A Halloween Review: The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore

  A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #156 (October, 2009).

From 2006 through 2012 I was the "Off the Shelf" columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table, a magazine and comic book devoted to tabletop fantasy role paying games. I reviewed classic and
modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction novels. Every October I tried to review a work of classic horror in honor of Halloween. I am trying to continue that tradition with my blog. You can find previous Halloween Reviews here. 

When Halloween again rises from its grave to stalk the cool fall nights, one’s thoughts turn to the classic move monster of yore, that unholy triad of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Wolfman. The first two first appeared in classic gothic novels of the nineteenth century, widely read and beloved thrillers that often feature in high school reading lists. The werewolf’s historical and mythological roots are deeper than the other two; nearly every culture has some sort of lycanthropic legend. Werewolf tales are particularly widespread in Europe, where true stories of horrific wolf attacks were mythologized into fables such as Red Riding Hood. Despite this rich history, the literary antecedent of the Wolfman is less well known than his two companion classic horrors, in part because that 1933 novel, The Werewolf of Paris, remains under copyright.  

The Werewolf of Paris was written by Guy Endore, born Samuel Goldstein. Endore is best known today as a novelist and screen writer who was black-listed as a communist during the Red Scare. Endore was a communist (at least for a time), and was thoroughly immersed in the avant-garde intellectual movements of the 1930s. He was also educated in Europe.

Endore’s political leanings add a great deal to The Werewolf of Paris, a truly remarkable horror novel. Set in nineteenth century France, the novel tells the story of Bertrand Caillet as told primarily by his step-uncle, Aymar. Unlike later versions of the werewolf myth, Bertrand is not cursed by the bite of another werewolf but suffers rather from a family curse.  The novel tells the origin of this curse, and then details Bertrand’s sad life from birth to death.  The novel climaxes during the Franco-Prussian War, Bertrand is in Paris during the German siege, the Paris Commune, and the eventual retaking of Paris by the Versaillais troops. 

The descriptions of the Commune are vivid, and throughout the novel Endore’s Leftist sympathies leak through the text, yet this enhances rather than detracts from the experience, allowing the reader to immerse him or herself in the languid yet fevered atmosphere of France in the nineteenth century. The contrast between Bertrand’s bucolic home village and the beleaguered Paris, were Bertrand’s depredations are truly the least of horrors is particularly acute.

In addition to the politics, Endore’s novel reeks of sex, and the sex is both more blatant and more depraved than the bubbling under-currents of Victorian erotic repression found in Dracula. The werewolf tale has always had a direct connection to sex, again Red Riding Hood is the most obvious example. The Caillet family curse is born and perpetuated through sexual transgression down the ages. Bertrand’s own bestial urges expresses itself sexually as well as violently, and the only cure for his affliction appears to be a demented sort of true love. Though certainly not pornographic or particularly explicit, the sexuality is disturbing enough that I recommend parents read he book before their teenagers. I would only allow older, mature teens to read it myself. 

For gamemasters the novel is most fruitful as a background template, demonstrating how to design a memorable non-player character.  Bertrand makes an excellent tragic villain, and presenting the players with this sort of challenge, a monster that perhaps should not be killed yet must be stopped, is an excellent change of pace. Players may find less of immediate use, although Aymar’s investigations once he is in Paris itself may be instructive for Call of Cthulhu or other games involving supernatural investigations.

Despite its popularity, Endore’s novel was not filmed itself until 1962 when the famous British horror studio, Hammer Films, made Curse of the Werewolf. The novel’s psychological depth and overt sexuality was a deterrent to earlier dramatization. The filmed version moved the action to 18th century Spain, and was Oliver Reed's first starring role.

Bertrand’s rich, evocative prose makes the novel an engaging read despite the heavy subject matter.  Readers looking for a classic horror story with depth and resonance will be well rewarded his work. Read it late on a windy night with a window open and dogs howling in the distance… and don’t be surprised if you crave red meat and more the next day…

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

The Express Diaries by Nick Marsh

A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #196 (February, 2013)

Role-playing has always been intimately linked to literature, it grew from wargaming, certainly, but its
soul has also been a deep desire to live within the fantastical worlds we immerse ourselves in while reading.  Indeed, styles of role-play can often be divined from one’s reading preferences (Conan fans usually love hack and slash, for example). Many books have inspired role-playing games, and as the role-playing hobby has developed, it has inspired books in its own turn. 

Usually these works are best when a writer simply sets a work within a specific role-playing setting, though many have attempted to turn their characters exploit into novels, those attempts usually fall very flat. But not always, some writers have succeeded in turning roleplaying campaign inspiration into fictional gold. 

The Express Diaries by Nick Marsh was inspired by a series of role-playing sessions played and recorded by an RPG group, the Bradford Players (at one time these were available for sale online, as shown here, but they seem to be no longer available, sadly). The Bradford Players were running through a classic Call of Cthulhu adventure, Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium, 1991). The adventure was inspired by the literary works of H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti, Marsh’s novelization of the game sessions brings the cycle full circle. 

The novel follows a band of investigators as they chase down the mystery of the “Sedefkar Simulacrum” from London to Constantinople and back again, travelling generally on the infamous Orient Express. The tales is told, as the title implies, through various diary and journal entries, and further expanded through newspaper articles, advertisements. This is reminiscent of Stoker’s technique in Dracula and it is equally effective in this work. 

Perhaps because Marsh wasn’t one of the original players, but rather an outsider inspired by the sessions, this novel suffers from none of the self-indulgent flaws one usually finds in fiction inspired by game sessions. The characters view points are each unique, and this is apparent as the view shifts with each entry.  The earlier chapters have quite a bit of humor, some of it can get a bit predictable for anyone familiar with gaming in the 19th century. That doesn’t prevent it from being funny, however, and the early humor allows the reader to bond with the characters, and lulls the reader, so that when the horror truly begins, it is a bit shocking. 

For gamers, the value of this work is obvious, it serves as a wonderful example of a Call of Cthulhu campaign, or really, it works for nearly any horror adventure. The Bradford players seem to have been very role-playing oriented, none of the characters could be described as combat heavy hitters so the campaign is an excellent example of games in which direct combat and firefights play little if any role (appropriate, for the setting). 

Marsh’ sense of humor and ability to portray character is excellent, his prose is very sure-footed. Perhaps he doesn’t quite handle the horrific portions of the tale quite as well as the humorous sections, but they are still a great read. The reader heavily identifies with the characters and subsequently feels their defeats quite keenly. 

Of course, critical for any tale of this sort are the scenes on the train proper, as well as the sense of travel as the story progresses across Europe. This is one of Marsh’ strengths, the train comes alive through his prose, the reader feels as if they too have taken the long journey, and despite the horror, like they might want to take another such trip. I appreciate when he points out anachronisms such as dining cars that appear in the original adventure.

The novel is well suited for both prequels and sequels, and one can hope that Marsh finds good reason to continue novelizing the adventures of the Bradford Players. Certainly this work is a worthy addition to the Cthulhu mythos, even if Lovecraft himself may not have approved of the tale (he seems to have preferred a single protagonist, and never a female lead).In fact, I found this comment from a reader on the book's Amazon page extremely insightful: "...not so much something H.P. Lovecraft himself might have written as what you might have gotten if Clark Ashton Smith had written a Bram Stoker pastiche." I wish I written that myself!

If you enjoy horror, the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, or if you enjoy role-playing then give The Express Diaries a read. Or if you just are in between campaigns and need a Call of Cthulhu fix. Regardless, you’ll have a good read.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Yule Review: Santa Claus in Fantasy Fiction

 

A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #182 (December, 2011).

Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also very solemn. 

–The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis.

It is once again the merry time of Yule, when the old year dies and the new is born again. It is natural in the northern hemisphere, and especially in the truly northern regions, to associate this time with death and rebirth. It is a special time for myth and religion, a time that seems to attract mythical figures like moth to a flame. Christianity and Mithraism both chose this time to honor the broth of their respective deities, of course, but equally entwined in the season is the legend of the Gift Bringer, a magical figure that rewards children for good behavior and, sometimes, punishes the bad children. 

The gift figure takes many forms throughout Europe, ranging from the Yule Goat of Scandinavia to La Befana, the Old Woman of Italy or the Christkind of Bavaria and Austria. The more common form, however is a bearded old man, usually connected to the Christian Saint Nicholas, called Father Christmas in the British Isles. In America he is Santa Claus, and like many American things he has sprung from his old world origins to spread back out throughout the world. 

Whatever we call him, Santa Claus is a powerfully mythic figure and a seeming natural for fantasy fiction, especially the more mystical, dream-like style of fantasy that follows in Lord Dunsany’s footsteps far from the  fields we know and deep into the realms of Faerie. But as I have mentioned before, Christmas remains a difficult subject, and perhaps its relentless commercialization and the plethora of children’s stories have dissuaded fantasy authors from exploring its fantasy potential. Regardless, there are some very good fantasy tales of Santa, by the greatest writers in the field, and fantasy lovers looking for a fantastical take on Christmas should give them a try.   

Perhaps the earliest fantasy novel to tell a Santa story is L. Frank Baum's excellent The Life and
Adventures of Santa Claus (1902), which I reviewed here. Baum revisited Santa in the short story "A Kidnapped Santa Claus" (1904), a sequel to the origin tale which the five "Daemons of the Caves" (Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance). They try to eliminate Santa and his influence on children first through temptation then when that fails through kidnapping. It's an excellent short parable, with plenty of fodder for gamemasters.

C.S. Lewis, of course, employs Father Christmas, but his momentous appearance in Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) was indistinguishable from Santa save in name. His appearance is a pivotal plot point, and the gifts he brings are not mere toys, but essential to the tale - in fact, rather similar to Galadriel's gifts to the Fellowship in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. 

Lewis’ friend J.R.R. Tolkien produced a series of letters from Father Christmas to his children, written over two decades and first published in 1976.  Letters from Father Christmas (revised 1999), notable not only for its engaging prose and episodic tales of life at the North Pole, but also because so many of the motifs and events of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Silmarillion are foreshadowed in the letters.

Of course, as well written as they are, the Santa works of Tolkien, Lewis, and Baum are aimed at children.  Seabury Quinn’s Roads, first published in Weird Tales in 1938 and then in hardback by Arkham House in 1948, is written for adults, asking the question, "What if Conan the Barbarian became Santa Claus?"  The Arkham House novel was well illustrated by Virgil Finlay, and was reprinted in 2005.  It is divided into three parts, ‘The Road to Bethlehem,’ ‘The Road to Calvary,’ and ‘The Long, Long

Road.’ Santa is really "Claudius" an immortal German mercenary who apparently spent centuries slaughtering his way across Europe and the Middle east with his equally immortal wife (a sort of Jewish Red Sonja who begins life as a prostitute in a brothel run by Mary Magdalen). The book positively reeks of anti-Semitism and Anglo-Saxon triumphalism. Quinn is best known for writing occult detective stories, which appeared in the pulp magazines alongside the tales of H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. Roads is a religious Christmas tale told through a Sword & Sorcery lens and dripping with 1930s style anti-Semitism that it simply never rises above.

A more modern take comes in Bill Willingham’s long running comic Fables. The comic addressed Santa, in “Jiminy Christmas” (issue #56). Santa is a

‘Fable’ (a living, breathing fairy tale) of course, but he is a particularly powerful one who somehow transcends the other Fables in power and influence. The tale is very adult, all though it portrays a young child’s quest to see Santa during his gift-giving (the explanation provided for Claus’ miraculous Christmas Eve global service is sublime). Like Lewis, Willingham uses Santa as a deus ex machina who passes gifts and knowledge onto the protagonists. It also provides one of the best explanations for how Santa reaches all the houses around the globe in one night. 

Another modern fantasy take is Tony Abbot's Kringle, from 2005. It isn't a traditional Christmas book but rather a Dark Age bildungsroman. Kringle has goblins, elves, magic, all against a back drop of Anglo-Saxon Britain. It's very
good, but it is really only about the start of the tale, how Kringle transform into Santa is barely addressed. But as far as it goes its a great, fun, fantasy tale. It reminds me a great deal of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, with the magic world existing alongside but hidden from the barbarity of the Dark Ages.

An even more modern take is The Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus by Tim Slover. It is a pleasant enough tale, but it doesn't quite scratch the Santa and Fantasy itch I've always had. It doesn't catch the magic of the elves and faerie quite right. Magic only enters the tale after Claus and his wife have had a long life as toy givers. Even then, it ignores or changes most of the Christmas legends, (Rudolph gets a different name and totally different story). It lacks that connection to older, deeper mythologies

and is very Christian, aside from an odd digression concerning the Dalai Lama.

For gamemasters looking to add some Christmas spark, Lewis and Willingham’s use of Santa as a gift-giver provides an excellent example. Lewis’ Santa, especially, is similar in role to Tolkien’s Galadriel. Santa can pass on wisdom or knowledge (suitably hidden in rhyme) as well as providing precisely the needed magic weapon or spell. If limited to a one time, special event for a particularly mythic quest, this can work extremely well. Of course, Christmas scenarios can also be drawn from these Santa tales, especially the ongoing war between Santa and the goblins in Tolkien’s The Father Christmas Letters.

Whether you read these tales for fun, for a window into the holiday, or merely to get some ideas for the Christmas Eve role-playing session, I hope you will sing:

Goday, goday, my lord Sire Christëmas, goday!

Goday, Sire Christëmas, our king,

for ev'ry man, both old and ying,

is glad and blithe of your coming;

Goday!

(Anon. Christmas Carol, 1458)

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

A Halloween Review: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #168 (October, 2010).

From 2006 through 2012 I was the "Off the Shelf" columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table, a magazine and comic book devoted to tabletop fantasy role paying games. I reviewed classic and modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction novels. Every October I tried to review a work of classic horror in honor of Halloween. I am trying to continue that tradition with my blog. You can find previous Halloween Reviews here. 

The witch is on the broomstick and a chill is in the air as haunted old Halloween arrives. This year I review Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley was a remarkable woman from a remarkable family; her father was a famous philosopher, her mother a famous feminist, her husband the renowned poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her early life was remarkable for the early 19th century, ‘radical’ even by today’s standards and colored by a remarkable amount of grief.  Aside from the creation of his monster, she in fact led a far more fascinating and interesting life than her novel’s protagonist. But a full accounting of her life would require a thick biography.

The story of the genesis of Frankenstein is well known. In 1816 she and Percy visited Lord Byron at a villa near Lake Geneva, Switzerland.  To pass the rainy days, Byron suggested they write ghost stories themselves, and from that summer came the story that she later worked into the novel: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

The plot of the novel is well know: Frankenstein, a Byronic figure, becomes infatuated with creating life through electricity and his obsessive studies and experiments allow him to eventually give life to a creature he has constructed from cadavers.  His reaction is not what he expects:

It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. 

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

Frankenstein violently rejects his creature and abandons it, returning to his home and trying to resume his life as though his demented escapade had never occurred. But of course one’s mistakes cannot be so easily buried or forgotten and tragedy stalks Frankenstein’s loved ones until finally he and the creature race to a final confrontation in the far north. The novel is narrated by the device of a framing tale to the captain of an arctic exploration vessel as Frankenstein recovers from exposure.

Frankentsein is a major influence for gamers, directly inspiring villains in various horror settings like TSR’s Ravenloft. Frankenstein himself serves as an excellent model for either PC protagonist or NPC antagonist, indeed stripped of his scientific trappings he makes an excellent wizard.  The Creature is equally fascinating, and gamemasters who study how he plots his actions and justifies his actions can model truly tragic and emotionally painful foes for their players on him. Of course, for those gaming in a ‘Steam-punk’ setting the novel is practically required reading.  

Frankenstein is a classic novel that fully deserves the attention it receives, but it has perhaps been over-exposed.  High school English teachers reach for it easily, since it grabs the attention of students and the author’s life touches on so many important themes: Romanticism, Feminism, Liberalism, and so forth. But few of us truly enjoy works we are forced to read as homework, and when our memories are tainted by dozens of movies which pay only a passing nod to the novel while employing its themes and characters with casual abandon, it is only natural the one begins to think of it as an anemic, unoriginal motif.

But Shelley’s novel is more than that, it is a rich, full-bodied gothic experience that induces in the willing reader a deep despair. Her prose is as carefully crafted as any other from that most literary period, and just as passionate as anything written by Byron or Shelley themselves. 

When the moon is full and you wish to delve into the soul of horror and despair, leave the urban vampire tales alone and revisit Frankenstein.  It will be time well spent. 

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Review: Sanctuary by Lynn Abbey

 A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #198 (April, 2013).

All the good things of the earth flow into our city because of its greatness…

(Pericles' Funeral Oration, Thucydides 2.38)

Pericles was speaking of Athens, one of the marvels of the ancient world, a city whose institutions have
come to us through the centuries and whose reputation may be tarnished but has never descended from greatness. It was literally a ‘city on a hill;’ the original great cosmopolis or ‘world city.’ Cities have long captured our imaginations, and usually there are two types. One is the great, shining city that was Athens, or if one looks at fictional cities, Superman’s Metropolis. But it is the other sort of city, the city into which all vile things flow that this novel explores, a city ironically named Sanctuary.

Lynn Abbey’s Sanctuary is a unique novel for many reasons. It is intended as a bridge between the original incarnation of Thieves’ World and its second life. Thieves’ World was the first ‘shared world’ setting, and it was primarily a fantasy short story anthology series edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey, though novels, board games, comics, and a truly excellent multi-system city RPG boxed set were also produced. Its influence on shared worlds, the fantasy genre, and roleplaying was significant, but it reached creative and sales exhaustion by the 1990s.  However, fans of the series never completely disappeared and Abbey was persuaded to resurrect it in 2002. 

Sanctuary is not your normal hero’s quest tale, though it a coming of age tale. It merges the tragic history of Sanctuary with the equally tragic back story of its protagonist, Cauvin. Cauvin is the adopted son of a mason, adopted following the flaming, bloody demise of the Hand of Dyareela cult. This cult, devoted to a hermaphroditic deity of chaos, disease, madness, and death (first introduced in the second anthology of the series, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn in 1980), had gained control of the city in the years following the last anthology. The Hand prefers children as followers; it gathered orphans and raised them to be corrupt, mad, and cannibalistic. Cauvin was one of the very few sane survivors, saved by those who destroyed the cult because he displayed a spark of humanity. Still a child, he is adopted by a stone mason and becomes his servant/apprentice, and he settles into the humdrum life of a Sanctuary working man. Then he discovers on his daily business a decrepit, aged, and wounded Molin Torchholder. 

Torchholder appeared or was mentioned in more stories than any other character in the original series, often just a cameo or an off-screen threat, but always there, always involved. His choice as the bridge character was inspired, as was the idea that he would chose an heir to whom to pass his knowledge of the secrets and lore of the city. Cauvin, Molin, and Cauvin’s younger adopted brother, Bec, are forced to confront the demons and angels of the past while facing a new, yet familiar threat to the city.  

And the city is the real hero of the story. Cauvin is endearing and the reader will certainly root for him, but the soul of Thieves’ World has always been the city of Sanctuary itself, and Abbey manages to show its shifts and changes over time, its many physical alterations, while holding true to the Sanctuary's soul. The city is alive and real, it attracts pain, suffering, corruption, and despair yet the city itself is neither corrupt nor wicked but rather a tough survivor battered and bruised by tragic life and yet unbroken.  

In the past, when I've read this novel I've been very focused on the easter eggs and hints to the past, this time around I am trying very hard to focus instead on this novel as its own thing, with its own story to tell. For example, the Dyareelans make INCREDIBLE fantasy world villains, Sanctuary has never had a scarcity of evil and cruelty but the Dyareelans surpassed everything previously seen. - they make Roxanne look like a mildly difficult hedge witch of quite banal "evil" in comparison. Their focus on children as both victims and tools in their atrocities makes them feel very real and very abhorrent.

The Molin/Cauvin relationship with reminds me a little of Merlin and Nimue in Mary Stewart's The Last Enchantment (obviously without the romantic element). And Molin and Cauvin's relationship with Arizak and Raith remind of Merlin's relationship with Uther and Arthur. The idea of a younger heir taking over for a lamed great king is a common Arthurian motif, but stripping it from its Faerie and British environment and instead applying it to the succession crisis for a barbarian tribe ruling a conquered desert city is inspired. Or... I've just read far too much of Thieves' World and the matter of Britain both and I'm seeing things that aren't there. 😀

Gamemasters will find in Sanctuary a wonderful example for rebuilding or advancing old, stale campaigns. It is also an excellent example of city design, and the importance of forming a cohesive history for your settings. The Hand of Dyareela is a wonderful example for structuring an evil cult to oppose your players. For players, Cauvin, Bec, and Soldt all provide excellent character templates that can be altered and emulated to provide depth. Players running priests who wish to be something other than clerical healing dispensers will find Molin Torchholder inspirational as well.

Sanctuary was followed by two new short story anthologies, Turning Points (2002) and Enemies of Fortune (2004), each structured like the original Thieves’ World anthologies with a stable of writers from the old series as well as new comers.

I said earlier that Sanctuary is ironically named, yet it is aptly named as well. The city draws all that is vile to it, but also acts as a protector to it citizens, and for readers the city is a sanctuary as well, you will truly enjoy your time in Thieves’ World. So check your purse, loosen your sword, and give the city another chance. 

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Yule Review: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

 A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #170 (December, 2010).

The circle of the world has turned and Yule is come again. In the Northern Hemisphere the light has slowly been declining until the shortest day of the year arrives, and the longest night. Bells tinkle and magic is in the air as so much of the Western World again descends into fantasy and childhood.

It's Christmas Eve! 

Despite the obvious links to fantasy inherent in so many Christmas traditions and tales, the holiday is stubbornly difficult for fantasy writers to handle successfully. Perhaps it is the broad, mass appeal of Christmas stories, its religious overtones, or its economic importance. Whatever the reason, precious few good, modern fantasy genre stories are set during the holidays, and even fewer successfully tackle its themes. The topic is generally abandoned to the authors of children’s book. In the 19^th century, however, it was a common topic for prolific writers whose longevity and popularity have elevated them to icon status today.

L. Frank Baum is a prime example. Because he wrote for children and enjoyed mass appeal, the author of The Wizard of Oz is seldom thought of as a fantasy author, a status he shares with Peter Pan’s J.M. Barrie and Alice in Wonderland’s Lewis Carroll. Of course, all three were fantasy writers who built fantastical imaginary worlds that have directly influenced much modern fantasy, and fantasy roleplaying.

In 1902 Baum wrote The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, which purported to provide Santa’s origin story, creating an elaborate and original mythology that includes traditional creatures such as nymphs, gnomes, and elves as well as original creations such as Ryls and Knooks. The story is set in the Forest of Burzee, described memorably by Baum:

Have you heard of the great Forest of Burzee? Nurse used to sing of it when I was a child. She sang of the big tree-trunks, standing close together, with their roots intertwining below the earth and their branches intertwining above it; of their rough coating of bark and queer, gnarled limbs; of the bushy foliage that roofed the entire forest, save where the sunbeams found a path through which to touch the ground in little spots and to cast weird and curious shadows over the mosses, the lichens and the drifts of dried leaves.

The Forest of Burzee is mighty and grand and awesome to those who steal beneath its shade. Coming from the sunlit meadows into its mazes it seems at first gloomy, then pleasant, and afterward filled with never-ending delights.

Baum carefully describes the ways in which all of the different aspects of the Santa tradition come into being, from reindeer to the first Christmas Tree. It’s all fanciful, and differs significantly from today’s better known traditions: for example Santa’s deer number ten rather than eight and are named Glossie,  Flossie, Racer, Pacer, Fearless, Peerless, Ready, Steady, Feckless, and Speckless, When Baum wrote Christmas traditions were less calcified, and he made full use of this creative freedom. 

Santa’s rise to greatness is not unopposed; a great battle is fought between the evil Awgwas and the immortals, Santa’s patrons. Santa himself is not involved in the battle, Baum is careful to maintain his essential purity and goodness, established firmly when the young Claus, finally exposed to the evils that so many children suffer after his own happy childhood in the Forest of Burzee, embarks upon his great quest to bring children happiness.

The Forest of Burzee, and Santa himself, are connected to Baum’s Oz legendarium in the 1909 novel The Road to Oz (the fifth Oz book), when Santa and his entourage come to Princess Ozma’s birthday party. The Forest, and Santa, appear in some of Baum’s short stories, especially “A Kidnapped Santa Claus” from 1904, a slightly darker tale which featured the Daemons of Selfishness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and Repentance.

The fairy tale style of Life and Adventures of Santa Claus might put off players and game-masters from seeking inspiration in the tale, but in fact the mythology is a rich vein to mine for gaming nuggets. One limitation of the Christmas mythology, from a gaming perspective, has always been its close ties to the Christian religion. Baum’s tale presents a well reason Santa Claus figure in a mythology divorced from Christianity (though not hostile to it).  A game-master can thus introduce Santa and his accompanying mythology to a pagan campaign world without violating either logic or insulting a real world religion. Indeed, the Immortals make an excellent pantheon that a game-master could drop ready-made into any campaign with a strong element of faerie in its makeup.

Baum wrote the tale for children, but his prose is skillful if minimalist. It is filled with evocative images and memorable if quickly drawn characters. Discerning, open-minded adults should enjoy the pleasant tale and younger truly may truly love it. The novel has been adapted to the screen in two cartoons, and handles the transition well, Baum laved the theater and his writing retained a theatrical sense that encouraged such adaption.

Finally, like most of Baum’s work the tale is in the public domain. It can be found readily enough in various new editions, and is also available as a free download at Project Gutenberg.

The work was adapted into an interesting stop-motion animation holiday special by Rankin-Bass in 1985. It never attained the popularity of the other Rankin-Bass shows, but it has some remarkable images, the Great Ak especially is really dignified and impressive. And Universal produced a cartoon version as well in 2000, but I've never had an opportunity to watch it. 

Any figure as pervasive and influential as Santa Claus can carry the weight of multiple origin tales. Baum’s is a worthy contribution to the legend, and an excellent way to add a hint of mistletoe and holly to your fantasy gaming.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

My "Off the Shelf" book reviews

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

And yet more crass self-promotion. From May 2006 through April 2013 I was the "Off the Shelf" columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table (aka KoDT), a comic book/game magazine published by Kenzer & Company. I wrote most of these columns during that period, but there were a handful, roughly one a year, written by others. Most of the columns were straight forward reviews, but I also wrote several as  review essays on several topics.

I felt that having a column like this was a privilege not to take lightly, and so I generally only reviewed works that I felt comfortable recommending to readers. I wanted to direct people to books worth reading rather then warn them from books that I may not have liked. After all, just because a work wasn't to my taste didn't mean others would not enjoy it. 

Because Knights of the Dinner Table was a comic and magazine aimed at table top roleplayers, I tried to include at least a paragraph in each review on what a gamer or gamemaster could pull from the work regarding inspiration and ideas for their games. 

One of my long term goals for ‘Off the Shelf’ was to work my way through the authors listed as ‘inspirational and educational reading’ in Appendix N of the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (p224, Gary Gygax, TSR (c) 1979). I didn't manage to get to them all, but I got to most of them. I wasn't always able or willing to review the books listed for the authors (some of them are fairly obscure today) so in some cases the author was listed but not the specific work I reviewed. I've marked works by Appendix N authors with a * at the end of the entry. In the years since I wrote my column, Appendix N has inspired many blogs and at least one rather bad IMO, book. A quick google search will turn all of these up, here is one example. 

The 1981 Tom Moldvay Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set included, on page 62, a bibliography of "Inspirational Source Material." I think it is actually a better, more comprehensive list than the more famous Appendix N (as do some others). I have indicated authors from that list with a # mark at the end of the entry.

In 2013 the editors brought on Noah Chinn to take over the column. Noah is an excellent author in his own right (I reviewed two of his books in the column) and a good friend of mine, he was an excellent choice to keep the column going. Noah has also been posting about his reviews since he took over the column. I encourage you to check out his work. 

Individual back issues of Knights of the Dinner Table magazine, including all of those listed below, can be found here for purchase.

KoDT #115 May 2006 Thieves’ World anthology series edited by Asprin and Abbey*# (revised and expanded here.) 

KoDT #117 July 2006 The Lankhmar aka Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Fritz Leiber*#

KoDT #118 August 2006 The Corum Saga by Michael Moorcock*# (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #119 September 2006 The History of Middle Earth and Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien*#

KoDT #120 October 2006 Conan of Cimmeria by Robert E. Howard*# 

KoDT #121 November 2006 The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs*#

KoDT #122 December 2006 Black Seas of Infinity: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft *#

KoDT #123 January 2007 The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault#

KoDT #124 February 2007 The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany*#

KoDT #125 March 2007 Quag Keep by Andre Norton*#

KoDT #126 April 2007 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 

KoDT #127 May 2007 Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson*#

KoDT #128 June 2007 The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien*#

KoDT #129 July 2007 The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander#

KoDT #130 August 2007 A Rendezvous in Averoigne by Clark Ashton Smith#

KoDT #131 September 2007  Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines 

KoDT #132 October 2007 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova 

KoDT #133 November 2007 The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs*#

KoDT #135 January 2008 Tales of the Dying Earth (aka the Compleat Dying Earth) by Jack Vance 

KoDT #136 February 2008 His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik 

KoDT #137 March 2008 The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #138 April 2008 Medieval Romances by Howard Pyle 

KoDT #139 May 2008 The Wardstone Chronicles aka The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #141 July 2008 That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis# (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #142 August 2008 Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser 

KoDT #143 September 2008 The Last Mythal by Richard Baker 

KoDT #144 October 2008 Dracula by Bram Stoker# (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #145 November 2008 Game Night by Jonny Nexus 

KoDT #146 December 2008 The Compleat Enchanter by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt*# 

KoDT #147 January 2009 The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte 

KoDT #148 February 2009 The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart# (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #149 March 2009 Lankhmar Book 8: Swords Against the Shadowland by Robin Wayne Bailey 

KoDT #150 April 2009 "Important Fantasy Writers"  (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #151 May 2009 The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley 

KoDT #152 June 2009 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore

KoDT #153 July 2009 The Wyvern's Spur by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb 

KoDT #154 August 2009 The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

KoDT #155 September 2009 She by H. Rider Haggard#  

KoDT #156 October 2009 The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore 

KoDT #157 November 2009 The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan 

KoDT #158 December 2009 The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper 

KoDT #159 January 2010 Peter & Max by Bill Willingham 

KoDT #160 February 2010 The Corps series by W.E.B. Griffin

KoDT #161 March 2010 The Legend of Sigrid and Gudrun by J.R.R. Tolkien*#

KoDT #163 May 2010 Shadow Hawk by Andre Norton*# 

KoDT #164 June 2010  The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt*# 

KoDT #165 July 2010 The Last Seal by Richard Denning 

KoDT #166 August 2010 The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson*#

KoDT #167 September 2010 Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver 

KoDT #168 October 2010 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 

KoDT #169 November 2010  Johannes Cabal: the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard 

KoDT #170 December 2010 The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum#

KoDT #171 January 2011 Evermeet: Island of the Elves by Elaine Cunningham 

KoDT #172 February 2011 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover and Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas and Alan Dean Foster 

KoDT #173 March 2011 The Magicians by Lev Grossman

KoDT #174 April 2011 The Original Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks

KoDT #175 May 2011 "AD&D Player's Handbook by Gary Gygax and others in a Genre Genesis article" aka "Genre Genesis: The Literary Foundations of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in the Players Handbook"

KoDT #176 June 2011 "AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual by Gary Gygax and others in a Genre Genesis article" aka "Genre Genesis: The Literary Foundations of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in the Dungeon Master’s Guide & Monster Manual"

KoDT #178 August 2011 "Genre Genesis III" aka "Genre Genesis: The Literary Foundations of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in the early AD&D Modules"

KoDT #179 September 2011 The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer

KoDT #180 October 2011 Master of the Macabre (lesser works of Edgar Allan Poe) (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #181 November 2011 Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things and In Ghostly Japan by Lafcadio Hearn  

KoDT #182 December 2011 "Santa Claus in Fantasy Fiction" 

KoDT #183 January 2012 Bleeding Heart Yard aka A G**damned Love Story: The Curious Case of Bleeding Heart Yard by Noah Chinn

KoDT #184 February 2012 The Belgariad by David and Leigh Eddings

KoDT #185 March 2012 Swords Against the Darkness III edited by Andrew Offutt

KoDT #186 April 2012 The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick

KoDT #187 May 2012 A Tale of the House of the Wolfings, and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse by William Morris

KoDT #188 June 2012 Black Amazon of Mars by Leigh Brackett*#

KoDT #189 July 2012 Ready One Player by Ernest Cline

KoDT #190 August 2012 The White Raven by Diana L. Paxson

KoDT #191 September 2012 The Tempus novels aka the Sacred Band series by Janet Morris (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #192 October 2012 A Guile of Dragons by James Enge

KoDT #193 November 2012 The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker#

KoDT #194 December 2012 Trooper #4 by Noah Chinn

KoDT #195 January 2013 The Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth (revised and expanded here.)

KoDT #196 February 2013 The Express Diaries by Nick Marsh

KoDT #198 April 2013 Sanctuary by Lynn Abbey

It does seem fitting to me that I started and ended my tenure reviewing works from the Thieves' World setting.

 All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

A Halloween Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker

 A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #144 (October, 2008).

From 2006 through 2012 I was the "Off the Shelf" columnist for Knights of the Dinner Table, a magazine and comic book devoted to tabletop fantasy role paying games. I reviewed classic and modern fantasy, horror, and science fiction novels. Every October I tried to review a work of classic horror in honor of Halloween. I am trying to restart that tradition with my blog.

Cover of Dracula, 13th Edition, 1919
Held by the British Library.

The air is cool and pumpkins again litter the countryside.  As the leaves turn and fall, a young man’s thoughts naturally turn to witches, ghosts, and vampires. And, of course, one considers the grand-daddy of all vampire tales, Dracula. The Count is one of the most pervasive characters in popular culture, appearing again and again in books, movies, music, even poetry. What remains to be said about a fictional figure over whom so much ink has already been spilled?

Little, perhaps, but one can always find value in the original sources of cultural icons. Though many folks know the broad outlines of Stoker’s novel, the many movie and stage versions have been far from faithful adaptations. The classic’s original impact may be rediscovered and understood more deeply against the backdrop of so many variations on its themes.

Bram Stoker was an Irish novelist and playwright of modest success.  His primary occupation was business manager of actor Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theater, but he produced many novels both before the 1897 publication of Dracula and after.  Perhaps the best known of these later works are the horror tales: The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Lair of the White Worm (1911), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and the posthumous short story collection, Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories (1914).  Sadly, none of these later attempts match the power or style of his masterpiece.

Dracula may be examined as a work of three parts, though Stoker does not clearly organize it so. Each part is defined by Dracula’s victim, or prey. In the first, he preys on Jonathon Harker, determined to drain him of his knowledge of London, and more. The next phase shifts, so suddenly that Harker’s final fate remains unknown, to Lucy, Dracula’s most tragic victim.  Within this long section all of the principle characters are fully introduced as Lucy’s friends and suitors struggle to save her from the diabolical count. In the final part of the novel, the victim is now Mina, and action revolves around the struggle to free her, and destroy the Count.  

The novel is written in an unusual style, as it purports to be merely a collection of letters, newspaper clippings, and journal entries written or collected by the participants in order to record the terrible, fateful events they observed. It is an extremely effective literary device, which allows the authorial point of view to shift smoothly from character to character while increasing the sense of tension and the importance of time. And Stoker is quite aware of time, carefully knitting his plot together so that dates match up exactly. 

Yet the device does not lessen the power of Stoker’s prose.  Consider the following passage:

On the bed beside the window lay Jonathan Harker, his face flushed and breathing heavily as though in a stupor. Kneeling on the near edge of the bed facing outwards was the white-clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black. His face was turned from us, but the instant we saw we all recognized the Count, in every way, even to the scar on his forehead. With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension. His right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink. 

The impact of Dracula’s appearance is heightened by the first person account, yet it is clear that unlike later writers, Stoker sees the vampire as a dangerous predator, a rapist. The love story between Mina and Dracula found in so many adaptations is completely missing from Stoker’s original tale, yet the novel is filled with love stories. First those between Lucy and her three suitors: Lord Godalming, Dr. Seward, and Quincy Morris, then later the love between Jonathon and Mina Harker. But these loves are the talisman against Dracula’s evil, not a means for his seductions.

Dracula’s mysteries, and subsequently his aura of fear and horror, are heightened by the literary device as well. Dracula leaves no journal entries, no record of his thoughts or feelings. We see him as the protagonists see him: a malevolent force of unfathomable evil. He appears rarely, aside from his initial introduction when Jonathon Harker spends considerable time in conversation with the Count. Then, when the introductory meetings have concluded, he becomes a shadowy figure of unknown whereabouts and means. The reader never knows more than the protagonists, and the tension increases accordingly. 

For gamers, Stoker’s novel is a must read. The characters are well formed and provide potent archetypes for players in horror campaigns. Dracula himself is the icon of the ‘big bad’ or main villain in a campaign and Stoker’s masterful handling of his villain provides a GM with both inspiration and specific ideas. And the lessons do not only apply to running vampire villains. Finally, the literary device of journals and letters can be gainfully borrowed by role playing campaigns regardless of genre.  Having your players write letters or journal entries between sessions is a certain way to increase roleplaying and atmosphere.

Stoker's novel has long been in the public domain and can be found in many places. Several versions are available on Project Gutenberg and on LibriVox.

Stoker’s original novel is a lush cornucopia of fear, lust, courage, and love. A rainy October day spent reading Dracula is time horrifically well spent.    

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

A Halloween Review: The Lancashire Witches

A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #195 (September, 2013).

One of my greatest joys as a reader is discovering a good book that I have not read before. When it is an old book, an antique book, which I have not only not read but not even heard of, this joy is much greater. Back in 2013,  I found that joy while searching for books about witches when I discovered The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest (1848), a novel written by William Harrison Ainsworth.

Ainsworth was trained as a lawyer in London, but never pursued the profession, instead entering into publishing with his first novel, Rookwood, in 1839.  His work was popular, and he was extremely prolific; taking English history as his source he went on to write forty or so historical novels covering centuries of English history. He was a friend and contemporary of Charles Dickens, as well as popular writer whose works sold very well, but his novels have generally not stood the test of time well and he is often forgotten by all but literary historians these days.

The Lancashire Witches, first published in serial form in 1848, is Ainsworth’s best known novel and the

"The Incantation." Illustration by John Gilbert.

one which has remained in print the longest. It is a fascinating work which tells a fantastical version of the historical trial of the Pendle Witches. Ainsworth begins the tale with a Catholic uprising against Henry the VIII a couple generations before the Pendle Witch trials, using a conflicted bishop and a fallen priest as a fascinating back drop to the tale, encompassing a quite long introduction.  The plot of the novel proper is then contained in three books.  Ainsworth builds his plot around a historical account of the trials, The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Thomas Potts, and makes Thomas Potts himself a wonderfully slimy character in the work.  Many of the characters names come from the historical event, but their relationships, roles, characters, and actions are not remotely historical; magic is distinctly real, devils and ghosts make regular appearances.

The novel’s protagonists are the tragic lovers, Richard Asheton and Alizon Device. The witches are quite real, and quite devoted to the devil, yet the witch hunters (save the king, James I) are depicted as venal money-grubbers, anxious to accuse others in order to gain benefits. Alizon’s purity is never in doubt, but her unfortunate relationships to witches make her a target of the witch hunters, even as the witches themselves try to sacrifice her to the devil for her purity. 

The novel’s presentations of Lancashire country life in the 1600s may not be perfectly historically accurate, but it is quite enjoyable, and anyone who has attended a Renaissance Fair will quickly recognize it as the source of so many tropes of Elizabethan games, it is self-consciously a depiction of “Merry Olde England.”

"The Ride Through the Murky Air."
Illustration by John Gilbert.

For gamers, this book is chock full of excellent examples and characters to steal. All of the various witches can be lifted whole-cloth for use as village healers, villains, or hedge witches in most roleplaying campaigns. Wonderful examples of spells and material components abound, as well as a great example of the internal politics of a witches' coven. Gamemasters can also see the workings of local versus national political leadership when the king visits in the last book of the novel, as well as some excellent plot ideas and concepts for properly using ghosts to push characters along. But the best steal from the novel is Nicholas Asheton, Richard’s cousin and a splendid character that gamemasters can lift whole-cloth and place in their campaigns as a local squire or other minor nobleman. Most of the funniest scenes in the novel center on his exploits.

Ainsworth was a friend of Dickens, but I found myself constantly comparing his work to a French contemporary, Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers depicts the life of impoverished minor gentry in 16th century Paris, The Lancashire Witches does the same for 17th century rural England: both romanticize the time and place, but do so charmingly.   

The Lancashire Witches is still in print, you can find several reasonably priced paper editions easily, and it is also available for free from Project Gutenberg and as an audiobook from Librivox. If you ind a printed version, be sure to get one that includes the original illustrations by John Gilbert, they add immensely to the tale and are just plain fun. 

If you enjoy a touch of comedy in your melodrama, and some historical spice in your tragedy, or if you just love witches, give this old book a read. It is rather remarkable. 

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.