Tag: herodotus

Associate Producer: Geoffrey of Monmouth

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Geoffrey of Monmouth | The Historian's Hut

One of the great challenges, and pleasures, of writing a fantasy novel is to invent a world that doesn’t exist and describe it in such a way that the reader can believe in it. Temporarily, at least. Permanently, that’s another story.

For inspiration I look to the Bible and to history. And one of the historians who’s just come aboard to help is Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose History of the Kings of Britain was the best-seller of the 12th century.

Geoffrey has long been accused of dealing in myths, legends, tall tales, twaddle, and bald-faced lies–just like they do to Herodotus. Every now and then archaeologists turn up something that shows that Herodotus wasn’t fibbing, after all. The same with Geoffrey.

Say what you will about him, Geoffrey of Monmouth could really spin a yarn. No one better. But I wouldn’t try to copy him.

No–what these senior colleagues, storytellers emeritus, do for me is to help me find a tone for the story that I’m telling–and for its setting. You want the reader to feel like he’s been there. And maybe was lucky to get home again.

Geoffrey writes about things that happened 500 to 1,000 years before his own time. He writes from a 12th century point of view. This is very valuable to me. The difference between us is, Geoffrey really did live in the 1100s and see things as a 12th century man would see them; but my setting is fictional, so I look to Geoffrey for pointers on setting a tone for his story. What kind of world is he writing about, and how can the reader enter it? Ditto for me.

And of course the writer can’t help wondering, “Have I done it right, this time?”

‘The Sword in the Stone: True Story’ (2017)

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I like to post this essay now and then because we need a hero like King Arthur, blessed by God and able to win impossible victories to deliver us from our pagan enemies.

The Sword in the Stone: True Story

It’s been some years since I came to this conclusion, that the sword in the stone was a true story. It’s become very vivid to me now. Yes, it could have happened that way. In my mind’s eye, I can very clearly see the stunned expressions on the faces of the Sarmatian cavalrymen, veterans and youngsters alike, when they see this nobody, this young man out of nowhere, pull out the sword that they’ve been worshiping, flourish it over his head for everyone to see, and call upon them to rise up against the invaders of their country.

No one does a thing like that without God’s guidance.

I see him! I see him on a great horse galloping, leading a desperate uphill charge that will break the pagans’ shield-wall and insure the future of Britain as a Christian land.

It’d make quite a novel.

Lee’s Homeschool Reading List

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Go away, I'm reading Purrnest Hemingway." | Cat reading, Cat books, Cats

Interviewing me for the podcast yesterday, Andrea Schwartz had a good idea. Why not compile and maintain a reading list for homeschooling families? And, of course, anyone else who wants to get into the reading habit. The books recommended would not be any that you’d find on any public school curriculum.

I wasn’t sure how to set this up, but then decided I might as well just plunge into it and let it find its own shape over time.

The books on the list would have to be compatible with Christian faith, or at least not contradictory or subversive to it, entertaining (because we want you to read more!), “educational” in the broadest sense, and available without much difficulty.

So here goes! First two books on the list–

Ages 12 and Up:

Herodotus, The Histories/ The Persian Wars. A writer who can stay in print for 2,500 years doesn’t do it by being boring! Herodotus, nicknamed “The Father of History,” and other nicknames not so nice, like “That liar!”, offers a mix of history, travelogue, tall tales, and enough exotic material to fascinate you twenty times over. I like the Penguin paperback, with the translation by Aubrey de Selincourt. Honest, it’s one of the most entertaining books ever written–just the thing for breaking out of the digital stupor.

12 and Under:

The Freddy the Pig series, by Walter R. Brooks. I discovered these when I was nine years old, and have been reading them and loving them ever since. Kids will love the talking animal characters and exciting situations; adults will love the subtle humor that they didn’t fully appreciate as ten-year-olds. (Only Brooks would ever describe a beetle as “motherly.”) The series starts off with Freddy Goes to Florida–the first one I read–and quickly shifts into high gear. And there are a couple dozen of these books to keep you busy.

Well, that’s the start of my Homeschool Reading List. I’ll add to it from time to time, and entries will always be stored in the blog archives for easy reference.

Chuck the phones and open the books!

‘The Sword in the Stone: True Story’ (2017)

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When all seemed hopeless, along came a young warrior to lead the British people to unlooked-for victories that ensured their survival. And his career started with him pulling a sword from a stone.

The Sword in the Stone: True Story

Some years ago, my own researches led me to believe that the story of Arthur and the Sword in the Stone was… well, true. Arthur was a real person and his dramatic event really happened.

There’s more to history than we can learn from the textbooks.

Killing Uduqu

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The Glass Bridge (Bell Mountain #7): Lee Duigon: 9781891375675 ...

If your characters don’t connect with your readers, your book won’t work, your story will fall flat.

I introduced the fierce old Abnak sub-chief, Uduqu, in Book No. 2, The Cellar Beneath the Cellar. I liked him and kept him around. And in Book No. 7, The Glass Bridge, he took part in a desperate battle.

I won’t forget how my wife and my editor reacted when they thought I’d killed off this character. They were about ready to scalp me. Sheesh, what was I thinking! But they only had to read a few more paragraphs before they learned Uduqu was all right, after all.

There are characters who walk into the story just to do some little thing and then wind up staying to do a lot of things, and growing, and getting you attached to them. With 12 Bell Mountain novels published so far, there are of necessity an awful lot of characters.

Why am I talking about this when I have to crank out a Newswithviews column? Oh, I don’t know. Do I feel a need to justify populating my books with all those characters?

Well, heck, it’s a history–like Livy’s history of Rome. Count up all the characters in Livy sometime. True, the history of Obann, in my books, is fictional. Some uncharitable souls have said the same of Livy. Not to mention Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Herodotus. I guess if you don’t like their histories, you won’t like mine, either. But there’s something to be said for a book that’s stayed in print since 400 B.C.

[Confidential to “Unknowable”: I hear you, brother!]

A Parable of Forced Equality

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New York wants to abolish programs and schools for gifted and talented students. There is a parable from the ancient world which seems to tell us why.

This story was told by both Herodotus, a Greek, and Livy, a Roman who lived some centuries after Herodotus. But I don’t think Livy lifted the story from Herodotus. Both presented it as a historical event, but it has much more the feel of a well-known parable.

The tyrant who ruled a certain city had one son to succeed him; but the young man didn’t know how he ought to go about being an effective tyrant. He asked his father, “How do you govern the city? How have you managed to stay in power for so many years?”

“I’ll teach you; it’s quite simple,” said the father.

Taking his son to a poppy field outside the city, the tyrant said, “Watch.” And with his cane he proceeded to knock the heads off all the poppies around them.

“This is how you rule the city,” he explained. “Even as I have cut all these poppies down so that none is higher than another, so have I maintained my power: by cutting down any man who rises to a certain height above the others, so that none is any greater than another, but all are equal; all are weak. I am the only one who towers over all. There is no one else whom they can turn to for a leader.”

You can see this sort of “diversity” has a very ancient pedigree. Tyrants have been cutting people down for thousands of years.

Fallen human nature hasn’t changed.

‘Who’s Buried in Alexander’s Tomb?’

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The ancient world was full of all sorts of neat stuff that you can’t find anymore. All those fabulous treasures that Herodotus saw with his own eyes, and described for us… and the well-preserved body of Alexander the Great.

Back in 1991, a Greek archaeologist made a big splash for a couple days by claiming to have discovered where the body was hidden.

Who’s Buried in Alexander the Great’s Tomb?

It seems reasonable to suppose that if it was still kicking around 500 years after Alexander’s death, it could have survived even longer, provided no one messed around with it. Alexander’s mother hated his father, so she taught him that his real father was Zeus, king of the gods–not that glorified peasant, Philip of Macedon.

It’s not good for anyone to believe things like that.

A Very Different World

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I’ve been reading Herodotus again, who died in 425 B.C. after writing his comprehensive history of the wars between the Greeks and Persians–part history, part travelogue, all entertainment: that’s why it’s been in print for 2,400 years.

The thing that strikes me most powerfully is how unimaginably different his world was from ours. As widely traveled as he was, Herodotus had no idea of lots of things we take for granted. His world was bounded on the south by the Sahara Desert; on the east by the Indian desert; on the north by cold countries where feathers fell from the sky; and on the west by the Strait of Gibraltar. Beyond those boundaries, nothing was known for sure.

North of the Alps, north of the Danube River, Herodotus’ Europe might as well have been on Mars. Those unknown countries–Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Russia–were said to be inhabited by giants, monsters, dog-headed people, and headless people with eyes in their chests. “I do not vouch for the truth of those accounts,” he admits.

I love reading about the giant ants the size of terriers, from which enterprising Indians stole gold dust, the squeaking “troglodytes” hunted by Libyan nomads, the fantastic treasures stored in assorted public places, and the know-it-all oracles whose advice is never understood but always turns out to be right; and colorful historical characters like Cyrus and the other Persian kings, rich Croesus, wise Solon, and all the rest.

Herodotus repeated so many tall tales that it harmed his reputation; Plutarch called him not “the father of history,” but the “father of lies.” But some of the tallest tales–which Herodotus said he didn’t believe, but were worth writing down as he heard them–have turned out to be shockingly true: like the Carthaginian mariners who circumnavigated Africa 2,000 years before Bartolomeo Dias did it, and the Sarmatians’ women warriors who weren’t allowed to marry until they’d killed an enemy in battle.

His was a colorful, crazy world. And you couldn’t find a MacDonald’s anywhere in Scythia.

Mr. Nature: Flying Snakes

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Jambo, everybody, Mr. Nature here. And today we’re off in search of flying snakes.

Once upon a time, people believed that Arabia bred flying snakes which would sometimes migrate to populated areas and become a deadly plague. Herodotus wrote all about it–and was pooh-poohed by later generations.

But in real life, Indonesia is home to the paradise tree snake–a snake which glides through the air from tree to tree. So maybe Herodotus wasn’t as all wet as everybody thought. (Hint: He usually turns out not to be!)

Ah! you say. But what does a flying serpent hunt?

You’re gonna love this.

Flying lizards!

God’s stuff–cooler than we ever would have thought of.

The Sword in the Stone: True Story

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Marge has asked me to explain how I figured out the story of young King Arthur drawing the sword from the stone, and thus becoming king, was a true story. Here’s my argument:

Herodotus said the nomadic peoples of South Russia, who had no real temples, used to worship their gods by heaping up a pile of stones and thrusting a sword into it. Among these peoples were the Sarmatians.

The Romans stationed Sarmatian cavalry in Britain. When the Romans abandoned Britain in 415 A.D., some of the soldiers chose to stay. The Sarmatian cavalry stayed.

All the old sources portray Arthur as a war-leader who won victories all over Britain. He must have relied on cavalry; foot soldiers couldn’t have reached such widely-separated battlefields in the time allowed. Hence the tradition of Arthur and his mounted knights.

Now imagine a young Christian war-leader, desperate to defend his homeland from invaders, casting his eyes on the Sarmatian cavalry troops, pagans, but also the best and most experienced cavalry in Britain–and seeing them praying to a sword thrust into a pile of stones. What would happen if he walked up and pulled the sword out of the stones, and called on these horse-soldiers to rise up and follow him?

I think they would have either killed him on the spot, or else been swept away by his boldness and become his men.

It could’ve happened that way.

I had this figured out early in the 1980s but hadn’t a clue as to how to publish it, or where. A few more years went by; and then, alas, I discovered that someone else had since come along with the same theory, published it in an academic journal, and left me twiddling my thumbs.