The Seeing Stone

The Seeing Stone is a novel written by Kevin Crossley and published in hardcover in August 2000, along with an audio tape version. This was followed by a paperback version in June 2001 and an audio CD in July 2003. The paperback version was re-published in September 2006, under a different and more contemporary cover.

The Seeing Stone deals with the life of a young boy named Arthur de Caldicot living in the Wales Middle Marches in 1199, just before the Fourth Crusade. The book is part of a trilogy which includes At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March. The story is a contemporary retelling of the Arthurian Legends, told by Arthur de Caldicot through a first-person viewpoint, as he follows the events leading up to King Arthur's rise to power as King of England through his seeing stone.

The book was awarded the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the Tir na n-Og prize, and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize bronze medal. It was also shortlisted for the Whitbread Awards.

Plot summary

Plot in the Real World

The story begins in the year 1199, just before the beginning of the Fourth Crusade. Young Arthur de Caldicot, thirteen years of age at the time, is the second son of a knight living in Caldicot manor in the England/Wales Middle Marches. Most of the first book deals with the stresses associated with medieval life, most importantly to Arthur the fact that he is Sir John's second son, and as such is not applicable for inheritance of land. In order to have a life of his own, he must become a squire and then a knight, and create his own manor and farmland. One obstacle in his way is that his yard-skills are lacking in some respects, most notably jousting and sword-play. This is in no small part because he is left-handed, considered a dangerous oddity in those days, and so he must practice with his off-hand. Another obstacle is that he is very good at reading and writing, and so his father is considering making him a scribe, which he does not want to be. These obstacles are removed, however, when, on his fourteenth birthday, he learns that Sir William de Gortanore, another knight, and his uncle, is really his father, and he is placed into the inheritance of a large manor. This starts a subplot dealing with the identity of his mother, as it seems that his mother's husband was murdered by Sir William, who was jealous of him. It also meant the end of the relationship between Arthur and Grace, Sir William's daughter, who were to be betrothed but now know they cannot, as Grace is Arthur's half-sister. The plot in the world of Arthur de Caldicot ends with Arthur being accepted as squire to Lord Stephen de Holt, the lord of the Middle Marches.

Plot in the Seeing Stone

The Seeing Stone, which plays a large part of the plot of the trilogy, is given to Arthur de Caldicot early in the story by Merlin, along with the warning that should anyone else be privy to the knowledge of the stone, it will cease to work. Through the stone, Arthur is able to observe the life of the mythical King Arthur and his rise to power as King of Britain. Many of the characters look exactly like or very similar to characters in Arthur's life. The most notable resemblance is that between Arthur and young King Arthur himself, which leads him at first to believe that the Arthur in the stone is actually him in the near future. This belief is accentuated when he finds that, like the young King Arthur, the people he believes to be his parents are actually his foster parents. Later into the story, it becomes clear that King Arthur inhabits more of a parallel universe, with various events in both worlds reflecting one another. The story of the stone begins with the marriage of King Uther and Ygerna. They conceive a child, who is named Arthur. Arthur is taken away by Merlin to foster parents. Years later, when King Uther dies, Arthur comes to be king by taking over Uther's throne.