2010 Yuletide reveal.
Jan. 1st, 2011 02:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleMy story for this year was The Knight of the Star, an expanded re-telling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It was huge, ambitious, and rushed -- 5500 words in outline became over 19,000 in the final draft. As the LJ-cut below will reveal, this story was very heavy on the research. I bent Arthurian canon to suit my fancy in several ways that were important to me, shaping the story, and as a result I wanted a lot of source material to make sure I was getting everything right, or at least fudging deliberately. If you don't have any familiarity with Arthurian legend in general or Gawain & the Green Knight in particular, then everything below this point will probably be meaningless to you.
First: in the original poem, Sir Bercilak's wife, who is absolutely central to the narrative, has no name and little personality beyond what the plot demands of her. I thought that was first-order bullshit, so I called her Lady Beryl -- a contemporary Persian woman's name, referring to a green gem, so appropriate on multiple levels -- and I did my best to make her as real and compelling a person as Gawain himself.
Second: I made Bercilak and Beryl both Persian immigrants -- more accurately, from Eranshahr, the contemporary Iranian kingdom. I did this because legend and fiction whitewash England far beyond what history would suggest is reasonable, and because I could, and there was no reason not to. The Turk and Gowin is a version of the Green Knight story that also does this.
Third: Gawain did not sit around for most of the year moping and doing nothing, anticipating his inevitable demise. Not very knightly, for one. Deadly boring, for another. And it just doesn't make sense -- a fair exchange of blows would allow Gawain the same protections the knight had, if he can find them, and the equity of exchange and how central that is to courtesy are major themes in the original poem. So, Gawain goes hunting for a way to save himself. Most of the details are more or less incidental, except that I wanted to please my recipient, who liked teamwork stories. Gawain and his brothers make a splendid team, with Yvaine as a useful contrast. I put Lancelot in because I needed to slow Gawain down or my timeline got very lopsided, but I liked what his inclusion did to develop my characters and themes.
I toyed with notions of historical accuracy, swapping out the typical Arthurian plate mail and heater shields for cataphract-style scale-and-chain armor and round shields... but I left in jousting for sport, which is a terrible anachronism but a little too central a theme to go without. The castle I describe is also far, far too advanced for the sixth century.
Here's what my research looked like over the course of the story:
Well. It's late, and I am rambly and incoherent. Despite its length, I'm proud of this one, and still binging on Arthurian stories as a result, toying with the outlines for a few other short projects. Obviously I want you all to read the story, because every author wants their work to be read, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. And if anyone has any questions about it that this mess of a post failed to answer, comment or email with 'em!
First: in the original poem, Sir Bercilak's wife, who is absolutely central to the narrative, has no name and little personality beyond what the plot demands of her. I thought that was first-order bullshit, so I called her Lady Beryl -- a contemporary Persian woman's name, referring to a green gem, so appropriate on multiple levels -- and I did my best to make her as real and compelling a person as Gawain himself.
Second: I made Bercilak and Beryl both Persian immigrants -- more accurately, from Eranshahr, the contemporary Iranian kingdom. I did this because legend and fiction whitewash England far beyond what history would suggest is reasonable, and because I could, and there was no reason not to. The Turk and Gowin is a version of the Green Knight story that also does this.
Third: Gawain did not sit around for most of the year moping and doing nothing, anticipating his inevitable demise. Not very knightly, for one. Deadly boring, for another. And it just doesn't make sense -- a fair exchange of blows would allow Gawain the same protections the knight had, if he can find them, and the equity of exchange and how central that is to courtesy are major themes in the original poem. So, Gawain goes hunting for a way to save himself. Most of the details are more or less incidental, except that I wanted to please my recipient, who liked teamwork stories. Gawain and his brothers make a splendid team, with Yvaine as a useful contrast. I put Lancelot in because I needed to slow Gawain down or my timeline got very lopsided, but I liked what his inclusion did to develop my characters and themes.
I toyed with notions of historical accuracy, swapping out the typical Arthurian plate mail and heater shields for cataphract-style scale-and-chain armor and round shields... but I left in jousting for sport, which is a terrible anachronism but a little too central a theme to go without. The castle I describe is also far, far too advanced for the sixth century.
Here's what my research looked like over the course of the story:
Well. It's late, and I am rambly and incoherent. Despite its length, I'm proud of this one, and still binging on Arthurian stories as a result, toying with the outlines for a few other short projects. Obviously I want you all to read the story, because every author wants their work to be read, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. And if anyone has any questions about it that this mess of a post failed to answer, comment or email with 'em!
