Classical Themes - 1 of 4

Classical Themes within the ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ series

Myths, magic, rituals, quests, places, people and animals; all of these elements are helping to shape the forthcoming tales in my ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ series. Here is the first of FOUR posts.

Magical beasts and food; feuding siblings; rags to riches; death and rebirth; initiation and rites of passage; serpents, dragons and treasure – drawing on ancient and classical themes are of utmost importance in providing familiar storytelling arcs that readers can naturally connect with. Whether we realise it or not, most stories will resonate with an ancient theme and ‘remind’ us of something we have encountered previously in our conscious or subconscious. Fairytales are but one example of how repeated themes provide a wide variety of stories. 

Consider:

Sleeping Beauty                      Beauty and the Beast

Cinderella                               Snow White

King Arthur                              Chronicles of Narnia

Red Riding Hood                     Alice in Wonderland

Lord of the Rings

Stag in misty forest

I have immense pleasure incorporating these fascinating myths, legends and beliefs into my ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ series and hope you, my readers, have as much pleasure hunting for the morsels embroidered into my tales; small threads weaving through the whole. In my second ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ novel I have elements of the following themes:

Rights of Succession of Kings

This is deeply rooted in Indo-European mythology. There is an underlying, ancient archetype of a son or grandson killing their father or grandfather in order to marry and/or rule alongside the queen or mother goddess. The son has a hand in despatching the father (not necessarily a blood descendant and not necessarily with malice) and the son-lover joins the female sovereignty until the next ‘son’ arrives and repeats the cycle.

Think of:          Perseus and Acrisius, or

                        Oedipus and Laius

Celtic warrior aloft a war chariot drawn by two horses

Feuding Siblings

These also appear frequently in my sagas, though not all are blood-related. Brothers and sisters can be actual relatives, or bonded kinsfolk in religious orders or warrior bands. For my second ‘Wolf Spear Saga’ I was inspired by the half-brothers Nissyen (who wished for harmony) and Evnissyen (who wished for discord) from the ‘Sorrows of Branwen’ in the Mabinogion. Where there is disharmony, there is always interesting conflict!

Pair of wolves

Cinderella Stories

These are another recurring theme in many cultures: a hero or heroine undergoes a series of trials at the domestic hearth or in the wilderness, their true worth revealed at the story’s climax. This crisis-initiation-resolution appears in several forms. I’ve already used it for two main characters in my first novel in my series ‘Wulfsuna’ and expect to see it again in future sagas.

Midnight pyre

• Can you think of other classical themes repeated in literature?
• Do you like to include ancient themes in your writing?

~   ~   ~

Blood, betrayal and brotherhood.

They come to honour a Warrior-Lord’s dream,

An ancient saga weaving their destiny,

But a treacherous rival threatens their fate.

The Wolf Sons are coming.

WULFSUNA

Using Skaldic Verse to Develop Characters

Axe on bench of Viking longship

Written by Vikings, about Vikings, Skaldic verse is an insight into how they viewed themselves and others, but not necessarily a precise description of what they did or looked like in outward appearance. These sources are more appropriately valuable to garner how Vikings viewed life and their actions or those of others within that life - also how they viewed death. The Hávamál poems are an intriguing source of socio-economic and emotional scenarios that fill daily Viking life: from noble kings down to the poor traveller, we can peer into all aspects and levels of Scandinavian life from the 9^th to 12^th Centuries.

Hávamál… ‘The words of the High One’ [is a collection of verses that] form one of the most important, and baffling, of the Eddic poems. It survives as a group of separate and very different poems.’ …(R.I. Page)

Interior of Viking Longhouse

I find these verse an intrinsic part of my research, alongside what some may class as the mundane (but I find thrilling) world of archaeology. While archaeology forms an important role in fact-gathering for flora/fauna, climate, tools/weapons, structures, cooking and farming, clothing and bedding, I want to know how the people ‘thought’. Knowing the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of a group of people, enables me to add subtle layers to my fictional characters. I can learn how my characters may react when presented with a particular scenario. This I cannot learn from archaeological reference books in enough detail.

Section of design from the Havamal

Furthermore, it is the ‘kennings’ that can be the most revealing; delightful, alarming and incredibly descriptive metaphors that illuminate the Vikings’ love of language and painting a vivid image for whomever heard the poems. Battles were the ‘Storm of the Valkyrie’ or ‘Odin’s Storm’. Spilt blood became the ‘current of the spear’ or a ‘battle sea’. Armour was ‘Odin’s Clothing’ and swords were ‘wound-fires’. Carrion that came after the battle to claim the flesh of the dead are called ‘tasters of blood’ and their prey were ‘fodder for Hugin’, named after one of Odin’s two ravens – Hugin and Munin.

Pair of perched crows

It was a time when ships were ‘ocean steeds’ or ‘surge-beasts’ and a man of above-average height would be ‘elm-tall’. ‘Mood-acorns’ represented the heart, inside these tree-men who believed:

‘Cattle die, kin die,

The man dies too.

But good fame never dies

For the man who earns it.

 

Cattle die, kin die,

The man dies too.

One thing I know that never dies,

The good name of the dead.’

Hávamál… pp.139-140

Keel of a longship

These colourful kennings provide glimpses of lives many of us are far removed from. Of another time, these metaphorical paintings illuminate the lives of warring Vikings. When building my characters and a specific group of people, I can draw on the imagery formed by this evocative literature. When combined with individual personalities sculpted for purposes of my story arcs, it hopefully creates characters with depth and at least a hint of authenticity.

Runic Stone

‘The Eddi poems preserve the indirect evidence of the nature of the Viking Age. They do not tell of Vikings as such, but relate religious myths and traditional ways of thinking, and tales of ancient heroes’ …(R.I. Page)

Developing characters is a process of layering. You begin with the outer layer of an onion, its hard skin; as you peel each layer away you reach deeper and deeper into the onion, until finally you find the heart. Building fictional characters involves finding material for those layers from a multitude of sources. The Skaldic verse are, for me, only one of these sources, but a rich one. And a pleasant one, to be reading poetry as a way of researching!

• What resources do you use to develop your characters?

~   ~   ~

Blood, betrayal and brotherhood.

They come to honour a Warrior-Lord’s dream,

An ancient saga weaving their destiny,

But a treacherous rival threatens their fate.

The Wolf Sons are coming.

WULFSUNA