Echoes of Avalon: The LegendFiction Anthology to Revive the Arthuriad

Take Up the Tale: A Writing Quest into the Heart of the Arthuriad, inspired by Malcom Guite's Upcoming 'Galahad & The Grail'

We are calling storytellers from across the realms—seasoned scribes, young adventurers, and those just beginning to wield the pen—to join us. Inspired by the visionary poetry of Malcolm Guite and the timeless legends of King Arthur, we are creating a published anthology of bold, beautiful, and mythic tales set in the world of Logres—a land thick with magic, monsters, and moral peril.

This is not nostalgia. This is a mythic summons.

Arthur’s story still matters—not as a museum relic, but as a living myth for a world that has forgotten how to hope. In a time of collapse and noise, we need stories that call us back to virtue, vision, and the perilous beauty of the quest.

---

“Poet, take up the tale...”
—Malcolm Guite, From Merlin’s Isle

---

As the old year fades and a midsummer dawn approaches, the mists lift once more over Logres.

We issue a call—not to comfort, but to courage. Not to cynicism, but to chivalry.

A contest is rising like a horn blown at the edge of dawn—summoning young and young-at-heart to return to the Perilous Realm: the deep, dangerous, spell-woven world of King Arthur.

Inspired by the luminous verse of Malcolm Guite and his resounding Arthuriad, we invite storytellers to cross the veil and take up the tale. This is not the Arthur of textbook or satire—but the Arthur whose story sleeps in every stone, whose return is whispered in water, wind, and war.

🛡️ What We Seek:

Stories of high fantasy rooted in the wild mythic heart of Britain—a realm alive with:

• Magicians and monsters, green knights and grey wolves,

• Talking beasts, haunted moors, and perilous bridges,

• Fey bargains, sacred quests, and kingdoms bristling with broken oaths.

This is not grimdark. This is not parody.

These are tales for an age of collapse—where blight returns when virtue fails, and famine follows folly. Where the world is out of joint, and the answer is not retreat, but resolve. When the forests darken, the rivers poison, and every shield hangs heavy on tree limbs—we turn again to myth.

We are seeking stories heroic, epic, and enchanted. Not because they are escapist, but because they tell the truth in symbols the soul understands. The truth that power must be tamed. That courage costs. That the Grail still calls.

---

✍️ What to Send

• A short story or excerpt (2,000–3,000 words)

• Set in a mythic Arthurian world (original or reimagined)

• In the spirit of Guite’s poem—hopeful, heroic, mysterious

• Genre: High Fantasy, Mythic Fiction, Dreamlike Epic

• Bonus: While the above rules and guidelines are the top priority, special preference will be given to stories that can ALSO (not at the sacrifice of the above requirements!) bring a really fresh, unexpected take and idea to the prompt.

---

📜 Deadline & Reward

• Deadline: May 29, 2025

  • Any submissions posted by May 16 will receive a constructive feedback video (up to 5 minutes) from our editor, Gabriella Batel.

• Rewards: Publication, community showcase, and something… unexpected. Perhaps a sword shall choose its next hand.

---

Why This Matters

Because Logres is still here. Under the surface of our hurried world, under motorways and news cycles and the flicker of fluorescent light, there still breathes a mythic land, waiting to be remembered.

Because our world doesn’t need more noise—it needs storytellers who speak in song and silence, who walk the ancient paths with eyes open to wonder and woe.

Because it is time, again, to seek the Grail.

---

So if you have ever heard a horn in your dreams,
if you have stood in mist and thought you saw a path vanish into twilight,
if you believe that story is a kind of spell—

…then the tale is yours to tell.

Take up the tale. And let the story speak through you.

---

From Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad:

As I walked out one morning
All in the soft fine rain
It seemed as though a silver veil
Was shining over hill and vale
As though some lovely long-lost spell
Had made all new again.

And through that shimmer in the air
I seemed to hear a sound
As though a distant horn were blown
In some lost land that I had known
That seemed to speak from tree and stone
And echo all around.

And with the music came these words:
“Poet, take up the tale!
Take up the tale this land still keeps
In earth and water magic sleeps
The dryad sighs, the naiad weeps
But you can lift the veil.

From where the waves wash Cornwall’s caves
Out to the white horse vale
The lands still hold the tale of old
Like hidden treasure, buried gold
Once more the story must be told
Poet, take up the tale.

Tell of the king who will return
Tell of the Holy Grail
Tell of old knights and chivalry
Tell of the pristine mystery
Of Merlin’s Isle of gramarye
Poet, take up the tale.

Take up the tale of courtesy
Take up the tale of grace
Revive the lands’ long memory
Summon the fair folk, let them be,
Something of faery, wild and free
Still lingers in this place.

Lift up your eyes to see the light
On Glastonbury Tor
Then come down from that far green hill
To where the sacred waters spill
And shine within the chalice well
And listen to their lore.

Yea, listen well before you start,
Be still ere you begin
See through the surface round about
The noise, the rush, the fear, the doubt
Though Modern Britain lies without
Fair Logres lives within.

You may yet walk through Merlin’s isle
By oak and ash and thorn
The ancient hills do not forget
And you might wake their wisdom yet
Who knows what wonders might be met
On this midsummer morn.”

So I have taken up the tale
To tell it full and free
The tale that makes my heart rejoice
I tell it, for I have no choice
I tell it till another voice
Takes up the tale from me.

Follow

Malcolm Guite

for news about this book, June 2026.

Must-Read Links ‼️ :

Anthology Contest Across-the-Board Guidelines

Terms & Conditions for a Safe & Secure Community

Short Story Checklist