From Baen January 2019 in the Time of Heroes series:
Cover art: Todd Lockwood
APPROACHING THE TERRITORY
The tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table lend themselves well to realistic, modern treatment. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King did this effectively for the 19th century, and TH White did another take in the 20th with The Once and Future King, which the musical Camelot followed closely. In both cases the focus was on the love triangle of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, though the authors had very different views of the subject.
The love triangle is a great story, and Tennyson and White were great writers; but there are other ways a modern writer can approach the material. Proust near the beginning of Swann’s Way imagines that instead of travelling through the modern countryside, he’s questing through the Forest of Broceliande. This is a reference to Yvain, by Chretien de Troyes, who composed his Arthurian Romances in the 12th century. This is slightly earlier than three anonymous authors created the Prose Lancelot. The Prose Lancelot provides the source material for most later treatments, including those of Tennyson and White.
The Forest of Broceliande is a wondrous place which a knight enters for the sake of adventure. There he may find a holy hermit with a secret to impart, or a powerful knight who takes on all comers, or a thousand other marvels. In Chretien a hero may become the champion of a daughter whose sister plans to cheat her of her share in their father’s estate, a situation in which a modern reader might find him or herself. Alternatively, the hero may have defend the chatelaine of an isolated castle from the lust of a giant who drags behind him a coffle of knights whom he’s defeated.
Beasts and monsters lurk among the trees. There are castles which can be entered only upon issuing a magical challenge. Beautiful women become the prey of powerful villains–and the prize of heroic warriors. An enemy may become a friend, or honor may force a friend to become your dangerous opponent.
This is Romance in the broad original sense of the word. This is what fascinated Proust, and it is what fascinates me.
In The Storm I’m trying to evoke that sense of Romance in a modern reader. I’m using material from Chretien, and from the Prose Lancelot, and from folktales. My sources aren’t “history” in the sense we mean today, nor even “history” as a scholar in the High Middle Ages would have meant it.
I intend The Storm to be true to the mindset of Chretien and his 12th century readers. And I mean it to be a good story, which was certainly Chretien’s intention as well.
–Dave Drake