The Half-Hanged Man
I’ve wanted to write a novel set during the latter half of the 14th century for a long time. Even by medieval standards, this was a brutal and bloody era, with much of Europe plunged into dynastic wars.
INTERVIEW: Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths
An interview with author Nancy Brown on her latest medieval offering: “Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths”.
Language and Legend in the Fantasy Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien
There was something so real in the languages that he created, and critics wanted to find the inspirations behind Tolkien‘s worlds. Elves, dwarves, men, hobbits, and various other creatures occupied the pages of his books, but the languages he created were complex and had real elements in them. Examples of his invented languages were those spoken by the Elves, Sindarin and Quenya.
Horses of Agency, Element, and Godliness in Tolkien and the Germanic Sagas
What is the contract between man and equine that allows a beast ten times our size and one hundred times our strength to willingly serve in our ambitions? What magnetism (and who placed it) is it that draws humanity and horses together?
“Far-off gleams of evangelium” : a study of how J. R. R. Tolkien’s The lord of the rings reflects the biblical “Kingdom of Heaven”
The findings of this thesis confirm that the values of LOTR and the Kingdom are notably similar, and that the reader of LOTR does indeed derive from it an experience of what the Kingdom ideally is. But all this is “under the surface”, and Tolkien did not impose his Christianity.
Kerry, Ireland A.D. 800 – medieval children’s book
Set in Ireland’s majestic Ring of Kerry in the year 800, the tale is an inspiring coming-of-age adventure that deals with life lessons on the backdrop of an educational and entertaining plot
Author looking to crowdfund novel set in the aftermath of the Norman invasion of 1066
A British author is using the innovative crowdfunding publisher Unbound to raise fund to create a new novel set in eleventh-century England.
Character-Assassination: Conrad de Monferrat in English-language Fiction and Popular Histories
It is a story will all the ingredients of epic tragedy: a brilliant, courageous and handsome nobleman travels to distant lands, fights battles, marries princesses, is elected King but is slain by treachery, still relatively young, just before he is crowned.
Interview with Sarah Gristwood, author of Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
It was really Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s wife, with her ambition and determination – her refusal to let the Duke of York assume control, after her husband had fallen into a catatonic stupor – that kickstarted the civil war.
BOOK REVIEW: Edric the Wild
A book review of the new release “Edric the Wild”, by Jayden Woods
Interview with James Forrester, author of Sacred Treason
‘The whole plot becomes so much more sensational when set in the Elizabethan period, and the struggle the conscientious individual to ‘do the right thing’ becomes a battle in itself.’
Crime Fiction Set in the Middle Ages: Historical Novel and Detective Story
Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael Chronicles, however, were no instant success. They did not make the New York Times best-seller list, as Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose did, which was published in 1980 in Italian and translated into English in 1983. The first Brother Cadfael novel had a modest run of 5,000 hard-cover copies, largely for library sales.
The Treatment of Mythology in Children’s Fantasy
Fantasy stories trace their roots back to far older tales: the myths and legends of various cultures, which grew from oral storytelling in the days when myths were the only explanation for the mysterious workings of the real world.
No Game for Knights: The Arthurian Legend in Hardboiled Detective Fiction
In America, novels ranging from The Great Gatsby to John Steinbeck’s Cup of Gold borrowed Arthurian conventions to discuss contemporary American life.
The Mythology of Magic in The Hobbit: Tolkien and Andrew Lang’s Red Fairy Book “Story of Sigurd”
This paper was part of the Tolkien at Kalamazoo sessions.
The Peace Weaver: Wealhthrow in Beowulf
My goal in writing this fictional novella is twofold: to make Beowulf more accessible to modern readers and to expound upon the less articulated female point of view in the poem.
Elements of the Arthurian Tradition in Harry Potter
Both heroes exist to save their people from doom. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who authored Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) in 1136, Arthur ‘led his troops against the Saxons, who were still making trouble in various parts of the country, and after various vicissitudes he defeated them on a hill outside Bath, wielding a wonderful sword called Caliburn’1 (Ashe, ‘Quest’).
A Response to Anglo-Saxon Heroism and Fourteenth Century Chivalry: Ideals for the Warrior in the Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
While the chivalric ideal has continued to appear in British literature, Anglo-Saxon heroism with its bond between lord and thane has largely dropped away. The writings of J.R.R. Tolkien provide the striking exception to this.
France’s Jehanne: The 15th Century Heroine in Truth and Fiction
Jehanne bends her legs and arms, holding them close to her chest like a small child, trying hopelessly to find warmth on the cold, damp floor of her prison cell. Sitting only feet away from her body, outside the bars of her tiny cage, two guards argue over whose task it is to watch over her throughout the night. Their loud shouts echo against the tower’s stone walls and follow the stairs to the wet, deserted ground. She extends her arms around her head in an effort to drown out their foul noise from her head and hopefully alleviate her nose from the rank odor of putrefied air.
Book Review: Pope Joan, by Lawrence Durrell
Once I got past all the unnecessary narrative, this book read like a script from a ‘Carry On’ movie: a titillating tale of lusty desires and ambition set against a religious backdrop, and heavily cloaked in the guarded innuendo of the time.
Njáls saga as a novel: four aspects of rewriting
Inspired by Njáls saga and Laxdæla saga, the novel Fire in the Ice by American novelist Dorothy James Roberts is one of numerous modern rewritings of classical and medieval literature.
Interview with Sharon Kay Penman
Best-selling author Sharon Kay Penman has published her twelfth novel, Lionheart, which focuses on King Richard I and his crusade to the Holy…