Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages
First edition
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| Author | John Cowper Powys |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical romance |
| Publisher | Macdonald & Company, London |
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Publication date
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1951 |
| Preceded by | Owen Glendower 1941 |
| Followed by | The Inmates (1952) |
Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages is a 1951 historical romance by John Cowper Powys. Set in the Dark Ages during a week of autumn 499 AD, this novel is, in part, a bildungsroman, with the adventures of the eponymous protagonist Porius, heir to the throne of Edeyrnion, in North Wales, at its centre. The novel draws from both Arthurian legend and Welsh history and mythology, with Myrddin (Merlin) as another major character. The invasion of Wales by the Saxons and the rise of the new religion of Christianity are central themes. Due to the demands of publishers and a paper shortage in Britain, Powys was forced to excise more than 500 pages from the 1951 version. It wasn't until 2007 that the full novel, as Powys intended his magnum opus to be, was published both in Britain and America.
John Cowper Powys (1872–1963) initially established his literary reputation on the basis of four long novels, his Wessex novels. The last of these Maiden Castle was begun in Dorchester, Dorset, near where Hardy had lived, after Powys had returned from the USA, with his lover, Phyllis Playter, in 1934. However, in July, 1935 they moved to the village of Corwen, Denbighshire, North Wales, historically part of Edeirnion or Edeyrnion and an ancient commote of medieval Wales, where he completed Maiden Castle (1936). Edeirnion was nominally once a part of the Kingdom of Powys. This move to the land of his ancestors led Powys to writing the first of two historical novels set in this region of Wales, Owen Glendower, which was completed in 1939, published in the USA in 1941 and Britain in 1942.
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