On Dec. 3, Charleston–based author Signe Pike released the third book in her historical fiction series, The Shadowed Land, a tale set in early medieval Scotland, which shows a new point of view in the legend of King Arthur. The Lost Queen series follows the life of Languoreth, a real-life queen whose story has not been told — until now.
Pike’s retelling of this Arthurian saga thrusts readers into a world of ambition, loyalty and love. The series uses Pike’s extensive knowledge of Celtic and Athurian history, religion and culture — which she’s now researched and written about for over a decade.
The series was described by author Kirsty Logan as “Outlander meets Camelot — but with the focus firmly on the lives and loves of women. [It’s a] sweeping, magical tale of a rarely-told part of Scotland’s history.”
Pike published her debut novel, The Lost Queen, in 2018, and has since released two more of a planned four in the series. Plus, the work is currently in development for television by the Emmy award–winning production company Made Up Stories. Producer Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Luckiest Girl Alive) won the rights in a competitive Hollywood auction in 2018.
Though there’s not yet a release date, the small-screen adaptation of the fantastical Lost Queen saga is moving along, Pike said in an interview with the Charleston City Paper. “It’s getting more exciting as things have progressed. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes right now that I can’t quite share yet, but soon we will be able to see it on the screen, and that will be magical.”
Medieval inspiration
Before getting started on her series of epic fantasy, writer Pike moved to Charleston in 2009 to pursue “better access to the natural world and a change from Manhattan.
“I quit my job at a publishing house in New York to go research folklore, and find, in these other places and people, a sense of enchantment about our everyday lives,” she said. Her first book was a nonfiction travel memoir entitled Faery Tale: One Woman’s Search for Enchantment in a Modern World.
In a tour through England, Ireland, Scotland and beyond, Pike attempts to connect with the spirit world and comes to view herself, her roots and the world around her in a profoundly new way.
“I started to do a bunch of research into pre-Christian Ireland, Scotland and England. That was what got me really interested in this whole idea of a time in which we were much more connected to nature, through people’s belief in nature gods,” she said. By following that path of researching folklore, Pike stumbled upon the existence of a little-known ancient queen, Languoreth, a historical figure uncovered by recent scholarship.
The Lost Queen reader meets Languoreth as a young girl, born during a time when Christianity was incorporated into, and — during her life and rule — eventually replaced, the pagan traditions of Scotland.
“As I researched her, the plot thickened,” Pike said. Languoreth is believed to be the real twin sister of the man who inspired Merlin in the Arthur legend. “I thought, how strange that Arthur and Merlin have been fictionalized, and yet she is not.”
So Pike set out to uncover the story of “an incredible woman who lived through such trying times. I found so much hope and resilience and inspiration in her story. I thought it was such a travesty that her story was never told, and in fact, was intentionally swept under the rug by her political and religious enemies. That put me on the mission to resurrect her.”
Pike will take her book tour across the Southeast with twenty stops Dec. 3 through Feb. 18.
“Here in the South, there is a huge Scotch-Irish tradition,” Pike said. “We had a lot of immigration happen here and into Appalachia, so it’s really neat now to explore that side of the South’s history.”
Learn more about The Lost Queen series, Signe Pike and her book tour, which stops in Mount Pleasant, Downtown and Summerville, at signepike.com.
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