The Saxon Shore is a 1995 novel by Canadian writer Jack Whyte chronicling Caius Merlyn Britannicus's effort to return the baby Arthur to the colony of Camulod and the political events surrounding this.

Saxon Shore begins with Merlyn and the infant Arthur stranded in a small boat on the southernmost extreme of the Irish Sea.

When the party arrives there, a crew of marauders was harvesting marble from a variety of buildings in Glevum: a Roman temple, and a large and impressive administrative basilica and forum market-place.

The Comuludian knights travel through the Irish wilderness under threat of barbaric peoples, but only encounter a boar larger than any other ever hunted by the Scots.

Upon returning to Camulod, Merlyn discovers his half brother Ambrose has integrated the infantry and cavalry in order to reduce enmity between the two military branches.

A group of Cambrian raid an outlying farm of the colony, however before the military can follow a heavy winter sets in that kills the oldest members of the community.

In the spring a large contingent of the military, 500 foot soldiers and 500 cavalry, leave Camulod to take revenge for the raid which killed 50 of their comrades.

The army enters Cambria and soon find the men who had stolen the horses dead, they then encounter a force of Dergyll's archers, however Merlyn tactfully avoids any confrontation.

Merlyn and Ambrose make a trip to Northumberland and discover that the alliance between Briton-Romans and the Norse that had maintained the strength of the kingdom is failing.

An attempt is made on Arthur's life by a group of men loyal to Ironhair, and the council of friends which had come to surround Merlyn decided that in order to protect this future king he must live outside of the community which knows of his existence.

[1] Generally reviews of The Saxon Shore are positive, placing particular emphasis on the unique nature in which Whyte draws detail together with entertaining narrative in creating a new interpretation of the Arthurian legend.

[2] The academic journal The Heroic Age called the work "interesting and engrossing" though noted that some serious editing would have helped prevent the novel occasionally getting bogged down in detail.

[7] This theory, based mostly on archeological findings and sceptical reading of historians, would likely not have been available during the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, the era when Merlyn and the other Britannici would have been able to learn such information.