The hermit heard the distant clash of shield and spear before he saw them. Not until he trudged over a muddy knoll, using his gnarled broke-branch for a third leg, did he see them there below, their horses hard-breathing and spurblood streaming down their bellies. Two knights in provincial armor all hard-leather and hauberks rusting, faced one another readying for another charge and tilt. 

             Rain began to fall, bone-cold, and the hermit steadied himself against a skeletonized tree to watch.

            He marked their shields as they raised them into position—each emblazoned with a weathered crest of a thorn-stemmed rose. An internal feud, a dispute of honor among shieldmates no doubt. A shame thought the hermit. A shame.

            They charged. The hooves of their horses churned up gouts of mud the size of drowned rats. Their spears lowered. Neither knight wore a helmet nor visor, their faces murder-serious.

            The hermit’s robes soaked at the shoulders, but he did not shiver. He watched them down in the glen’s clearing, watched the knights devour the space between one another. There was no rise in the hermit’s brow when they collided. No blink. 

            It became a shambles. One knight’s spear hit true and buried shaft-deep into the guts of his opponent just under the rib cage. Before flying from his harness, the skewered knight’s spear tilted low and was thrust into the soft spot beneath the neck of his rival’s horse. The dying horse screamed, reared up and fell backwards upon its rider.

            The skewered knight writhed in the mud and struggled to pull out the spearhead that impaled him. A great gust of breath blew out from his mouth, and he lay still on his side with his back to the hermit. After a few moments his only movement was the twitching of a leg. This knight’s horse trotted off towards a barren thicket on the far side of the clearing with its loathsome saddle empty and released spooked shards of hay-packed feces.

            Bracing himself upon his walking branch the hermit made his way down to this fallen knight.  Raindrops dotted down on the knight’s shield. By the time the hermit walked to him the knight no longer moved. The hermit stared at the dead man’s face while droplets fell from the old man’s mane of hair, down off his nose and nestled in his grey beard.

            Behind him the other knight made a noise; the hermit turned. His steps were deliberate as he walked through a slick of gore, mud-mingled, issuing forth from the massive wound of the dead horse. Beneath the weight of the animal lay the other knight.

            The hermit stood over the knight and now did his brow rise, now did his eyes blink. This knight’s visage was the exact copy to the dead man in the mire a few paces away. What deviltry? But then he knew. The knights were more than shieldmates, more than brothers. 

            They were twins.

            The hermit nodded and looked up into the rain where the sun should be. A shame.

             A spurge-gurgle of bloody froth oozed from the gape of the knight’s mouth. “Holy father...” he said.

            The hermit looked down on him. “Not holy.”

            The knight’s eyes rolled. He swallowed some of his frothing blood.

            The hermit divined the knight’s back was broke and his insides were possibly crushed.

            “My dagger...” said the knight. “Mercy...”

            “No. I’ve renounced steel.”

            Tears flowed from the knight’s eyes. “Mercy.”

            An ice-shive of thought sank into the Hermit’s mind. Not just a thought, but a memory. The moment of the most unequivocal horror of his life. He remembered his own naked body rising from the pool. Beside himself. Himself, bicameral. What deviltry.    

             What if they are more than brothers?

            The hermit bent down on his knee. “Is that yonder knight your brother? Or is he…”  

            “Mercy…” the dying knight repeated.

            “A woman. Was it a woman?”

            But the knight’s face was starting to slacken, the vessels in his eyes had already burst red. He did not, could not, answer the hermit.

            The rain was not stopping.

            Finally, the hermit nodded. He took his broke-branch and laid it across the knight’s throat and leaned down upon it with all his weight. It did not take long.

            The hermit closed the knight’s eyes. “Let there be mercy, brothers. Let there be.”

            Another salvo of lightning and thunder split and shook the sky and the surviving horse reared and brayed. Weary, the hermit took up his branch and walked up out of the mire; he walked on, melting into the grey ethereal.

 

 

 

 

 

ACT OF STORY STATEMENT (Assignment One)

 

Part One: Launcelot (age 26)          Launcelot must reconcile his sense of self between his renown as a virtuous Arthurian knight with his recent un-virtuous deeds (his affair with the Queen and his sexual assault of Elaine of Corbin while he was bewitched and drugged).

 

Part Two: Launcelot (age 44)          Launcelot is determined to protect and teach his son, Galahad, (who is on the brink of manhood) right when the King is recruiting both of them to foil a rebellion plot that launches he and Galahad into a deadly jousting tournament, to crossing swords with a serial-killing psychopath, and confronting a sorceress bent on the destruction of the Realm.

 

The Overstory Protagonist: Galahad         Galahad's purpose is to improve humanity by going through time and reincarnating iterations of the same human that will "help" evolve human collective consciousness and placing them in key places throughout the chronological spectrum of human existence. 

     In order to do this, Galahad must obtain Morgalyn’s mystical tower. Once he possesses the tower, the tower will allow Galahad to travel into outer space and enter a black hole, which will enable him to travel throughout time. This will give him the means to re-write and evolve human consciousness and behavior one lifespan at a time. 

 

 

THE ANTAGONIST PLOTS THE POINT (Assignment Two)

 

Morgalyn (The Fay) Morgalyn is King Arthur's sister. As children, Myrddin (Merlin) brings them to Sir Ector to be raised in secret since their father was Uther, a powerful king during the feudal era. As teenagers, Morgalyn and Arthur fall in love and Morgalyn becomes with child. Myrddin returns and enlists Arthur to unify the Isle under one king and Realm. Afraid for her family, Morgalyn meets with Myrddin at the Isle's volcano. There, Myrddin bequeaths Morgalyn magical powers. But after the birth, Myrddin meets with Arthur and tells him no one in his new kingdom will accept a king wed to his own sister—and further, if allowed to live, his son will one day lead a rebellion. So, Myrddin gives Arthur a choice: kill his son or choose another as a wife and form the Realm. Arthur pulls his son from Morgalyn's arms and hurls her baby into the sea. Morgalyn escapes and vows to destroy Arthur's realm with her powers. Her desire and attempts to destroy the Realm's system of governance puts Morgalyn in conflict with nearly every character in the story. In Part One, she manufactures a war across the Eastern Sea, which forces Arthur and his knights to leave the Realm. Then, Morgalyn unleashes the Rain of Blood, where she turns every river, well, and water source—even the rain—to blood in hopes of killing everyone on the Isle with thirst. In Part Two, Morgalyn teams with psychopathic, Lord Weostan, to raise a rebellion against the Realm. Her main motivation is to destroy the thing her brother sacrificed their son for.

 

 

CONJURING YOUR BREAKOUT TITLE (Assignment Three) 

Elaine

The Triple Morn

The Second Ocean

 

 

DECIDING YOUR GENRE AND APPROACHING COMPARABLES (Assignment Four)

 

  Comp Titles:

  A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

 Circe by Madeline Miller

 Bright Air Black by David Vann

 

These contemporary novels are all in the similar vein of my ms. These works all modernize the themes and characters of ancient, male-dominated, Greek myths similarly to how I’m rebooting the Arthurian mythos.  

 

 

CORE WOUND AND THE PRIMARY CONFLICT (Assignment Five)

 

Through two tragic love affairs sixteen years apart, Launcelot struggles with his core identity, and his deep desire to keep his family safe while also keeping his oath to protect King Arthur’s Realm against Morgalyn, Arthur’s sorceress sister; he finds that the more he tries to clutch his loved ones close, the more of them he loses, all while trudging forward on his journey to the final epiphany that we are all iterations of the same re-occurring person.

 

 

OTHER MATTERS OF CONFLICT: TWO MORE LEVELS (Assignment Six)

 

            Inner Conflict: From early childhood on, Launcelot has been conditioned to feel pronounced guilt and shame about his deeds and desires. Growing up after the death of his mother, his father, King Ban, tries to school young Launcelot in the virtues of celibacy. Ban took an oath of life-long celibacy after the death of his wife and tries to impress Launcelot of its virtues—even going so far as decrying onanism as well until Launcelot is wed. Of course, this proves a little too austere for teenage Launcelot who is caught one morning by his father in the throes of ‘self-abuse.’ Ban’s punishment of Launcelot is severe and lasting. The king publicly shames his son by painting his son’s exposed member with a strong purple dye in front of everyone living in the castle. 

            For years afterward, Launcelot succeeds to remain chaste until, as a young knight in Arthur’s Realm, he is seduced by Arthur’s wife and queen, Gwynevere. For months the two have an affair that increasingly becomes more sado-masochistic. This in turn, reignites Launcelot’s inward feelings of shame, failure, and guilt. He feels he has now not only failed his father but betrayed his friend and his king, as well as destroying his own emerging virtuous sense of self. 

            The affair and his concealment of it results in Launcelot’s escalating alcoholism. He begins to hear a ‘second voice’ in his head—which he calls the viper’s voice—which whispers to him a catalogue of his failures, hypocrisies, and treason. While he is still in the middle of this affair, Launcelot is called out to quest, and saves a maiden held captive by one of Morgalyn’s monstrosities in a tower. This maiden turns out to be Elaine of Corbin and Launcelot nobly returns her to her parents in Corbin. 

 Unbeknownst to Launcelot, Nimue (Elaine’s mother) and Brisen (Elaine’s aunt) are also sorceresses that believe a sexual union between Launcelot and Elaine of Corbin will result in the birth of a perfect knight—one that will one day save the world entire. This prompts Brisen to drug Launcelot and trick him into thinking he’s having a rough sexual rendezvous with Gwynevere when, he’s actually with Elaine. Launcelot ends up assaulting Elaine who was expecting Launcelot to softly make love to her. When Launcelot realizes what he’s done, and to whom, this furthers his descent into guilt, and he becomes manic and suicidal. After Elaine gives birth to Launcelot’s son, she visits Camelot. Launcelot drunkenly staggers into Gwynevere’s room to have sex with her at her command only to find Elaine with Gwynevere holding his bastard son, Galahad. This pushes Launcelot into psychological breakdown, and he wanders into the wild for two years. This cycle of guilt and shame only subsides when, years later, Launcelot is forgiven by Elaine who realizes he was bewitched by Brisen. Elaine offers to marry Launcelot so that he can finally be a father to his son.  Elaine’s forgiveness and acceptance is enough for Launcelot to finally allow himself to exist and reconcile with himself—not for his sake, but for Elaine’s and Galahad’s. 

 

Secondary Conflicts

            In Part Two, sixteen years later, Elaine of Corbin is dead (she sacrifices her life to save the Realm from Morgalyn’s Rain of Blood), Launcelot has secondary conflicts all over the place. For instance, when King Arthur commands Launcelot and Galahad to joust in a tournament and fight against the deadly Lord Weostan for Elaine of Astolat’s hand to secure a critical bridge in the Realm, a lasting friction is born between these two friends. Launcelot warns Arthur, “If any harm comes to my son, I’ll burn your Realm to the ground.” To which Arthur responds, “Fair enough…” Later, after Galahad’s magical powers awaken within him and he takes on the quest to evolve human collective consciousness—a quest which will pit him against Morgalyn, Launcelot argues and pleads for his son to flee the Isle with himself, his new love, Elaine of Astolat, and Launcelot’s loyal cousin, Bors. Galahad ultimately refuses his father and sends Launcelot away to try and save Queen Gwynevere from burning at the stake.

 

 

THE INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING (Assignment Seven)

    This reboot of the Arthurian mythos is set upon The Isle, which is a medieval alternate/fantasy British Island. It comes complete with detailed castles, towers, cities, and shantytowns. But most historical references, and certainly all Christian references and locales, have been removed from the narrative. 

     Aside from all the usual medieval settings, wardrobe, combat, battles, and descriptions of weaponry that come stock with the genre, there are other locales upon the Isle that host some pivotal scenes and are very much singular to my ms. There is an expansive moorland in the north of the Isle where Launcelot and Elaine of Astolat run for weeks on foot trying to evade capture from Lord Weostan. During this time Launcelot and Elaine form a romantic attachment running for cover under thunderstorms and walking among the fireflies through the moorgrass. It’s also in the moorlands where years earlier, Arthur and Morgalyn fall in love growing up in Sir Ector’s fortress. 

      Next, there is the mountainous active volcano that sits in the middle of the Isle that plays host to several scenes. Like, when Myrddin bequeaths magical powers to Morgalyn, Brisen, and Nimue through the medium of ritualistic sex upon a basaltic dais on the volcano. Further, a year later Morgalyn will go back to the volcano after Arthur kills their son, and demand Myrddin for more power. The old sorcerer grants her request and allows her to stab him repeatedly before he recedes into the volcano and turns to stone. 

       There is also the setting of the Oylemen’s Cave. After Launcelot has a psychotic break and loses his mind and memory, he spends two years with a cult of men called the Oylemen. Dressed in only tattered loincloths, the emaciated Oylemen silently gather plants and stir them into a cauldron in their cave to make oyle. Daily, they take the oyle across this dark-watered rivulet on the cave floor, which flows into a narrow crack into the cave wall. The narrow crack is just big enough for a man to fit through and is covered with all manner of lush moss and live organica. On a crag right where the rivulet flows into the crack, they bring the oyle to a blindfolded oyleman. This man then manually stimulates each of the remaining oylemen in turn until they ejaculate into the rivulet. This sole, silent, ritual is all they do every day. Eventually, Launcelot escapes the Oylemen by jumping into the rivulet and floating into the crack. The crack leads to an antechamber with a whirlpool and a choice of two other caverns: a wider cave of further watery darkness, or another cave that is a portal to galactic, star-strewn, outer space. 

        There are also a number of scenes that occur on the Isle’s stone-cliff coasts. An orphan boy, named Stephen, lives in a fishing shack with the body of a dead woman and discovers we are wholly wrong about time…  Elaine of Corbin confronts Morgalyn on the cliffs amid a thunderstorm under a rain of blood… Years later, after the fall of Arthurian civilization, an old hermit walks the cold coast in winter and witnesses the burning of a woman for the mere crime of infidelity…

       And finally, there’s Morgalyn’s mystical tower. This castellated tower that comes mysteriously to Morgalyn after she ‘slays’ Myrddin, gives Morgalyn the ability to transport to anywhere in the world and beyond. She makes it appear in the moorlands, the coast, the volcano, and finally, at the gates of Camelot. It’s in this tower that Morgalyn captures and then clones Launcelot in the sunken pool of her solar—clones him so perfectly that neither the original Launcelot nor the clone knows which is which. And it is here, in this tower where Morgalyn finally meets her match against Galahad. After Morgalyn is defeated, in the last scene in the novel, Galahad takes the tower into the far reaches of space before a massive black hole, which he intends to enter.