Myth, the Universe, and Everything

Today was our monthly Viking Saga game, and I love love love how my players are letting me drag legends and fairy tales all together in a very satisfying fashion. Today, they helped Fata Morgana, aka Morgan le Fay, out of being encased in crystal by her former pupil, the nemesis of the PCs. Since one of the PCs used to hang out with Arthur and company, he was none too pleased at helping Morgan. Another was not fond of the idea of aiding a person who had encased Myrddin Ambrosious in crystal (as he's a member of the druidic order that follows in Merlin's footsteps in our cosmology). But, as one of the players said, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend, until they become my enemy." So, I got to have fun playing Morgan as an NPC. She's a great favorite of mine as one of the early bad girls of literature. But the bad-girl aspect isn't what I love about her. It's that she's so wonderfully ambiguous: sure, she raised her son (who she may have had by her own brother, Arthur) to take over Arthur's kingdom. Sure she had a huge grudge against the Pendragons. (And really, given the whole story of Uther and Igraine, who can blame her? Uther was a total jerk.) She may well have been hugely power-hungry, searching for magic greater than she could contain or control. But in several of the stories, she's also one of the women who escorted the fallen Arthur to Avalon, where he would sleep until his wounds could be healed. She's Arthur's antagonist -- until she's his protector.

What does that mean?

I suspect Robert Graves would suggest that she's playing out part of the story of the White Goddess. She's often considered part of a trinity of women (always with Morgause, who is sometimes Mordred's mother instead of Morgan, and sometimes with Nimue or Viviane or Elaine). A look at the Mordred story reflects Graves's depiction of the cycle of the Year King: the new king becomes the lover of the goddess, then must be slain by the king who follows him, who is in turn slain. The king's death is symbolic of the death of the year, and his life, the fertility of his kingdom. Morgan as a goddess figure -- or as a fairy figure, given her French title -- has distinct appeal, and makes her moral complexity, or her amoral standing, that much more interesting.

I'm not big on Morgan-as-hero, because I think casting her as the protagonist against Arthur and co. as the sympathetic figure in the narrative makes her less interesting. But Morgan as priestess of Avalon, as lady of the Tor or the Well (or the Tor and the Well), as the pagan sorceress participating Graves's mythic cycle -- that Morgan fascinates me. The Morgan in the game's cosmology is, as an NPC, less complex... but I've paired her off as a sometimes-consort of Loki. To me, that's like throwing two Tricksters in a cauldron, stirring, and seeing what comes out next.

It has been far too long since I posted here. Unsurprisingly, I also owe lyster a chapter of Blood and Tumult. When it comes down to it, writing is hard. :(

I write in a very immersive way -- I like to set time aside and completely delve into what I'm writing. If I have a block of a few hours, I can bang out a chapter and be on my way. But finding a block of time is difficult, and it's hard to prioritize that over holding my sleeping baby some days. It's all about finding balance, I know (it's my libra motto), but right now the scales are definitely tilted over into my daughter's court.

That said, I don't mind reading while holding a sleeping baby, so I've gotten a lot of books read recently. I've been plowing through the long lists for the Mythopoeic Society Fantasy Awards, both the children's list and the adult list. (I'll happily talk about the short list when it's revealed; the long list is secret.) I've also been reading review books. And I've noticed a trend in the past two years -- there are a lot of Arthur retellings out there. There are some coming out right now that were originally published in the 1980s, but are being released in new editions. There are new versions based on a historical Arthur, retellings based on Welsh myths, and modern stories with Arthur tie-ins. There's obviously been a market for Arthur stories since, well, Arthur became a legend, really, but there seems to be a glut of them lately, many of them quite good. (The ones I like best are, of course, the ones with good portrayals of Glastonbury.)

So here's my question: Is this new? Or am I just noticing it because I went on a rant to one of my editors about a particularly bad use of Arthurian legend, during which she realized I was an Arthur nerd, so she now sends me scads of Arthur related novels?

On a complete tangent, I'm getting ready to send my 4e Viking Saga team to the Continent from the Isles. Early on, we decided we'd just make Europe awash with tiny kingdoms, most of them feuding with each other, which our historian player said wasn't actually too far wrong around 800 AD. So the idea is that the Continent is going to feel like a fairy tale sort of place until the players get to the Scandinavian nations. I have yet to figure out good fairy tale rulers to make use of, however. Anyone have a favorite fairy tale king, queen, or other ruler I should use with Vikings and Celts?

I've had the good fortune, since my first trip to England in 2000, to have stayed in contact with Arthurian scholar Geoffrey Ashe and his wife (a scholar in her own right, and former professor) Pat. When I first began working at Gale, I was given the project that I now manage as a freelancer: coordinating the autobiographical essays to be featured in volumes of Contemporary Authors and Something about the Author. (As an assistant editor, I wasn't given charge of the whole project: I only worked on one end of the content spectrum, while another editor and mentor of mine, Motoko Huthwaite, did the actual solicitation; I took that work over after her retirement. Still another editor handled all of the image work.) I want to say that it was only three or four volumes into this work that I had the privilege of editing the autobiographical essay by Geoffrey Ashe. When my sister and I traveled to England together in 2003, we returned to Glastonbury and met the Ashes for church and Sunday roast. It was a great joy to get to spend time with them again this year.

Geoffrey's work spans mythology, history, literature, and fiction. He has written a biography of Gandhi, The Encyclopedia of Prophecy, and the occult novel The Finger and the Moon, as well as numerous other titles, the majority of which delve into the history and legend behind King Arthur. On the study tour, our most used text book was The Mythology of the British Isles, the preface of which provides today's excerpt.

P.S. I'm trying something new by linking to an assortment of booksellers rather than falling back on B&N (where I do the majority of my shopping). Any thoughts on that?

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(Here, Geoffrey addresses use of the word "mythology" in the title:)

Is "mythology" justified here? Much of the material is unlike myth in the classical sense, being more miscellaneous and often closer to history of literature. Yet when all these things are assembled and considered together, it seems clear to me that they have an interrelatedness which is seldom realised, and that their significance goes beyond entertainment or weaving of individual yarns. Whatever their precise nature, they have mythic dimension. They express ideas about a certain territory and how it came to be as it is: about is place in the world, its landscape, its inhabitants, their society and government.

The time-span of the survey extends from prehistory to the ninth century AD. It ends where it does, not because there are no myths applicable to later times, but because, with the movement into better-recorded history, their character alters. We get tales that simply embroider the lives of well-known persons, such as the heroes of Scottish independence, and Francis Drake. We get conscious fictions, such as Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The difference is sometimes one of degree rather than kind, and with Robin Hood, for example, the older type of myth-making is still at work. But a line must be drawn somewhere, and I hope the ninth-century ending will be seen as a logical conclusion, beyond which it would be difficult to go without a loss of consistency.

It may be objected that most of the matter is retrospective. It is what has been believed or imagined long afterwards, not what was believed or imagined at the time or anywhere near it. But the same is true of the Greek myths as well, or any other. Mythology is long-term creation.


Geoffrey Ashe with the Myth in Stone tour, 2000, at the site of Arthur's Grave at Glastonbury Abbey.


Geoffrey and the Myth in Stone tour, 2009, at the same site.

devonmonk inspired me with her goals system awhile ago, and while I haven't been keeping up with setting them (my to-do list keeps getting longer than my accomplishment list), I wanted to do that whole public accountability thing and set some goals here for the creative work I hope to get done on the England trip.

Reasonable Goals
Take photographs
Read 7 books
Finish one short story
Compose a photo essay for Journey to the Sea
Copyedit one autobiographical essay
Blog at least once

Unreasonable Goals
Take photographs and upload them for sharing
Read 10 books
Finish four in progress short stories
Finish a new short story for Baeg Tobar
Write the first three chapters of my Baeg Tobar serial novel
Write a hundred pages in either of my two WIPs (100 pages split between them would also be acceptable)
Compose the photo essay and an essay on sub-creation for Journey to the Sea
Copyedit both autobiographical essays and update the sketches that go with them
Blog once from every location with wireless internet

Aside from my goals, I'm still plotting out my book tourism.

Highlights of What We'll Be Seeing
British Museum
Stonehenge
Salisbury Cathedral
Avebury
St. Michael's Mount (Penzance)
Tintagel Castle
Cadbury Castle
Glastonbury Abbey
Glastonbury Tor
Chalice Well

I don't know if I'll have book tourists for all 10 of those highlights -- it's hard to decide what I want to take with me!

We're a week into the New Year, and I haven't really put together a list of resolutions. I'm not sure that I will. I do have a goal of forming an actual spiritual practice (rather than a haphazard spiritual observance). The same is true of my writing. I think I lost track of my apprenticeship somewhere along the way and need to get back on the right path.

But 2009 is looking pretty exciting for a number of reasons. Here's some of what's coming up:

1) Substrate. This is my new, semi-local writing group! Since we're based out of New Haven, it's very local to me, but some of the writers will be coming from Boston and D.C., so it'll be a trek. Luckily, New Haven is an old stomping ground for everyone but me (as the person who has spent the least amount of time living here on Connecticut's shoreline, or so I believe), so the writing group meetings can be combined with other events as well. Like, say, D&D games.

2) Baeg Tobar. I've gotten involved with BT again, and am very excited to be working with Scott and Jeremy and Daniel and the BT crew. There are some amazing things in store for the site this year, including serial fiction, short stories, and a regularly updating web comic.

3) England. I've been invited to be the TA/driver/chaperon for the Simon's Rock England Trip in May of this year. The last time I was in England was 2003, when my sister and I went on our (now infamous, I'm sure) Isle of Man trip, where we were attacked by gulls and almost fell into the Chasms. (I exaggerate only slightly.) We'd begun the trip in England, and we stayed in Glastonbury for a good chunk of it. I am very excited to return, and hope to become reacquainted with Geoffrey and Pat Ashe. I've fallen out of touch with the Arthurian scholar and his wife in recent years, and am looking forward to seeing them again.

4) Getting past 1st level. My Mythic Greece players, with the exception of the one who is currently nannying in England (and so hasn't made the past few sessions) are all second level. Also, I got a GM medal at Worlds Apart for running sessions there. (They were shocked with how excited I was with a little virtual medal, but I am constantly in awe of how well we're treated there. They are good people, and if you're near Pioneer Valley and in need of a game store, they should be your go-to point.)

5) Since it's up on the site, I think it's fair to announce that my LFR module, "Head above Water," is premiering at DDXP this year. I won't be going to Fort Wayne to usher it into the world, but I'm really excited to have it given such an excellent spot to begin play!

6) Dogs in the Vineyard. The old Dogs game is coming to a close, and the new Dogs game is ramping up. There are fun times waiting to happen.

7) Another Shoreline summer. There will be sailing, there will be beach cook outs, there will probably be grill outs in our new back yard. (We moved in December.) I may be dreaming in advance about sunshine, but man am I looking forward to beach weather!

8) A million things to read. Moving made me consolidate my TBR pile--the ones I've actually *purchased* and not just added to the list in my head. I'd take a picture, but it's a bit embarrassing. Add to that the number of awesome authors with books coming out this year (or just released): frost_light, melissa_writing, ilona_andrews, sartorias, jimhines, Carrie Vaughn, rkvincent, blue_succubus, antonstrout, amanda_marrone, jenlyn_b, m_stiefvater, mdhenry, nalini_singh... all of them on my Must Be Read list. (And that's just with what I know from livejournals or can back up with Amazon research. Heck, that's mostly for the first six months of this year.)

So, yes, 2009 is looking up. I know, I'm probably one of the few people in the world who is sad to see 2008 go, but it was a good year for me, as far as my short stories getting published, and I'm pretty pleased with it on retrospect. But, as they say, onward and upward!

A fun thing happened while I was in Greece--I received an invitation to submit a biography to the French roleplaying site, GROG: Guide du Roliste Galactique. Of course, I was a bit busy to fill out their questionnaire at the time. Yesterday, I finally got back to the site editor and contributed my biography, which he has already translated and placed here. My photo will be up shortly as well. How fun is that?

(I've been instructed to encourage other game writers, artists, designers, etc. to contribute as well. If you're interested, shoot me a note at alanajoli at virgilandbeatrice dot com and I'll forward on the information!)

In other news, the senryu contest on Spacewesterns.com finished up yesterday, so I'm expecting to start reading a lot of great Senryu in the next few days! I'm also working on another short story, which I should have started much earlier, in hopes of finishing it to my satisfaction in time to submit to the Lace and Blade volume 2 open call for Norilana books. I've been reading through the first volume and am very much enjoying the stories--so here's hoping mine will reach the bar that's been set. Given that I've now done a few stories on the Isle of Man, I thought I'd turn to Glastonbury, England, my favorite place in the whole world (despite hefty competition from Ephesus, Naxos, Port St. Erin, South Haven, MI, and the Thimbles). To start heading in the right direction, I've been reading The Avalonians by Patrick Benham, which tells the story of a group of young men and women involved in some of the physchical activities (including the finding of something like a holy grail) at the turn of the 20th Century. My short piece, which I'm calling "The Chalice Girl" for now, is only going to touch on that very tangentially, as it's also going to be part of a piece building into the universe of the Blackstone WIP. ("Don't Let Go" also takes place in that universe. Probably.)

That said, I'd better get back to it!