Modern fantasy novelists find the Dark Ages a particularly rich area
for setting some bizarre and imaginative stories. This is the realm of high fantasy,
science fiction, and horror. Here are some classic examples (not strictly Dark Ages
material but more 'timeless').
- Novels
- Tim Powers: The Drawing of the Dark. The fate of European civilization
as the Ottoman Turks besiege Vienna depends on the preservation of a magical brewery where
dark beer is made. Wonderful book! (Merlin is in it, hence its inclusion on this site.) *****
- John M. Ford: The Dragon Waiting. I have to quote the blurb in full:
In a snowbound inn high in the Alps, four people have met who will alter
fate: a noble Byzantine mercenary; a beautiful Florentine woman physician; an ageless
Welsh wizard; and a German vampire. In a world ruled by sorcery, war, treachery, and
passion, they have joined forces against the serpentine evil rising to vanquish a young
Plantagenet prince--who now has been marked for a glorious new destiny as England's
King Richard III.
How can one resist a thing like this?
- Jack Vance: Lyonesse. One of a trilogy or so, by a master of Science Fiction,
Fantasy, and even Mystery stories. This is somewhat skewed to the theme of this page, but
if you have never had the pleasure of reading Jack Vance, try it out (if it's in print any more) --
in fact READ JACK VANCE, anything he wrote! The subject of this series is at least in the
Celtic vein and hence relates to this web page.
- Miscellaneous: Poul Anderson (and his wife Karen) also
started a similar series (don't know if it was finished, since I only have the 1st volume); he also is of the Jack Vance grouping, although lacking the sense of humor and irony that Vance specializes in.
[Mar 1998: Persistence pays -- found the one-volume omnibus edition of The King of Ys and will report on it in more detail after wading through its 1100 or so pages. I've gotten about 300 pages into it but it is not a subway or bus book you can read in one hand and stuff in your pocket. From what I've read so far, the characters are very good, real and decent people, with nice inter-reactions, especially between the hero and his nine wives. The historical explication is
excellent.] [Note (Sept 1998): I finished this a while back and didn't get back to updating this web page. The story bears out its promise and can be regarded as a masterpiece. The core of the story, characterwise,
is the relationship between the king and his daughter. It goes a bit beyond Lear and Cordelia! Historically,
this book slots right into the Arthurian theme, although Arthur isn't mentioned. Highly recommended *****]
You might also want to check out Harry Harrison's Hammer & the Cross
trilogy (Pagan England vs. Catholic Europe, an alternate world history of the Dark Ages, a la
"Connecticut Yankee" technology vs the developing feudal system, i.e. communism/fascism --
you know whose side you're on, I hope).
- High Fantasy: Katherine Kurtz wrote her Deryni series about a
parallel pseudo-Celtic world. Similar fantasy worlds have been created by other authors
in a Celtic vein (such as Katherine Kerr), but they are outside the scope of this web page.
- Science Fiction: Marion Zimmer Bradley captured an Arthurian fantasy
type setting in her early period Darkover novels. There are many other series
in this genre, but again they are outside the scope of an Arthurian web page. (Note: A lot of people have e-mailed me about her Mists of Avalon, which is the story of Morgan la Fay told from a feminist viewpoint. I have not read it, but intend to some day, if only they would publish it in a standard-size paperback, not that doorstopper version it's now in.)
- Jabberwocky: Lewis Carroll is beyond the fringe of Arthurian legend, but it is a nice parody of the dragon-slaying
adventures of Malory's knights. Click
here.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a movie, but one of the
best satirical farces about the Arthurian chivalric tradition ever made
(and actually pretty accurate about the real squalor that prevailed in
life at the time). There are several other King Arthur movies, but I won't go into them here -- they are mostly unmemorable. (I will, however, mention the recent -- July 2004 -- King Arthur, which purports to be 'historical' and makes a good contrast to the Monty Python classic.)
[You know, I've always regretted that Robert Graves never tried his hand at
a King Arthur book -- he did Claudius and Hercules and Billy Palmer the Mass Murderer and
other 'historicals' so persuasively that you really believe that he lived through those events.]
|
