Author Interview - Mark Piggott

Hello and welcome to our latest author interview with fantasy and steampunk author Mark Piggott!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.

My name is Mark Piggott, I am a native of Phillipsburg, NJ. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1983 beginning a 23-year career as a Navy Journalist. During my career, I served on three aircraft carriers and various duty stations across the country. I retired as a Chief Petty Officer in 2006. Since then, I have worked as a civilian employee for the U.S. Navy and now as a writer-editor for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. I live in Alexandria, VA, with my wife Georgiene. We have three children.

I started writing my first novel, Forever Avalon, during my last deployment aboard USS Enterprise in 2001. Throughout my Navy career, I had a recurring dream about being on an island of magic and fantasy with my family. I guess this was my way of coping with the separation of deployments. Plus, the hours of playing Dungeons and Dragons in my youth probably added to that. During my last deployment, I started to develop my dream into a story and wrote my initial draft for Forever Avalon. After I finished my manuscript, the dream went away.

I published Forever Avalon in 2009 through James A. Rock Publishing, but the publisher died within a few years after that and the company went out of business. I republished under Amazon through the KDP program to keep my book alive. I followed that up with The Dark Tides in 2014 through iUniverse Publishing and The Outlander War in 2020, completing the trilogy. I then published the start of a new series, The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart, in 2021 through Lulu Press.

The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart has been my most critically acclaimed book to date. It won three book awards, including the 2021 Firebird Book Award (1^st place for Steampunk), 2022 AMG Indie Book Award Grand Prize for Fiction, and The BookFest Indie Book Award (3^rd place for Fantasy-Magic, Myths and Legends). My cover appeared on the NASDAQ billboard in Times Square with the other 2022 winners in January 2023.

In 2021, I signed with Curious Corvid Publishing, a small publishing house in Ohio. The first published my novella The River of Souls, a fantasy story combined with poetry from poet Ashley Valitutto in August 2021. In January 2023, my steampunk historical fiction Corsair and the Sky Pirates was published. 

I am still writing, including short stories for anthologies, magazines, and future manuscripts. I am working on the sequel to The Last Magus as well as the final two chapters in the Forever Avalon series as well as new story ideas, including a YA fantasy and a religious epic fantasy.

Who would you say your biggest literary influences are?

Like any fantasy writer, I was first influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien. I saw the original The Hobbit animated movie as a teenager in the 70s. That led me to the books of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Terry Brooks, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. I would have to say that the biggest influence on me as a writer was Michael Moorcock. The Elric of Melnibone series was eye opening for me. It showed me that fantasy stories are no limited to the traditional norms. I love the traditional Tolkien. He is the reason we have so many fantasy writers today. But we are all an amalgam of influence from the writers we loved to read and still love to read. To me, true fantasy started with Le Morte d’Arthur. The Arthurian legend is, in my opinion, where the age of magic started in our literature. That is why so many of our stories use Excalibur, Merlin, Morgana le Fay, the Holy Grail, the Lady of the Lake, and other elements from the original Arthurian legends.

How has the history of the middle ages impacted/influenced your work?

I think that most fantasy books start with a middle ages concept. Again, that's where we reach back to King Arthur, Merlin, etc. Most of these stories being in that time period or something akin to it. It's the original vibe of the fantasy trope. The fun part in being a writer is taking that medieval, middle ages adventure and throw in electric lights powered by magic, or an airship or train. That's where a writer can be his or her most creative when developing a story like that.

Do you feel like your writing has been impacted/influenced by Tolkien? If so, in what way(s)?

Tolkien has impact everything you see in today's writing. Orcs were never dreamed of until Tolkien created them. How we envision elves and dwarves are from our understanding and visuals created by his words. During my Navy career, I once did a story on the military and role playing games. I interviewed someone within the D&D company and she told me how Gary Gygax (the creator of D&D) was influenced by Tolkien in turning a tabletop knights medieval warfare game into D&D as we know it today. That's the scope of his influence on my generation and the future generations. How we envision our own worlds we as writers create has all been influenced by Tolkien. We may change somethings here and there to fit our story, but the essence is Tolkien. He gave us a starting point that most fantasy writers follow.

What do you think the current innovations in your genre(s) are?

I like the use of combining steampunk technology with magic. There is a dark fantasy element to mixing magic and machines, and I enjoy bringing that to bear in my THE LAST MAGUS series. Magic was always considered a fluid element, outside the reach of technology, so bringing those elements together is exciting.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see more of?

I would love to see more bringing magic and magical elements into the modern age. We always think middle ages when we think of magical fantasy in a story, so bringing it to a more modern era is exciting and fun. I'm writing a YA fantasy story for my young nieces (big readers who inspired me to write this story) involving a mixed Fae and human community hidden away in the American midwest. It should be a lot of fun.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see less of?

I think they're romanticizing evil too much. I used to be scared of werewolves and vampires as a kid, but now their teenage heartthrobs. We need to draw those boundaries and don't blur the lines. I understand sometimes you have those anti-heroes that bring a different element into the story, but I think we've gone beyond that norm in today's stories.

Is there anything else related I didn't ask a question about that you'd like to add?

I think you covered everything.

Where online can our readers find you and your work?

Mark, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your thoughts on Post-Tolkien and Post-Middle Ages influence!

Author Interview - Gillian Polack

Hello and welcome to our second author interview with the Tales After Tolkien society's very own Gillian Polack!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.

This ought to be an easy question. Surely I know myself? However, I find it really difficult to describe myself.

Starting with the history side, my first doctorate was in Medieval history, and I write about it and teach it and still research it, but it's a secondary element of my ethnohistorian self, these days. Over my lifetime, what has held all my research together is story. I used to research chansons de geste and romans and chronicles (the research from my 20s) and now (in my early sixties) I research modern genre. In that research I include the worlds built for those narratives, where they come from, and how those worlds are communicated. My two books from my research self are History and Fiction (how writers use history, especially the Middle Ages), and Story Matrices (how story transmits culture). Right now I'm looking at these things from a literary approach, because it's really handy to slide into different disciplines and learn. The more I understand how different scholars approach similar topics, the happier I am, just as the more I understand how different fiction writers use similar material, the happier I am. Learning is the core of my life. Writing stories is the natural balance to the learning, because I like to do things with my learning. I love teaching, but I love writing even more.

So... I am also a fiction writer. And non-fiction writer. And an essayist. And a blogger. I also talk too much.

I'll never be famous for my fiction, but my work has been short-listed for awards a number of times and has even won a couple. This is how I know I can write. My fiction is, for the most part, science fiction and fantasy, but possibly towards the literary end.

I didn't begin all this with the Middle Ages. I chose to do an undergraduate Medieval thesis because I had a burning question to answer about how culture changed in a time of significant technological change. I wanted to know, in short, how chansons de geste changed at a time when literacy was causing them to be written down. This was a burning question because the year was 1982, and computers were doing to Australia what increased literacy was doing to France and England. I probably would have moved on, if everyone hadn't been so very interested. The Middle Ages and food history are subjects I took on at a point for very particular reasons, and they've become major part s of my life because so many people love to hear about them. I swore, however, that the only time I would use the Middle Ages in fiction was in my first novel, and that was because I began it when I was doing my PhD and I had this terrible desire to gently satirise some things I knew too well. I've always wanted to apologise to Brain Merrilees for what I did to the Voyage of St Brendan in that novel. He was an outstanding teacher and I took foul advantage of this.

When I was about to start my second PhD, I was told that the ghost train novel I was yearning to write wouldn't get me the supervisor I most wanted. I drafted a half-joke time travel topic and sent it to Van Ikin with a "How about this? Can you supervise this?" And thus I wrote an actual novel set in a fictional Middle Ages that is very close to what we know. Langue[dot]doc 1305 has been approved by scientists, as well as historians, but some readers find it slow. There is a definite gap between the history we want to tell (as historians) and the history most readers expect to read.

I wrote one Medieval story quite on purpose. I was asked to write it for an anthology, and Sherwood Smith is someone I find it hard to say 'no' to. The anthology is called It Happened at the Ball. The story was set a year after the Great Plague. It came out before the pandemic, and when I re-read it recently I was surprised at what I wrote. Not unpleasantly surprised, but most definitely surprised.

Who would you say your biggest literary influences are?

When someone asks another writer this question, I listen avidly. When I am asked, I flinch. I have so many influences that it's hard to pick just a few and what influences me and why is hard to describe. Once I took a leap of faith when asked and named Tristram Shandy, but that was because I'd re-read it recently and all the reasons I love it were new in my mind again. You can tell exactly when that naming was, too, because I slipped the novel into one of my novels (Langue[dot]doc 1305, the Medieval time travel one).

In other words, any answer to my biggest literary influences depends on when I am and where I am and whether I'm thinking about that author. For example, Nevil Shute's On the Beach was very influential when I was 22. I was doing my MA in Toronto and it was midwinter and I'd just found the Australian section at Robarts Library. I worked my way through it, having already read every 18th century female novelist in their collection. When I reached On the Beach I stopped. I was born in Melbourne and would have been about the age of the baby in the book, if we had lived in that world. It was so much the Melbourne of my childhood... and it was the last big city in the world to die. I still call on it from time to time, when I need such everyday bleakness in my fiction.

More examples? I can do that. George Gissing's The Whirlpool I've only read the once, but that was enough to give me a different way of thinking about women's lives and I'm pretty sure I called on that for The Year of the Fruit Cake. Ursula Le Guin's Always Coming Home taught me that, just because many writers don't use their academic brains in their fiction, didn't mean I had to stop thinking in my own peculiar way when i write. Patricia Wrightson and Oodgeroo Noonuccal (who I read when everyone still called her Kath Walker) and Elyne Mitchel left a clear view of the need to write about Australia, and that it had to be my Australia and not a mass-market view. Guibert de Mez (and, in fact, the whole Mez cycle of chansons de geste) left the imprint that families who don't get on make good story.. but it's not going to be comfortable. These were books I thought of within five minutes, at a time when I don't have any single overarching influence. Give me a day and that list will be very, very long. Choose a time when I've read something disquieting or exciting and the list will reduce to that single work.

How has the history of the middle ages impacted/influenced your work?

Initially, it gave me a safe way to explore cultural difference, to understand how profound the effect of Christianity is on our culture, and to understand how societies work and what stories they tell to explain themselves to themselves. Now I use it as a longue duree... to know where we come from and how we got here, so that I can try to understand how our society works and what stories we tell to explain ourselves to ourselves.

These days it's also a wonderful tool for communication. People who don't care about ethnohistory or about understanding literature or about how they tell stories and what they take from there are always up for hearing about Medieval food, or epic battles. I use it to open doors to the things I want others to understand, I suspect. And recent media productions that use the Middle Ages area never-ending source of entertainment. I can be sarcastic without effort when I pull TV shows to pieces. How did they get on that horse with that armour when they are alone in the wilderness? And did they really gallop for hours and the horse is fresh as a daisy? Did they really cook a stew in that same wilderness with no equipment and not enough ingredients (and where did that water magically appear from)? Some of my friends admit that they do not want me to watch their favourite pseudo-history TV. Others want to share the sarcasm.

Do you feel like your writing has been impacted/influenced by Tolkien? If so, in what way(s)?

Tolkien's essays are important to me. I read his novels a s a child and still love them. Farmer Giles of Ham and his translation of Sir Gawain were my favourites when I was in my early twenties. His world building fascinated me so much that I bought the Silmarillion when it first came out. My hardback first edition was also loved by silverfish and is not really readable these days, but it helped me think about the Middle Ages and how we see them, a bout how world building was traditionally done for fantasy and, in the long term, how fiction is such an important aspect of cultural transmission. Then I read his essays. I still return to them, for the style he uses in them teaches me more about writing every time, and his arguments are a clear foundation I can question and use to see where I am and where I am going. His cauldron of story is particularly useful right now, but his work (along with the work of many others, let me admit - I am consistent in this) has helped me travel my intellectual path and my path as a writer.

What do you think the current innovations in your genre(s) are?

The most interesting one from my perspective is the celebration of #ownvoices. Most readers look mainly for writers with quite specific backgrounds, but I'd love to see a realisation that all writers are #own voices.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see more of?

We tell the same stories over and over partly because there are so many ways of telling them - I would like to see the voice of the writer acknowledged and discussed for its role in genre work. In a way, this can be seen as an extension of #ownvoices. It recognises that each tale teller is unique and emerges from a quite particular background. In novels that are firmly within genre, this is often obscured, as the genre traits are more important for sales and it's easier to amrket work from, a background readers think they are familiar with. This means that the actual voices of novelists who come from more normative backgrounds are often obscured and their work is usually looked at for plot and characterisation rather than for voice, and that voices who are less majority are often not heard at all ie are not of interest to major publishing houses.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see less of?

I would very much like to see less of the "This is the way we have always told things and so the violence and racism and misogyny stay" attitude. We can change the way we tell stories, and trails that promote hurt and hate are not those we should be arguing for, even passively.

Is there anything else related I didn't ask a question about that you'd like to add?

I don't think so. I'll think of something at an unholy hour and have to decide between going back to sleep and emailing you. I think I shall decide, right now, on going back to sleep. There will be other times I can talk about the things I forget are important right now.

Where online can our readers find you and your work?

The easiest starting place if you want basic information is my web page https://gillianpolack.com/

My favourite place to send people who want to obtain my books is a bookshop-comparison site. Adjust it for your own country and it includes shipping costs in the comparison, which makes things very easy: https://booko.com.au/search?query_type=1&q=Gillian+Polack

You can join me in my research and writing journey (and suffer bad jokes and food history along the way) through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GillianPolack

I blog most weeks on the Treehouse writers' blog https://treehousewriters.com/wp53/ and once every six months with The History Girls https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/

Gillian, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your thoughts on Post-Tolkien and Post-Middle Ages influence!

Author Interview - Paul Jameson

Today the Tales After Tolkien Society is launching our Author Interview series of blog posts! Read on for our interview with Paul Jameson!

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing.

Paul Jameson is my name and I'm an English/Australian indie author whose written three novels and numerous shorts.

I've always penned words, but only really began to focus on it seriously in about 2014 as an aid to recovery from serious mental illness. Even at the beginning my writing was influenced by a love of history (I studied medieval history at University), nature, and the liminal worlds of folklore and myth, and the inherent darkness and light therein.

The first major piece completed (I published it second) was the novel '76 and the Odd 93' and is something of an anomaly in style for me; a cathartic piece that is a very dark crime noir.

However it wasn't until I penned the short story 'Magpie' and subsequently the novel 'Nightjar', in 2018, that I really discovered my voice and genre.

Voice is a funny thing (a magic of the muses, so to speak) but once you stumble upon it you know. I found mine inspired by the landscape around where I live, Celtic hillforts, ancient seas, green fields and Roman roads, and in experimental (some call it literary/poetic) prose.

In terms of genre, I enjoy the liminal spaces of Folklore, Folk-Horror, and Fantasy or Magical Realism that provide the freedom to pull in elements of magic, fairytale, nature and history, where the cyclical aspects of history comes into play; mixing present, past and future.

In my most recent completed novel 'Life of Maggot' I took this a step further. Written during the first COVID lockdown, I used the four horsemen of the apocalypse and medieval images to directly inspire and drive a story about the end of times, set in current times, whilst weaving in a story about a small boy and the magic of nature. Thoroughly enjoyed writing it.

Currently, and with Nightjar and Maggot getting good reviews, I'm working on my first big piece of Fantasy. I'm finding it quite scary, enjoyably so, because the world building is so daunting. In my mind the story is currently centered around the sinking of a ship, the fall of kingdoms, and the return of elves, dwarfs and other Fae from the Otherworld. It's a bit messy in my head, but I'm 40,000 words and it's taking form. I'm just a lot worried about how huge it might turn out to be. Something of an Opus perhaps...

Who would you say your biggest literary influences are?

My biggest literary influences (I would say) are the likes of Poe, Daphne Du Maurier, Iain Banks for the darkness, Tolkien for the magic, Folklore and love of nature, and AA Milne for a dry, possibly childlike humour.

There are many other notable mentions too, though far too many to list. I think you learn something (good or bad - what works, what doesn't work) from everything you read.

How has the history of the middle ages impacted/influenced your work?

I take a lot of influence from history and the Middle Ages in particular.

Indeed, in Nightjar, and although set in the future, it reflects a feudal past. Religious authority is in control, and there is a deep fear of nature and unknown demons that might live therein.

In Life of Maggot, medieval images and depictions of the End of Times drive the telling of one aspect of a double headed tale told in the near future/present day.

For me, it's quite difficult not to be affected by history - and in particular medieval history, in England. We're surrounded by it. From castles and churches, lay of the land, enclosure of fields and ancient woodlands, to place names, pubs, roads and ways and so many other things. Battlefields litter the place, standing stones abound, as do Iron Age forts, ghosts, snickets and ginnels.

In my current WIP too, medieval history is having a big impact. From food to trade, ships, clothes, armour, tack and more. It's hard to know what I'll be researching from one day to the next.

Do you feel like your writing has been impacted/influenced by Tolkien? If so, in what way(s)?

Yes.

I think so. Simply because Tolkien had such an impact on my life. I come from an severely abusive childhood (mental, physical, and emotional abuse) and discovered Tolkien when I was 14, in the 1980s.

Middle Earth became a place I could escape to. No longer was I simply fleeing the house, I was going into the countryside around Newbury and looking for elves, dwarfs, orcs and goblins in the shadows; magic again existed, nature was amazing. I was able to escape the darkness at home and see wonder in the world about me. I guess he kept the child inside alive.

As a result I'm pretty sure Tolkien has impacted my writing. I love descriptive prose, a play on words, perhaps too much some might say, and I really do partake in writing as an art. Like Tolkien, nature is a mainstay to my work (even in '76 and the Odd 93'); there is a magic and power to it that even the most powerful can't harness. And then there's always a belief in magic - even if it is painted by insanity (as in the book just mentioned). And in my WIP - it being more like Fantasy proper (as I call it) there comes to play the more archetypal Fae that Tolkien popularised.

I suppose the best people to ask though, would be the readers. I always feel I have one eye closed when I'm looking at my own work.

What do you think the current innovations in your genre(s) are?

I think the current innovations in my genre are less about innovation and more about realisation. People (as a whole) are beginning to understand the fragility of the planet and nature, and the subsequent threat to their own species by the powerful magic that is nature. And so the darkness of folk-horror and dystopian fantasy/science fiction, that often dwelt on the power of nature (seen once as far-fetched), is becoming very real. This in turn is seeing the blending of many genres - horror, fantasy, folklore, historical fiction and dystopian fiction - and the lines between the different genres is becoming very blurred.

Not a bad thing when, as a writer, you enjoy experimental literature and different genres. A lot of fun to be had.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see more of?

Do you know, I don't really have an answer. I tend to focus on what I write in my own little space, in my own little voice.

For me, as long as the writing within a genre entertains an audience (this does not mean appealing to everyone - an audience can be very small and niche) and is produced with good intent, a love of the art, anything produced has its place.

What is something in your genre(s) you'd like to see less of?

I'm not a fan of oversaturation and churning out weak stories (or a series of books) on the back of a genre or trope bandwagon to make quick bucks. But I'm also pragmatic. I realize this is marketing and an industry at play in efforts to maximize returns. It's kind of inevitable.

So I'll just keep on swimming in my own weird lane, working on my own weird art...

Is there anything else related I didn't ask a question about that you'd like to add?

Nothing really. Other than I love how the wonder and inspiration that is Tolkien and history, myth and legend, medieval and beyond, is spilling so fruitfully over into the arts of film and television. I can't get enough of it. 

Where online can our readers find you and your work?

You can find out more about me at http://modquokka.com, where I write an irregular blog.

My links: http://linktr.ee/modquokka

And I'm regularly on Twitter @Modquokka if anyone ever wants to talk Tolkien, folklore, books and art. 

And thank you ever so much to Tales After Tolkien for having me. 

Thank you for joining us today and sharing your thoughts on Post-Tolkien and Post-Middle Ages influence!

Another Update for #Kzoo2023

ℌello, again, all, if after far too long! We'll try not to go so far between posts, moving forward.

There is a bit of news: the schedule for the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies has dropped (it's here). The Society's panel, Religion along the Tolkienian Fantasy Tradition: New Medievalist Narratives, did make, and it will occur virtually on Friday, 12 May 2023, at 10am US Eastern time; Rachel Sikorski and Geoffrey B. Elliott will be presenting, with Luke Shelton presiding.

As noted previously, we will arrange a Zoom call for the AGM, date and time to be determined; be looking for the usual survey here. Elections to office and conference proposals will be on the agenda; other items will be solicited, as well.

As ever, thank you for your continued interest and support!

Call For Authors!

   Are you an author who takes inspiration from the medieval period? Has J.R.R. Tolkien influenced your writing? If you answered yes to either of these questions, the Tales After Tolkien Society would love to hear from you!

  We are looking to further study and understand the impact that the Middle Ages and Tolkien have had on current story-telling and genre conventions. To that end, starting next week, we will be posting a weekly interview with an author who has found themselves pulling from the medieval period or whose work has been inspired by Tolkien's writing.

  If you'd be willing to be interviewed and speak about how the aforementioned ideas have impacted your work and discuss the genre you write in, send an email to rachelcooper201@gmail.com or comment under this post!

   We look forward to hearing from you!

Guest Post: Matt Tyler, "A Novice on Heraldry"

It's been a while, and we'll be getting back to regular posting soon. In the meantime, we have another answer to the Society's most recent call for contributions--which is still open; we'd still love to hear from you! This one comes from Matt Tyler, who says of himself "Experienced hobbyist, Matt dabbles in roleplaying games, board games, war games, writing, and playtesting. He considers himself a novice in many of them, and a master of none."

The text of the post below is provided by Tyler, who reflects on his experience and understanding of heraldic practice as it relates to gaming. Included images are those Tyler recommends, attested and used in accordance with Fair Use. Other editorial adjustment is kept to a minimum and is made without comment.

---

ℜoderick stared in disbelief as the forces of the High Marshal rallied against the charge. Lines that had been crumbling were now pushing back on the blood-soaked field. Soon, Roderick knew, he would have to signal for the retreat or lose everything. Though, after this catastrophic turn of events, the Iron Dane might still take his head.

But how? It had been a gamble, to be sure, but only a slight one, and no word from his agents within the High Marshals ranks intimated a knight on this flank capable of such a feat of arms.

Roderick “The Blood Hawk” Marleybone craned up in his saddle, his black tabard stretched across the armor beneath, the three golden arches on the black field displayed for the world to see. His eyes strained to take in the scene of battle. The livery of the knights who opposed him swayed back and forth, glimpsed through the glinting forms of his own forces.

No. It can’t be.

His eyes squinted against the dance of color in the midday sun, straining to confirm what he hoped was a trick of the mind. No, there! It was! A hint of sky blue on the shield of the knight leading the counterattack. With a nod to the officer mounted next to him, a relay of signals went up, and the Blood Hawks forces fell back in haste.

Impossible. The black wyvern on a field of light blue, but, that line was gone, by his own hand ended, not a decade since.

As Roderick wheeled his horse about, his mind swirled at the possibilities of seeing the Blackwater coat of arms again...

As a reader, you know next to nothing about either of the knights mentioned in the story, yet with the inclusion of heraldry for the mysterious Blackwater knight, you now begin to conjure images in your mind of not only what they are wearing, but pennants, horse livery, and servant tabards. The bleak field of battle and death begins to take on color and pageantry.

The Pageantry of Battle

What most recognise today when they hear the word “Heraldry” is the codified and registered forms made popular from the medieval period, still used to modern day for royalty, organizations, corporations, and geographical/political regions. This system has its own language and rules to govern its use. It’s through these regulations that historians can solve ancient mysteries when discovering an ancient site of battle, or need to determine the ancestry of uncovered remains based on heraldic evidence.

It’s believed by many that the system of heraldry as it’s understood today was introduced from mainland Europe, but given its necessity on the fields of battle of the time, it quickly grew into something more. Used in tournaments, land grants, inheritance law, if one had a registered label of heraldry, it could prove an invaluable tool in many facets of medieval life. It evolved with the owner, becoming more complex with not only each deed given honor for, but marriages, and successive generations of the family line. In an age with no real forms of identification, those with the means and honors to acquire such an important piece of recognition were viewed in an altogether different light.

From Kawanakajima no kassen
at the Library of Congress

Heraldry though, at its most basic form, is simply a means of identification, much as our modern-day soldiers wear the nation's flag, or indeed, ancient peoples would mark themselves with paints of their tribes’ colors. Even in those basic aspects you’ll see variations to reflect deeds, sub-factions, and genealogy. Samurai, who were active very much during the same time and practically a world away, were making use of family marked sashimono under their lords’ command, with individuals wearing horns or antlers, or sporting their own families colors on their lacquered armor. The “pageantry of battle”, as it’s sometimes known, is not limited to the romanticized concept most known from medieval Europe, but from many ages, and from around the globe.

Heraldry Design

Arms of King Henry IV, differenced by a bordure argent. That’s the heraldic description for the coat of arms used by Humphrey of Lancaster,1st Duke of Gloucester.

A shot from Branagh's Henry V

One of the easier descriptions to deduce, and a good place to start with understanding some basics of the language. First in the description is the field, or the shield. Next, one would expect to find a description of used “ordinaries”, or the basic geometric shapes that comprise the field, be they a band that runs down the middle of the field (known as a “pale”), or an X shape that crosses the field (known as a “saltire”). Given the nature of Humphrey’s coat of arms, the first two are implied with the description of the original arms of Henry IV, which given it uses no ordinaries would simply be quarterly of 4, 1 & 4 France, 2 & 3 England (Plantagenet). The last part of the description would include any lesser charges, which in Humphrey’s case would be differenced by a bordure argent, or more plainly spoken, made different by a border of silver or white. A bordure as a difference was commonly used for a younger sibling who had not been granted a coat of arms individually, or as would happen, Humphrey was the younger brother of Henry V (Henry V used the same arms as Henry IV).

You’ll naturally be curious why some terms are used instead of others, and that has to do with the nature of the system being adopted widely from that of mainland Europe. Argent is the French word for silver, though in heraldry silver and white are used interchangeably. Which brings us neatly to the notion of color use in heraldry.

The Maryland state flag

All patterns and designs should be discernible from a distance, and to help regulate this is the separation of colors into two categories, colours and metals (a third category exists known as furs, but I’ll leave those for you to investigate on your own). As a rule of thumb, you should never have a colour next to a colour, or a metal next to a metal. This is executed in Henry IVs yellow lions on red, and yellow fleur-des-lis on blue (or to use heraldic vernacular, Or on Gules and Or on Azure). Another more modern-day example would be the Maryland state flag. There you have a quartered design, using red with white, and black with yellow (Gules with Argent, and Sable with Or).

The inclusion of symbols is another major part of the craft, and it’s the combination of the two forms, color and symbols, and the combination with which they are combined, that one can convey a great amount of information with but the glimpse of an image.

Most anything can be used for the imagery it conveys. Animals and beasts both natural and mythical (birds, fish, bears), but also objects natural, mythical, and constructed (towers, swords, the sun, the Green Man). Many of these have been assigned meaning over the years, but like with most any language, those meanings will change over time and should not be seen as writ in stone. Horses in heraldry would typically be seen as “one ready for battle”, but there’s nothing to say it couldn’t be used for a messenger, or perhaps a noble lineage of scholars bearing the name Palfrey or Paulfrie.

In the opening narrative, we see arches used on Roderick’s tabard, which typically convey the position of a governor or magistrate. In this small way, if your reader takes it upon themself to investigate that aspect, you have given them a clue they can use to unravel your narrative without ever having to spell it out. This further brings them into your setting.

When I Left You, I Was But the Learner

Knowing even the most basic of information on the subject is usually enough to begin working on your own setting specific heraldry with rules or guidelines. Even in the lands of Middle-earth, Tolkien created a sense of heraldic arms for various houses and factions. The most recognizable being Aragorn's royal standard, unfurled on the fields of battle towards the end of the trilogy, though in the movies more basic versions of the Gondorian crest can be seen on the shields of the guards, and indeed in the helmet designs.

In writing fiction, we have a great tool to use here with the use of color and imagery to convey much about our characters and our setting. With the change of colour we shift preconceptions from one to another. In western movies the good characters wore white and the villains wore black. If a coat of arms is seen to have a dark motif, one might naturally assume villainous intent.

In running games, we have a way for our players to personalize the world. Guilds need emblems and crests, warriors need coats of arms, and kingdoms founded need banners. Some simple tracing paper, a laptop to get images from, and then an inexpensive drawing pad can allow players to make up their own heraldry to bring the world to life and leave their mark. Imagine some players leave and new ones arrive, tales of the Knight of Bonded Grove catch their interest and all they have to go on is a white stag rearing inside a golden wreath of ivy on a green field.

In playing wargames, we have a system to easily allow us to achieve wonderful color schemes for our armies. Using the basic rule of no color on color, or metal on metal, one can begin to devise a striking scheme for their troops that will draw the eye on the battlefield. Are your space warriors covered in variations of tan and green, or perhaps yellow and black, or maybe even orange and blue? Try using metallic paints to break up the colors you wish to use, say a shoulder pad or shield with black and silver trim to stand out from the blood-red armor.

Resources

I have been fortunate enough in my meager investigation of heraldry to exist in a time where the internet has made such searches easily accomplished. As one who dabbles in all aspects of the hobbies naturally drawn to a gamer, I have also encountered numerous sources from personal, individual communication. My favorite resources I’ll list here, though numerous stores of information are easily accessible with the click of a button.

1. 1. Re-enactment. I live in an area where historical reenactment takes on several forms and is richly done. One major organization is known as the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). In these made-up kingdoms, the rules of historical use are as closely followed as possible, including preparing the same meals at events as would be made in medieval times. Among the many aspects of the system, those who wish to take on the role of a herald must apply themselves to the role as diligently as any would have done historically, including sometimes learning multiple languages and being fluent in the rules of heraldry and coats of arms. Just as colleges of heralds have enlisted throughout history, these reenactment scholars likewise preserve their worlds history and culture through heraldic knowledge and can be a wealth of personal experience to draw from.
2. The Complete Book of Heraldry by Stephen Slater. A Beautiful book that can be found relatively on the inexpensive side of things. It covers the history and nature of heraldry in detail, though it doesn’t provide all the symbols and meanings one would need to generate historically accurate heraldry. The heart of the book is to provide a deep understanding of the system itself from its inception through to modern era usage.
3. Modern History TV on YouTube. A fun channel that delves into rediscovering what life was like in the medieval period from the foods eaten through to travel times. Heraldry is touched on, but recommending more as a good resource for the setting and making it believable in roleplaying games, novels, or paintings.
4. The Dictionary of Heraldry by Joseph Foster.
5. An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Heraldry by Julian Franklyn.

An Update for #Kzoo2023

A follow-up: Per the Congress, "the ICMS Program Committee has extended the paper submission deadline through midnight Friday, September 23." So if you have 'em, get 'em in!

𝔚ell, folks, some news has come it, and it's not the news we'd want.

Put simply: the panel didn't make

Put with a bit more detail: we didn't have enough submissions come in to be able to seat a panel for the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Given that, and given the expense to Society members of attending the Congress--even remotely--the Annual General Meeting will be held via a Zoom call, date and time to be determined. Agenda items will focus on moving forward.

Thank you for your continued interest and support.

Guest Post: Anne EG Nydam, "On the Virtues of Beasts--A Modern Fantasy Project with a Medieval Inspiration"

The first answer to the Society's recent call for contributions--which is still open; we'd love to hear from you!--comes from author and illustrator Anne EG Nydam, whose Nydam Prints features prints, books, and other artistic sundries. Her 2019 book, On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination, is "a bestiary that is inspired by and modeled on medieval bestiaries," as well as by the works of Tolkien. She notes, too, a comparison between medieval bestiary work and contemporary speculative fiction, in that both serve "to inspire a sense of wonder by telling stories about magical things, which holds up a mirror or guidebook to invite the reader to consider how we can live our lives morally."

The text of the post below is furnished by Nydam, in which she reflects on the content and composition of the words and images in her bestiary. The images below all come from her book and are used with her kind permission. Editorial adjustment is kept to a minimum.

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ℑ am not an academic or a medievalist, but I am an artist and fiction writer who has done extensive amateur research into the medieval bestiary, which I find not only a fascinating genre, but also one that has many common threads with our modern speculative fiction genres. I combined these ideas by writing and illustrating On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination, a “medieval style” bestiary of my own, featuring all sorts of mythical, magical creatures. Medieval bestiaries combine elements of art, storytelling, science, mythology, social history, and morality. Right at the outset, I’ll acknowledge that the medieval writers wouldn’t have used any of those modern terms, let alone think of their work as “fantasy” in any way comparable to the way we think of fantasy now. Nevertheless, the blend of all these different elements is what attracts me to bestiaries and is what makes them so much fun!

There are many fantasy “bestiaries,” often presented as if they were books of natural science, and I enjoy these. However, the bit that differentiates the medieval era’s bestiaries from both the Classical encyclopedias before and the Renaissance encyclopedias after is a moral component: the idea that the purpose of learning about the Creation is to gain insight and understanding about the moral lessons that the Creator had embedded in the creatures of the Earth. In Europe, these moral lessons were all about Catholic theology, but the bestiary genre was also popular throughout the Middle East and Persian literary areas, where the moral lessons derived from the natural world were based in Islamic theology. Plus, Jewish art of the same era often made use of similar iconography for similar purposes, although to the best of my knowledge, there was not a bestiary genre in Hebrew literature. In any case, though, what struck me as I discovered more about these texts was the common thread across these cultures of the idea of using stories (especially information about the natural world) to examine moral issues. Moreover, this is a role that speculative fiction often takes on today.

I’m one of the many people for whom Tolkien’s work was instrumental in turning me into a lifelong lover of fantasy. Three of the elements in Tolkien’s success and appeal to me are beauty, wonder, and morality, and these are three major elements in the medieval bestiaries’ success, as well.

First, beauty. Bestiaries were lavishly illustrated, and the illustrations in bestiaries were not marginal decoration, but were important iconography that explicitly illustrated the text. For my own bestiary, therefore, I wanted to make a book that would be physically beautiful. Not only did I illustrate each of the animals featured, but I designed borders to go around each page, decorative initials, frontispiece and illustrations for the index, and so on.

Second, wonder. When we look at bestiary illustrations, as well as their strange descriptions of some of the animals, we tend to think, “Couldn’t they see that isn’t accurate? Surely they must have known?” But often “scientific” accuracy in the way we think of it now simply wasn’t the point. For the medieval bestiaries, part of the point was to inspire the reader with wonder to draw them in and to invite them to think about the divine lessons to be understood through learning about this wondrous Creation. They did this by describing strange creatures from faraway places, by illustrating them with marvelous colors and even gold illumination, and by telling anecdotes of magical behaviors and miraculous properties. This is exactly what modern speculative fiction often does as well; it shows us a world that is explicitly not “realistic,” and draws us in with wonder. For many of us, myself included, Middle-earth was a major introduction to the wonder, beauty, and excitement of magical worlds. Tolkien also created a sense of wonder by writing in a deliberately lyrical, somewhat archaic style. In order to evoke wonder in my own bestiary, I used many of these same techniques used by the medieval bestiary makers and by Tolkien: tales of strange and magical creatures; illustrations of wondrous scenes; and a deliberately poetic, old-fashioned writing style to show the reader that this is not your everyday modern encyclopedia!

Third, morality. The wonder opens our hearts and minds to consider and reconsider the choices we make about the ways we can live in our own world. Modern speculative fiction has a powerful and subversive ability to slip behind our defenses because we are willingly suspending our disbelief. Because readers of fantasy are less likely to object, “But that could never happen!” fantasy can show us visions not only of nifty things like elves, dragons, and magic, but also visions of individuals and societies functioning in ways that we would otherwise reject as impossible. Tolkien used a world of wonder to draw us in to consider the moral dimensions of such big questions as heroism, industrialism, loyalty, power, and knowledge. For my bestiary, I drew a moral from the story of each mythical creature. Rather than medieval Catholic theology, however (which has some thoroughly appalling elements), my morals are more modern messages about the importance of welcome and kindness, care for the natural world, integrity, creativity, and so on.

For years, I toyed with the idea of making a medieval-style bestiary with a modern diversity of creatures and a modern sense of morality. I made illustrations of dozens of mythical creatures, researched their stories, pored over more than a hundred digitized medieval bestiaries on-line. But was I the only person in the world who loved the strange mash-up of old-fashioned writing, relief-printed art, veneer of science, world-wide fantasy, and explicit morality? Would the people who love fantasy accept the moral lessons? Would the people who appreciated moral content understand the fantasy? Would adult readers want a picture book, and would children be able to read archaic, poetic writing? My husband, who likes to deal in data, convinced me that I should run a Kickstarter campaign in order to get some answers. Quite simply, if no one was interested in the Kickstarter, I would know that I was indeed alone in thinking this idea was enticing. On the other hand, if I got a few backers, I’d be able to gauge just how much interest there might be. Lo and behold, when I launched the campaign, it was successfully funded in just a few days, and went on to receive pledges of over five and a half times my initial goal.

Since then, the book has gone on to receive positive reactions whenever I do readings or bring it to events. So it turns out that the modern world is still interested in beauty, wonder, and morality, those same elements that made bestiaries best-sellers of the medieval world. And I also owe thanks to Tolkien, for introducing me to the wonders of medieval-influenced fantasy, of course, but also for making it such a foundational part of the modern fantasy landscape that other readers, too, have found that my own book, although it might seem so hopelessly niche, strikes a familiar and beloved chord.

Another CFP: NE/PCA

ℑn response to the announcement about the Society's session at #Kzoo2023, Robin Anne Reid, the Tolkien Studies area chair for the Popular Culture Association, sent along word that her area would be interested in having proposals from members of the Society. She also notes "that the Northeast Popular Culture conference is virtual this fall and is open to work on Tolkien -- and on "Tales after Tolkien" as well--they have a science fiction fantasy area," adding that "anyone who cannot present at K'zoo is welcome to join us at Pop Culture (the conference will be f2f in San Antonio, Texas, in 2023 [...], or to propose at NEPCA https://nepca.blog/ (deadline there is August 1) which is virtual."

So, if you have ideas that might've fit well in "Bad Medieval/ism: Mis/Uses of the Medieval in Contemporary Fiction; or, I Know It's Wrong, But I Want to Have Fun" or "Hidden Middle Ages: Where the Middle Ages Hides in Plain Sight in Contemporary Narratives," send them along!

Some News about #Kzoo2023...And Updates

𝔑ews arrived today about the panels that the Society had proposed to the International Congress on Medieval Studies for its 2023 iteration. Of the three sessions that the Society had voted at the 2022 AGM to propose, only one was accepted: the paper session Religion along the Tolkienian Fantasy Tradition: New Medievalist Narratives. While it is something of a disappointment to have only one of the three sessions accepted, the Society looks forward to the abstracts and papers that are sure to follow.

The session will broadly examine depictions of formal religion, real-world or in-milieu, in recent (post-2000) works in the Tolkienian fantasy tradition--here, conceived loosely as fantasy works, irrespective of medium, that make use of a more or less "authentic" European Middle Ages (itself a somewhat nebulous term, as has been noted) as a primary reference for their milieux and their trappings. While it is a commonplace that religious observance was a prominent concern in medieval life, Tolkien notably largely avoids substantial overt depiction of religious forms in his works, and those authors who follow after him largely do, as well. Even those authors who are explicit about the inclusion of religion--Martin and Hobb come to mind as attention-grabbing examples, and others can be found--are far less overt about religious practices. The disjunction is curious and invites exploration...such as the session hopes to do.

Submissions for the session will be accepted via the Congress's platform, which should appear on the "Submissions" page once it goes live. Early-career researchers, persons working off of the tenure track or outside academe entirely, and persons from traditionally marginalized populations are especially encouraged to submit abstracts; the Society welcomes diverse voices working from formal and embedded approaches.

Members of the Society are encouraged to spread word of the session and to submit proposals to it, as well.

Information about the AGM will be posted once it becomes available.

Additionally, the Society still hopes for contributions from its members and other interested parties to this webspace. From an earlier announcement of the same:

The Tales after Tolkien Society, which seeks to provide a forum to examine use of the medieval and medievalism in post-Tolkien popular culture, is seeking guest contributors to its blog (talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com). Contributors need not have any institutional affiliation—we prize the voices of those on the outside. Posts can be of any length and can treat any work of any genre in any medium so long as it makes use of medieval/ist tropes and figures. We’re happy to see many topics, including (but certainly not limited to!)

• How reading / having read Tolkien influences your work, scholarly and creative;
• How reading medieval/ist work influences your own;
• How participation in / engagement with fandoms influences your own; and
• How you see a particular contemporary / recent work or body of work making use of the medieval.

More information is available at https://talesaftertolkien.blogspot.com/p/contributing.html. Interested? Email the Society at talesaftertolkien@gmail.com; we’d love to hear from you!

Note, too, that more regular activities will resume in this webspace soon; thank you for reading!