Devorah Fox writes historical epic
fantasy, sci-fi fantasy and thrillers. She tells me a favourite of her own
novels is THE
LOST KING (The
Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam Book 1.)
Devorah has described THE
LOST KING as ‘a
once-upon-a-time fairy-tale type story for grown-ups. Although there are
dragons, wizards, and other mythical elements, it's a literary fantasy, an
allegory for contemporary challenges rather than a tale of sword-and-sorcery.’
King Bewilliam is, in an alternative Middle
Ages, master of the Chalklands, lord of Bell Castle, and also a part-time
dragon slayer. He wakes himself to find a penniless vagrant, reduced to being a
humble barbers’ assistant. In his quest to
uncover and break the curse that has left him destitute, and regain his kingdom,
he journeys to strange lands where he finds adventure, danger, romance... and
himself.
Other
medieval literary fantasies include, of course, the Lord of the Rings/ Hobbit cycle by J. R. R. Tolkien, T.H. White’s ‘Sword in the Stone’, the Chronicles of Narnia stories by C.S.
Lewis and George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books. Many of these have been developed into TV
series and films.
Man
and monster in ‘Game of Thrones’
The
king reduced to peasant status amongst his subjects reminded me of ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.’
William
Bendix, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Bing Crosby ‘busy doing nothing’ in the film of ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’
(1949)
I thought I’d take a quick look at a
perennial favourite among human fantasy animals: the dragon (with the help of
Wikipedia.)
Dragon-like creatures appear in
virtually all cultures around the globe, which would indicate either the human
imagination creates similar ‘monsters’ regardless of where you are in the
world, or that dragons are a folk-memory of real creatures. Or both!
Some anthropologists believe that
dragons were created out of a near-universal human fear of snakes.
Others claim that early man conjured
up dragons in response to the mysterious fossils/ bones he found littering his
world, the remains of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. But
scholars have pointed out that Scandinavia has many stories of dragons and sea
monsters, but has long ‘been considered barren of large fossils.’
The earliest attested dragons
resemble giant snakes. Dragon-like creatures are first described in the
mythologies of the ancient Near East and appear in ancient Mesopotamian art and
literature. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence.
The word ‘dragon’ comes from the ancient Greek word ‘draconta,’ meaning ‘to watch,’ suggesting that the beast guards treasure, such as mountains of gold coins or gems.
Among many famous dragons are the Hydra that Jason and his
Argonauts encountered in Greek mythology; the red and white dragons (representing
the British and Saxon populations of 5th Century Britain) that did battle
before King Vortigern and the young Merlin in early British legend; the dragon
that slew Beowulf, the great legendary hero who has his origins in 6th
Century Sweden; and the one that gave St. George such trouble.
The mythical Hydra
Whilst dragons in early legends have
wings and could fly, the earliest mention of the ‘fire-breathing’ dragon is
unclear. It was certainly a feature of them in European lore of the Middle
Ages, when the dragon was given satanic attributes.
It would seem obvious that dragon
legends were partly based based on folk knowledge or exaggerations of living
reptiles, such as monitor lizards, iguanas, Gila monsters, alligators and
crocodiles.
A monitor lizard
In a scenario straight
out of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost
World,’ sailors visiting a cluster of remote islands in The Dutch East
Indies (what is now Indonesia) c. 1910 reported seeing a monstrous ‘land
crocodile.’ Lieutenant Jacques van Steyn van Hensbroek of the Dutch colonial
administration investigated. On a volcanic island, wreathed in jungle and mist,
he encountered a terrifying sight – a lizard 6 feet long. He killed this
creature and sent the skin and several photographs to the Zoological Museum and
Botanical Garden at Bogor, Java. It was eventually determined that this was a large
species of monitor lizard. But, based on the island where it was discovered, it
was soon better known as The Komodo Dragon.
(If that scenario sounds familiar,
the Van Hensbroek expedition was an inspiration for
the classic 1933 monster movie ‘King Kong,’ pictured below.)
We now know Komodo Dragons reside on the tiny islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili
Motang, east of Java. Males average 8.5 ft, although
the largest verified wild specimen was 10.3 ft long and weighed
166 kg (366 lb), including undigested food. The Komodo dragon has a
tail as long as its body, as well as about 60 frequently replaced, serrated teeth
that can measure up to 2.5 cm (1 in) in length.
Although this
creature is largely shy, there have been rare documented
cases of Komodo Dragons attacking, killing and eating humans.
The idea that medieval maps contained the
phrase ‘Here be dragons,’ marking unknown and dangerous regions, seems to be a
fiction. The Latin ‘Hc Svnt Dracones’ ('here are dragons') does appear on the Hunt-Lennox Globe which dates from c. 1510. This dragon zone
is placed on the east coast of Asia, and is possibly a reference to the Komodo
Dragon.
REVIEWS
of THE LOST KING:
‘Delightful summer reading.’
‘This is
a unique story--not the typical medieval heroic fantasy--that is fun to read
but also makes you think.’
‘A very
gripping novel… most entertaining book… for everyone of all ages.’
‘A
terrific story’
‘Engaging.’
‘Witty.’
‘Charming.’
‘Absorbing
and compelling.'
