With a few more days of separation from my recent DMR Books blog post, I realize I missed an opportunity to plug this wonderful essay by the late, great Steve Tompkins: An Early, Albeit Pagan, Christmas in the Old North.
Steve's essay is worth reading for many reasons, but I think it sums up well a point I wish I had made better: Old Norse literature has not been mined to death, but rather its surface elements have been too frequently skimmed by subsequent authors. If you want to tap into a rich lode, mine the old, original material. But be wary of the wonders and terrors you will find, or the way they might stir some ancient, ancestral memory.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the likes of Tolkien, Howard, Poul Anderson, Moorcock, and Leiber read the Sagas and the stories of the Elder Edda and Prose Edda and drew inspiration directly from them, rather than second and third-hand re-imaginings.
Quoting Steve's piece:
Despite his occasional fallibility with regard to Robert E. Howard, and his near-lifelong wrongheadedness about J. R. R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock is an extremely perceptive writer, and I don’t believe he’s ever said anything more insightful than this:
To this day I advise people who want to write fantastic fiction for a living to stop reading generic fantasy and to go back to the roots of the genre as deeply as possible, the way anyone might who takes his craft seriously. One avoids becoming a Tolkien clone precisely by returning to the same roots that inspired The Lord of the Rings.
I know thoughtful people who are convinced that “the Northern thing” has been done to death in popular culture. With the best of intentions they urge the fantasy genre, on the page and on the screen, to turn to other climes and other cultures, retiring a stripmined, ransacked iconography wherein the very aurora borealis might now seem as tawdry and insincere as a neon come-on. Christopher Tolkien’s presentation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise is not only a fascinating foreshadowing of The History of Middle-earth but a reminder that no matter how many meretricious and mercenary versions of the Ancient North’s mythology have been in our face, for many of us those gods and heroes and dooms, to the extent that the original texts preserve them, are also in our blood.
I agree with going back to fantasy's foundations. (Though I don't agree with Moorcock's views on Tolkien.) Years ago, I made it a point to read Morris and such to understand where the genre was coming from. Probably, should read the Sagas though.
ReplyDeleteMatthew, they're worth it. I'd recommend starting with Egil's Saga, Njal's Saga, or Grettir's Saga.
ReplyDeleteI cannot agree with you more. I started off with Grettir's Saga and then read Njal's Saga on the recommendation of the late Greg Stafford; don't let rumors that they're slow or hard to read stop you, they're worth your time.
ReplyDeleteRead the Sagas and you'll begin to hear their echoes in works of the Masters. And that is just the beginning.
Thank you, Mr. Murphy, for that link to Steve Tompkin's essay; that was my first exposure to his work and I always find some new aspect to consider when I reread it. Unfortunately, this time it's that damn arrow Beanslicer. It's stuck in my head now and I'm going to have to write a story for it or it will drive me nuts.
Merry Christmas!
Greetings! I finished that story that was inspired by Steve Tompkins and the arrow Beanslicer. It is about 4000 words and it fits into my next book rather nicely so thank you for linking to that article (and thank you, Mr. Tompkins).
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the inspiration, I had hit a dry patch and that seems to have pulled me out of it. I'm sure you see more than enough of this stuff in your day job, but if you'd care to read about the arrow Beanslicer, drop me a line at jeboyle2@verizon.net and I'll e-mail it to you.
Thank you again.