The Untameables by Clare Pollard
Illustrated by Reena Makwana
In this first children’s book from the poet, translator, playwright and novelist Clare Pollard, the Knights of the Round Table are quickly revealed to be a boorish, vain, heartless bunch – a far cry from the stories we may have heard. We are warned by the narrator that ‘history is written by the powerful, who can never resist tweaking it a bit’. For instance, Sir Lancelot, as well as being a singularly dreadful romantic poet (we’re subjected to some of his verse here and there), is a ‘blonde thug’ who is forever boasting that he defeated a ferocious wild boar, even though the creature was in fact ‘just a constipated pig’. The Knights seem to spend half their time hunting, rapidly deforesting and depleting the enchanted wildlife around Camelot. And Merlin’s just as bad, in his own maniacal way.
Putting Arthur and his band of braying bloodsport enthusiasts aside, the actual heroes here – The Untameables of the title – are a couple of Camelot’s lowly servants. Roan, the boy who looks after the castle’s hounds, is a gentle, empathetic soul. He has an instinctive, deep care for the natural world and a head full of worries about his sickly mother Bonnie. Elva is a kitchen helper, wise beyond her years, and keeps herself to herself, as the twisted spine she’s had since birth is liable to attract all sorts of nasty superstitions.
When Roan and Elva hear of a magical Holy Grail, they have their own reasons for seeking it out, but they must find it before the glory-hungry knights do. What follows is a quest that quotes bits of Arthurian legend (such as a Questing Beast and a castle of imprisoned maidens), giving each one a surprising, funny twist. On many occasions, Roan and Elva dodge past what could be predictable plot points and refuse to conform to the familiar, often violent, patterns of such stories. Their encounter with the Green Knight in the Land of the Giants is a particularly heartening, triumphant moment, when Roan faces a test a little like the Christmas game that’s central to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Simon Armitage is thanked for his marvellous translation, which planted the seed for The Untameables, in the acknowledgements). The remixing and reframing of this material, and the lampooning of ‘courtly love’, is a lot of fun for an adult familiar with all that, but it doesn’t get in the way of a terrific, witty adventure story for children.
I gather The Untameables began as something for Clare to read to her children, and I can’t wait to share this with my son in a few years. Its free-spirited characters, powerful ideas about ecology and optimism in the face of avarice, and charming illustrations by Reena Makwana are all things I’ll be delighted to revisit.
Buy The Untameables from The Emma Press
Watch Clare Pollard interviewed by Nikki Gamble to celebrate the launch of the book
Simon Reid 