1 00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:06,900 Hello and welcome to this short lecture on Verst and Prose and Fantasy Literature. 2 00:00:06,900 --> 00:00:11,490 And Catherine Olie, I'm a junior research fellow in mediaeval studies here at Oxford. 3 00:00:11,490 --> 00:00:19,280 And in this video, I'm going to look at one particular way in which fantasy literature draws on that inspirations. 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:27,470 We're all quite familiar with the idea that a lot of the content of fantasy literature is ultimately derived from mediaeval myth and legend. 5 00:00:27,470 --> 00:00:30,540 But what may be less widely known is how far the narrative, 6 00:00:30,540 --> 00:00:39,900 form and structure of fantasy also owes a great debt to a popular, ancient and mediaeval literary form. 7 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:47,460 One of the more singular features of fantasy literature is the way it occasionally intersperses prose narration with poetry, 8 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:50,730 a form of writing known as Put Metron. 9 00:00:50,730 --> 00:00:59,100 Tolkien includes numerous poems and poetic extracts and would be otherwise predominantly prose narratives of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. 10 00:00:59,100 --> 00:01:05,010 Readers of Bryan Jakes Redwall series may remember his frequent forays into poetry from call 11 00:01:05,010 --> 00:01:12,080 it comic ballads to rousing sea shanties to riddles which the characters had to solve. 12 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:21,600 Percy Mottram is so characteristic of the fantasy genre, in fact, that it can be used to set up reader expectations in Guy Gavriel K's trilogy, 13 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:23,370 the finale of a Tapestry, 14 00:01:23,370 --> 00:01:32,670 five postgraduate students at the second international Celtic conference in Toronto and magically transported from our world to see another. 15 00:01:32,670 --> 00:01:37,260 The first of all worlds. Upon arrival in Vietnam. 16 00:01:37,260 --> 00:01:44,970 Appearing in what he describes as a small, dimly lit room, somewhere high up, they hear the sounds of singing, 17 00:01:44,970 --> 00:01:50,730 or, as he says, the unsteady carolling of someone coming down the hallway towards them. 18 00:01:50,730 --> 00:01:58,300 Someone far gone, Indrek. Those who rode that night with Rever did a deed to last forever. 19 00:01:58,300 --> 00:02:04,130 The weaver cut from bright cloth. Those who rode through Daniloff. 20 00:02:04,130 --> 00:02:11,990 Without even having his characters leave the room where they have appeared suddenly in this new land, Kay clearly signposted to his readers. 21 00:02:11,990 --> 00:02:21,290 A major shift in setting and tone. We've travelled from the familiarity of Toronto, where our main characters were beset by ordinary concerns, 22 00:02:21,290 --> 00:02:29,090 such as worries about exam revision to the kind of place where heroic rides are immortalised in verse, a place of unknown. 23 00:02:29,090 --> 00:02:33,560 But evidently noble history and of unfamiliar names and beliefs. 24 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,560 Daniloff Rever Weaver. 25 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:46,760 In short, the verse demonstrates that we are now in a recognisably fantasy space with all the narrative expectations that that entails. 26 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:53,690 Although not widely used in modern English writing prose, a metronome was extremely common in ancient and mediaeval literature, 27 00:02:53,690 --> 00:03:01,460 both in Europe and beyond the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, classical minifie and satire. 28 00:03:01,460 --> 00:03:06,440 But we see this constellation of philosophy. The Arabic Ceara or epic narratives. 29 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,280 The old French Okusanya collect the Old Norse sagas. 30 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:19,210 The Old Irish Toyin Dantes of Eton Rover Meche Tales of Magdeburg is fleece and dyslectic, got typed to name just a few prose. 31 00:03:19,210 --> 00:03:24,920 A metrical text survive in a huge array of languages and remained popular for centuries 32 00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:30,380 from ancient times right up until the rise of the novel in the early modern period. 33 00:03:30,380 --> 00:03:37,550 Why then has Posehn met Trim endured in fantasy literature when it has almost completely died out elsewhere? 34 00:03:37,550 --> 00:03:37,880 Well, 35 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:46,070 one obvious answer is that fantasy literature finds much of its inspiration in the prose symmetrical literature of the ancient and mediaeval period. 36 00:03:46,070 --> 00:03:51,810 Imitating this art form lends fancy literature, an air of authority and authenticity. 37 00:03:51,810 --> 00:03:55,190 There's something of an irony in using Posehn that trend this way, 38 00:03:55,190 --> 00:04:00,200 since poetry was often cited by mediaeval authors to lend authority to their narrative, 39 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,350 sort of like an early form of source referencing, 40 00:04:03,350 --> 00:04:12,050 and thus the prose metrical form actually arises in part because of a desire for an authoritative narrative voice. 41 00:04:12,050 --> 00:04:18,890 President Truman, fantasy is not just a method of handing, these stories have poetic quotations, 42 00:04:18,890 --> 00:04:23,150 often cluster around moments of particular narrative significance, 43 00:04:23,150 --> 00:04:28,850 allowing authors to linger at a moment of extreme tension or emotional impact in 44 00:04:28,850 --> 00:04:33,020 the lengthy and often complex novels which are typical of the fantasy genre. 45 00:04:33,020 --> 00:04:38,450 Structure is more important than ever. Intricate plots can become too involved. 46 00:04:38,450 --> 00:04:41,810 Unfamiliar fantasy names can become confusing. 47 00:04:41,810 --> 00:04:49,760 If a book is not well structured, embedding poetry into a narrative at critical points makes these points memorable. 48 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:57,830 By allowing for a change in register, usually it has to be said into a more melancholic or portentous Keat Tolkien, for example, 49 00:04:57,830 --> 00:05:06,600 lingoes over the death of Borromeo as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli singer lament before they send his body over the fault of Lost. 50 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:11,150 And I'll read you just the end of it. His head so proud. 51 00:05:11,150 --> 00:05:20,750 His face so fair. His limbs they lay to rest. And Rudolf's golden rule Ross' fools Morhaim upon its breast o Borromeo. 52 00:05:20,750 --> 00:05:25,040 That's how a God show Eggar North would gaze to Red Cross. 53 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:33,860 Golden Red Cross falls until the end of days and Guy Gavriel Kay uses poetry in quite a similar fashion. 54 00:05:33,860 --> 00:05:42,970 At the end of his novel, The Lions of Other Ascend, the final fall of the kingdoms of our Gassan is lamented in a verse. 55 00:05:42,970 --> 00:05:46,910 And again, I'll just read you the end of it. 56 00:05:46,910 --> 00:05:56,870 The wells and the fountains, weak for sorrow as a lover does when Dawn comes to take him away from his desire. 57 00:05:56,870 --> 00:06:03,720 They mourn for the passing of lines for the ending of our Rassam, the beloved. 58 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,220 Which is gone. 59 00:06:06,220 --> 00:06:16,210 Breaking into poetry here heightens the pathos of the moment, it sharpens the emotional impact and it allows Kay to impart a sense of closure. 60 00:06:16,210 --> 00:06:22,840 The poem is all about an ending. On one level, it's about the ending of the fictional kingdom of Rahsaan. 61 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:27,160 But on another, it's drawing the book itself to a close. 62 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:33,250 That's the conclusion of the novel themes is conveyed not just in content, but also in form. 63 00:06:33,250 --> 00:06:38,500 It's not just what Kaye writes, but how he writes it. 64 00:06:38,500 --> 00:06:42,760 But most importantly, I think embedding poetry within prose, 65 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:53,290 in fantasy writing has been so successful because these posehn metrical episodes are highly monck multi functional while remaining at the same time, 66 00:06:53,290 --> 00:06:59,290 stylistically elegant worldbuilding is a key component of fantasy literature. 67 00:06:59,290 --> 00:07:05,710 We judge authors on the skill with which they conjure up new civilisations and peoples for us to explore. 68 00:07:05,710 --> 00:07:09,370 But we do not want to feel like we're reading an encyclopaedia. 69 00:07:09,370 --> 00:07:15,190 A deft author can use a best quotation to subtly inform us about character and emotion, 70 00:07:15,190 --> 00:07:23,860 to educate us about a world history and culture, and to situate us in a particular atmosphere or temporal setting. 71 00:07:23,860 --> 00:07:27,460 Take, for example, this speech by Sam in Lord of the Rings. 72 00:07:27,460 --> 00:07:33,260 Chapter eleven when the Hobbits and Stryder camping at the top and they're discussing its old function as a 73 00:07:33,260 --> 00:07:41,360 watchtower from which the minable looked for the coming of Gale God from the West to help them fight the darkness. 74 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:46,190 And at this point, some rather unexpectedly breaks into poetry. 75 00:07:46,190 --> 00:07:52,570 Then he recites, Gail Ballard was an elvan king of him, the harp and sadly sing the last, 76 00:07:52,570 --> 00:07:57,340 whose round was fair and free between the mountains and the sea. 77 00:07:57,340 --> 00:08:01,750 But long ago he rode away. And where he dwells, none can say. 78 00:08:01,750 --> 00:08:08,380 For into darkness fell his star in Mortal, where the shadows. 79 00:08:08,380 --> 00:08:11,800 The scene deepens our understanding of Sam's character, 80 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:17,950 evidencing his particular fascination with the elves, which is what prompted him to learn these verses. 81 00:08:17,950 --> 00:08:22,960 And yet, as he tells his astonished friends, he did not memorise the remainder of the poem, 82 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:29,050 further emphasising that Sam is really more of a practical rather than a sort of bookish hobbit. 83 00:08:29,050 --> 00:08:35,230 And Stryder informs us that the verses are actually a translation by Bilbo of an older Elvish Lei. 84 00:08:35,230 --> 00:08:40,180 So it's use of syllabic metre and rhyme is thus also culturally characteristic. 85 00:08:40,180 --> 00:08:45,410 And it contrasts with the stress based alliterative verse of Rohana. 86 00:08:45,410 --> 00:08:52,120 And finally, the subject matter. By remembering a distant and legendary past establishes a sense of historical 87 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:57,010 depth and contributes to a growing sense of dread regarding the shadow of mortal. 88 00:08:57,010 --> 00:09:05,410 Even at this very early stage in the narrative, all of this from a scene of perhaps a few hundred words, 89 00:09:05,410 --> 00:09:10,750 Tolkien's interweaving of verse and prose and his Lord of the Rings is worthy of a lecture in itself. 90 00:09:10,750 --> 00:09:19,510 But here I want to highlight just one particular way in which he utilises the frequent shifts he makes between prose and poetry. 91 00:09:19,510 --> 00:09:24,460 One of the most striking aspects of the Lord of the Rings is the tone of the narrative, 92 00:09:24,460 --> 00:09:28,840 the way in which Tolkien is able to situate his readers in a world that feels both 93 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:35,950 indescribably ancient and yet has a historical and legendary depth of its own quote. 94 00:09:35,950 --> 00:09:43,350 That sense of perspective of antiquity with a greater and yet darker antiquity behind. 95 00:09:43,350 --> 00:09:48,190 Now, those are Tolkien's own words. But he was not talking about the Lord of the Rings. 96 00:09:48,190 --> 00:09:57,010 He was actually talking about Bales and that poet's brilliant invocation of the many layers of historical time. 97 00:09:57,010 --> 00:10:05,230 Now, Tolkien evidently admired what the Beowulf poet achieved in that regard because he clearly tries to replicate it in his own work and prose. 98 00:10:05,230 --> 00:10:14,620 A metronome is the essential strategy used by talking to conjure up that same sense of perspective in his own fantasy writing. 99 00:10:14,620 --> 00:10:20,350 He uses poetic quotations and the framing prose to look back in time. 100 00:10:20,350 --> 00:10:28,950 Consider one of his most celebrated passages where now the horse and the rider. 101 00:10:28,950 --> 00:10:36,520 Where is the horn that was blowing, whereas the helm and the hoback and the bright hair flowing and I wouldn't read all of it. 102 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:38,140 Let's skip to the end. 103 00:10:38,140 --> 00:10:48,160 Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning or behold the flowing years from the sea returning and then we switch into prose. 104 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,420 Thus spoke of forgotten poet long ago in Rohana, 105 00:10:52,420 --> 00:11:00,670 recalling how tall and third was a will be young who rode down out of the north and there were wings upon the feet of his steed, 106 00:11:00,670 --> 00:11:07,990 the ladder of father of horses. So men still sing in the evening. 107 00:11:07,990 --> 00:11:16,270 The episode helps to introduce the civilisation of Rome, establishing its antiquity and its nobility and most importantly, 108 00:11:16,270 --> 00:11:23,590 perhaps with the dominant use of the B.S. that the where all motif a sense of its current decline. 109 00:11:23,590 --> 00:11:32,590 Under the failing rule of the bewitched king. They had an. But Tolkien doesn't just use poetry to add historical depth to his world. 110 00:11:32,590 --> 00:11:41,500 He also uses poetry to look forward in time and thereby situate his own present narrative in the historical past. 111 00:11:41,500 --> 00:11:47,860 After the battle of Pelen Fields, he takes a moment to review the slain. 112 00:11:47,860 --> 00:11:57,190 So we're told. No few had fallen renowned or nameless, captain or soldier, for it was a great battle and the full count of it. 113 00:11:57,190 --> 00:12:05,380 No tale has told so long afterward, a maker in row home said in his song of the mounds of Montebourg. 114 00:12:05,380 --> 00:12:12,610 We heard of the horns in the hills reading The swords shining in the South Kingdom Steeds went striding 115 00:12:12,610 --> 00:12:21,580 into stony land as wind in the morning war was kindled that they had and fell fingerling mighty. 116 00:12:21,580 --> 00:12:27,280 And so it goes on, becoming a catalogue of the names of those who have fallen. 117 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:35,050 And this allusion to song makers in Rohana long afterwards pushes us as readers forward into the future, 118 00:12:35,050 --> 00:12:40,850 a reminder that the heroes of the Lord of the Rings will themselves pass into legend. 119 00:12:40,850 --> 00:12:45,640 Tolkien actually uses his poetry to look even further forward than that. 120 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:50,990 It's sometimes forgotten, I think that the Lord of the Rings takes place in our own world. 121 00:12:50,990 --> 00:12:57,700 I can see that's much more apparent in the early part of the novel, especially the prologue, than in the latter sections. 122 00:12:57,700 --> 00:13:04,210 But at the Prancing Pony, Imbrie Frodo sings a song that Bilbo wrote about the man in the moon who came 123 00:13:04,210 --> 00:13:08,980 down to earth to drink some beer and ended up drinking the whole night away. 124 00:13:08,980 --> 00:13:14,710 Only a few words of the song, we are told, quote, are now, as a rule remembered. 125 00:13:14,710 --> 00:13:21,880 And I'll read you just the final two verses because it's a very long song, but I think that you'll find them familiar. 126 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:26,860 So the poem ends with a payment upon the fiddle strings broke. 127 00:13:26,860 --> 00:13:31,570 The cow jumped over the moon and the little dog laughed to see such fun. 128 00:13:31,570 --> 00:13:35,840 And the Saturday dish went offered a run with the Silver Sunday spoon. 129 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:40,900 The round moon rolled behind the hill as the sun raised up her head. 130 00:13:40,900 --> 00:13:48,550 She hardly believed her fiery eyes. But then it was day. To her surprise, they all went back to bed. 131 00:13:48,550 --> 00:13:56,710 The illusion, of course, is to the nursery rhyme paid a little for which Tolkien has invented an entire explanatory backstory. 132 00:13:56,710 --> 00:14:01,840 But the episode is an intriguing bridge between the world of the reader and the world of the novel, 133 00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:12,370 suggesting for a moment a continuity of being a line that can be traced from ourselves in the present all the way to the end of the prancing pony. 134 00:14:12,370 --> 00:14:21,070 If we remember those few words of which Tolkien as narrator speaks, we are for a moment ourselves a part of the narrative. 135 00:14:21,070 --> 00:14:26,740 The scene enhances the realism of the narrative by connecting it to our own reality. 136 00:14:26,740 --> 00:14:34,060 If we are real and we are drawn into the narrative, then that same narrative is invested with the realism of our own existence. 137 00:14:34,060 --> 00:14:40,630 And fantasy, perhaps more than other literary genres, needs to feel real to be taken seriously. 138 00:14:40,630 --> 00:14:45,580 Stories which include consciously fantastical elements need to work extra hard to 139 00:14:45,580 --> 00:14:52,050 integrate them into a narrative to make them believable and to make them relatable. 140 00:14:52,050 --> 00:14:58,590 In a similar fashion guy, Gapuwiyak also uses poetry to provide a bridge between the familiar world of the reader, 141 00:14:58,590 --> 00:15:05,670 a world that in this case is shared with his main characters who come from Toronto and the magical world of Vietnam. 142 00:15:05,670 --> 00:15:12,090 The main theme in the first book of his vision of a trilogy is the way his characters Kevin and pulled 143 00:15:12,090 --> 00:15:18,500 process their grief for the death of their friend Rachel in a car accident before the novel starts. 144 00:15:18,500 --> 00:15:22,890 And it eventually leads Poole to an act of self-sacrifice on the cemetery. 145 00:15:22,890 --> 00:15:31,320 But Kevin deals with his grief in a different way. Late one night in a tavern where he's been taken by some of his new friends from Vietnam. 146 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:39,800 He performs Rachel's song, which is an adapted version of the second movement of the Brahms F major cello sonata. 147 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:47,970 And the song is an explicit lament for Rachel. And I'll just reaching again the beginning, love. 148 00:15:47,970 --> 00:15:55,260 Do you remember my name? I was lost in summer and winter, made bitter by frost. 149 00:15:55,260 --> 00:15:59,970 And when June comes December, the heart pays the cost. 150 00:15:59,970 --> 00:16:03,690 The breaking of waves on a long shore in the grey morning. 151 00:16:03,690 --> 00:16:11,110 The slow fall of rain and stone lies over. 152 00:16:11,110 --> 00:16:15,790 Although very different in tone to the song quoted when the characters first arrive in 153 00:16:15,790 --> 00:16:21,100 Vietnam over that song about those who rode that night with rather much more similar, 154 00:16:21,100 --> 00:16:29,650 in fact, to a modern love song, really, than an ancient ballad. The song nevertheless sets up music as a kind of universal language, 155 00:16:29,650 --> 00:16:35,740 something that both those characters from Toronto and those from Vienna, VA have in common. 156 00:16:35,740 --> 00:16:43,660 Where case early a shift into poetry emphasised all that was unfamiliar about Vietnam either as a distant and magical land. 157 00:16:43,660 --> 00:16:49,360 Kaye now uses poetry to highlight what is similar to begin breaking down the boundaries 158 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:56,600 between worlds and to show that what happens in one world can have consequences in another. 159 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,530 And that's really all I've got time for in this short lecture, 160 00:16:59,530 --> 00:17:06,690 but I want to end with the big question is the golden age of Prosy Metron in fantasy literature over? 161 00:17:06,690 --> 00:17:13,530 Should we now resign ourselves to more prosaic narratives in the literal sense of the word? 162 00:17:13,530 --> 00:17:16,650 It's undeniable that Prosy Metro has fallen out of fashion. 163 00:17:16,650 --> 00:17:26,460 I think lingering on mainly in the form of protheses magic speech, which is often still rendered in poetic form to highlight its portentous nature. 164 00:17:26,460 --> 00:17:31,980 It's a sort of subtle coding, but one that we all instinctively understand. 165 00:17:31,980 --> 00:17:38,310 However, the impulse to turn to verse and moments of particularly high drama still remains. 166 00:17:38,310 --> 00:17:42,330 Consider the Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. 167 00:17:42,330 --> 00:17:46,680 Perhaps the most major fantasy series of recent time. 168 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,760 Arguably the most famous moment of the whole series is The Red Wedding. 169 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:54,120 When and this is a huge spoiler alert. So please stop listening now. 170 00:17:54,120 --> 00:18:02,430 If you've not read it when the valiant Rob Stark is brutally betrayed and murdered at the wedding of his uncle Tully. 171 00:18:02,430 --> 00:18:06,850 And the scene is told to us from the perspective of Rob's mother, Kathleen. 172 00:18:06,850 --> 00:18:11,570 And I just want to read you a short extract. 173 00:18:11,570 --> 00:18:18,770 The players in the gallery had finally gotten both king and queen down to their name day suits with scarcely a moment's respite. 174 00:18:18,770 --> 00:18:28,400 They began to play a very different sort of song. No one signed the words, but Katlin knew the rains of customizer when she heard it. 175 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:32,900 Edwin was hurrying toward the door. She hurried faster, driven by the music. 176 00:18:32,900 --> 00:18:42,310 Six quick strides and she caught him. And who are you, the proud Lord said that I misspelled so much. 177 00:18:42,310 --> 00:18:54,650 She grabbed Edwyn by the arm to turn him and went cold all over when she felt the iron rings beneath his silken sleeve. 178 00:18:54,650 --> 00:19:00,920 The critical moment of realisation is interrupted by the ominous words of the song. 179 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:11,300 Who are you? The proud Lord said that I miss Bauer. So low is a final moment of quiet before the chaos and the slaughter erupts. 180 00:19:11,300 --> 00:19:15,200 The moment is particularly well rendered in the HBO show, 181 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:24,200 where that juxtaposition of the music and the murder is even more pronounced because we get to hear much more of the song that we do in the book. 182 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:26,540 So given the success of that scene, 183 00:19:26,540 --> 00:19:33,950 it's not surprising that this show made reached for the same technique in season eight when they reached a similarly dramatic moment 184 00:19:33,950 --> 00:19:42,260 the night before the final battle with a seemingly unbeatable knight king who can say how the story will unfold in Martin's version. 185 00:19:42,260 --> 00:19:49,460 But the show makers have Patrick Payne saying Gennie of Old is an old and very sad folk song. 186 00:19:49,460 --> 00:19:57,020 Of the Seven Kingdoms, while the camera pans over the surviving characters to show how they choose to spend what may very well 187 00:19:57,020 --> 00:20:04,820 be the last night of their lives and the words go like this high in the halls of the kings who are gone. 188 00:20:04,820 --> 00:20:15,040 Jenny would dance with her ghosts, the ones she had lost and the ones she had found, and the ones who had loved her the most. 189 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:21,140 And she never wanted to leave. Never wanted to leave. 190 00:20:21,140 --> 00:20:27,980 The lyrics, redolent as they are of loss and death, have clearly been written for their multi valence. 191 00:20:27,980 --> 00:20:30,920 They are not just a reflection of Gennie situation, 192 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:39,020 but of the situation of everybody waiting at Winterfell in these two moments of extremely high drama. 193 00:20:39,020 --> 00:20:44,720 Martin and his show creators, Benioff and Vice, reach for a familiar tactic. 194 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:53,930 They employ verse to create an atmosphere that cannot easily be created by simple narration or by means of direct speech between characters. 195 00:20:53,930 --> 00:20:59,630 Verse provides a much more subtle and implicit means of conveying tone and meaning to an audience. 196 00:20:59,630 --> 00:21:07,310 Whether that be the sense of ominous threat at the Red Wedding or of pre-emptive grief the night before the night King's attack. 197 00:21:07,310 --> 00:21:11,480 Martin Benioff and Vice are not alone in using best this way. 198 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:17,720 Who was able to watch the Netflix series The Witch without coming away humming the song Toss a Coin to Your Witch? 199 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:27,550 A song which again works to establish the character and drives of the series protagonist The Whicher of the show's title. 200 00:21:27,550 --> 00:21:36,280 I think it's fantasy adaptations increase me. We may well see the resurgence of prison Metron not perhaps in the written form, 201 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:40,570 which may never return to quite the kind of popularity it once enjoyed. 202 00:21:40,570 --> 00:21:46,960 But as a performative technique, as effective now as it was hundreds of years ago, 203 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:56,950 as a way to structure dramatic and spoken storytelling, oscillation between verse and prose still has a long and dynamic future. 204 00:21:56,950 --> 00:21:59,001 Thank you.