{"id":6420,"date":"2023-02-13T13:49:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6420"},"modified":"2023-02-13T13:49:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:49:53","slug":"the-athelings-wife-by-keith-taylor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=6420","title":{"rendered":"The Atheling\u2019s Wife<\/em><\/strong> by Keith Taylor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Atheling\u2019s Wife<\/em><\/strong> by Keith Taylor1<\/sup> (Fantastic<\/em>, August 1976) is the second story in the writer\u2019s \u201cBard\u201d series, which is set in sixth century Celtic Britain, and begins with Felimid mac Fal arriving at the hall of King Cedric, looking for passage across the sea and away from the island:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The walls were gigantic timbers adzed and fitted together like the ribs of a ship. The corner-posts were carved like frowning gods, and it would have taken three men to stretch their arms around one. The roof was tiled with scales a foot across, from a sea-dragon the king had hunted down. They glittered like beaten metal, green shading into grey at the edges. Felimid could have ridden through the doors without ducking the lintel, and a comrade could have gone either side of him without scraping the posts. The doors themselves were sheathed in bronze, with silvered iron hinges marvellously wrought. Hinges long as he was tall, nearly.
The double portal, huge as it was, was framed in the naked white skull and jaws of the sea-dragon whose scales covered the roof. Teeth half as long as a man\u2019s arm shone like white salt. Bereft sockets under blunt bone ridges were caves of deep shadow. They seemed to glare with menace yet. The notion of riding under them did not enchant Felimid even as an image.\u00a0 p. 92<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After the guard tells Felimid that the jaws will snap shut if he intends any misdeeds, Felimid passes through into the interior, and later finds himself sitting at a lowly place at the king\u2019s table. At the top are King Cedric, his wife Vivayn, and the king\u2019s brother Cynric.
Felimid realises that he will have to be careful as he is fleeing from Cedric\u2019s father, King Oisc of Kent,2<\/sup> but it does not stop him intervening when a number of the men start tormenting a dwarf called Glinthi, who they then try to throw in the hearth. Felimid intervenes, efficiently seeing off the other men and rescuing Glinthi, and bringing himself to the notice of King Cedric. Felimid briefly speaks to the king and then performs for him, flattering him shamelessly with the songs he sings. Then, after his performance is over, Felimid sleeps with Eldrid, one of Vivayn\u2019s ladies in waiting.
Felimid\u2019s smooth progress is subsequently interrupted when one of the reasons he wants to leave the island\u2014Tosti, a shapeshifter\/werewolf from King Oisc\u2019s court\u2014turns up at the camp. After a confrontation between the two they appear before the king, but Tosti unexpectedly refuses to fight Felimid (Felimid has a silver inlaid sword, and Tosti is more likely to lose any duel in his human form). Then, later that evening, Vivayn, wearing a glamour to make her look like Eldrid, comes to his bed. Felimid sees through the disguise but sleeps with her anyway.
The story comes to a climax (spoiler) when Tosti ambushes Vivayn\/Eldrid when she leaves Felimid\u2019s bed the next morning. He tells Felimid to lay down his silver sword, and the bard complies as he doesn\u2019t want Vivayn killed, her glamour to disappear, and everyone to see that he has slept with the king\u2019s wife. Fortunately, the bard is saved when Glinthi intervenes. Tosti initially fights but then flees, and we see one of his henchmen killed by the dragon\u2019s jaws when he rushes to the hall to summon help, lying about what has actually happened.
Felimid subsequently tells Cedric that Tosti is a shapeshifter and, realising the complex situation he is in (the two women who share their lovers, Glinthi\u2019s earlier treasonous comments), departs the camp to pursue Tosti.
This is a well enough plotted piece of Sword & Sorcery but it could have done with another draft as it is a little rough in places (some of the point of view changes are also a little odd\u2014the first story was told in the first-person and you can see the author is still getting to grips with the third-person transistion3<\/sup>). That said, the protagonist\u2019s occupation and the story\u2019s convincing setting are strengths.
*** (Good). 9,200 words. Story link<\/a>.

1. This was first published under the pseudonym Dennis More. ISFDB lists this series as two separate ones, Bard<\/a> and Felimid<\/a>, but they are the same sequence.

2. The events that cause Felimid\u2019s problems with King Oisc are detailed in the first story of the series.

3. Ted White\u2019s introduction to the piece has this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This story is a direct sequel to the author\u2019s Fugitives in Winter<\/em> (October, 1975), but unlike that story this one is told third-person. As More explains it, \u201cTo write in the first-person about a sixth-century Celtic bard, even a fantasized one, is something I just couldn\u2019t keep up. And it\u2019s easier to juggle a number of characters this way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atheling\u2019s Wife by Keith Taylor1 (Fantastic, August 1976) is the second story in the writer\u2019s \u201cBard\u201d series, which is set in sixth century Celtic Britain, and begins with Felimid mac Fal arriving at the hall of King Cedric, looking for passage across the sea and away from the island: The walls were gigantic timbers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1492],"tags":[527,24,1188,1495,206,1493,7,1234,1494],"class_list":["post-6420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-keith-taylor","tag-527","tag-3-2","tag-bard","tag-dennis-more","tag-fantastic","tag-keith-taylor","tag-novelette","tag-shapeshifter","tag-werewolf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6420"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6435,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6420\/revisions\/6435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}