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Dear colleagues, this talk called the saga of Erik,

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the unlucky is to introduce what has been described as a forgotten fantasy classic, republished in 1974.

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Rider Haggard, the saga of Eric Bright Eyes, first published in 1891.

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Rudyard Kipling thought it was a thoroughly successful anglicised saga despite its unfortunate title.

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Andrew Lang was another friend of his and encouraged his interest in myth and legend.

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Haggard is known to this day for his exciting adventure novels she and King Solomon's mines.

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When I reread these recently, I found the first contained for my taste, too much philosophical musing.

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And the second. Too much blood and warfare. This one is a bit different, Haggard is inspired by the northern sagas.

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My task is not to explore which of the sagas influenced him.

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I'm not an expert in this literature, but I didn't want to begin with an apology,

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but to look at his style and how it's informed by mediaeval narrative techniques.

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It's clear that he used a number of these, although not consistently, nor claiming to be accurate.

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He nevertheless succeeds in making the story sound perhaps feel like a saga.

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First to explain my title. Eric is hounded by fate.

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And it's not clear, it is clear from the very opening pages that the story will not have a happy ending.

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The hero and many of the other characters of say by which I mean not fairies, but fated and despairingly conscious of the fact,

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however, their fate drives them not to passive and wretched acceptance, but to nobility and great deeds.

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Otherwise, there would be no story. In a characteristic of mediaeval, romance is an obsession with naming and name looseness in this story,

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which is not a romance, although it's very romantic. The naming theme is different.

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The characters often take part in name calling or flighting.

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This is frequently an exchange or contest of insults before battle,

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or perhaps the sort of named magic like a curse where the bad name sticks to the adversary.

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There is some discussion of this kind of discourse in my naming and nameless list book see the index.

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Eric renames himself as Eric the unlucky in the chapter, entitled How Eric was named a New.

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The narrator never uses this name for him. It's part of the name calling theme.

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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.

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OED says this word is an incorrect version of Old Norse Niffenegger, which was given currency by Walter Scott Haggard,

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like Scott and others, uses a number of occasions, but his language is consistent and it is not difficult to get used to it.

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Even the and though the story moves forward so briskly that one cannot help being carried along with it.

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The first example of narrative style, to mention, is the relentless flow of one thing after another.

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The pirate tactics style that goes and and and.

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It's familiar to mediaeval estates in, for example, chronicles.

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It's perhaps the most basic form of story and none the worse for that discussed in Ian Foster's aspects of the novel.

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The chapter, entitled The Plot?

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Rosemary Sutcliffe, in my opinion, one of the very best writers of historical novels for children, sometimes allows herself an archiving style.

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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.

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But these examples from the road to cam land are very clear, almost intrusive.

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We get four paragraphs thus and all day long, and Madrid and the High King Road.

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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.

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All on one page, not counting the wood and within paragraphs,

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each of these sentences would work perfectly well without end, however, and in this story is evocative.

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It gives a slightly older, worldly flavour to the narrative because it's familiar from mediaeval literature.

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Haggard manages this parrot tactic narrative method rather differently.

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We get now they arrived at the harbour, then the other warriors rode up, so they went on their way.

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The effect is less mannered, but likewise evokes an older style.

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Another characteristic very typical of mediaeval narrative is the way verb tenses switch from past to present and back, sometimes inexplicably,

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it has been pointed out that in verse, a change may simply be to provide the correct number of syllables for the line.

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In French, especially, this makes a difference. For example, Il C or Il Survé in English, somewhat less.

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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.

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Some scholars explain this trick, if trick it is by saying that the present tense is more immediate, heightening the tone of the story.

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It's not always possible to apply this explanation with a verse or prose.

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English or French. And we may conclude that it really didn't matter to most mediaeval writers or readers.

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Haggard chooses to switch to present tense for a paragraph or two, then back into the past.

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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.

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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.

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The main action is the tragedy of two women who love the same man and how their rivalry is played out.

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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,

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although the latter is rather inadequate as a hero's side sidekick.

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Not only does he refused to get christened. See, for example, my naming book.

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But in one version, he deserts when a proper dragon turns up.

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See, for example, Douglas Grey, make we marry more or less?

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But Skyler Groom is faithful to the end.

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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.

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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.

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This explicit reference to the future coming of Christianity gives a haunting sense of sadness.

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Supernatural forces act on the characters directly in the form of prescient dreams, and most of the plot is driven by malevolent witchcraft.

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The two wicked female figures are, of course, more interesting as characters than the heroine.

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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.

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Other mediaeval themes include the blood feud, which incidentally, acts as a device to move the plot forward.

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Closely linked to themes such as name calling and the ways of fate.

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If the importance of both keeping Eric will not break his oath to let none but his lady cut his hair,

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a lost love token brings disaster as if disaster were not already on its way.

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These, which give the atmosphere of a northern mediaeval narrative, are handled economically without over elaboration.

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For example, the story is not interrupted with long flashbacks explaining this blood feud or that historical character preceding the current action.

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Such interspersed stories might properly be for the minstrels or scouts to relate in this book.

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Songs chanted by one character or another spell out adventures or predictions in the form of the songs is on rhymed,

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but metrical with a strong flavour of traditional alliterative verse.

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It's not correct alliterative verse, but again, in Haggard's hands, it works well.

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He's not so much attempting to write a literate, alliterative verse as suggesting it.

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Fast, yes, the moon down Golden Falls, said Young Eric, to thy feast.

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And Swift and sure, across the Swans, Bath spared sea stag on ravens track.

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A few Canning's are scattered about Swan's bath, for course,

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choosing Daughters for Valkyries haggard brief footnotes to explain some unfamiliar expressions.

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These include the word faith the nuns troll the island battle home.

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The latter is another theme found in mediaeval narrative where two heroes fight on an island.

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One of the boats is pushed off, leaving only one for the victim.

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The fight that takes place in a liminal space so that blood guilt will not fall on the territories on either bank.

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One such battle takes place in the Anglo Norman Roman de France case,

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a 12th century anti-French satire by Andre de Kryptos King Arthur meets King follow on an island in the River Seine.

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And, of course, beats him. So there we have it in this book.

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There are a number of mediaeval themes, but somehow the overall effect is achieved by means of several mediaeval narrative techniques.

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These are chiefly parrot tactics, style characteristic switching of tenses from past to present and back.

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And the distinctive colouring of alliteration in the verse passages.

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I conclude with a few words from Hagel's introduction.

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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.

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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.

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Haggard sets out to write a story that will not only please readers, but also bring them to the sagas.

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He calls them the prose epics of our own race. Let us go and find some sagas to read.