These 7 best YA fantasy novels are all set in ancient Britain. All of these stories take place during the Renaissance or earlier. Get ready to meet Celts, Saxons, Celtic gods and goddesses, King Arthur, and Merlin!
For this list of the 7 best YA fantasy novels set in ancient Britain, given in no particular order, I also included books that feature Saxon characters. It’s ancient Britain, after all. While this blog is dedicated to Welsh and Celtic stuff, we can hardly journey to the past without meeting some Angles, Saxons, and Jutes along the way. They were Germanic tribes that arrived in Britain in the 5th to 11th centuries AD. Eventually, the Kingdom of England was founded in 927 from the seven main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
But I digress! Below, in our exciting reading list, you’ll find a novel with a Saxons-against-Normans theme. You’ll also find several books here about King Arthur and Merlin and others with characters from the Celtic tribes and Celtic gods and goddesses. My Lady Jane is set the most recently, in the 1500s, while Fionn occurs the earliest in 1st century Ireland. Happy reading!
This post is about 7 of the best YA fantasy novels set in ancient Britain.
Best YA Fantasy Novels
Best YA Fantasy Novels: Fionna: Defence of Ráth Bládhma (The Fionn mac Cumhaill Series, Book One)
First of all, regarding the book cover and the time period of this novel, that’s a resounding yes for me! More like, “Hell yes!” if I’m being perfectly honest about it. This first book on our list of the best YA fantasy novels set in ancient Britain is truly set in the distant past. The Celtic tribes still populated the British Isles at this time. Fionn is, of course, a story about Irish Celts. However, if you’d like to learn more about the Welsh tribes, you can check out this article on ancient Welsh tribes.
From the blurb:
IRELAND: 1st century A.D. A time of strife and treachery. Political ambition and inter-tribal conflict has set the country on edge, testing the strength of long-established alliances. Meanwhile, mysterious war parties roam the forests, and a ruthless ‘Tainted One’ is intent on murder.
In the secluded valley of Glenn Ceoch, a disgraced druid and a woman warrior have successfully avoided the bloodshed for many years. Now, the arrival of a pregnant refugee threatens the peace they’ve created together. Run or fight, the odds against them are overwhelming.
And death stalks on every side.
The most authentic Irish adventure series on the market, the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series by author Brian O’Sullivan, is a gritty and authentic retelling of the great Irish epic. Gripping, insightful, and utterly action-packed, this is Irish mythology/fiction as you’ve never read it before.
A 2016 SPFBO Competition finalist and Irish bestseller, this book also includes the following extra content:
* a glossary with explanations on ancient Irish cultural concepts
* a pronunciation guide and links to an online audio pronunciation guide
The Winter King: A Novel of Arthur (The Warlord Chronicles Book 1) by Bernard Cornwell
From the blurb:
With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur. Now a major television show.
The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished, and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, and where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant.
As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again.
YA Fantasy Romance Books: My Lady Jane: (The Lady Janies Series) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Number three on our list of the best YA fantasy novels set in ancient Britain (though these books are in no particular order) is My Lady Jane. You probably already know that it’s been made into a series. If you haven’t seen it yet, oh my goodness—you must see it! Definitely one of the best young adult fantasy series for those who love alternate history (read: better history than the actual).
From the blurb:
New York Times Bestseller * Publishers Weekly Best Young Adult Book of the Year * Bustle Best Young Adult Book of the Year * YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
This comical, fantastical, romantical, New York Times bestselling, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey is “an uproarious historical fantasy that’s not to be missed” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.
At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.
Like that could go wrong.
Best YA Fantasy Novels: The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones
From the blurb:
A bestselling fantasy adventure about two teens from two very different worlds who must work together to save the universe. The companion novel to the bestselling Deep Secret.
Arianrhod Hyde’s world (or Roddy, as she prefers to be called) is very much the world of magic, pageantry, and ritual. Presiding over all, the most important person is the Merlin, who is entrusted with the magical health of the Isles of Blest.
Nick Mallory’s world is much more familiar—at least, it starts off being our own. But Nick’s not the ordinary 15-year-old he seems, as he slips sideways into something he thinks is a dream—but in fact is another world entirely. Now, Nick’s been on other worlds before (although never alone), but he’s a confident type. Maybe a bit too confident…
In Roddy’s world, the current Merlin expires, and a new one takes his place. Yet something is wrong—the rituals have been upset, and nothing is going the way it should. Roddy needs help, and Nick might be the one to do it— even if he can’t use magic…
Their stories unfold side-by-side, and the Merlin Conspiracy thickens—two stories combining until the mystery is finally revealed.
Compelling, howlingly funny in places, mind-boggling—this story will wow Diana Wynne Jones fans all around the world (and probably in other universes, too).
The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart
From the blurb:
The Arthurian legend is one of the most enduring and powerful of myths, and Mary Stewart’s classic The Merlin Trilogy is one of its most beloved and acclaimed retellings. In prose that is as vividly, achingly real as it is poetic, New York Times bestselling author Mary Stewart brings to life the man behind the myth: Myrddin Emrys … Merlinus Ambrosius … Merlin.
The Crystal Cave
The Hollow Hills
The Last Enchantment
Born the bastard son of a Welsh princess, Myrddin Emrys—or, as he would later be known, Merlin—leads a perilous childhood in The Crystal Cave, haunted by portents and visions. But destiny has great plans for this no-man’s-son, taking him from prophesying before the High King Vortigern to the crowning of UtherPendragon … and the conception of Arthur—king for once and always.
Keeping watch over the young Arthur Pendragon in The Hollow Hills, the prince and prophet Merlin Ambrosius is haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, hidden for centuries. When Uther Pendragon is killed in battle, the time of destiny is at hand, and Arthur must claim the fabled sword to become the true High King of Britain.
In The Last Enchantment, Arthur Pendragon is king at last. Unchallenged on the battlefield, he melds the country together in a time of promise as Merlin works to keep safe the once and future king. But sinister powers plot to destroy Camelot, and when the witch-queen Morgause—Arthur’s own half-sister—ensnares him in an incestuous liaison, a fatal web of love, betrayal, and bloody vengeance is woven.
Extensively researched and beautifully written, The Merlin Trilogy is the epic culmination of an acclaimed career, a legend in and of itself.
The Last Saxon King: A Jump in Time Novel, Book One by Andrew Varga
The Last Saxon King is the first in a YA fantasy book series about a boy who accidentally travels back in time to ancient England.
From the blurb:
Life is progressing normally for sixteen-year-old Dan Renfrew when he accidentally transports himself to England in the year 1066. He soon realizes that he’s trapped there, and that’s not his only astonishing discovery. Dan learns that he’s descended from a long line of time jumpers—secret heroes who travel to the past and resolve glitches in the time stream that threaten to alter subsequent history. The only way Dan can return home is to set history back on its proper course in the Anglo-Saxon age. This is no easy task.
A Viking horde is ravaging England in the north while a Norman army threatens to invade from the south. In between and desperately struggling to hold on to his throne is Harold Godwinson, the newly-crowned English king. Dan is fighting to ensure that events play out correctly when he finds himself plunged into an even more lethal conflict. To save history, Dan must battle a band of malevolent time jumpers whose lust for wealth and power threatens the entire future of the world.
Awakening (The Morrigan Chronicles Book 1) by N.A. Montgomery
From the blurb:
What happens when you take mythological races and creatures from around the world, mix them with the legend of King Arthur, stir in vampires & werewolves, and top it off with gods and demons battling to rule? You get The Morrigan Chronicles trilogy. Peek inside the magical world intertwined with ours as Morrigan and her friends unravel a plot thousands of years in the making. But never forget—it’s often hard to tell the difference between friend and foe. The Morrigan—Celtic Goddess of War, Fate, and Death. I am a warrior of the Tuatha de Danann. History writes us as a supernatural race in Irish mythology that battled demons and the Fomorians—a race similar to ours and our rivals.
The last thing I remember, I fought alongside King Arthur and his men against the Fomoire and an evil God. Then… I remember nothing. I am Morrigan, but I am no Goddess and no myth. The world has spun on for centuries without me and my people. The only traces of us existing are in the legends we’ve left behind. There are mysteriously few demons and new creatures I’ve never encountered, vampires and werewolves, that roam the world. The Gods are back to playing their twisted games for power, threatening to end the entire realm. There is little hope until… we are awakened.
This post was about 7 of the best YA fantasy novels set in ancient Britain.
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