---
product_id: 1694051
title: "The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga, Book 1) Paperback – May 6, 2003"
brand: "mary stewart"
price: "R655"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/1694051-the-crystal-cave-the-arthurian-saga-book-1-paperback-may
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga, Book 1) Paperback – May 6, 2003

**Brand:** mary stewart
**Price:** R655
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga, Book 1) Paperback – May 6, 2003 by mary stewart
- **How much does it cost?** R655 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/1694051-the-crystal-cave-the-arthurian-saga-book-1-paperback-may)

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- mary stewart enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Enchanting beginning to the Arthurian saga
  

*by F***9 on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2023*

I’ll be the first to admit that, despite reading a few Arthurian-based tales in high school and college, I am not very well versed in the Arthurian legends and consider myself a novice. However, I found that The Crystal Cave was an enjoyable ride, filled with entertainment, fantasy and high drama.It’s only my second novel from Mary Stewart, but I have a strong inclination and belief that she is just a really good writer who engages her audience. I think this is especially true with this novels because, while I had some criticisms, she overcomes them all by creating an interesting tale from young Merlin’s point of view and bringing this setting and world to authentic life.The Crystal Cave is the first in a series of Arthurian retellings, and the initial focuses on a young Merlin’s vantage point and chronicles his adventures from childhood to becoming a young man. As a youngster, Merlin begins to become aware gradually that he has a gift if you will, of second sight. One of the more prevalent scenes begins when Merlin visits a cave and has a strange vision.The crystal cave, the basis of the title, sort of comes to embody the overall symbol of Merlin’s strange, yet uncontrollable, powers that he has:“A cave. The crystal cave. Sometimes I think it is death, and at other times it is birth or a gate of vision, or a dark limbo of sleep…I cannot tell. But some day I shall know. Till then, I suppose I am not afraid of much else. I shall come to the cave in the end…”My main quibbles with The Crystal Cave were both the many, many characters and relations to keep track of, which I couldn’t begin to do, and the rather anticlimactic moments. There were so many deaths of key characters in this book, and many of them happen “off screen” if you will, and explained away in rather abrupt manners, which lessened the impact of the moment.This aside, The Crystal was an entertaining, enchanting story for the most part, and it is easy to see why this novel has quite a following. This is a novel that a reader can enjoy it they do not worry too much about the characters and their relations and the world building and instead just take it all in. I would be interested in checking out the sequels in this series.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart: A review
  

*by P***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2016*

I had my Arthurian period like many readers. There was a time when I found the legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and Merlin irresistible.The period when I was most susceptible to these stories happened to coincide with the time of greatest popularity of the Lerner and Lowe musical adaptation of them, known as Camelot. Come to think of it, maybe that wasn't a coincidence. How I loved that musical!At any rate, it had been a number of years since I paid a visit to Camelot, but when Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave was recommended to me, I was intrigued. In spite of the reading I had done concerning the legends, I had never read Stewart's work. Obviously, that was a serious oversight on my part.Stewart was an excellent writer and she pulls together all the threads of the Merlin origination story and weaves them into a page turner of a tale.Merlin was the bastard child of a Welsh princess. His mother never told him, or anyone, the name of his father. As a child, he lived with his mother at his grandfather's court, but he was an outcast, without status or friends.As he got older, he enjoyed wandering the hills on his own and one day he found a strange cave and met the even stranger man who lived there, Galapas. Galapas was old and wise and had the gift of "seeing," as did Merlin although he hardly knew it at the time. Galapas became his teacher and he had other tutors as well who educated him in languages, math, and engineering as well as medicine and religion. And, of course, magic.Perhaps Galapas' most important lesson for Merlin was this: "The gods only go with you if you put yourself in their path. And that takes courage." Merlin learns the truth of that and learns to be open to the gods and always put himself in their path.The student grows in knowledge and power and, following the death of his grandfather and the ascension of a king who is even less kindly disposed toward him, he runs away from home and ends up on the shores of Less Britain which is under the control of the exiled king Ambrosius.Ambrosius' brother is Uther, who will one day be known as Uther Pendragon and will father yet another bastard child who will be named Arthur and given into the care of Merlin. But all of that is still in the future.In the meantime, Stewart shows us Ambrosius attempting to bring the peoples of Britain together under one king and the parts that Merlin and Uther play in his grand scheme.Merlin's renown grows throughout the land until he is seen as a great wizard, able to see into the future and to affect how that future evolves.The stories here are very well known and yet Stewart manages to make them seem fresh. She weaves together historical details and myth in a wonderful tapestry that finally reveals to us the whole colorful picture. Her writing is vividly descriptive and makes the reader feel as though she is there by Merlin's side as he works his "magic." Indeed, not just Merlin but all of the characters, including relatively minor ones, were well-developed and one felt empathy for them.This book was published in 1970 and yet it did not feel dated. It was as timeless as Merlin himself, perhaps still sleeping somewhere in his crystal cave, waiting to be called by Arthur to wake and defend the beloved kingdom once again.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Boring
  

*by J***E on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 5, 2023*

Couldn't get into it. My whole bookclub couldn't get through it.

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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-03-09*