The Hollow Hills was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1973, the second volume of the Merlin sequence. The novel covers the period between Arthur’s birth and his accession to the throne — roughly fifteen years during which the boy is hidden with foster parents, trained for kingship without knowing his identity, and finally revealed as Uther’s heir through the famous drawing of the sword.
Stewart’s treatment of this period is politically sophisticated: Merlin does not simply wait for Arthur to grow up but actively manages the political landscape — ensuring that the right people know the right things at the right times, that Arthur’s fosterage remains secret from those who would kill him, and that when the moment of revelation comes, the ground has been prepared for acceptance rather than civil war.
The “hollow hills” of the title are both literal (the underground places where Merlin takes refuge and stores the sword) and metaphorical (the hidden world of manipulation and foresight that operates beneath the visible world of courts and battles). Merlin operates in this hidden world — a world of intelligence-gathering, alliance-building, and long-term strategic thinking that looks, to those who glimpse it, like magic.
Arthur himself, when he appears, is convincing as a future king: intelligent, physically impressive, naturally commanding, but not yet aware of his destiny. Stewart’s portrait avoids both the priggish perfection of some Arthurian treatments and the modern tendency to deconstruct the hero; her Arthur is simply a remarkable young man who does not yet know how remarkable he is.
Collecting The Hollow Hills
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1973): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First UK edition in dust jacket: $30–$80
- Signed first edition: $60–$150
- US first (Morrow, 1973): $15–$40
- Without jacket: $8–$15