'Warhammer 40K' And The Lion: A Major Injection Of Arthurian Lore

TV & Film

Feb 14

CultureSlate just reviewed The Lion: Son of the Forest, one of the most recent novels to release in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. One of the notes of our review was just how much Arthurian mythology was injected all at once into Warhammer 40K, for one specific character and group, which was not previously present.

We felt it would be interesting to further break down these inspirations as they relate to the novel, and to make a wider point about Warhammer 40K. So, let's get to it!

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Lion: Son of the Forest.

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Before The Lion

As a franchise created by a British company, and originally drawing heavily from the already existing Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000 has always retained medieval aesthetics and ideas despite its transformation into a grimdark scifi setting. The term science fantasy would probably be best applied to it, as alongside powerful warriors clad in unique armor ruling over planets and seeking to protect them from many dangers, there have been more specific pulls and nods toward the world of Arthurian knights, chivalry and other concepts over the years.

Zooming in on Lion El’Johnson and the Dark Angels, we can see that many of these general ideas already existed within this area of lore prior to Son of the Forest. In his background, the Lion was scattered from Earth as a baby and landed on the world of Caliban, a planet twisted by the Warp and existing at a feudal level of society with monastery bastions of trained warriors sallying out to defeat the terrifying monsters that threatened the population.

Some of these orders were rather twisted themselves, dark knights rather than dogooders. But, in his early years on Caliban, the Lion defeated many of these threats before the arrival of the Emperor and the Imperium led to significant industrialization of the world. His Legion, reunited with their Primarch, adopted many traits of Caliban’s warrior societies, and so already before the Horus Heresy, there were some very medieval warriors running around among the Space Marine Legions.

But if Warhammer before this novel already featured a lot of general ideas associated with the medieval period and Arthurian ideas of questing knights and more, The Lion: Son of the Forest absolutely piles it on. The references it makes are also incredibly specific, so unlike the general feel and ideas mentioned before, this novel makes a purposeful effort to include a lot more Athurian lore into the world of the newly awakened Lion.

Slumbering King

At the center of this story is the mysterious reawakening of the Lion. Last seen dormant in the depths of The Rock, secreted away from even his genesons by the mysterious Watchers in the Dark (little hooded beings once native to Caliban who have mysterious powers), the Lion suddenly awakens into a spectral forest full of metaphors and riddles. The nature of his awakening is notable for playing on myths not just of Arthur, but of wider Europe.

A very common element of folklore is the idea of a slumbering ancient king located under a mountain, or hidden away, who will awaken and return at the darkest hour of the culture or nation he is considered a guardian of. Arthur is a king in this mold, said to be waiting to return when Britain needs him most, and the Lion also follows this idea. He awakens at a time of great chaos in the galaxy and shortly before the machinations of a far darker power than the villain of this novel come to fruition at the express cost of the Dark Angels (these events are explored in the Arks of Omen campaign storyline).

The Return of Allies

But this idea of a returned Arthur also blends well into a more modern trope regarding Arthur’s return, that of the rebirth, reincarnation, or simple survival of some of his other knights into the modern era of the story. Sometimes these figures are gender swapped, sometimes they are the descendants of Arthur’s knights from centuries past, but all and all, it is a common modern practice to see them restored alongside Arthur. Son of the Forest has this idea fulfilled in the form of the Fallen, the supposed traitors who were on Caliban and who fired on the Lion when he returned to the world after the Horus Heresy.

Prior to this novel, the Fallen were universally considered bad in Warhammer 40K, all cast as traitors, corrupted by Chaos and the Warp, or fully renegade. The modern Dark Angels relentlessly hunt them down because of this, without informing other Space Marines of their missions in order to keep their shame hidden. But Son of the Forest introduces the idea of blameless Fallen, warriors who were not party to the actions of their superiors, and who were simply caught up in the calamity that destroyed their world and often, sucked them through time and space to millennia after the events that put the Lion to sleep 10,000 years ago without a means to explain themselves to the relentless inquisition of their modern “cousins”. The book even implies that a majority of Fallen are of this group, again shifting the perception prior to this novel. A number of these Fallen, later known as the Redeemed, or Risen, appear in Son of the Forest, and many share names with Arthurian knights, both well known and not. Below is a quick list of all the ones this reviewer caught, with some making sense in conjunction with the novel’s narrative:

Kai = Kay, one of Arthur’s oldest known warrior companions, with a wide variety of personality traits based on who is writing him
Lohoc = Loholt, one of many names for Athur’s son or one of Athur’s sons
Borz = Bors, Lancelot’s cousin and his frequent ally
Launchiel = Lancelot, the deeply flawed paragonal knight who starts a secret relationship with Guinevere
Galad = Galahad, Lancelot’s secret son and the second, “true” Grail Knight
Bevedan = Bedevere, another one of Arthur’s oldest known warrior companions and often portrayed as deeply loyal
Guain = Gawain, Arthur’s nephew and best known for his adventure Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Ectorael = Ector, the father of Kay and the knight who raised Arthur
Perziel = Percieval, who has a relatively modest background and is the first Grail Knight
Baelor = Possibly Balan, a tragic knight who ends up killing his brother when the two duel, not recognizing each other

A King in Peril

One of the earliest elements in Son of the Forest is also one that gets repeated later on into the story, and has heavy links into the world of Athurian lore. When Lion El’Johnson reawakens in the green vision of Caliban, he quickly comes upon a wounded king fishing in a river, dark shadows circling him and preventing the Primarch from getting closer. Later, when he walks into a great hall with a phantom fire cracking, he encounters the same royal on a throne, still with his injury, silent and unmoving while a candelabra, a bloodied lance, and a chalice sit nearby. On both occasions, the Lion does not ask the proper question, leading to the king ignoring him while in the river. In the second instance, the shadows that lurk around the throne rise up while the man has anger and disappointment in his face, suddenly banishing the Lion out of the spectral hall, and back to his starship.

This figure represents the Emperor of the Imperium of Man, wounded by Horus in the last great battle of the Heresy and now entombed upon the Golden Throne, forever lighting the Astronomicon (represented by the candelabra) to allow for travel by all human ships through the Warp. This figure also draws from symbolism of the Fisher King, sometimes also known as the Maimed King, which is key to the mythos that formed around Arthur’s knights and one of their best known quests from the literature in the latter half of the Middle Ages.

The Fisher King is the guardian of the Holy Grail, yet has received a grievous wound, causing his realm to suffer as the King’s health hangs in the balance. Percival encounters the King when he finds the man fishing, but because Percival does not ask the right questions regarding a bleeding lance, the Grail and a platter, the King is doomed to not be healed. Hopefully, the Lion figures out the right question to ask so this figure of the Emperor might get some help, or properly communicate with him.

Why All the Knights, Kings and More?

There are several other notable Arthurian story elements in Son of the Forest, such as the inclusion of a group called the Dolorous Guard, named after the title given to Lancelot’s castle of Joyous Guard before he reclaims it from an evil knight, and then regained after he takes Guinevere to it following the discovery of their affair by King Arthur. There is also an interesting twist on the idea of the Green Knight, in the form of a Chaos Space Marine, but we won’t say too much there. Overall, this novel is both a great introduction to the era through a unique character, and a love-letter to some of the most notable parts of Arthurian myth…but why? Why Arthur, and why now?

The author of The Lion: Son of the Forest is Mike Brooks. He is a prolific 40K author, having tackled the Alpha Legion and the Orks in most of his other work, so this novel seems to be a departure from his usual style of story and themes. It seems likely, then, that this change is one brought about from the top by Games Workshop itself, and may be due to how they handle the different factions of Warhammer. Every major faction for the tabletop of Warhammer, be it The Old World, Age of Sigmar, or 40K, has a specific theme. The Nighthaunt of Age of Sigmar are all spooky specters and ghosts wreathed in ecoplasm green, and the Blood Angels of 40K are red clad angelic beings with deep flaws and sometimes, a hunger for blood, vampires under another name. The Dark Angels already have their own theme related to warrior knights, secret brotherhoods and more, but this new flavor will certainly help them to stand out more in the lore over the coming months and years. It will also undoubtedly help make them a popular group, as a faction with a newly returned Primarch, much as the Ultramarines have been dominant in the storytelling of 40K for the past several years, and even before that.

Then, there might just be the simple reason that in this darker time in the world, with social unrest on the rise and governments struggling or seeing drastic changes, a return to an idealistic age of chivalrous heroes is what most franchises need. Star Wars has been on that train with The High Republic for the past four years, and while Warhammer 40K is still a grimdark setting with a deeply flawed Imperium, the Lion’s narrative set far away from central authority, forging a selfless protectorate devoted to saving human lives, allows him to (for now) retain a less complicated narrative. But at the same time, it will be fascinating to see how these Arthurian elements interact with the wider world of Warhammer 40K, and how more elements might appear in future Dark Angels stories involving the Lion.

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