Cultures: Northland 8th Wonder Of The World [Torrent]l
Eilal Pichardo
Nancy Farmer's The Saxon Saga is one of the best recentexamples of mythopoeic fantasy as I defined the genre in One Earth, OnePeople. Addressed primarily to teenage and young adult audience, the books ofthe series affirm a holistic worldview that sees life as a continuouswhole--a web of planes of existence represented by the tree of lifeYgdrassil, all planes sustained by the same life force. They tell a story inwhich the fantastic and the real blend to create "an imaginativeexperience of a world in which metaphysical concepts are objective realitiesand the protagonists' responses to those realities reflect on theirlives" (84). The story is constructed "from a variety ofartistically reimagined and reconfigured mythic elements"--all of thempresented as believable by realist criteria (84). It recounts theprotagonists' attempts to meet specific moral imperatives, thussuggesting why similar imperatives in the primary world demand certain kindsof behavior. The saga's mythopoeic dimension is best seen in thenovels' secondary world: offering a panorama of 8th century Anglo-SaxonEngland, Pictish Scotland, and Norse Scandinavia, The Saxon Saga introducesthe reader to the mythical realms that were recognized as real by thosecultures: Jotunheim, the land of trolls in Northern Scandinavia, Elfland, therealm of fallen angels hidden deep under the English soil, Notland, the realmof the Finfolk to be found north of Orkneys, and the Islands of theBlessed--the Celtic paradise located somewhere northwest of Ireland. TheSaxon Saga also features mythical beings such as dragons, trolls, elves,hobgoblins and Finfolk; old and new gods of various cultures--Norns,Yarthkins, Odin, the Forest Lord, and the devil--and, of course, magic. Thereare magical beings, magical items, magical lore, magical healings, magicaltransformations, and magical learning.
For all of its otherworldly and fantastic qualities, The SaxonSaga reflects the extremely violent realities of the late 8th century clashof three cultures: Anglo-Saxon Christians, Viking Norsemen, and Celtic aswell as Pictish polytheists. The series opens with the sacking of Lindisfarnein 793--historically, the first major Viking raid on England--and then thingsget worse. In The Sea of Trolls eleven-year-old bard-apprentice Jack and hissix-year-old sister Lucy are kidnapped by Northmen. Although they areinitially meant to be sold to Picts in the North, the children's uniquequalities--Lucy's loveliness and Jack's poetry skills--save them.The Viking captain Olaf One-Brow decides to keep Jack as his personal bard;the shield maiden Thorgil who had captured Lucy decides to give her as a giftto King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll wife Queen Frith. On the way toScandinavia, Jack and Lucy suffer the fate of slaves and witnessbloodcurdling events. After arriving in Northland, the siblings are broughtto the royal court where Jack's praise-song accidentally breaks QueenFrith's appearance spell and destroys her beautiful hair. Threatening tosacrifice Lucy to the goddess Freya unless the hair is restored, thehalf-troll queen gives Jack a deadline and sends him on a quest to Jotunheimto Mimir's Well to obtain the magic necessary to redo the spell. InJotunheim, Olaf One-Brow is killed by a trollbear, but Jack and Thorgilmanage to reach the troll queen's palace. The trolls turn out to be farmore civilized and friendly than Jack and Thorgil had expected; theprotagonists win their friendship and assistance in reaching the treeYggdrasil and Mimir's Well, the well holding the water of life. Havingdrunk from the Well, Jack and Thorgil return successfully to the human realm.Jack uses his newly acquired knowledge to defeat the evil queen. As a reward,he and his sister are taken back to England and freed.
As this outline suggests, on both real and supernatural planes,the secondary world of The Saxon Saga represents what cultural historianscall an interaction sphere: "a region in which one society disseminatesits symbols, values and inventions to others" (Mann 281). Theinteraction sphere in each volume is 8th century northeastern England--a facteasily gleaned from maps that precede each volume--with occasional excursionsinto northwestern Scandinavia. Historically, this interaction sphere spanneda much longer period than is depicted in the novels--lasting at least sincethe first Anglo-Saxon raids in Roman Britain around the 3rd century until theNorman Conquest. This British interaction sphere peaked at the turn of the8th and 9th centuries and involved the three large and inwardly diversifiedethnic groups: Anglo-Saxons, Northmen--that is Danes and Norwegians--andBritons represented by Picts and Celts. To these three historical groupsFarmer adds five other mythic-fantastic cultures: trolls, elves, hobgoblins,finfolk, and unclassifiables: old gods, dragons, monsters, spirits, andhumanoid shapeshifters. Each of those cultures is shown to have its ownbeliefs, values and cultural institutions, most of them very different fromthose practiced by other societies. Notwithstanding, for example, differencesbetween hobgoblins and elves, the historically accurate human cultures thatalso inhabited Britain seem to have been severely conflicted. For example,British historian Norman Davies, commenting on ethnic relations in earlymedieval Britain, writes in his monumental work The Isles: A History:
Christianity, however, also has a life-affirming face. Thispositive side is represented by Brother Aiden, the sole survivor from theLindisfarne monastery, and previously a Pictish child saved by Father Severusfrom Odin's Wild Hunt. It is also embodied in the character of Pega andthe hobgoblins whose race acquired souls after they had been baptized by St.Columba (Land of the Silver Apples [Land] 270). All these charactersunderstand suffering, pain, and sorrow as unavoidable elements of life but donot seek it or glorify it. Rather, they cheerfully place their hopes oneternal rewards of Heaven and are committed to helping others and doing goodwhile they can. It is mostly through those characters that Christianity ispresented as spiritually valid. At one point in the story, when Pega singsCaedmon's hymn in front of the assembly of taunting elves, the narratorcomments: "You could see the glory of Heaven and the wonder of the earthas you listened to it. It was a celebration of life beyond even what Jackcould call up with his staff. It humbled him to admit this, but it wasso" (307). In this and several other episodes, Christianity is presentednot as a domain of weak life-haters but as an empowering recognition oflife's ultimate meaning and a factually accurate description of themetaphysical structure of the world. For example, The Land of the SilverApples reveals the existence of hell (353-56) and presents the elves asfallen angels who had not taken sides in the war in heaven and were banishedfrom life to fade away into nothingness (157-9). In this novel even FatherSeverus's harshness turns out to be spiritually saving: he does notyield to the elves' glamour and the utter bleakness of his outlook isseen to hide "a deep kindness in him" (319). When he calls on theelves to repent, Father Severus becomes an instrument of a higher power(349). It is also his absolute trust in God that enables Father Severus tovolunteer as an offering to the devil in place of Pega--an act of ultimatecourage and sacrifice no one else would be capable of (352).
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