This is a grand 'romance of the dark ages' - available in its full form for the first time. Widely regarded as Powys' finest achievement in fiction, Porius has never been published in its intended form - until now. The culmination of a lifelong passion for Wales and its mythology, Porius is at once a historical novel and a commentary on the nature of modern warfare. It is the year 499. The Saxons and their forest-people allies are advancing upon a Roman fort in North Wales in a desperate attempt to save the remnants of their matriarchate. Arthur has sent ahead Merlin, Nineue, and Medrawd, to help the beleaguered son of the reigning prince, Porius. Powys, a self-labelled 'born Inventor of Fairy Tales', transformed the people and animals of his Welsh village into the mythical figures that haunt Porius' primeval woods. Severely cut by previous publishers, this edition, newly edited by two pre-eminent Powys scholars, is Porius as Powys would have wanted what he considered 'the chief work of my lifetime'.