Dear colleagues, this talk called the saga of Erik,
the unlucky is to introduce what has been described as a forgotten fantasy classic, republished in 1974.
Rider Haggard, the saga of Eric Bright Eyes, first published in 1891.
Rudyard Kipling thought it was a thoroughly successful anglicised saga despite its unfortunate title.
Andrew Lang was another friend of his and encouraged his interest in myth and legend.
Haggard is known to this day for his exciting adventure novels she and King Solomon's mines.
When I reread these recently, I found the first contained for my taste, too much philosophical musing.
And the second. Too much blood and warfare. This one is a bit different, Haggard is inspired by the northern sagas.
My task is not to explore which of the sagas influenced him.
I'm not an expert in this literature, but I didn't want to begin with an apology,
but to look at his style and how it's informed by mediaeval narrative techniques.
It's clear that he used a number of these, although not consistently, nor claiming to be accurate.
He nevertheless succeeds in making the story sound perhaps feel like a saga.
First to explain my title. Eric is hounded by fate.
And it's not clear, it is clear from the very opening pages that the story will not have a happy ending.
The hero and many of the other characters of say by which I mean not fairies, but fated and despairingly conscious of the fact,
however, their fate drives them not to passive and wretched acceptance, but to nobility and great deeds.
Otherwise, there would be no story. In a characteristic of mediaeval, romance is an obsession with naming and name looseness in this story,
which is not a romance, although it's very romantic. The naming theme is different.
The characters often take part in name calling or flighting.
This is frequently an exchange or contest of insults before battle,
or perhaps the sort of named magic like a curse where the bad name sticks to the adversary.
There is some discussion of this kind of discourse in my naming and nameless list book see the index.
Eric renames himself as Eric the unlucky in the chapter, entitled How Eric was named a New.
The narrator never uses this name for him. It's part of the name calling theme.
Another example is when the heroine refuses to be forced into marriage with a man who has been called Hnida Ring that is base or cowardly.
OED says this word is an incorrect version of Old Norse Niffenegger, which was given currency by Walter Scott Haggard,
like Scott and others, uses a number of occasions, but his language is consistent and it is not difficult to get used to it.
Even the and though the story moves forward so briskly that one cannot help being carried along with it.
The first example of narrative style, to mention, is the relentless flow of one thing after another.
The pirate tactics style that goes and and and.
It's familiar to mediaeval estates in, for example, chronicles.
It's perhaps the most basic form of story and none the worse for that discussed in Ian Foster's aspects of the novel.
The chapter, entitled The Plot?
Rosemary Sutcliffe, in my opinion, one of the very best writers of historical novels for children, sometimes allows herself an archiving style.
It seems unfair to single her out, because if I had to choose for her between her and Rider Haggard on my desert island, she would win every time.
But these examples from the road to cam land are very clear, almost intrusive.
We get four paragraphs thus and all day long, and Madrid and the High King Road.
And so day drew to the edge of night. And Arthur saw the two men stood close behind him and the black bitterness of death rose in after the king.
All on one page, not counting the wood and within paragraphs,
each of these sentences would work perfectly well without end, however, and in this story is evocative.
It gives a slightly older, worldly flavour to the narrative because it's familiar from mediaeval literature.
Haggard manages this parrot tactic narrative method rather differently.
We get now they arrived at the harbour, then the other warriors rode up, so they went on their way.
The effect is less mannered, but likewise evokes an older style.
Another characteristic very typical of mediaeval narrative is the way verb tenses switch from past to present and back, sometimes inexplicably,
it has been pointed out that in verse, a change may simply be to provide the correct number of syllables for the line.
In French, especially, this makes a difference. For example, Il C or Il Survé in English, somewhat less.
She knows. She knew. But it rushed it rushes, not to mention extra syllables provided, for example, by thou knowest he or she Russia's.
Some scholars explain this trick, if trick it is by saying that the present tense is more immediate, heightening the tone of the story.
It's not always possible to apply this explanation with a verse or prose.
English or French. And we may conclude that it really didn't matter to most mediaeval writers or readers.
Haggard chooses to switch to present tense for a paragraph or two, then back into the past.
He's using this trick of mediaeval narrative to heighten the immediacy of what's going on in a way that works well for the story.
I can't go on talking about the book without mentioning one or two events in the story, even though I'm not doing a comparative study.
The main action is the tragedy of two women who love the same man and how their rivalry is played out.
Eric has his double or companion. His friendship with Scalia Grim begins in a way that's reminiscent of Bevis of Hampton and his giant Ascot part,
although the latter is rather inadequate as a hero's side sidekick.
Not only does he refused to get christened. See, for example, my naming book.
But in one version, he deserts when a proper dragon turns up.
See, for example, Douglas Grey, make we marry more or less?
But Skyler Groom is faithful to the end.
Another link with the mediaeval world is the haunting presence of the white Christ, who is stronger and yet more merciful than the terrible fates.
He's mentioned at times during the story, but we are told that Eric and his fellows lived before Fang brand preached the light to Christ in Iceland.
This explicit reference to the future coming of Christianity gives a haunting sense of sadness.
Supernatural forces act on the characters directly in the form of prescient dreams, and most of the plot is driven by malevolent witchcraft.
The two wicked female figures are, of course, more interesting as characters than the heroine.
But this is a topic for another study. We are not supposed to like them, but all are motivated by love, hate or the lust for great deeds.
Other mediaeval themes include the blood feud, which incidentally, acts as a device to move the plot forward.
Closely linked to themes such as name calling and the ways of fate.
If the importance of both keeping Eric will not break his oath to let none but his lady cut his hair,
a lost love token brings disaster as if disaster were not already on its way.
These, which give the atmosphere of a northern mediaeval narrative, are handled economically without over elaboration.
For example, the story is not interrupted with long flashbacks explaining this blood feud or that historical character preceding the current action.
Such interspersed stories might properly be for the minstrels or scouts to relate in this book.
Songs chanted by one character or another spell out adventures or predictions in the form of the songs is on rhymed,
but metrical with a strong flavour of traditional alliterative verse.
It's not correct alliterative verse, but again, in Haggard's hands, it works well.
He's not so much attempting to write a literate, alliterative verse as suggesting it.
Fast, yes, the moon down Golden Falls, said Young Eric, to thy feast.
And Swift and sure, across the Swans, Bath spared sea stag on ravens track.
A few Canning's are scattered about Swan's bath, for course,
choosing Daughters for Valkyries haggard brief footnotes to explain some unfamiliar expressions.
These include the word faith the nuns troll the island battle home.
The latter is another theme found in mediaeval narrative where two heroes fight on an island.
One of the boats is pushed off, leaving only one for the victim.
The fight that takes place in a liminal space so that blood guilt will not fall on the territories on either bank.
One such battle takes place in the Anglo Norman Roman de France case,
a 12th century anti-French satire by Andre de Kryptos King Arthur meets King follow on an island in the River Seine.
And, of course, beats him. So there we have it in this book.
There are a number of mediaeval themes, but somehow the overall effect is achieved by means of several mediaeval narrative techniques.
These are chiefly parrot tactics, style characteristic switching of tenses from past to present and back.
And the distinctive colouring of alliteration in the verse passages.
I conclude with a few words from Hagel's introduction.
He says it is hard to persuade the 19th century world to interest itself in people who lived and events that happened a thousand years ago.
Now in the 21st century, we're interested not only in those people and events, but also in the writers and scholars of the 19th century world.
Haggard sets out to write a story that will not only please readers, but also bring them to the sagas.
He calls them the prose epics of our own race. Let us go and find some sagas to read.