Books: If only they *had* written that one ...

[nebroadwe]

Over at Making Light, guest bloggers Debra Doyle and James Macdonald are plugging their latest novel, Lincoln's Sword, by talking about how it came to be. They have the interesting idea that Civil War stories occupy a place in the civil mythology of the United States similar to the one the King Arthur cycles hold in Great Britain's. So when they sat down to explore that idea in writing, this was the actual first draft of an opening chapter that Macdonald came up with:

General Philip Sheridan awoke. He was lying under his coat, his head on his saddle on the ground. NameOHorse stood nearby, hobbled, cropping the sweet new grass.

Sheridan rolled over, looking across the field to the distant trees, a low mist clinging to the grass. As in amaze he turned his gaze, he saw that he was utterly surrounded by a ring of mushrooms. They had not been there the night before, he was certain. He rose, and donned his coat, pulled his hat low over his eyes, then saddled and mounted.

And as he pricked over the lea he heard a sad voice come to him, a maiden lamenting, saying, "O! who is more sorrowful than I?"

And General Sheridan rode to where the sound was issuing, and there he saw a beautiful maiden lying on the ground, her clothing in disarray about her, and her hair pinned to the ground with seven iron spikes.

"Who art thou, and who hath used thee so cruelly?" mathelode bold Philip Sheridan.

"Alas," quoth she, "it was a caitiff General who used me so, and I am Liberty hight, who thou seekest."

"Alas, then," quod General Sheridan, "for thou art mistaken. I do not seek Liberty, but rather another. Yet I am loathe to see a maiden, widow or wife mistreated, and will rescue you if I can."

And even as he spoke he looked about, and there he espied a General clad all in gray, sitting easily on a horse just beyond a stream.

"There," quod the maiden, "even there is the man who did use me thus." And thus she made her woe.

"Say then," quote bold General Sheridan, and turned his horse toward the strange General, "who art thou, and who dost thou serve?"

"I am Nathan Forrest hight," quod the unco General, "and Braxton Bragg is my master. Here I stand and thou shalt not pass."

"Then have at thee," said General Sheridan, drawing his sword and spurring across the leven.

And even then did General Forrest draw and cantered forward until he stood on the near side of the ford, where sweet water flowed from a spring. And such a pass at arms few had ever seen than General Sheridan and the Grey General by the ford, for each turned as quick as thought, and the clashing of their swords was like unto the sibillance of serpents, or the wind in the pines, that thicks man’s blood with cold. But even as they fought, first on one side then the other of the stream, and stirred to mud the sweet waters, yet neither could touch the other. They fought together thus, and the sweat ran down their brows, as the sun rose and the mist vanished.

Then of a sudden, without a word, the Gray General did turn and vanish, as if he had been a sprite. Then did General Sheridan return to where he had left the maiden with her hair pinned to the ground, but no matter how he sought, he could not find trace of her.

"This is wonder strange," then quoth the General, and with that he did decide to return to Washington to tell President Lincoln of the ferlie he had seen, for that President Lincoln was a man of great wisdom and knew thereby what others could not see.

The actual novel is nothing like this, but as a lapsed medievalist, I sure wish it had been. I love stylistic pastiche; one reason I keep reading all those [Famous Pre-Twentieth-Century Novel] and [Unlikely SF/Horror Element] books is in hope that the author will manage a proper cod-[Pre-Twentieth-Century Novel] voice. As yet, I haven't found one that really does it, but I can't give up the quest.

Doyle and Macdonald's full post about the genesis of Lincoln's Sword is over here, for anyone interested. Share and enjoy!

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, now that's just fun.

And the maiden pinned by her hair...oh...dear.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that is fun

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Ouch, indeed. But it does sound quite medieval (and not in the Quentin Tarantino sense, either -- if I hadn't already developed a taste for Terry Pratchett, I'd've done so after reading his skewering of Pulp Fiction's "get medieval" line in The Truth.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to use "NameOHorse" as my placeholder for names now. :-)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahahaha, it's better than what I do

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I know that maiden pinned by her hair, >it's a traditional song. (http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/martin.carthy/songs/twobutchers.html) I have the Steeleye Span version. :D

(and it helps if I include the link.)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hadn't heard that one before -- must really complete my Steeleye Span collection one of these days. (Books trump music, alas ... and there is no end to the making of books ...)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Alas, I don't have a complete collection of Steeleye Span, either. Basically because food trumps music. Which is also why I haven't pursued ordering Flairck and Marillion.