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to blow up in your face.'
Now that I've explained what I'm up to here, let's get the lecture
out of the way. (Did you really think I'd let you get away without
one?)
After I graduated from the US Army in 1956, one of my veteran's
benefits was the now famous GI Bill. My government had decided
to pay me to go to graduate school. I worked for a year to save up
enough for some incidentals (food, clothing, and shelter) and then
enrolled in the graduate school of the University of Washington in
Seattle. (A good day in Seattle is a day when it isn't raining up.) My
area of concentration was supposed to be modern American fiction
(Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck), but I had those Ph.D exams
lurking out in the future, so I knew that I'd better spend some time
with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton as well. Once I'd mastered
Middle English, I fell in love with Chaucer and somewhat by
extension with Sir Thomas Malory.
INTRODUCTION
Since what is called 'Epic Fantasy' in the contemporary world
descends in an almost direct line from medieval romance, my
studies
of Chaucer and Malory gave me a running head start in the field.
'Medieval Romance' had a long and honorable history, stretching
from about the eleventh century to the sixteenth, when Don Quixote
finally put it to sleep. It was a genre that spoke of the dark ages in
glowing terms, elevating a number of truly barbaric people to near
sainthood. The group that is of most interest to the English-speaking
world, of course, is King Arthur and his knights of the Round
Table. There may or may not have been a real King Arthur, but that's
beside the point. We should never permit historical reality to get in
the way of a good story~ should we?
Since the issue's come up, though, let's take a look at someone
who was historically verifiable and who had a great deal of impact
on the fledgling genre in its earliest of days. The lady in question
was the infamous Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Eleanor was related tofive (count 'em) different kings (or
pseudokings) during the twelfth century. Her father was the Duke of
Aquitaine (now known as Gascony) and, since he controlled more
land than the King of France, he routinely signed official documents
as 'the King of Aquitaine'. In 1137, Louis of France arranged a
marriage between his son, Prince Louis and 'princess' Eleanor.
Eleanor wasn't a good wife, since she had what's politely known as
a 'roving eye'. Evidently, it was more than her eye that roved.
Her husband, who soon became Louis Vii of France, was a pious
man, and his wandering wife not only failed to produce an heir to
his throne, but also became notorious as an adulteress. He finally
managed to have their marriage annulled in 1152, and two months
later Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, who
incidentally also happened to be King Henry II of England. Eleanor,
as it turned out, was not barren, and she bore Henry several sons.
Aside from that, Henry and Eleanor didn't really get along together,
so he took the easy way out and locked her up to keep her out of his
hair. After he died, Eleanor stirred up trouble between her sons,
Richard the Lionhearted and John the Incompetent, both of whom
became kings of England. They also locked Mother away to keep her
out of mischief.
Thus, Eleanor spent a lot of her time locked up. Embroidery