Directed by Patrick Shen, executive produced by Pete Peterson, and produced by Andrew Brumme for Rabbit Room Press, Merlin’s Isle: The Tale This Land Still Keeps takes viewers on a symbolic pilgrimage across Britain with Guite and book series illustrator Stephen Crotts. Visiting the rugged landscapes and ancient landmarks that are as integral to Arthurian legend as the characters themselves, Guite reveals the inspiration, formation, and ultimate hope for his Merlin’s Isle four-volume epic poem cycle.
“I want to tell this story well enough and enchantingly enough that I might help to baptize the imagination of a rising generation,” Guite explains in the documentary. “The generation that is right now stuck in the imminent frame, stuck in this purely material transactional world that trashes everything before it’s hardly been made, I want to give back to them all that was stolen from them. I want to give them depth, height, the sacred, the enchanted. I want to kindle in them the yearning for a beauty and a truth which comes to us in story.”
Immediately following the screening, Rabbit Room Press will host a discussion with the film’s executive producer Pete Peterson and series illustrator Stephen Crotts. In addition, the highly anticipated second volume in the Merlin’s Isle series, The Coming of Arthur, will be available for purchase ahead of its November 9 release.
Renowned British poet and priest Malcolm Guite’s bestselling Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad makes history as the first multi-volume poetic retelling of Arthurian legend since Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King in 1859. A modern masterwork pointing the classic tales back to their roots, Guite’s stories—hailed “a magnum opus in the making”—are crafted for audiences of all ages and enhanced by original illustrations from acclaimed South Carolina-based artist Stephen Crotts. Series debut Galahad and the Grail released in April and marked Rabbit Room Press’ biggest book launch ever with more than 70,000 copies sold to date. The Coming of Arthur, which is currently seeing record-breaking presales for the Nashville-based publisher, will be available November 9, followed by Days of the Round Table in 2027 and Merlin’s Isle series finale The Passing of Arthur in 2028.
ABOUT MALCOLM GUITE
A poet, priest, and Girton College Life Fellow at Cambridge University, Malcolm Guite lectures widely in the United Kingdom and North America on theology and literature. Characterized by his deep engagement with the Christian faith, a love of traditional poetic forms, and the ability to make ancient wisdom accessible to contemporary readers, Guite is the bestselling author of numerous works of nonfiction and poetry, including Sounding the Seasons: 70 Sonnets for the Christian Year (Canterbury Press), which is now in its 10th printing; David’s Crown (Canterbury Press 2021); and Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Hodder 2017).