1136 (date of the first cohesive telling of the legend) and 1485 (publication date of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur, the last cohesive telling of the entire legend). Later writings, movies or television shows are not considered. In this way, he hopes to convey the mystery and majesty that made us love King Arthur in the first place.

Scott established a set of rules for the series. He must remain faithful to the Medieval sources, but is free to enhance scenes and characters as necessary to create an engaging saga. However, anything he does add must slot seamlessly into the existing legend without changing it. If there are multiple versions of a story or character, he can choose the one he likes best, and will help the saga be cohesive as one unified story. In this way, he hopes that readers can discover the original Arthurian legend through his series.

Scott maintains an enormous spreadsheet charting the events of all twenty-five books, including the names and ages of each character, when they enter and when they leave, where they are developmentally at the time of each novel, and what happens to them in each book. This allows him to chart the interactions between the separate threads in the storyline, and fill in the pasts of each character that may not be depicted in the original legend. Scott also provides notes on their psychology at each point in their lives in order to create lifelong character arcs.

The entire series is plotted right up to the end, ensuring that elements added in earlier books are there for a reason, and that all elements are leading consistently toward an ending that is already established. 

Scott has decided that The Swithen series will be his life’s work.