The Fantasy School of Witchcraft Wonder and Writing Wizardry

Š Bryce Merkl. All rights reserved.

The Fantasy School of Witchcraft Wonder and Writing Wizardry: The Enchanting Tales of J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling

Bryce Merkl Dr. Meyers ENG 499: Senior Paper 23 March 2011

Merkl 1 Introduction: Concerning Hobbits (and Fantasy) “[T]he world is changing,” says the character Treebeard in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, “I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air” (Return 959).

While Treebeard is not speaking in the context of our present age, his words ring true when applied to current trends in story media. The world is changing: we can feel it in the books, we can feel it in the movies, and we can smell it in airwaves. Tales of the fantastic are everywhere, pervading all forms of media with new stories of elusive elves, warring wizards, and mindblowing magic. This tree of fantasy tales has seemingly sprung up overnight in the modern mind as an entirely new genre. However, the roots that this literary tree draws upon are as old as time.

Long relegated to children’s fairy tales and nursery rhymes (Lewis 37), the fantasy genre began its comeback with the publication of Tolkien’s The Hobbit in 1937. Since its initial publication, The Hobbit has sold over 100 million copies worldwide (“Tolkien’s Hobbit fetches £60,000”). While Tolkien was working on a requested sequel (Carpenter 183), C.S. Lewis began publishing his children’s fantasy septet, The Chronicles of Narnia, which together have also sold over 100 million copies internationally (Kelly). When Lewis’s works were still being published, Tolkien finally completed his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, in 1955. Despite academic criticisms, the sales figures of The Lord of the Rings have only continued to grow each year since its initial publication, growing to 150 million copies in 2007 (Shippey xx; Wagner).

The first major fantasy work to follow in the successful wake of Tolkien and Lewis was Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) (Dickerson and O’Hara 169; Rahn 526). In the same year that Tolkien’s mythic masterpiece The Silmarillion was posthumously published by his son Christopher (1977), the first of Terry Brook’s Shannara series—The Sword of Shannara—and the first of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas

Merkl 2 Covenant series—Lord Foul’s Bane—were also published, building more momentum for the fantasy genre. These works were then followed by Robert Jordan’s fourteen-part fantasy series The Wheel of Time, debuting with The Eye of the World in 1990. Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, brought a darker shade to children’s fantasy in 1995 beginning with the adventure of Lyra Belacqua in Northern Lights (published in North America as The Golden Compass) (Watkins 21).

Overshadowing Pullman’s success was the arrival of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States) by J.K. Rowling with the following six books in the series meeting even greater success, selling over 400 million copies around the globe and shattering sales records (Booth). Neil Gaiman’s pre-Tolkien-style fairy tale Stardust appeared in 1998 followed by a film adaptation in 2004 (McGrath). In 2001, The Lord of the Rings films directed by Peter Jackson began their release, alongside a decade of Harry Potter films released

by Warner Bros., bringing both Tolkien’s and Rowling’s work to the silver screen for millions of fans worldwide. The Lord of the Rings films grossed a stunning $1 billion, while the Harry Potter films grossed double that figure with one movie yet to be released—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2—in July 2011 (“Franchise Index”).

Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance cycle, which he states is inspired by Tolkien (Fischer 19), began to work its magic on readers in 2003 with the release of Eragon, with a film adaptation of the same book arriving in 2006. Beginning in 2005, Walden Media released film adaptations of Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, with the most recent film—The Voyage of the Dawn Treader—being released December 10, 2010. All together, the Narnia films grossed $537 million at the box office (“Franchise Index”). Also in 2005, Stephanie Meyer released her teen vampire-romance fantasy novel Twilight, the beginning of a four-part series first adapted to film

Merkl 3 in 2008 with the final film of the series to be released in 2012, all of which eventually spawned an entire sub-genre of vampire romance books and films. So far, the Twilight films have grossed over $780 million dollars at the box office (“Franchise Index”). For many of these fantasy franchises, a troop of games, costumes, toys, collectibles, theme parks, soundtracks, events, and a host of fan websites have accompanied every major release, making the impact of each work even more pervasive. The wave of fantasy-genre media may or may not have already crested, but to state that the genre as a whole has not caught the attention of mainstream media consumers would be inaccurate.

Indeed, fantasy literature—and the media that it spawns—are “the dominant literary mode of the twentieth century” (Shippey vii), and English fantasy in particular has generated some of the most powerfully popular fantasy publications (Manlove 1). Two fantasy authors, however, stand above the rest not only in popularity but also in literary prowess: J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling. Chance and good marketing alone have not made these authors successful; rather, their expertise has to do with perfected skills in wonder and wizardry.

Both Tolkien and Rowling wrote as part of the continuing fantasy tradition of England.

Since the time of the writing of Beowulf through to the modern day, England has been the literary home to a number of fantasy works through the ages from the Arthurian legends to George MacDonald up to more modern authors such as Lewis, Tolkien, and Rowling (Dickerson and O’Hara). Colin Manlove states that “Of all the fantasy in the world, that of England has first claim to our attention. England has been uniquely, while often contemptuously, hospitable to fantasy—has indeed been the home and origin of much of it” (1). Manlove goes on to say that often the best fantasy will use its native land’s mythology as a base, such as the use of Arthurian legends in much of modern English fantasy (1). It is in this English fantasy tradition that Tolkien

Merkl 4 and Rowling both wrote. Though their works are original, the supporting forces and influences surrounding their works should not be forgotten.

In “On Fairy Stories,” Tolkien reveals a striking relationship: “Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men” (31-32). For both him and Rowling, their works of fantasy are magic spells that are well crafted. This process, however, is not esoteric. Just like all young wizards and witches who enter the magical school of Hogwarts in Rowling’s Harry Potter series, any writer or reader can learn how Tolkien and Rowling craft their story-spells.

According to Albus Dumbledore, the wise headmaster of Hogwarts, “Magic always leaves traces, […] sometimes very distinctive traces” (Rowling, Prince 563). The traces of writing magic that Tolkien and Rowling leave behind can be found in all of their works, revealing why their stories continue to charm readers time and time again. Tolkien and Rowling enchant their readers through a process of defamiliarization that moves the reader between the distance, or unfamiliarity, of a fantasy world and the nearness of our own. Through this process, the reader is transformed in the reading, approaching the themes of the fantasy novels from a fresh perspective. Tolkien and Rowling achieve this effect through the creation of secondary worlds, the use of mythical archetypes, their differing strategies of presenting distance and nearness, and their particular writing style.

Defamiliarization: Occlumency and Elf-Minstrels When examining the distinctive traces of writing wizardry in both Tolkien and Rowling, one good lens through which to examine their works is that of defamiliarization, a concept introduced by the Russian Formalist school of literary criticism. The basis of Russian Formalism

Merkl 5 is the “defamiliarizing” or “estranging” of concepts through literary language (as opposed to ordinary language), and Formalists contend that “art estranges and undermines conventional sign-systems, compels our attention to the material process of language itself, and so renews our perceptions” (Eagleton 3, 86). Russian Formalist Victor Shklovsky states that defamiliarization challenges conventional social perceptions while also undermining the ordinariness of the everyday world (qtd. in Davis and Wommack 41-42). In terms of the fantasies of Tolkien and Rowling, defamiliarization corresponds closely with the idea of distance (discussed in more detail below). Elements of the fantastic (magic, dwarves, centaurs, etc.) alienate the reader because of their unfamiliarity, but at the same time these distant people or objects force the reader to think differently about his own world and how the two worlds are both vastly different and universally similar.

Jan Mukarovsky, another Russian Formalist, presented the idea of foregrounding: “the act of placing an idea or element in sharp contrast with the other components of a given work of art” (qtd. in Davis and Wommack 44). A similar idea is advocated by Flannery O’Connor, who compares fiction writing to the Christian doctrine of Incarnation, calling the abstract, distant elements “mystery,” and naming the concrete, near, and regular components “manners” (103).

O’Connor states that only through a combination of “mystery” and “manners” can aspects of the supernatural be understood through fiction (68). This idea runs parallel to how secondary fantasy worlds—because of their distance—can force the reader to examine life through a different lens, but because of their nearness, the reader is not lost in the defamiliarization process. The distance is incarnated or foregrounded within the nearness—the mystery is incarnated through manners.

Shklovsky takes this idea further, stating that such analogies or poetic images of incarnation do not actually describe the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar; rather, in poetic comparisons the

Merkl 6 habitual “is presented as if it were seen for the first time” (qtd. in Erlich 76). In other words, Shklovsky hints that the supernatural may already be incarnate in the real world, but it is only through poetic comparisons—such as fantasy writing—that we can ever perceive these “new dimensions of reality and aesthetic value” (qtd. in Davis and Wommack 41). Because fantasy writing such as Tolkien’s and Rowling’s illuminates the fundamental aspects of life—natural and supernatural—that both the primary and secondary world share (Manlove 53), it is well-designed for both defamiliarization (distance) and incarnation/foregrounding (nearness).

In the Harry Potter series, the concept of defamiliarization can be compared to the magical arts of Occlumency and Legilimency. In the wizarding world, a witch or wizard may block his or her mind to magical penetration through Occlumency, and the opposite art— Legilimency—allows one to magically enter and read the thoughts of another’s mind (Rowling, Order 530-31). As a comparison to defamiliarization, often a reader’s mind has closed down while reading mainstream literature, practicing a form of Occlumency to certain themes or messages. Defamiliarization through fantasy literature—particularly Rowling’s—can then take on the role of Legilimency, not on the level of reading the reader’s mind, but of writing on the reader’s mind. By presenting the everyday through the lens of the fantastic (via the four specific techniques discussed below), Rowling refreshes the reader’s perceptions of the surrounding world, awakening him or her to new perspectives of reality.

A more potent comparison of the defamiliarizing process comes from an appendix of The Lord of the Rings. When Aragorn the Ranger is wandering through the woods outside Rivendell while singing of a legendary Elf-maid, he suddenly chances upon seeing the beautiful Elf-maiden Arwen. At first, Aragorn thinks he may be dreaming or “that he had received the gift of the Elfminstrels, who can make the things of which they sing appear before the eyes of those that

Merkl 7 listen” (Tolkien, Return 1033). Indeed, as Aragorn later finds out, he has not been granted the gift of Elf-minstrels, but the principles of the encounter illustrate a key concept in defamiliarization. In this comparison, an Elf-minstrel song could represent the world of art and literature—portraying reality while remaining fiction. Likewise, Arwen would represent reality, with all of its beauty and wonder, though not at first identified as reality. By creating an image of reality with believable quality, an Elf-minstrel song has the ability to defamiliarize its listener (and viewer) through its creation of fiction, but through that realistic fiction, the listener/viewer’s perception of reality is refreshed, opening his eyes to the beauty and wonder already present in the real world. Through the enchanting minstrel-tale of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien achieves this precise defamiliarizing effect.

In both of their works, Tolkien and Rowling accomplish defamiliarization through detailed secondary world creation, inclusion of mythical archetypes, interaction between distant and near aspects of the novels, and precise writing style.

Secondary Worlds: The Music of the Ainur and Diagon Alley The first aspect of wizardry and wonder that Tolkien and Rowling establish with the reader is the creation of a secondary world (as opposed to using the primary world, which is our own). Both Middle-earth and the secret wizarding world contain considerable depth and verisimilitude, including laws that govern the use of magic and other fantastic elements. This level of detail creates a believable enchantment over the reader because it is internally consistent.

Although the secondary world may be alien in many ways, the reader can still comprehend it because the laws and depth often mimic reality. World creation and detail are crucial to fantasy writing, as Flannery O’Connor states: “I would even go so far as to say that the person writing a

Merkl 8 fantasy has to be even more strictly attentive to concrete detail than someone writing in a naturalistic vein—because the greater the story’s strain on the credulity, the more convincing the properties in it have to be” (97). Tolkien echoes O’Connor, stating that fantasy is more difficult to produce because it must imitate the “inner consistency of reality” of the primary world while also incorporating fantastic elements (“On Fairy Stories” 46). For Tolkien and Rowling, indepth, secondary world creation is part of the spell that a fantasy writer must cast in order for readers not only to enjoy the story but also to “enter into” the text, almost as if participating in the secondary world and thus defamiliarizing them to the primary world.

In terms of world creation, Tolkien’s Middle-earth is a masterpiece. The shaping of Middle-earth began when Tolkien returned from serving his time in the trenches of World War I, sketching out legends and stories in a notebook he labeled “The Book of Lost Tales” (Carpenter 90). What grew out of the stories would eventually become the historical account of Middleearth known as The Silmarillion edited and stitched together by Tolkien’s son Christopher (Carpenter 90). In the opening chapter of The Silmarillion, Tolkien narrates the creation of Middle-earth, adding layer upon layer of geography, history, and language to the secondary world. The text begins with the Creation of Ëa, the material universe, by Eru (a God figure) and the Ainur (“The Holy Ones”) via a Great Music, in which all the themes of the world are woven.

During this creation process, one Ainur—Melkor—rebels, wishing to form his own creation through music, and he is cursed to enter Ëa and be bound within its confines forever, constantly watched over the angelic Valar that also enter Ëa in order to complete its creation. The remainder of the Silmarillion then recounts the creation of the geography of Middle-earth, the appearance of Elves, Dwarves, and Men, the development of their histories and languages, and their long war with Melkor and his allies through the ages. In sum, The Silmarillion recounts

Merkl 9 approximately 50,000 years of the history of Middle-earth (Tolkien, Silmarillion 305-09; Return 1057-85), including the detailed creation of the two Elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin (Silmarillion 64, 95), genealogies of major families and dynasties (Silmarillion 305-09), and the development and evolution of place names as well as characters in Middle-earth that will later appear in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Fellowship 25, 220, 345; Hobbit 17, 60; Silmarillion 30-31, 61, 246). The depth of world creation in The Silmarillion is like the slow growth of a tree. It begins as small seed, but through slow intricate growth that branches out in many directions, the tale becomes something much larger than its beginning, though still held together by a common theme. The depth of this secondary world works like an enchantment over the reader, drawing him in completely and making him forget—even temporarily—his connection with the primary world. The true power of The Silmarillion’s secondary world, however, is the depth it lends to Tolkien’s later stories, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien’s The Hobbit was never meant to be something larger than a literary exploration into what a hobbit actually was. Tolkien had spontaneously created the name while grading examination papers (Carpenter 172). After writing out “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” Tolkien later wrote in his diary, “Eventually I thought I’d better find out what hobbits were like” (Carpenter 172). Despite its humble beginnings, The Hobbit still exemplifies several characteristics of in-depth world creation. The Hobbit is primarily map- and language-based due to it younger audience that might better understand the foreign concepts in the book when presented visually. The map at the beginning of the text plays an important part of the story, including the secret runes on the map that the reader only finds out later that the characters in the story do not at first see (Tolkien, Hobbit 62-63). Adding historical depth to the narrative are several references to and characters from The Silmarillion, including Gandalf, Elrond, Gondolin,

Merkl 10 and dragons (Hobbit 17, 35, 60-61; Silmarillion 30-31, 61, 116, 125). These references and appearances from Middle-earth’s past make the Middle-earth of The Hobbit seem more realistic, and therefore more like our own world, further enchanting the reader to accept Middle-earth as a legitimate reality. The Hobbit also follows strict rules of magic. When Bilbo finds the magic ring that grants invisibility in Gollum’s cave (Hobbit 91), he soon finds out that it only makes the wearer invisible, but not undetectable, such as when goblin’s spy his shadow at the gate out of the cave or when wolves smell him in a tree (Hobbit 95, 103). Tolkien makes sure to never transgress this law of invisibility-and-invisibility-only throughout the entire book. The limits of Gandalf’s magic are also strictly regulated. The wizard is able to produce fireworks and flames now and then, but not anything much greater (Hobbit 29, 72, 107). Though Tolkien could have at any moment had Gandalf produce a greater deal of magic, the consistent level of magic throughout the book illustrates a law that makes the fantastic elements more believable because they are limited and more realistic in their consistency. These consistent laws of magic and the verisimilitude of the languages and maps carry over into The Lord of the Rings, where the detail is even richer.

From the mock-encyclopedic style of the preface “Concerning Hobbits” at the beginning of the story to the many appendices, calendars, maps, genealogies, and other supplementary material at the end of the final volume, Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings exudes authenticity from the sheer weight of its depth and detail (Milbank 42-43, 153; Return 10701172). This depth is especially apparent in the first volume of The Lord of the Rings (Shippey 68), allowing the reader ample time to grow familiar with Middle-earth before the pace of the plot quickens. Tolkien’s secondary world is complete with calendars for each of its inhabitant races, and Tolkien uses the hobbits’ Shire Calendar to construct an extremely detailed day-by-

Merkl 11 day chronology of events throughout the book often to ironic and useful literary effect (Fellowship 45; Shippey 52). The sense of time and history in Middle-earth is deepened when characters refer to various heroes and legends of their distant past, each of which Tolkien had previously constructed in The Hobbit or The Silmarillion (Fellowship 324). Tolkien then pairs this depth of time with depth of space, including names for constellations and providing the reader with maps that include many place-names not even mentioned in the narrative (Fellowship 111; Shippey 58). In addition, Tolkien adds cultural depth to his various races and people groups through invented languages, providing a considerable amount of detail on the history and usage of particular languages throughout the story (Fellowship 75; Towers 118). The intensity of detail in Middle-earth threatens to overwhelm the reader at some points, but Tolkien allows the depth and magical laws of his secondary world to be revealed slowly as the reader follows the hobbits further and further away from the comfortable, English-like villages of the Shire (Milbank 51). All of this detail and internal consistency helps the reader relate Middleearth to our own world. The depth of Middle-earth also inspires curiosity in the reader because of the many locations, mythologies, and samples of fictional languages that are not detailed or translated for the reader. This air of mystery draws the reader further into the story, enchanting her with wonder.

Rowling also excels in world creation, though the wizarding world of Harry Potter is not nearly as deep as Middle-earth. The numerous magical spells, objects, and creatures in the Harry Potter series are sometimes presented without explanation or detailed rules concerning their use, but often the most important aspects of magic are described in depth and governed by strict laws that are explained further as the plot requires. Such laws include anything from what can and cannot be summoned out of thin air (such as money or food) to how love potions work (Prince

Merkl 12 369). Rowling also excels at tying together the possibilities of magic with the basic qualities of human society, including everything from a newspaper (the Daily Prophet), a bank (Gringott’s), public transportation (the Knight Bus), and a magical sport (Quidditch) complete with a World Cup (Stone 51, 56, 133; Prisoner 30; Goblet 87). Harry’s first year booklist contains a plethora of titles and authors, some of which have been published by Rowling under wizard pennames, adding even more details to Harry’s world (Stone 53). Rowling even provides minute details about wizarding life, such as the names of streets in Hogsmeade village, the model names of magic carpets (such as the Axminster), and names of songs in wizarding pop music (“A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” performed by Celestina Warbeck) (Prisoner 205; Goblet 84; Prince 316). As in Middle-earth, the laws of magic in Rowling’s world are revealed to the reader slowly as Harry progresses through his seven years at Hogwarts. At first, many details concerning the wizarding world are left out, but as Harry learns more about magic, so does the reader. The enchanting power of Rowling’s storytelling is that she often alludes to magical beings or people in the earlier books in ways that seem to be arbitrary (such as a reference to the Department of Mysteries in Goblet), but then in later books, those objects or characters gain importance (such as in Order when the Department of Mysteries becomes central to the plot) (Goblet 86; Order 537).

One of Rowling’s most crowning examples of secondary world creation is the verisimilitude of Diagon Alley. After gaining entrance to the magical location, Harry and his half-giant guide Hagrid wander down the street, and during Harry’s first excursion in Diagon Alley, he notices every detail: The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.

Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring –

Merkl 13 Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them[….]A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, “Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they’re mad….”[….] Several boys of about Harry’s age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. “Look,” Harry heard one of them say, “the new Nimbus Two Thousand – fastest ever –” There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon…. (Stone 55-56) In two brief pages, Rowling has provided a dizzying amount of detail that threatens to overwhelm almost any reader. However, all of the descriptions bear some resemblance with objects or people in our own world. Instead of cauldrons, we might identify with shapes and types of cooking ware, or instead of dragon liver, we might lament over the rising price of gasoline, or instead of a Nimbus 2000, we might know young boys who gawk over the latest toy or gadget that is better than the one before. Rowling not only ties her descriptions of the fantastic back to the real world through parallels but also through consistency in relation to similar fantastic elements. The price of “seventeen Sickles an ounce” remains a relatively stable price in relation to other goods throughout the rest of the series, and the Nimbus 2000 racing broom later becomes outdated by other models of broomsticks such as the Nimbus 2001 (Chamber) and the Firebolt (Prisoner). The smallest details such as these examples are what make Rowling’s secondary world creation so powerful.

This intertwining of world creation within Tolkien and Rowling’s works with the development of the plot defamiliarizes the reader by presenting an altogether strange world.

Merkl 14 However, the consistency and depth of the secondary worlds reestablishes a connection with the reader. The interplay, then, between the defamiliarizing aspects of the secondary world with its familiarizing verisimilitude refresh the reader’s perspective on our own world, never looking at it the same way again.

Mythical Archetypes: The King of the Golden Hall and the Hungarian Horntail The second characteristic of Tolkien’s and Rowling’s works that creates an enchantment in the mind of the reader is the use of archetypes and motifs from various mythologies. Tolkien and Rowling are by no means the first fantasy writers to use such archetypes (Manlove 1), and Victor Erlich comments that fantastic tales around the globe not only use a large number of the same motifs but also similar plot structures (i.e., the arrangement of such motifs) (250). In his famous work on myth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell also asserts that the journey of the hero in every myth follows a similar pattern, creating a mono-myth across cultures (Campbell). The journey of the mythic hero that Campbell outlines fits closely with the lives of the main characters in Tolkien and Rowling, as can be seen in the lives of Bilbo, Frodo, Aragorn, and Harry. This is not to say that the works of Tolkien and Rowling are repetitive, only that both authors use these classic archetypes and motifs for a specific reason: to create familiarity with the reader. Secondary worlds with all of their fantastic elements can come across as far removed and quite alien to a reader (Manlove 4) achieving defamiliariziation, but the use of familiar mythic archetypes and motifs becomes a way of making the reader comfortable again—tying the defamiliarized back to the world of the familiar. Even if the archetypes are fantastic—such as griffins or wise old wizards—they are familiar to the reader of fantasy who has encountered such beings before.

Merkl 15 Most of the archetypes that Tolkien includes in The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings are related to his works as a professor of Anglo-Saxon and later of English literature. He draws widely on images and motifs from ancient and medieval texts of Celtic, Norse, Germanic, and Greek origin (Jones; Milbank ix; Manlove 9; Shippey xxvii). One work of literature to which Tolkien is deeply indebted in terms of archetypes is the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf. In The Lord of the Rings, the description of the Golden Hall of Meduseld in Rohan is strikingly similar to Hrothgar’s hall, Heorot, in Beowulf (Tolkien, Towers 116-17; Beowulf 5; Shippey 99). Other similarities include the parallel roles of Gríma Wormtongue and Unferth as jealous, deceiving counselors of their respective kings (Tolkien, Towers 132; Beowulf 18-20), and the corresponding encounters between Aragorn and Éomer in Rohan and Beowulf with the Danish coast guard (Tolkien, Towers 26-28; Beowulf 10-11).

Tolkien further references the Anglo-Saxon language and culture in names such Théoden, the Ents, and the Rohirrim terms éored and the Mark (Shippey 55, 88; Tolkien, Towers 29, 120; J. Hall 105-06, 358). Tolkien also borrows archetypes from Shakespearean works, particularly Macbeth, in the association of the king with healing powers and the image of a marching forest besieging a castle (Shippey 192-93; Shakespeare IV.iii.139-59, V.v.33-35; Return 894, Towers 186). Tolkien also incorporates Christian archetypes by including important traditional dates from the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church; for example, the departing of the Fellowship on Christmas Day and the fall of Sauron occurring on the traditional date of Good Friday (Shippey 208). Furthermore, some of Tolkien’s characters echo images of Christ, such as when the resurrected Gandalf appears to the remnant of the Fellowship in Fangorn (Milbank 49-51; Towers 99-103). These archetypes were known not only to Tolkien but also to his English audience, and even though not all of these allusions are detected by modern readers, they create

Merkl 16 an air of familiarity. Among the unfamiliar world of wizards, elves, and orcs, these familiar archetypes and motifs keep the reader from feeling hopelessly lost in a foreign world. In essence, the archetypes shorten the distance between the reader and the text.

In The Hobbit, many of Tolkien’s names are also taken from his linguistic studies. The names Gandalf, Thorin, and names of the other dwarves were all taken from the Norse Elder Edda, a work Tolkien was quite familiar with (Carpenter 178). The name for the dragon Smaug derived from “the Germanic verb smugan meaning ‘to squeeze through a hole’” (Carpenter 178).

Also, when Bilbo steals a cup from the treasure of Smaug, Tolkien alludes to a similar incident that happened in Beowulf (Hobbit 206; Carpenter 178; Beowulf). Because The Hobbit was intended for a younger audience, the use and power of its literary and linguistic allusions are limited in comparison to Tolkien’s other works.

When it comes to the use of archetypes in The Silmarillion, Tolkien both uses archetypes more heavily and also breaks free of the Germanic archetypes more commonly found in his other works. The primary overarching archetype Tolkien references for the first part of the Silmarillion mythology is that of a creation myth, complete with the fall of an angelic being and the special creation of humans and elves (Tolkien, Silmarillion 13-55; Gen. 1-2). The chief deity in The Silmarillion is named Eru Ilúvatar, with “Eru” possibly originating in the Old Norse word eru, meaning “to be” (Smith 131). This use of the infinitive verb “to be” as the name for the primary deity resonates with the Hebrew name for God in the Tetragrammaton “YHWH” which also derives from the verb “to be” (McLaughlin and Eisenstein), tying together Eru and YHWH as similar beings with similar connotations for the universe that each rules. Working within the largely Judeo-Christian creation archetype, however, is an undercurrent of pagan mythology in the Valar and Maiar, lesser deities over the forces of nature in Middle-earth that closely resemble

Merkl 17 Greco-Roman and Norse deities, such as Manwë, the Vala of the skies, and Yavanna, the Vala of trees and plants (Silmarillion 15-32). In the paradise before the exile of “fallen” elves, the Two Trees of Valinor allude to the two trees in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2.9), and in both cases, the trees become forbidden or unreachable due to dark forces following an initially good character’s corruption (Gen. 3.23-24; Shippey 239; Silmarillon 75-77). Tolkien even alludes to the biblical fall of mankind that in The Silmarillion is accomplished by the dark lord Morgoth and his servants and the “darkness that lays upon the hearts of Men” (Gen. 3; Shippey 242; Silmarillion 141-42). Later in the narrative, the half-Elf/half-Man character of Ëarendil steps forth before the god-like Valar and pleads for the salvation of Middle-earth from the evil forces of Morgoth, portraying an archetypal Messiah (Shippey 239; Silmarillion 248-49). The concluding saga of the Silmarillion features the island kingdom of Númenor (Elvish Atalantë) and its eventual destruction via inundation due to the corruption of its leaders (Silmarillion 259-82). This story directly alludes to the flood and Atlantis myths that have been recorded in ancient times (Gen. 6.9-9.17; Jones 102-11).

The archetypes used by Rowling are more diverse and often less obscure than Tolkien’s.

Harry’s role as the humble hero is a universal archetype from fairy tales all over the world (Blake 93), and his entrance into the wizarding world at age eleven alludes to the “common age of initiation in archaic societies” from around the globe (Nikolajeva 137). Rowling’s other archetypal characters and creatures vary from historical (Nicolas Flamel) to Classical (Erebus, and names such as Alecto, Minerva, and Severus) to European (Hippogriffs, Veela, Leprechauns, and Merlin) (Stone 161, 119; Prisoner 87; Goblet 94-95; Blake 17). In addition, Rowling uses several Christian archetypes and allusions throughout the Harry Potter series, including references to God, the presence of Christmas and Easter holidays in the non-religious wizarding

Merkl 18 society, Bible verses on wizard tombstones in a church graveyard, and an underworld conflict between a serpent-dragon Basilisk and a phoenix (Hallows 66, 265-269; Order 559; Chamber 233; M. Hall). Because so many of Rowling’s archetypes are familiar to readers through common fairy tales and folklore, they create a sense of “normalcy” and add a great deal of literary depth to the stories. Also, her mixing of old archetypes from different cultures creates a foundation for a new one; for instance, when the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire juxtaposes dragons from four different mythical traditions (China, Wales, Hungary, and Sweden), the mixture of diverse archetypes produces a new situation accompanied by suspense of how these elements will combine. Andrew Blake calls this mixing of old and new a “retrolutionary creation” that allows an author to deal with the present or near-future in terms of the past (17). Thus, when Harry is battling the Hungarian Horntail dragon in the tournament and his fellow wizarding students each from different countries (such as France and Bulgaria) are also each battling dragons from countries other than their own country of origin, the combination of cultures and allusions suggests a different theme than the classical man-against-dragon motif common in European fairy tales. This mix of archetypes from diverse mythologies accomplishes Rowling’s purpose of a defamiliarizing enchantment throughout the story.

Together, Tolkien and Rowling use their unique blend of linguistic and literary archetypes not in order to retell the classic fairy tales of the past, but rather to comment on the contemporary status of England during their writing. Tolkien’s archetypes derive primarily from Western civilization’s oldest mythologies and concentrate heavily in Europe, and particularly Great Britain, allowing him to comment on the changes happening in British society just after two world wars. Rowling’s motifs and allusions are more scattered globally but still harness a number of British mythologies as well, such as the Arthurian legends. Her combination of

Merkl 19 archetypes suggests how Britain is to relate to the contemporary world at large and that Britain may not be able to stand alone in the battles it must face against evil.

Distance and Nearness: The Journey from Platform 9¾ and the Grey Havens The final aspect of Tolkien’s and Rowling’s work that establishes the reader’s ability to believe in the stories is the interplay between distance and nearness. Distance refers to anything from the perspective of the reader that is alien, abstract, or hard to relate, and nearness describes anything that is everyday, concrete, or easily understood. In general, the fantastic is distant because of the “arresting strangeness” of its supernatural elements (Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories” 45), and this distance can often cause the alienation of the reader from the story (Manlove 197).

However, the Russian Formalist Pëtr Bogatyrëv states that a folktale plot is “more effective the greater the distance between the situation utilized in the story and the audience” (qtd. in Erlich 204). Bogatyrëv is right in one sense because a distant (a.k.a. fantastic) story offers the reader new perspectives on life; but if the reader feels entirely alienated, then the story will lose its effectiveness and the reader will lose interest. Thus, fantasy also has a need to establish nearness by including universal characteristics of the world to which all readers can relate. The secondary worlds created by Tolkien and Rowling “invite continual comparison with our own primary world” (Manlove 196) by being both distant and near in their settings, characters, and allusions.

While Middle-earth is far-removed from our own world (Manlove 4), Tolkien is interested primarily in realism and the concerns of the twentieth century, especially in modern incarnations of evil (Milbank xiv-xv; Shippey xxvii, 119). In setting—just as in his world creation—Tolkien reinforces the tug between distance and nearness in both time and place.

While the hobbit Shire Calendar is quite different than our own, it still uses our titles for the

Merkl 20 months (e.g., “September”), and even though the constellations in Middle-Earth have different names, it is clear that they are the same as ours (Tolkien, Fellowship 45, 111). Even references to Venus as the morning star weave their way into the text (Silmarillion 250). Tolkien’s invented elvish languages, though seemingly alien to this world, are actually based on his vast knowledge of Finnish and Welsh (Jones 41; Noel). Tolkien’s characters also illustrate the concepts of distance and nearness. Glorfindel and other High Elves are extremely distant, because those “who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at once in both worlds” (Tolkien, Fellowship 269)— something modern readers would struggle to understand. On the other hand, the hobbits are very near to readers because their way of life is similar to that of the English of the not-too-distant past, and many of the hobbit names and place-names are taken from English people and locations (Milbank 41; Shippey 59-60). Tolkien further reinforces the nearness of Middle-earth through modern-day allusions. The images of the Dead Marshes, the Scouring of the Shire, and the rationing of food in Minas Tirith present the reader with the horrors of a world at war, which Tolkien experienced firsthand in World War I (Towers 261; Return 837; Garth; Shippey 156, 217, 219). Tolkien also alludes to the politics of his day through the deceptive (almost political) voice of Saruman that closely echoes Orwell’s “doublethink” that was coined during Tolkien’s lifetime (Towers 201-03; Orwell 6, 224; Shippey 75-76). In narrative descriptions of The Hobbit, Tolkien also makes direct reference to our world as if Middle-earth were geographically connected: “Goblins do not usually venture very far from their mountains, unless they are…marching to war (which I am glad to say has no happened for a long while)” (Hobbit 105).

Through each of these distant/near juxtapositions, Tolkien illustrates that Middle-earth is like our own world; things happening to characters there are just like things that happen to people here.

Though distant in time and space (and very medieval), Middle-earth is also tied to the present.

Merkl 21 Because of their initial nearness, Tolkien’s works first establishes a foundation of familiarity with readers before taking them to the distant, unfamiliar lands of Middle-earth.

A perfect illustrating comparison of the journey from nearness to distance is Frodo’s journey to the Undying Lands from the Grey Havens at the end of The Lord of the Rings. While sailing on a special Elven ship westward toward an otherworldly paradise, Frodo experiences a dramatic change in scenery: “And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water[….T]he grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise” (Return 1007). Through this journey, the reader first experiences the nearness of the “night of rain” and the “rain-curtain”—quite commonplace events on a sea-faring voyage— followed by a “sweet fragrance” and the “sound of singing,” both of which suggest something out of the ordinary during a rainstorm in the middle of the ocean. The journey toward distance continues when the rain-curtain turns to “silver glass” and is “rolled back” as if Frodo were journeying from one world to an entirely different one. Though “white shores,” “green country,” and “a swift sunrise” may not in themselves be unfamiliar, their presence past the magical change in reality suggests that they too are not totally familiar or near, implying a reality or heavenly paradise beyond the world of the commonplace. Thus, even in this short passage, Tolkien takes the reader from nearness to distance—defamiliarizing them in the process—and completing his literary enchantment.

What Tolkien does over vast stretches of space and time, Rowling accomplishes through tight parallels between the wizarding world and the non-magical “Muggle” world that we recognize as our own. In one moment, the reader experiences a normal London street with “book

Merkl 22 shops and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas,” and in the next moment, the scene shifts to Diagon Alley, full of “windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels’ eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment” (Stone 53, 56). This same phenomenon occurs between the King’s Cross railway platforms and the wizarding world’s Platform 9¾ (Stone 69), representing an “intertwined co-reality” (Milbank 42). During Harry’s first visit to Platform 9¾, he doesn’t know how to access the magical location between Platforms 9 and 10. After learning that he simply has to walk through the barrier separating the two Muggle platforms, Harry undergoes a mini-journey from nearness to distance. At one moment, Harry is in King’s Cross station “packed with Muggles,” and the next moment, he finds himself next to a scarlet locomotive labeled the “Hogwarts Express” while “cats of every color wound here and there between their legs” and “[o]wls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks” (Stone 134-35). In contrast to the unfriendly Muggle guard Harry encounters earlier who doesn’t know about Hogwarts and who complains about “time wasters” like Harry, on Platform 9¾, Harry encounters magical folks whose conversations begin with “Gran, I’ve lost my toad again” (Stone 131, 135). The tight parallels that Rowling creates in settings such as the journey to Platform 9¾ invite the reader to immediately compare and contrast the two different worlds.

Similar parallels can be drawn between Hogwarts and Muggle schools, the Muggle Sellotape and wizard “Spellotape,” the High Street in Hogsmeade village, Harry having to write lines for detention, and the magical portkeys that appear as litter to Muggles (Blake 112; Stone 20; Chamber 74; Prisoner 205; Order 240; Goblet 66). The realism that Rowling achieves through setting is also accomplished through realistic characters. From the Muggle suburban Dursleys and the wide-eyed boys ogling over the newest racing broom to Gilderoy Lockhart’s

Merkl 23 pretentious fame and book signings and the snoopy reporter Rita Skeeter, the reader can connect with many of the different characters, drawing parallels between them and people from our world (Stone 7, 56; Chamber 48; Goblet 383).

At the same time, however, the wizarding world is still alien from our own, because Muggles can never access it, no matter how closely parallel it is, nor can Muggles ever wield magic. The only bridge that readers have between this distance and nearness is the perspective of the series’ title character. Harry is at once a contemporary boy with a common name, average grades, and an unremarkable appearance while at the same time being capable of tremendous magical ability and being “The Boy Who Lived” of international wizarding fame—with a scar to prove it (Blake 46; Nikolajeva 131, 138-39; Stone 11; Chamber 8-9). He is a Romantic hero— superior to other mortals yet inferior to the gods (Nikolajeva 125)—and the bridge between distance and nearness in the series. Finally, Rowling’s allusions to modern politics shorten the distance between the magical and the Muggle world, making reference to appeasing Prime Ministers, a dark wizard defeated in 1945, and the equivalence of racial genocide being carried out by a totalitarian regime (Goblet 583; Hallows 24, 198-199, 206-207). By creating a parallel world that is much like our own, Rowling makes the reader feel comfortable, but the alien aspects of the wizarding world make the reader feel more distant. This tension allows for some predictability but also keeps the reader in a state of expectation. It frees him or her from seeing around every corner, and biases that the reader might bring to stories about our world cannot necessarily be brought to this one because of its many variables. Thus, the tension between distance and nearness in Rowling effectively establishes familiarity with the reader while also allowing him or her to explore defamiliarizing ideas or concepts.

Merkl 24 Writing Style: The Quick-Quotes Quill and Quenya Of all of Tolkien and Rowling’s strategies for creating defamiliarization in their works, the past three just analyzed—world creation, mythical archetypes, and interplay between distance and nearness—all exist on the plane of the macro or the abstract. The fourth strategy— the one that ties all of the others together while adding its own special touch—is by far the most concrete: writing style.

In The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers proposes a concept she calls the “writer’s trinity” (40). Sayers compares the Christian doctrine of the triune nature of God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit to that of the triune nature of creativity in the terms “Idea, Energy, [and] Power” (35), respectively. The writer’s “Idea” is his plan for a story and corresponds to the Father, who cannot be known directly except through the Son (38-39). “Energy” is the physical writing done by the author and correlates to the Son, who is the physically incarnate member of the Trinity (39-40). The “Power” of the work is what evokes a response from the reader and parallels the Holy Spirit, who works among both the Father and the Son (40-41). O’Connor’s concept of “mystery” incarnated through “manners” discussed earlier has similar implications (68, 103).

Thus, Sayers and O’Connor both assert that good writing should strive to balance these levels of abstract and concrete elements within a text.

In terms of Sayers and O’Connor, an author’s writing style—the physical use of words on the page through word choice, sentence construction, punctuation usage, etc.—can be thought of as the incarnation (“Energy” or “manners”) of the ideal story in the writer’s imagination (“Idea” or “mystery”). For Tolkien and Rowling, this would mean that the “Idea” or “mystery” of their secondary worlds, mythical archetypes, and the interweave of distance/nearness must be incarnated through their individual writing styles or “Energy” and “manners.”

Merkl 25 In the case of Tolkien, a different writing style can be identified in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. In The Silmarillion, Tolkien’s style is lofty, mythic, historical, and even at some points academic. Chapter titles all follow a similar pattern of historic dryness, such as “Of the Beginning of Days” (35), “Of Beleriand and its Realms” (118), and “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” (283). The historical style is also apparent in the frequent use of conjunctions that illustrate the clear flow of action from one event to another: There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, there were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest harkened; for each comprehended only that part[….] (Silmarillion 15, emphasis added) Overlaying the historical style is an epic and lofty tone. To emphasize the mythic proportion of the work, Tolkien often uses words and phrases such as “doom,” “fate,” and “all the world” in order to emphasize the far-reaching nature of the story the effect the plot will have on all characters involved. The placement and variety of these phrases differ but are always similar: “most sorrowful that ever the world shall hear,” “beyond the hearing of the world,” “Kingdom of Earth,” “nor has been since,” “within the confines of the world,” “who governed the world,” “until the world’s end,” “she would leave the world for ever,” and “all the world is changed” (187). In just one page, Tolkien uses an “all the world” or similar phrase at least ten times, a superlative comparison (not including “world” phrases) six times, and a reference to “doom” or “fate” three times (187).

Merkl 26 In The Hobbit, Tolkien’s style occupies the opposite end of the spectrum that it does in The Silmarillion. Having initially written The Hobbit when his boys were young (Carpenter 177), Tolkien intended the story to be for children. Thus, his writing style reflects a more pedestrian, father-to-son approach. Indeed, some parts of the story read almost exactly as if the narrator were a parental figure reading to an audience of young children. When Bilbo is engaged in the riddle challenge with Gollum, the narrator intrudes several times and addresses the reader in the second-person voice: “I imagine you know the answer, of course, or can guess it as easy as winking, since you are sitting comfortably at home and have not the danger of being eaten to disturb your thinking” (Tolkien, Hobbit 83). At other times, the narrator simply references more juvenile behaviors: “[… Bilbo] said without even scratching his head or putting on his thinking cap” (82). The final most distinctive element of Tolkien’s writing style in The Hobbit is his frequent inclusion of song and poetry. It is not enough for Tolkien to say that characters burst into song; he, of course, had to provide the lyrics, and he did just that in at least twenty cases of rhymes, songs, and riddles, often including onomatopoeic lyrics to accompany a particularly exciting scene or event.

In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s style takes a middle approach between the lofty language of The Silmarillion and the low-brow approach of The Hobbit. Like The Hobbit, Tolkien also uses an extensive amount of original lyrics and poetry throughout The Lord of the Rings, though he uses lyrics twice as frequently in the first volume of the story, The Fellowship of the Ring, than in the latter two volumes (Tolkien, Return 1113). This shift in lyric usage is part of a wider change in the style and tone in the work from Fellowship to the other two volumes, which starts out with light-hearted and adventurous fun in the form of general narrative in place

Merkl 27 of specific description (Fellowship 21), talking foxes (71), an intruding narrator (71), and the lyrical and fun-loving tone of Tom Bombadil (121-131).

Then, once the hobbits arrive in Bree, the tone and style of the book begins to change.

More dialogue and concrete description occurs, more dialogue sentences end in an interrupting dash, and more text is italicized, signaling more stress and emphasis by the characters (146-171).

After the middle of Fellowship at the Council of Elrond, the prose has matured once again, leaving behind 31 of the 40 poems or songs in the first half of the text of Fellowship (Return 1113), and Tolkien begins to use more dialogue and shorter, more concrete descriptions. Diction begins to include more words of suspense and danger, such as “hurry,” “restless,” “listening,” “What is the matter,” “sudden,” “watchfulness,” “fear,” “must be more careful,” and “Dead silence” (277). By the end of Fellowship, the diction shifts to even darker imagery through shorter, more punctuated vocabulary: “cries,” “Terror and grief,” “mad fierce face,” “burning eyes,” “gasping for breath,” “like a lost child,” “black spike,” “signs of war,” “deadly strife,” “fell beasts,” “aflame,” “smoke,” “ships of war,” “moving endlessly,” and “power” (391).

Compared with the sentence structures and lengths in the first chapter of Fellowship, which are typically longer and more complex with a variety of parenthetical phrases (21), the last chapter offers more variation for dramatic effect: “Far away it seemed, and beautiful: white-walled, many-towered, proud and fair upon its mountain-seat; its battlements glittered with steel, and its turrets were bright with many banners. Hope leaped in his heart” (391). Through these changes in tone, diction, and sentence structure and length Tolkien illustrates the hobbits’ journey from innocence and ease to war and peril, the first steps in Joseph Campbell’s journey of the hero: Departure and Initiation (Campbell).

Merkl 28 Tolkien continues this serious tone through both The Two Towers and The Return of the King. In the first half of Towers—following Aragorn and the remainder of the Fellowship—the point of view switches between Aragorn and that of the other hobbits. In Aragorn chapters, Tolkien’s style reflects a more medieval tone and an action emphasis, stressing the placement of weapons and armor, using more lofty comparisons (“like thunder,” “like the wind,” “thicket of spears”), and using more active verbs to describe the actions of characters (“swerved,” “wheeled,” “fitted,” “leaped”) (Towers 421). In chapters narrated from the hobbit perspective of either Merry or Pippin, the writing style uses more passive constructions (“His legs were secured,” “Pippin was unwatched,” “The cord was cut”), places less importance on weapons, and uses more descriptions of personal body relations to other characters and objects (“Merry’s prostrate form,” “He felt the blood,” “cold touch of steel against his skin,” “his arms were only tied about the wrists”) (437). In the second half of Towers, written entirely from the perspective of the hobbits Frodo and Sam, the diction focuses more on food and provisions, something Frodo and Sam must watch carefully (“fork,” “tasting the broth,” “pans,” “onions,” “taters [potatoes],” “mug,” “stew,” “waybread,” “feast”) (641). Dialogue is also used more frequently (641-79), and medieval wordings and phrases are occasionally used in place of more modern equivalents (“Faramir broke his fast with them” instead of “breakfasted”) (679). This use of medieval phrasing works to defamiliarize the reader on a micro scale, since the odd phrasing forces her to look at the very act of eating breakfast in an unusual way.

In The Return of the King, Tolkien primarily uses the same writing styles when changing between the perspectives of Aragorn, Merry, Pippin, or Frodo and Sam. However, after the climax of the story, Tolkien changes portions of his writing style to be more Silmarillion-esque, adding an epic flair to the events happening during the resolution. After the fall of Sauron, an

Merkl 29 eagle flies to the city of Minas Tirith to announce the good news: “Sing now, ye people [….] your King hath passed through [….] and he shall dwell among you” (Return 942, emphasis added). The use of older words such as “ye,” “hath,” and “shall” creates a feeling of grandeur and implicitly communicates to the reader that the following events are more elevated and loftier in nature. During the crowning of Aragorn as King of Gondor, Tolkien heightens the epic tone of the work even further by including a song of Aragorn’s in Quenya—the High Elvish language of Tolkien’s invention (946). Though the mainstream reader might not notice the difference between the use of Quenya versus Sindarin (the low Elvish language) in the text, the inclusion of a different, beautiful language still conveys increased importance. Following this peak of grandeur and magnificence at Aragorn’s royal court, Tolkien’s writing style slowly changes back into that of the innocence the reader last felt when the hobbits were in the Shire. Indeed as the hobbits make their physical journey back to the Shire, Tolkien’s language and writing style change. The diction begins to include more hobbit language (“houses,” “hobbit-holes,” “gardens,” “water’s edge,” “weeds,” “trees”) (981), though because the hobbits must cleanse the Shire of final evil, the diction still includes several war-like terms and phrases as well (“weapons,” “broke,” “charged,” “shot,” “horn-call,” “hew them with axes,” “killing”) (992).

Only once the final enemies have been defeated in the Shire does the full hobbit agricultural diction, narrative style, and tone return (“as if time was in a hurry,” “trees,” “sprout and grow,” “young sapling leaped up,” “golden flowers,” “wonderful sunshine and delicious rain, in due times and perfect measure”) (1000). The full cycle of Tolkien’s writing style in The Lord of the Rings reflects Campbell’s journey of the hero. By starting off in the innocence of hobbit language, slowly moving into more serious tone and peaking with the language of an epic, and then returning to the diction of the Shire, Tolkien fulfills via writing style Campbell’s three

Merkl 30 major stages of Departure, Initiation, and Return in the journey of the hero (Campbell). The closing of the book in hobbit language reflects one of the final steps in the journey: “The Crossing of the Return Threshold” (Campbell 217), when the hero has come full circle from where his or her journey began.

In the Harry Potter series, Rowling achieves similar effects with changes in her writing style throughout the books, tying together her secondary world creation, her use of mythic archetypes, and her overall strategy of distance and nearness. Rowling opens the series with the tone and narrator one would expect from a children’s fairy tale: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense” (Stone 9). The phrases “thank you very much” and “just didn’t hold with such nonsense,” along with the second-person address in the second sentence both indicate a parent-like narrator, though perhaps a bit more flippant. This narrative voice, however, quickly disappears once the story continues, and for the remainder of the book Rowling’s flowery style fills the gap of the narrator’s earlier flippancy. Rowling’s style is readable but certainly not simple. Diction is kept at an elementary level, Rowling using no more than six words longer than three syllables in an entire average page (186-87). Sentence structure and length, however, vary considerably. On an average page, she only uses one simple and one compound sentence; the rest are complex or compound-complex (187), even within dialogue (190-91). This style of simplicity in words and complexity in sentences still reflect an adult-tochild narrator who would tailor words to be understandable while still expressing thoughts in longer, more complex manners. The style also serves to defamiliarize the reader by allowing Rowling to explain her complex secondary world through simple vocabulary, helping the reader

Merkl 31 maximize his or her understanding of the wizarding world. Rowling’s expressions of mythical archetypes are also more easily understood through this simple-vocabulary-but-complexsentence style, because the archetypes are explained on a diction level that any reader can understand, even if the explanation of the archetypal character or situation continues on for some time.

Another key element of Rowling’s style throughout the series is her word-play with names. The alliterative power in such names as Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall create a light-hearted feeling in the reader, even when such names hold deeper, hidden meanings about the story (Granger 101-15), and other creative names throughout the series, such as the candy “Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans” (Stone 144), the book “Year with the Yeti” (Chamber 44), the night-route “Knight Bus” (Prisoner 33), the advertised “Mrs. Skower’s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover: No Pain, No Stain!” (Goblet 96-97), the reporter Rita Skeeter’s special tool, the “Quick-Quotes Quill” (Goblet 304), the magical medical center “St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries” (Order 466), the Hogwarts headmaster’s lengthy full name, “Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore” (Order 139), and even the mysterious dark wizard “Gellert Grindelwald” (Hallows 20). These names defamiliarize the reader on two levels. First, the alliteration or sounds of the wordplay foreground the language into the front of the reader’s mind, causing her to approach the named person or object in a different way. A reader will simply think about the character Filius Flitwick differently because of the alliteration of his name. Second, many of the names (particularly for things and products) tie back closely to our own world to similar sounding people or products, reflecting Rowling’s strategy of closely paralleling elements of distance and nearness, constantly crossing borders between the two.

Merkl 32 Just like in Tolkien’s use of diction, Rowling’s use the intruding narrator reflects a complete journey of the hero. In Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban, somewhere in the first chapter, Rowling introduces the flippant, sometimes heavyhanded narrator that speaks more condescendingly to the reader, often reviewing for the reader what happened in previous books. For example, in Chamber, the narrator reminds the reader that Snape is the potions master, that Hagrid is the gamekeeper, and that Quidditch is the “most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goal posts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks)” (3). While the reminder serves at least one pragmatic function of refreshing the reader’s memory on what happened in the previous book (originally published one year apart from the first story), the transformation—and eventually disappearance—of these narrative reminders throughout the series suggests another strategy of writing style might have been in play. In Prisoner, the narrator condescends to the reader enough to remind him that Harry is a wizard and that non-magical people are known as Muggles in the wizarding world (a wellestablished fact by this point in the series) (1-2). Though Rowling simply might have wanted to remind the reader, the beginning reminders in Prisoner stand in stark contrast to the opening pages of Goblet (the next book), which opens with the scene of a murder of a Muggle by Lord Voldemort (1-15). Two of the next three books—Prince and Hallows—follow a similar pattern to Goblet in that they open with a prologue-esque chapter that doesn’t involve Harry directly.

These opening prologue-chapters are often darker than the rest of the text and always involve death or plans for murder (and the exception to the prologue rule, Order of the Phoenix, opens with an attempt to kill Harry) (Order 1-19; Prince 1-37; Hallows 1-12).

The darkening of the opening chapter from “thank you very much” in Stone to the graphic death of a Hogwarts teacher in Hallows illustrates the same transition that Tolkien’s

Merkl 33 shifting diction achieved in The Lord of the Rings. The hero, Harry, is growing up and facing the increasingly darker world of adulthood, going through his own inner journey of Departure, Initiation, and Return. Campbell’s “Crossing of the Return Threshold” (217) occurs for Harry in the epilogue of Hallows. Nineteen years have passed since Harry defeated Lord Voldemort, and Harry is now seeing his children off to Hogwarts from Platform 9¾, returning to the same point where his own journey had begun twenty-three years before. Through the style of the last two sentences of the story, Rowling then brings a close to Campbell’s cycle by illustrating the final stage in the hero’s journey, “Freedom to Live” (238): “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well” (Hallows 759). Rowling’s choice of subject and word order are what make the closing of the cycle so effective. Having “the scar” serve as the subject of the penultimate sentence instead of Harry implies that Harry was a victim to the scar, that the scar once had had mastery over Harry and not the other way around. If Harry had been the subject of the sentence, his freedom from something that once had mastery over him would not have been as clear. In addition, in the closing sentence the choice of “all” as the subject also indicates Harry’s previous non-mastery over the world. Once “all is well” completely outside of Harry’s influence (both linguistically and in terms of plot), then, and only then, can Harry truly experience Campbell’s “Freedom to Live.”

Through the concrete, micro strategies of writing style, Tolkien and Rowling are able to communicate their macro strategies of defamiliarization (secondary world creation, mythical archetypes and allusions, and the relationship between distance and nearness) while also creating defamiliarization through the writing style itself. As the fourth strategy of defamiliarization, writing style becomes a part of the foregrounding process discussed earlier by the Russian Formalist Jan Mukarovsky in which an idea or element is placed “in sharp contrast with the other

Merkl 34 components of a given work of art� (qtd. in Davis and Wommack 44). Rowling accomplishes this foregrounding through her names and wordplay that foreground (i.e. draw attention to) the language of the name against the backdrop of the story. This foregrounding then creates a surface current defamiliarizing the reader in one direction while the undercurrents of the other three strategies defamiliarize the reader in another. For example, the name Minerva McGonagall foregrounds itself in the story through alliteration, creating a humorous effect in the mind of the reader and defamiliarizing him to the world of names. The opposite current works through the archetypal allusion to the name Minerva (the Roman goddess of wisdom), which defamiliarizes the reader at different level, providing a familiar element (the allusion) but in an unfamiliar setting (the wizarding world).

In Tolkien’s work, the foregrounding takes place over the vast lengths of his stories through gradual changes in diction and sentence length variation. These subtle, micro changes add up to create the different milieus of Middle-earth that defamiliarize the reader not only through the built up (macro) linguistic changes but also through their combination of secondary world verisimilitude, mythic archetypes (created through subtle language changes), and the distance/nearness contrasts that such language change implies. For example, slow diction changes occur between the description of Hobbiton all the way to the description of Bree. Added up, these micro shifts have a macro effect of creating a continuum of different milieus between these two locations. Woven together with the extreme details of Tolkien’s secondary world creation (such as naming villages irrelevant to the story), the historical archetypes he works into both locations (the Shire being more English and Bree being more Welsh), and the distance/nearness strategies Tolkien employs between these two locations (such as identifying

Merkl 35 constellations that tie Middle-earth to our own world), the micro-to-macro diction shifts create a master enchantment of defamiliarization on the reader.

Defamiliarization as a Means to an End: The Mirror of Galadriel and the Boggart in the Wardrobe While Russian Formalism provides a helpful lens through which to view the works of Tolkien and Rowling, both authors do not employ defamiliarization strategies as an end in and of itself, but merely as a means to an end. Speaking of his own fantasy writing and it religious implications, C.S. Lewis expresses clearly what defamiliarization can accomplish in a fantasy work, specifically for Christian allegory or supposal: I thought I saw how [fantasy] stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed [sic] much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could. (37) While neither Tolkien nor Rowling subscribe to having created direct Christian allegories (or even supposals) out of their works (Tolkien, Fellowship xiv), both authors “steal past the watchful dragons� of standard reader approaches to contemporary issues through

Merkl 36 defamiliarization. For both Tolkien and Rowling, the use of fantastic elements (and therefore defamiliarization) is only a medium—a means to an end—and not the focus of their works (Manlove 50). Those ends are different for both authors, but their means of approaching those issues through defamiliarization are quite similar, opening new windows of perception for the reader.

For Tolkien, one of these windows would likely be the “Escape” from scientific materialism and postmodernism and into a Christian supernatural reality (“On Fairy Stories” 55).

By creating such a powerful and detailed secondary world in Middle-earth, Tolkien proposes it not as an alternative reality to escape out to, but an alternative to our own world to return back to (Howard 341; Tolkien “On Fairy Stories” 55). Thomas Howard comments on the realism of Tolkien’s secondary world creation: “When we have entered Tolkien’s remote world we find that it is a true one, and therefore true of ours” (341). The truths of Tolkien’s secondary world (such as caring for nature, not growing greedy with industrialism, and valuing art as rightful end in and of itself) are also true in our own world. However, a non-fiction essay would have never stolen past the “watchful dragons” of political or religious biases in readers. By presenting these truths through fantasy fiction, Tolkien defamiliarizes the reader and the truths impact the reader at a level deeper than his or her own understanding (M. Hall; Howard; Lewis). The combination of archetypes with the verisimilitude of the secondary world increases the defamiliarization of the reader by presenting familiar elements and character types in new situations, and the strategy of presenting the secondary world extremely distant and yet near through realistic character actions and other natural phenomena (climates, constellations, etc.) strips away reader biases and prejudices because of the feeling of being absorbed in a virtual reality. Finally, writing style reinforces this defamiliarization through subtle changes in diction and sentence length, working

Merkl 37 slowly on the reader’s mind as he makes his way through the story. The combination of the four strategies of defamiliarization prepares the reader to recognize and absorb the truths of antiscientism and anti-industrialism within the text.

Though Tolkien did not see his works as allegories or supposals, he still recognized the value of the truth they conveyed and recognized that the truths could apply to different generations of the world in various ways (Tolkien, Fellowship xiv-xv). Perhaps the strongest analogy of how Tolkien might have viewed his use of defamiliarization is the Mirror of Galadriel. When the hobbit Sam asks to see Elf-magic, Galadriel shows him the mirror in a basin of enchanted water, explaining: But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and those are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold. What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell. For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be. But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell.

(Fellowship 352) Through defamiliarization, Tolkien communicates truths to his readers much like the Mirror: some truths will impact readers in ways Tolkien himself could not have guessed or controlled, and the truths are transcendent of time so that some readers will adopt meanings from the text in the future that Tolkien could have never foresaw and other readers will learn truths from the past that for Tolkien were issues of the present. The enchantment—the defamiliarization—of the Mirror is complete, however, and the reader will never truly see to the bottom and never without seeing a reflection of something in a new window of perception.

While Tolkien certainly utilizes defamiliarization in order to illustrate a great number of truths, so does Rowling. For Rowling, two key issues that she wishes to refresh the reader’s

Merkl 38 perspective on appear to be the ultimate value and importance of unconditional love (Order 743) and the absolute existence of a supernatural realm beyond the natural world, particularly after death (Hallows 568, 579). By creating a believable secondary world, Rowling defamiliarizes the reader to our own world, allowing her to suggest the importance of love and the supernatural within the wizarding world. Her combination of archetypes from around the globe then bolsters these implicit suggestions by further establishing the secondary world as unlike our own.

However, her tight parallels and comparisons of the distance of the wizarding world and the nearness of the Muggle world bring the defamiliarization of the reader back to the familiar. By establishing the importance of unconditional love and the existence of the supernatural solidly within the distant wizarding world and then illustrating how the wizarding world is actually nearer than first supposed, Rowling guides the reader to the epiphany that the principles of unconditional love and the supernatural also apply to our own world.

The strategy of a defamiliarizing writing style ties all of these techniques together on the level of allusions in names and spells. For example, in Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns about a creature known as a boggart that shapeshifts into its viewer’s worst fear. Professor Lupin instructs Harry’s class on a new spell with the incantation “Riddikulus!” (134). The spell will force the shapeshifting boggart to assume a comedic shape in relation to one’s own worst fear.

However, Lupin is quick to point out that the only thing that can truly defeat a boggart is laughter—not the magic spell. This small lesson in magic perfectly illustrates Rowling’s use of defamiliarization utilizing all four strategies. First, Rowling has already created a secondary world in which magic spells, incantations, and magic creatures actually exist. Second, she utilizes the archetype of a magical shapeshifting creature which is common to many myths and legends; however, she uses the shapeshifter in a new way in that it turns into one’s own worst

Merkl 39 fear. Third, Rowling ties this seemingly distant experience to the nearness of the Muggle world by using common fears when the students begin to face the boggart (such as spiders, snakes, or disliked teachers). The reader is then able to identify with the fears of the characters and may share some of those same specific fears. Fourth and finally, Rowling uses the Latinate incantation “Riddikulus!” on the level of language and writing style to imply the word “ridiculous” to the reader. The use of the suggested word (but not the word itself) foregrounds the actual word into the reader’s mind, making him or her think more about the concept than if it had been the actual word (“ridiculous”) itself. Without even having realized it, the reader will walk away from reading this portion of the story having a greater confidence over his or her fears, remembering to think of them as “ridiculous” and that those fears can ultimately be defeated through laughter. No non-fiction essay could have accomplished that lesson with such potency as Rowling did utilizing the four defamiliarization strategies.

Conclusion: There and Back Again We return to Tolkien’s striking revelation from “On Fairy Stories”: “Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men” (31-32). For both him and Rowling, their works of fantasy are magic spells that are well crafted. Because of the detailed world creation, imaginative use of archetypes and motifs, a unique balance between distance and nearness to the primary world, and powerful writing style strategies the reader is able to nearly enter into the text, leaving all biases and common social perceptions in the primary world. As a result, Tolkien’s and Rowling’s works allow for a deeper understanding of contemporary issues (such as escaping scientific materialism or facing your worst fears with laughter) through defamiliarization and foregrounding. Furthermore, their tales of the fantastic

Merkl 40 defamiliarize and renew modern perceptions concerning the existence of a supernatural reality that incarnates the “mystery” and distance of the eternal into the “manners” and nearness of the natural world and genuine human personality. These stories—these spells—through the defamiliarization of the reader are ultimately more effective than a non-fiction essay on the same contemporary issues because they first enchant and then instruct (Campbell 382).

While many of the internal consistencies, archetypes, allusions, parallels of distance and nearness, and elements of writing style may be passed over by the reader unnoticed, that does not reduce the power of these enchanting elements. Rather, the fact that the stories can be read on many levels only adds to their spell-casting ability. Just as each story is both distant and near, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Lord of the Rings and Rowling’s Harry Potter series are both old and new, expressing ancient, universal themes through modern-day techniques. It is these magic spells—these combinations of detail, archetypes, writing styles, and elements that are both distant and near, old and new—that make these stories so powerful, memorable, and enchanting.

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Merkl 45 Lessons Learned from the Fantasy School of Witchcraft Wonder and Writing Wizardry: Connecting the worlds of Peter Quilver and the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs and Lucky Prime V with the Enchanting Writing Methods of J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling

If Tolkien and Rowling can be compared to powerful sorcerers of fantasy writing, each crafting their own enchantment over the reader, then writers that follow in their tradition can be considered sorcerers’ apprentices. But unlike the unfortunate sorcerer’s apprentice of Goethe’s poem (popularized in Disney’s Fantasia), the writing wizardry taught by Tolkien and Rowling is more accessible, much like the magical school of Hogwarts itself.

The following two stories imitate the story-spellcraft of Tolkien and Rowling, but each in different ways, with each story emphasizing more of one author’s techniques than another. Both stories are excerpts of longer works and must be read as such. Peter Quilver and the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs is a children’s fantasy novel that is also a part of a trilogy. Its intended audience is between the age of eight and eleven. Lucky Prime V is a science fiction novel for an adult audience. Both works emulate Tolkien and Rowling in the four primary elements of fantasy defamiliarization discussed earlier: world creation, the use of archetypes, the interplay between distance and nearness, and writing style.

The world creation of Peter Quilver follows the methodology of both Tolkien and Rowling. Like Tolkien, Peter Quilver’s world and how the reader discovers it all occur within the same reality—no borders are crossed by characters between one world and another. Similar to Frodo’s journey out of the Shire and into the wider realm of Middle-earth, Peter Quilver travels out of the village of Burton into the continent of the Three Kingdoms. The details of the world are revealed to the reader as they are encountered, and while Peter (like Frodo) grows in

Merkl 46 his knowledge of the world along with the reader, many aspects of the world (e.g., magic spells) do not surprise Peter merely with their existence (in contrast with Harry’s journey into the wizarding world, during which all magic is an entirely new experience). But the world of the Peter Quilver trilogy is also built around principles of Rowling’s writings. Just as the wizarding world of the Harry Potter series is not as detailed as Middle-earth, neither is the world of Peter Quilver. Like the wizarding world, the description of Peter’s world does not include other languages, calendars, or detailed mythologies. Peter also imitates Harry’s experience in that while not all magical elements of his world are new or surprising to him, Peter is learning so many new aspects of his world that he could be considered uninitiated.

The use of archetypes in the Peter Quilver trilogy is primarily in the style of Rowling.

Throughout the story, Peter encounters archetypal beings or creatures that are reminiscent of mythological traditions from around the globe, including allusions that are Germanic (changelings, Rumplestiltskin, Roland, Father Christmas, the goose that laid the gold eggs), classical (Pandora’s Box), Arabian (Jinn), Chinese (Chinese dragons), Norse (Norns), historical (gladiators, Captain Morgan, catacombs), or literary (Poe, Shakespeare, Kipling, MacDonald).

While Tolkien also used archetypes from a variety of cultures, his were primarily northern European and referenced each culture with considerable depth. Rowling, on the other hand, referenced traditions from around the world, creating new meanings when archetypes crossed cultures. The choice of archetypes in the Peter Quilver trilogy attempts to imitate this aspect of Rowling by bringing in mythologies from a variety of continents and cultures.

The interplay between distance and nearness in the Peter Quilver trilogy follows in the tradition of Tolkien, accomplishing the feat over great distances of time and space. Initially, Peter’s world is distant because it does not take place in our own reality, and none of the places

Merkl 47 in the trilogy also exist in the real world. The presence of magic and the supernatural provide further distance between the world of the reader and Peter’s world. But Peter’s reality is still tied to that of the reader through many Tolkienian methods: realistic characters and dialogue, linguistic similarities in place names, mythological archetypes (discussed above), similar historical cultures (Roman, European, and Arabian), and events that reflect modern-day issues (international politics, environmental concerns, etc.). Thus, while Peter’s world is initially distant, the reader is still able to connect with it in various ways.

The writing style of Peter Quilver primarily follows in the footsteps of Rowling but also of Tolkien in The Hobbit. Because the Harry Potter series was written for children, Rowling’s style is plainer and matter-of-fact, avoiding highly stylized or literary constructions that can sometimes be confusing for younger readers. Rowling also includes bits of narrative voice throughout the story, suggesting that the narrator is reading aloud to an intimate audience.

Tolkien achieves a similar writing style in The Hobbit, which was also intended for children. The writing style in Peter Quilver attempts to follow both Tolkien and Rowling, being clear and concise, keeping to a more basic vocabulary, and adding a slight bit of the narrator’s own voice.

While Lucky Prime V is a work of science fiction (rather than fantasy), it emulates Tolkien in principles of world creation. The far-future universe of Lucky Prime V, like Middleearth, contains more details than the reader could possibly know just from reading the story.

From everything to history, religions, linguistic shift, science, alien cultures, technology, character genealogies, planetary system maps and sizes, universities, programming code, fictional diseases, pop music, and more, the universe of Lucky Prime V threatens to almost overwhelm the reader with verisimilitude. Just like how the detailed world creation of Middleearth helped readers connect with The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, the

Merkl 48 depth of created reality in Lucky Prime V allows the reader to be enchanted by the story and believe it to be realistic and credible.

While Peter Quilver imitated Rowling in the use of archetypes, Lucky Prime V mimics Tolkien. Middle-earth referenced many mythological and historical archetypes, but most of the archetypes were from northern European stories that were often more obscure to everyday readers (such as the Poetic Edda and Mercian Anglo-Saxon culture). The allusions and archetypes in Lucky Prime V draw upon different sources but are more concentrated within science fiction literature (such as the use of faster-than-light travel and the assumption of planetary-wide governments) and are more obscure (such as references to The Morpheus Project, a lesser known work). The universe of Lucky Prime V also makes several Asian cultural allusions, including Chinese, Japanese, Nepalese, and Sherpa, which are also more obscure.

Lucky Prime V follows in the footsteps of Rowling when it comes to the relationship between distance and nearness. Rowling continually tied close parallels between the magical and non-magical worlds in Harry Potter, and Lucky Prime V achieves similar ends. Because of its far-future setting, Lucky Prime V has the potential to be almost as distant from the reader as Middle-earth or the world of Peter Quilver, but through constant comparison of the present world with the far-future world of Lucky Prime V, the reader feels extremely near to the story. This comparison can be seen in parallels between politics, business dealings, language shift, advertisements, and universally recognizable settings (such as clubs, bars, brothels, and sporting stadiums). Through these familiar elements, the reader almost feels as if she is stepping between two worlds just as much as Harry Potter.

The writing style of Lucky Prime V imitates Tolkien’s in its more esoteric, estranging nature. Throughout his works, Tolkien’s writing style uses a heavy stock of medieval language

Merkl 49 and phrases, many of which are not familiar to modern readers but which can be inferred. The inferring process defamiliarizes the reader because it presents something everyday in strange terms. The journey of the reader through the language then renews their perspective on the character, issue, or plot. The writing style of Lucky Prime V also works toward this end through the use of futuristic language shift. When characters in Lucky Prime V speak in local dialect, they use a number of slang words that are unfamiliar to modern readers but whose meaning can be inferred (e.g., prolly instead of probably). This slang, along with deliberate changes in spelling within character dialect (e.g., nite instead of night, or prolog instead of prologue), serves to defamiliarize the reader, renewing their perspective on language use, the future, and the story.

Though Tolkien and Rowling both use similar principles in their fantasy writing, the practices by which they apply those principles vary greatly. Thus, two creative writing pieces could more effectively communicate an understanding of both authors. Peter Quilver and the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs imitates both authors in world creation, Rowling in the use of archetypes, Tolkien in the distance-nearness relationship, and Rowling in writing style. Lucky Prime V models after Tolkien in world creation and archetypes, Rowling when comparing distance and nearness, and Tolkien in writing style. Both works attempt to tell a story that utilizes the principles taught by the master sorcerers, Tolkien and Rowling, while no longer remaining the work of an apprentice.

Merkl 50

Peter Quilver and the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

by Scribulous Scribb

Merkl 51 A Note from the Narrator Once upon a time, there was a kingdom named Hartweg. And in this kingdom every family was given a goose. Every day, when the goose would lay an egg, the family was required to hand the egg over to the king’s royal Collectors. This one and only tax was collected upon penalty of death.

But that is something almost no ordinary citizen ever had to worry about. The tax had been going on long enough that no one ever gave it a second thought, really. And if ever anyone wanted a goose egg for themselves all they had to do was to buy one from the stands of the Collectors sold in the marketplace each day. These eggs (always sold at fair prices) had already been collected and marked with indelible red ink—that is to say, the ink could never be removed.

Things were not always this way. Before this particular king of Hartweg (Vortigen was his name), the people had been taxed just like in any other kingdom. No one knows why Vortigen chose instead to collect goose eggs, but it had seemed fair enough when the system had been introduced. No one openly protested the system because the prices for the collected and marked eggs were always reasonable, and if you didn’t like the prices, you didn’t have to buy any goose eggs to begin with. But since everyone had a goose at home, the country had quickly fallen in love with the long-necked fowl, and most everyone bought the goose eggs anyway. It was an interesting relationship.

Some folks, however, thought that Vortigen had evil intentions at heart. So they stole goose eggs wherever they could find them, whether from people’s homes or from the Collectors themselves. (These folks were said to be the most daring in all of Hartweg, for to lay a finger on a Collector was considered equal to not paying the tax.) The thieves would crack open the stolen eggs, but they’d never find anything unusual or valuable. Sometimes, they’d follow the

Merkl 52 Collectors back to the royal castle—Goskirk, it was called in those days—but they would only spy the Special Inspectors who looked at each and every egg and marked each with the indelible red dot. Nothing else ever happened to the eggs as far as anyone could tell.

So it was that the Kingdom of Hartweg would pay their goose egg taxes day after day, year after year, with nothing special or extraordinary to ever report about the geese or the eggs. It was simply a way of life.

That is, until one day, a farm boy—perhaps just about your age—from a one-horse town…. Well, I am getting ahead of myself, for that is where our story begins.

—S. S.

Merkl 53 Chapter 1: The Disturbance to Morning Chores Peter gazed into the creature’s blue eyes. She returned his stare as if he were the odd thing being examined, as if he were altogether different from her. He flared his nostrils and bared his teeth, his eyebrows wriggling on his forehead.

“Mama!” Anna whined from across the breakfast table. “Peter is looking at me funny!”

“Am not!” Peter shouted above his younger sister’s voice. “Besides, she deserved it!”

“Behave yourselves, children,” came their mother’s voice from the pantry. “Your father’s got a lot of work to do today, and he doesn’t want to be disturbed before he’s had enough rest.”

Anna stuck out her tongue at Peter, who quickly returned the gesture.

“Bet you can’t finish breakfast as fast as I can,” said Anna, tearing into her small loaf of bread.

“Not fair,” said Peter, biting into his loaf. “You don’t eat as much.”

Anna pushed back her long blond hair and gazed upward. “I can’t help that I’m a fairy princess,” she said.

“Oh, please,” said Peter rolling his eyes and taking another bite. “More like a goblin princess.”

“Mama!” she wailed (as four-year-olds are wont to do). “Peter called me a goblin princess!”

“It’s true!” he said. “The goblins traded her out when she was an infant. I saw them do it!

They took my sister away in the night and left this ugly brat in her place!”

Anna began to cry, tossing her loaf to the floor. Mother stepped back into the kitchen, carefully picked up the loaf, and caressed her daughter’s hair.

Merkl 54 “Peter,” she said, “stop bothering your sister, and stop telling her such outrageous stories.”

“Yeah,” said Anna, looking up behind her mother’s arm with a snitchish glare. “We all know you’re the one that got switched out!”

“Stop it, both of you!” said Mother. “It’s about time you both started on your chores for the day. And keep it down, your father’s still sick in bed.”

Peter got up from the table, emptied his wooden mug of its contents, and belched.

Stuffing the last bit of bread under his arm, he rushed to the door before his mother could give him a scolding look.

“I’ll go get Marva’s egg,” said Peter. He pointed at his sister before stepping over the threshold. “But she started it!”

Peter tromped through the barnyard, skipping over the sleeping body of Sam, their herd dog. He was so old and deaf that he served almost no function on the farm—especially after they had sold all their sheep the previous winter—but the children couldn’t bear to be separated from him, so their father had allowed Sam to stay.

Marva was the Quilver’s family goose, and because her eggs paid the kingdom’s only tax, they allowed her free reign in the barnyard—as long as she didn’t escape, that is. Every morning, it was Peter’s task to find Marva’s egg that she had laid the day before. The Collectors stopped by the Quilver cottage around mid-morning each day to pick up the egg and mark down the Quilvers as having paid their tax.

Knocking aside the door to the chicken coop, Peter scanned the rows of nests for an egg much larger than the rest. Marva usually laid her eggs alongside the chickens, but sometimes she seemed to play a game of hide-and-seek with the Quilver family (though we all know, of course,

Merkl 55 that no ordinary goose would be so clever). This, however, was one of those mornings. Chicken feathers whirled through the air as the coop door slammed shut behind Peter. He began to search Marva’s other frequent hiding places.

Peter checked underneath the family’s broken wagon, at the base of the oak tree, and the deserted pig pen—all the usual secret stashes Marva used when she wanted to hide her egg. As he scrambled back over the fence of the pen, Peter spotted the goose herself waddling through the barnyard toward him.

Marva was a perfectly ordinary goose, covered in clean, white feathers with an orange bill and fat, orange webbed feet. She turned her head and looked at Peter from one of her bright blue eyes.

“Marva,” said Peter, half talking to the goose and half talking to himself, “where’d you hide it this time?”

Marva just honked at Peter then kept on waddling through the barnyard.

Peter shook his head as she passed. Marva sometimes appeared to understand the enormous influence she had over the Quilver family, taking advantage of her power whenever she felt like it. The slightest flick from one of her feathers could have the whole family on their knees—without her eggs, they would be punished by the Collectors. On occasion, she was known to give them glaring looks when she was angry or approach kindly if she sensed a family member was sad or in trouble. (Though she was certainly ordinary as well, full of the regular fits and honking tantrums gooses are known to go into.)

Just as Peter returned from searching near the sheep pen, Marva caught his eye as she slipped quietly into the wide door of the red barn.

“Ha!” thought Peter, grinning. “I’ve found you out now, Marva!”

Merkl 56 Peter snuck up to the barn and silently stepped inside, pushing open the door with a loud creak. The barn slowly filled with light from the doorway, but as Peter scanned the inside of the barn, Marva was nowhere to be seen.

Peter pushed the door open all the way and stepped onto the straw-strewn floor. Andy, the Quilver goat, rustled in a stall to Peter’s right, and the three milk cows quietly munched on hay in a different corner. The room smelled like a mix of cow dung and rotten straw. As Peter walked into the center of the barn, a stray chicken strutted across his path, clucking cautiously as Peter drew near.

Just as Peter turned to search a different corner of the barn, he heard Marva’s honk from the loft. Grabbing a nearby rope, Peter swung toward a ladder and lightly climbed it to the upper level of the barn overlain with several layers of straw. He could hear the rustle and crackle of straw in the far corner of the loft, and he slowly crept toward Marva as she waddled around nervously, carrying bits of straw in her bill and placing them in nest-like fashion.

While he continued to move toward Marva, Peter heard the sound of heavy hooves through a nearby shutter in the barn wall. It was Collectors. The road to the village of Burton was just across the river that ran alongside the edge of the Quilver farm. The Collectors would have to cross the river at the bridge several miles down the road before passing into Burton. They would be at the Quilver’s front door step within a few hours after they collected the eggs from those that lived at the village center (assuming that is, that they would take their ordinary route.

My notes on the behavior of Collectors has shown that sometimes they deviated from their normal patterns in order to catch egg thieves and other imposters).

Merkl 57 Peter took another step toward Marva and the loud crunch of straw beneath his feet caught her attention. Her neck tensed as she stared back up at him, straw tightly held within her bill. Marva pierced him with her gaze.

For a moment—just long enough for a full, deep breath—Marva peered at Peter. She had never looked at him that way before. He had only ever seen her as another animal on the farm, each serving the Quilver family in some way or another. But now her stare hinted at a spark of a more intelligent life, a creature with a will of its own. He felt like she was searching him, testing his motives. (Peter never did tell me what exactly he meant by this.)

She winked. The slow, lazy movement of the eyelid told Peter that she trusted him. He had passed the test. Immediately she went back to work, and Peter began to edge closer to where she fretted and worked so furiously. Marva looked like she was building a nest around something, but with all her frantic movement, Peter couldn’t tell what it was.

Right when he stepped up close enough to grab Marva, she immediately sat down on the nest she’d been building. She gave him another intense stare.

“Marva,” said Peter, “I know that you want to protect your egg, but we must have it before the Collectors arrive. You must understand.”

Peter knew that Marva didn’t understand. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been all this secret nest-making in the loft of the barn. But in some small way, he hoped that she would understand. Their whole family depended on her for their daily existence. King Vortigen often had the reputation of being kind and gentle by relinquishing all of the other taxes, but Peter knew that this tax—this daily struggle against an animal that was nearly family—this tax was cruelty.

Marva continued to stare, though her look was friendly. She wasn’t testing him this time, and she smiled in a way that only a goose could.

Merkl 58 “Marva…,” said Peter.

Marva honked, cutting Peter off. She stood up and quickly flapped her wings, taking a few steps forward. Peter took a step back and readied himself in case Marva tried to rush forward and bite him (as geese are wont to do). But Marva quieted down quickly, taking an extra moment to fold back her wings neatly.

She gave Peter another long gaze and smiled with her eyes. As she stepped to the side, the contents of her nest became clearly visible. Peter’s mouth suddenly felt dry, and his whole body chilled for an instant. He opened his mouth and took a step back from the nest. Marva just smiled all the more.

Merkl 59 Chapter 2: Marva’s Egg At first, Peter didn’t think it was an egg. In the darkness of the barn loft, it looked like Marva might have been sitting on a rock or a small piece of wood. Marva waddled to the side as Peter stepped forward to examine the mysterious object. Its shape was just like that of a goose egg: oblong and much larger than a chicken egg, but the object was neither white nor smooth.

When Peter picked it up, the first thing he noticed was its warmth. Marva must have laid it much earlier than Peter’s discovery of her nest, but it felt like it had been taken from the side of a cooking fire just seconds before. Even as Peter continued to examine it, the egg never cooled. Rubbing his fingers across its surface, the egg felt coarse and uneven, and it was heavier than any other goose egg Peter had held.

Looking both ways, Peter sniffed the egg. The scent of a campfire filled his nose, but as soon as he recognized its scent, the smell changed. He smelled a burning torch, then the hot wax of a melting candle, then a mysterious, rich smoke-like smell, then a campfire again. (This was, of course, rather mysterious, as you would know, because goose eggs of any kind do not smell even an inkling like any of these things.)

He drew his nose back from the egg and gave it a puzzled look, squinting in the dim light to see if he couldn’t discover the reason for the dark complexion of the egg. Marva let out a small honk, and Peter looked over at her, still just as confused. She shifted on her feet and rustled her wings anxiously, not letting her eyes off of the object in Peter’s hand.

Peter didn’t know what to think. It was precisely egg-shaped, and Marva had treated it just like any other egg she had ever tried to hide. But nothing else suggested eggness. It wasn’t white, nor was it smooth, plus it smelled unlike any other egg, and the shell was too dark. Not to mention its continual warmth.

Merkl 60 Peter swallowed. What would the Collectors say? They didn’t show mercy to families that couldn’t pay the egg tax, no matter what the reason. What would happen to his family? To Father and Mother? To Sam? To Marva? (We now know that Peter was thinking a bit too small, considering the circumstances. Not to mention that he didn’t consider himself.)

Peter clenched his empty fist and ran to the edge of the loft. Grabbing a sturdy rope that hung from the ceiling, he leapt and swung down to the floor of the barn, holding on tight to the mysterious egg. Marva honked loudly and fluttered down from the loft after him. As Peter ran to the barn door, Marva waddled quickly behind him. Bursting into the barnyard, Peter ran as fast as he possibly could toward the cottage. The bright sunlight burned at his eyes in contrast to the dark interior of the barn.

All of a sudden, the air was squeezed from Peter’s lungs, and he tasted dirt in his mouth.

His view had suddenly switched from the cottage to a sideways view of the oak tree, and his head hurt terribly. He had fallen or tripped over something.

Scrambling up with scraped hands and arms, Peter quickly discovered the source of his fall. Sam gave Peter a questioning look and panted, wagging his tail. Peter had been so focused on getting back to the cottage that he hadn’t noticed the sheepdog lying in the middle of the barnyard.

Brushing the gravel off of his hands, Peter realized that he had lost the mysterious egg.

He turned frantically, searching the ground for the dark object he had picked up in the barn loft.

As he scanned the mud and grass near his fall, a metallic glint caught his eye. Gold.

It was the egg. Peter knelt down slowly and picked up the golden egg. It glinted in the morning sun as he turned it in his hand. His thoughts suddenly shifted from the trouble that such

Merkl 61 a mysterious egg would bring to how much wealth it would mean for his family. (That is, if his family were able to get away with keeping the egg.)

As Peter pondered over the golden egg, Marva caught up with him, her feathers flustered.

Peter eyed her.

“Did you lay this?” he asked (though he obviously was not expecting a response).

Marva answered him unblinkingly, expressionless. Peter looked back down at the golden egg in his hand. He quickly hid it inside his pocket lest anyone else should see it. Anxiously, he spun around to make sure that no one had.

“Father and Mother will need to see this,” he said and dashed toward the cottage.

When he ripped open the back door, Peter immediately spotted his father at the table. He sat hunched over a bowl of soup with a blanket across his shoulders.

“Ah, good morning, Peter,” said Father. His voice was raspy and hoarse.

“Marva’s egg—” said Peter, out of breath from running across the barnyard.

“Oh, the Collectors shouldn’t be here for a while yet, why don’t you have a seat—” said Father. He suddenly grew quiet when Peter placed the golden egg on the kitchen table.

“Peter,” Father gasped, picking up the egg and examining it. “Where did you get this?”

“It was in one of Marva’s secret nests,” said Peter, trembling just a bit. His father’s reaction confirmed that this event was far out of the ordinary. “There were no other eggs.”

“Gold,” said Father, tapping the egg. “Not solid though. And surprisingly still warm.”

The more Father kept studying the egg, the more nervous Peter grew. Such a fine object was not something they should keep in plain sight nor discuss so openly. Every creak of the wooden floor beneath his feet or the slightest noise in the barnyard had Peter on edge.

Merkl 62 Father continued to admire the egg, gasping and muttering to himself. But Peter was paying more attention to the shuffling behind the door to the hallway. It was just like a dream he had had recently, though not it hadn’t included a golden egg (my notes tell me that Peter had had this dream for over a month before the day he discovered the golden egg).

There was another shuffle behind the hall door. He was sure it must be one of the Collectors behind the door. They must have seen him drop the egg in the barnyard. They knew he had a golden egg. But even more—they could read into his mind: they knew he wouldn’t turn over the golden egg or the goose that laid it. They knew that he would want to keep it for himself and not hand it over. Not because he planned to sell it for money, but because he wanted to discover the mystery behind it. Peter began to tremble as reality and the dream began to mingle.

(Though this, of course, was certainly not a dream.)

Suddenly, the door burst open, rebounding violently off a nearby wall. Peter’s heart skipped a few beats and then began to pound faster than ever, as if it was catching up on the beats that it had missed. Jumping in front of the blur that was leaping out of the hallway, Peter lunged toward the golden egg on the kitchen table, snatching it away and leaping toward the back door, poised to run away from this yet-identified enemy, the voice of Father crying out a distant distortion of sound. As if time had slowed and then suddenly returned to normal, Peter abruptly heard the cry of his unknown assailant.

“Ha!” cried Anna. “Scared you!”

For a second, Peter completely relaxed. She had not been a Collector. The egg was safe.

His family was safe. But just as quickly, Peter tensed up again.

Merkl 63 “I knew she was a goblin!” said Peter, stomping over toward his sister and setting the golden egg back down on the table. “Jumping out at people all the time! Scaring them threequarters to death! She is a goblin!”

“Am not!” cried Anna.

“Am too!” shouted Peter. “Why can’t you ever learn to be serious?”

Anna whimpered then began to cry. “Mama! Papa!”

“It’s all right, Anna, come here,” said Father, extending an arm to Anna. She shuffled over to Father and let herself be wrapped up in a strong hug.

“Peter,” said Father, “she didn’t do anything wrong. She just scared us, that’s all.”

“What’s going on?” asked Mother, entering the kitchen. Her eyes caught the glint of the golden egg on the table, and she gasped. “Peter, where did you find this?”

“Marva laid it this morning,” said Peter quietly. “She hid it in a nest in the barn loft.

There were no other eggs.”

Anna gasped.

“What will we give the Collectors?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” said Father, hugging her tight again. “But we’ll be okay.”

“It’s made of gold,” said Mother, a strange smile growing across her face. “We can bribe the Collectors. Maybe they’ll split the profits with us.”

Anna gasped again.

“We can’t do that,” said Father. “They would take the egg without question. There is no chance they would let us keep even the gold dust on the kitchen table.”

Father let out a long sigh and wrapped the blanket tighter over his shoulders. Peter could tell that he was thinking about what they would do next when Mother interrupted.

Merkl 64 “If Marva can lay one golden egg, maybe she can lay another,” said Mother, the strange look still upon her face. “Maybe magic runs in her blood.” Mother had put a sickly emphasis on the word magic when she whispered it. “Perhaps if we killed her we could get more than one golden egg.” (Clearly, Mother was not acting like her normal self here, though I am ignorant as to the cause. Perhaps a malicious spell was being cast upon her from afar.) “We would be rich!

We would have more than enough food to last through the winter! Perhaps we could even hire a maid to do the chores….”

“We can’t—” started Father.

“Vortigen wants the golden egg,” interrupted Peter before he even fully understood what he had just said. However, once he had started, the ideas all fell into place. “That’s why he collects goose eggs in the first place. There must be something especially powerful or mysterious about a golden egg.”

“You mean like something magical?” asked Anna, her eyes widening as she stared at the egg on the table.

“Yes,” said Peter. “Probably something magical.”

King Vortigen had outlawed magic in Hartweg when he had first become king, and the law had been in place for so many years that many citizens had simply forgotten that magic existed in the first place (if it hadn’t been for the fairy that visits me now and then, I myself might have forgotten). Peter himself had never seen anything magical, but Father had always told them stories of sorcerers and goblins that had happened long ago (these had been mostly true, though I cannot say for sure, having not been there myself).

“Peter is right,” said Father. “Vortigen wants this egg more than anything else.”

Merkl 65 “Then let him have it!” said Mother. “It seems to have caused enough trouble in our family already.”

“No,” said Father. “Vortigen will want Marva as well—” “Not Marva!” shouted Anna.

“—but he will not stop there,” said Father. “He will want to know that the people that discovered this golden egg are thrown into the dungeons—or worse.”

Peter could feel the threat of Vortigen’s anger over the egg. He had heard many stories about the king’s temper, and none of them had been good (and all of them had been true). Peter’s family now stood in direct danger from the king as soon as the Collectors arrived. He couldn’t stand the thought of them taking his family away, including Marva. He had to do something to stop the Collectors, and ultimately Vortigen, from hurting his family.

“Then what should we do?” he asked.

“Many things,” said Father, standing up and letting the blanket fall off of his broad shoulders. “Anna, I need you to find Marva and make sure she stays inside the house. We don’t want to be losing track of her. Your mother and I will be packing up everything we might need in order to flee the village, in case the worst should happen.”

“What about me?” asked Peter.

“Peter,” said Father, “you have the most difficult task of all: I need you to find an egg thief.”

Merkl 66 Peter Quilver and the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs General Outline:

Chapter 3: Tyber Skud, Egg Thief Extraordinaire Peter rushes to the marketplace of the village of Burton and finds Tyber Skud, an egg thief that sells contraband goose eggs. Peter tries to purchase an unmarked egg, but instead has to buy one that has been covered over with chalk. Rushing back to his house, Peter runs into the Collectors and barely makes it home before they knock on the Quilver’s front door.

Chapter 4: Marva’s Flight The Collectors accept the chalked egg that Peter bought from the egg thief without any apparent consequences, but that night, the Quilvers are woken up to the king’s soldiers surrounding their house. Peter’s father tells him to flee with Marva and the egg to his godfather Scribulous’s house in Gerth while the rest of the Quilver family flees down the river, expecting to eventually meet up with him.

Another Note from the Narrator [Note: This is a full excerpt] Well hello there, reader. I hope that you have been enjoying reading about Peter. It has been a pleasure of mine to write down his story (though not always a pleasure to read my own notes). But enough of that, writing is terribly boring business, after all.

I’m going to share a little secret with you.

We’ve all heard of the world of fairies (and even Peter Quilver will too, soon enough), but not all of us know much about it. I myself am woefully ignorant.

Merkl 67 There is, however, a special visitor that meets me at my fireside now and then when I am writing this narrative for you. Her name is Nycteris, and she is a shadow fairy.

You know those times when you are talking with a friend or reading a book, and a little shadow catches your eye? You look but never see anything substantial enough to look twice.

During instances like these, you might have actually just seen a shadow fairy. Among fairies, shadow fairies are rare but extremely helpful for finding things out. That is, if they’re willing.

When Nycteris found out that I was writing down Peter’s story (for she had even spied on him for a while in league with the Fairy Queen), she appeared just on the edge of the hearth of my fireplace and announced herself. Just like you would have, I blinked and made sure she was real. She was, in fact, and she wanted to help me.

Ever since then, she has helped me record various conversations that have happened all throughout the Three Kingdoms during this whole story surrounding Peter Quilver. Whenever she found important people talking with one another, she made herself almost scarce and listened in. Then, as quick as a hawk, she’d come back to me and tell me everything while I frantically took notes. On the next page, you’ll find the first of these conversations. I hope that you find them particularly enlightening.

—S. S.

Merkl 68 Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows [Note: These dialogues will always imply (but not identify the speakers. For the purposes of the outline, I have identified them.]

Mr. and Mrs. Quilver discuss how Peter will have to make it on his own because they are unable to move forward on their journey due to Anna getting deathly ill because of they had been travelling at night in the rain.

Chapter 5: Farewell to Fenfordshire Peter and Marva weave through the swamps of Fenfordshire, surviving on what food they can find on local farms. Soldiers patrol all the roads, and Peter has several close calls of being captured. One night while traveling, Peter is chased by mysterious pursuers very closely for some time, and eventually faints just as he arrives in another village.

Chapter 6: Buttonsworth Inn Peter wakes up to find himself in the Buttonsworth Inn. The hostess, Mrs. Buttonsworth, had scared off Peter’s pursuers (street bandits) the night before. Mr. and Mrs. Buttonsworth explain many of the politics of the wider kingdom of Hartweg to Peter as well as the other kingdoms that occupy the continent. They help Peter in arranging travel to Gerth, where they suggest he flee the country.

Chapter 7: From Port-side to Portside After arriving in Gerth in a hay cart, Peter and Marva sleep in an alley outside Scribulous’s merchant firm near the city docks. However, as they are sleeping, Peter and Marva are kidnapped by pirates headed to the sultanship of Pahali. The pirate captain is impressed with

Merkl 69 Peter’s daring (along with the magic of the golden egg) and decides to help him instead of sell him as a slave.

Chapter 8: Captain Morgan Jacques LeBray Captain LeBray discusses with Peter the nature of the golden egg and where he can go to find answers about it. LeBray also gives Peter a sword and teaches him how to fight. When the ship arrives in Pahali, LeBray warns Peter that the sultan also desires the golden egg and that Peter should keep both the golden egg and Marva a secret.

Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows Mr. and Mrs. Quilver arrive at the Buttonsworth Inn and discover Peter’s destination after talking with Mr. and Mrs. Buttonsworth.

Chapter 9: Sarai When traveling through the city of Padisah, Peter runs into the young daughter of the Sultan, Princess Sarai. After getting to know each other, Peter and Sarai agree to find out more information about the golden egg. Sarai helps Peter sneak into the palace and together they find the sultan’s court.

Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows Two Thersian warriors (detailed in chapter 11) discuss the special nature of Peter and Sarai as fairy changelings and the importance of Marva and the golden egg.

Merkl 70 Chapter 10: The Court of the Sultan Peter and Sarai listen in on the proceedings of the court, including the presentation of two men from the Far East with mysterious magical powers. The two children sneak into the sultan’s library, but they don’t even begin to find the right information among the thick, dusty tomes before Gilden, a counselor of King Vortigen from Hartweg, enters the library. As the two children seek to escape detection from palace guards, the counselor sees Peter with Marva and the golden egg.

Chapter 11: Jinn Just as they find themselves cornered by palace guards, Peter and Sarai are rescued by secretive women warriors known as Thersians. The Thersians are half-jinn and speak a magical prophecy over both children. Peter and Sarai learn that the golden egg will eventually hatch to reveal an aëranth—an ancient magical creature of unspeakable power. The aëranth is what King Vortigen and the Sultan are most after (not the golden egg itself), because when the golden egg hatches, the aëranth will form a loyal bond with the first person that it sees. The Thersians give the children a small stretch of a magical golden rope, stating that the weaver of the rope will know more about the golden egg.

Chapter 12: Hartweg Again When leaving the palace, Gilden and his soldiers capture Peter and drug him while they travel back to Hartweg. Sarai and Marva follow behind the delegation from a distance all the way to Goskirk (the capital of Hartweg). Gilden, meanwhile, begins to earn Peter’s trust by educating him on secrets of magic and by revealing his intentions.

Merkl 71

Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows The two men from the Far East discuss their plans for capturing Peter, Sarai, and the golden egg, while also revealing more about the nature of the aëranth.

Chapter 13: Goskirk Arriving in Goskirk, Peter is trained in courtly life and etiquette as an esteemed squire, along with battle training. During this time, he meets another child squire named Roland and Professor Nathan Summerly, both of whom become fast friends with Peter. Peter is also introduced to King Vortigen, though only briefly. After an altercation with magical bed bugs that reveal Gilden’s motives as malign, Peter reunites with Sarai, who says she has pressing news.

Together the children try to escape Goskirk, but at the last minute, Peter is caught by Gilden.

Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows Professor Summerly and Sarai meet for the first time in a corner of the castle and combine their information and skills in order to help rescue Peter.

Chapter 14: The Aëranth Peter escapes the dungeons with the help of Professor Summerly, Sarai, and the newly hatched aëranth that is now loyal to Sarai. The professor gives the children information about where to find the weaver of the golden rope and sends them on their way, promising them that he’ll come as soon as he can.

Merkl 72 Chapter 15: The Journey West Peter and Sarai travel west toward the Empire of Stolum. Many times on the journey, Peter wakes up and sees Sarai talking with her aëranth while they believe him to be sleeping, but when he wakes up, they grow quiet. Peter’s jealousy over the aëranth grows until finally he must confront Sarai and, more importantly, his own resentment.

Interlude: Whispers Among the Shadows [Note: This interlude is excerpted below]

“I’m very interested in your research, professor.”

“Ah, yes, your Excellency. So are many others.”

“Would it be possible for me to see some of it? I am quite curious.”

“Oh, why thank you, but it is completely confidential. I’ll be sure to let you know when it is finished.”

“Professor.”

“Yes, your Excellency?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on you lately.”

“Is there a reason for concern?”

“No. No, not yet. Professor, I was wondering if I could ask you a question. Have you ever heard of the dragon sorcerers from the East?”

“I’m afraid I have not, your Excellency.”

“I would think with all your research you would have most certainly looked into them.

They train high in the mountains. For years, they discipline their bodies for complete submission to their Emperor—absolutely loyal servants, they are. Even for a stray thought against their lord,

Merkl 73 they will endure the severity of a blizzard while wearing the barest clothing, not moving a muscle until their entire being is brought under control. Savage, really, but rather stunning. At the end of their training, I’ve heard, they are able to channel the deepest magic—whispers of dragons even, though I’m sure they aren’t true.”

“And for what lofty reason may I thank you for the lesson in scholarly gossip?”

“Loyalty to one’s kingdom can go a long ways, professor. If your kingdom—our kingdom—is ever going to get anywhere, obedience will be essential.”

“And when blind obedience is not yielded?”

“It will be taken by force.”

Merkl 74 Chapter 16: The Lanista on Trial Arriving in the capital city of Stolum, Peter and Sarai run into a child warrior named Kyron as he trains with a school of gladiators. The two children make a deal with Kyron that if he will show them to the weaver of the golden rope, then they’ll help him get into the Imperial Senate chambers where his lanista (gladiator boss) is on trial. With the help of the golden rope, the three children sneak into the chambers and overhear the emperor and senators charge Kyron’s lanista with withholding information concerning the “children of prophecy.” While the trial is still in progress, the three children all agree to go and find the information that Kyron knows is stored at the gladiator school, and they sneak back out of the Senate chambers.

Chapter 17: The Sealed Papyrus Kyron, Peter, and Sarai break into the office of the lanista at the gladiator school and find the sealed papyrus that was mentioned at the trial. The papyrus tells them where the weaver can be found: in the southeast corner of the empire. On their way out of the school, they are stopped by some of the gladiators and then by the sergeant-at-arms of the Imperial Senate that has come to collect the papyrus. The children narrowly escape into the city’s catacombs.

Chapter 18: Tea in the Catacombs In the catacombs, the children run into Professor Summerly. He had spotted them at the Senate chambers but hadn’t been able to get their attention until he saw them enter the catacombs. Over tea, Summerly tells the children what he has found out in his research: they are fairy changelings (switched out with real babies near birth) and the fulfillment of prophecy. The

Merkl 75 appearance of aëranths and the changelings always corresponds, though Summerly still concludes that the weaver of the golden rope will know their precise destiny.

Chapter 19: The Trap After traveling quickly to the southeastern corner of the Empire via wagon, the children stop at an inn near their destination. Sarai steps out for a moment, and Kyron and Peter get into a fight, not noticing that Sarai has been gone for far too long. Leaving Marva in the room, the boys slip out into the night and search for her, but when they are in an alley, Counselor Gilden arrives with troops and captures them both.

A Concluding Note [written like the other “Notes from the Narrator” above] The next morning, the innkeeper’s daughter enters the room where the three children had been staying and finds Marva building a nest in the room. After shooing Marva into the pen with the other geese, the girl finds something in the nest: a golden egg.

Merkl 76 Two other planned books in the Peter Quilver Trilogy:

Peter Quilver and the Fairy Queen After escaping Gilden, the three children meet a new companion: Linus, an escaped adult slave that promises to protect them with his life. They then all meet the weaver of the golden rope: Rumplestiltskin. Rumplestiltskin reveals to the children their destinies as changelings and gives them news that the Fairy Queen has summoned them to her court in Lindenwood. After a quick stopover on the island of the changelings and the hatching of the second aëranth egg, the children meet the Fairy Queen and agree to meet her demands in exchange for her help. While seeking the Ice Chrysanthemum from Father Christmas’s garden, the children meet the Wise Woman and the location of the original babies that had been switched out for the changelings.

When Peter acts rashly at the court of the Fairy Queen, she demands a new item: Pandora’s Box.

Peter Quilver and Pandora’s Box The news about Pandora’s Box, the Changelings, and the aëranths has found its way to the ears of the leaders of the three kingdoms of the continent. Peter, Kyron, and Sarai travel toward the mountain of the Norns in the north to find the location of Pandora’s Box while also searching for a way to free the non-changeling babies caught in the timeless shack. As the armies of the three kingdoms gather in an attempt to wrest the power of the aëranths for themselves, Peter and the children must assemble their own army in order to complete their quest up the mountain. With the hatching of the third aëranth, the balance of power during the Battle of Easter Day—and ultimately Peter’s world—becomes even more delicate.

Merkl 77

Lucky Prime V

Merkl 78 Chapter 1.0 Torben’s meditation was broken again. He opened his eyes, taking in a deep breath of the thin Himalayan air. Without moving his body from a perfect lotus position, his eyes and ears probed the mountainous panorama before him, searching for a possible disturbance but finding none. A long breath left his nostrils.

He had been trying to meditate for hours. None of his bodily functions required any attention, and the surrounding stretch of the Nepalese landscape was perfectly still. He emptied his mind and focused his pre-conscious thought, slipping into a familiar state of holistic relaxation, contemplation.

When he was younger, he could meditate for hours on end without interruption. Before every race—even exhibition matches—he would take a moment to be still and contemplate. But now, some unseen force was plaguing his thoughts, breaking his reflective state with sinister inner distractions. Racing captains would call it burn-out. Psychologists would call it depression.

Preachers would call it guilt. But Torben knew it was even deeper than the feelings of his heart or mind.

Ever since the crash on the Circus Maximus—so many years and light-years from his present state—the unformed thought, the unspoken yearning, the heartfelt dread, or whatever it was had plagued his being, seeping into his spirit, his mind, and his body.

And now he couldn’t meditate.

His eyes wandered to the object before him on the mat. It was a perfect rhododendron blossom he had picked earlier in the climb. Its violet and burgundy petals each rested perfectly in place, but the simple beauty of the flower was deceptive. Having already been plucked, the

Merkl 79 rhododendron was dead. Its beautiful petals were already invisibly breaking down, decaying, turning to dust. Its beauty was only a façade.

There it was again. This time it was sadness, loss, guilt, depression, suicide, homicide, anger, bloodlust, revenge.

Torben let the pent-up breath out of his lungs. His heart pounded in his ears, pumping against his ribs, even though he hadn’t moved a muscle. The cold air burned icily as it crept back in through his open mouth. His lungs burned with a new hate.

She had been the only woman who had captured his attention—at least permanently. An olive face framed by hair as dark as the outer reaches of space but illuminated with coffee brown eyes that were lit by the brightest stars. A Terran, a simple woman—no connections to the politics of the races that had defined his shining career. Her luster had been more genuine than any of the flashy holo ads he had ever been in. She had outshined his brightest trophy simply by being herself.

Lajjita.

The Sherpa woman had only been visiting Olympus, wanting to see the bright worlds outside her home planet. Her dress had reminded Torben of women he had seen during his childhood. Her innocent gaze allured him, tempted him—but not like other women he had known. Her composure was elegant through simplicity, her beauty radiant through modesty, her attractiveness enticing through mystery.

It had only been a passing moment in an atrium. The flash of holo-cams and the buzz of media personnel surrounded him, blinded him. His race manager and security guards frantically kept the mix of fans, rivals, and advertising brokers at bay while he casually walked toward his waiting shuttle, racing helmet tucked under his lazy left arm.

Merkl 80 That was the moment she caught his eye. She hadn’t been there for the race. She didn’t know who he was or even that he had just won—stunningly too. The friend that she had come to meet was late, held up in traffic around the colosseum. He stopped in his tracks and stared into her smiling eyes.

Somewhere to his right, his race manager was shouting at the restless crowd. Holo-cams and microphones were jammed in his direction, and as he began to spout empty analysis about Torben’s recent victory, the swarm of people forgot the racing captain himself. Torben squared his shoulders and walked directly up to her.

Her smile wiped away all of his usual suave, and he stared, speechless.

“Namaste,” she said, white teeth glittering between her small lips. Greetings. Your spirit and my spirit are one. That which is of God in me greets that which is of God in you. The Divinity within me perceives and adores the Divinity within you.

The word bore all of those meanings. Torben was likely the only person in the room that would have understood the Nepalese salutation.

“Namaste,” he replied, staring again into her eyes.

A moment later, he was again surrounded by the holo-cams and was swept away toward his waiting shuttle. Fortunate for them both, the media had failed to notice the couple exchanging looks and greetings.

Back at his apartment, Torben employed all the search resources his money could buy to find out the woman’s name and whereabouts. A small bribe of a public camera operator and an illegal search through the interstellar travel records quickly gave Torben all the information he needed to track her down.

Merkl 81 When he showed up a week later at the apartment where she was staying with friends, she recognized him, but not as the famous racing captain, just him. Just Torben. Her eyes lit up when he bowed slightly, upright hands pressed together, and greeted her in Nepalese.

“Namaste.”

For weeks during their secret meetings, Torben never told her who he really was. When he had finally revealed his identity as the premier MG racing captain in the InterPlanetary Commonwealth, she only laughed and asked what the MG races were. When he pointed out the holo ads where he stood in front of his ship, The Checkmate, she said that he wasn’t the same man, that she couldn’t recognize any of the true Torben in the flashy display.

Even now, in the Himalayas, Torben couldn’t recognize himself either.

Torben’s meditation broke again as self-doubt seeped back into his mind. He let out another long breath and closed his eyes, wrapping his thoughts around memories of Lajjita.

They had always met in secret. The last thing he wanted was media attention, particularly with her. Definitely not with her.

He didn’t ultimately mind when the tabloids used to snap holos when one of his latest one-night stands was caught leaving his apartment. The scandals always generated positive media buzz about his next race anyways. The latest celeb gossip anchors would debate about whether his most recent amour would distract his thoughts during the race, but they were always wrong. Nothing ever broke his focus.

But with her, he didn’t want anybody to know. After her friends began to get suspicious, he got her an apartment of her own. Too many cameras were permanently fixed on his apartment that they couldn’t have avoided detection for long if they had met there, not in the planet’s most populous—and most monitored—city. Aeon was the worst place in the IPC for an affair.

Merkl 82 He should have moved their relationship off-planet. He should have been more careful.

He shouldn’t have even given the slightest hint to the media. But she had meant too much to him, and he had been a fool.

Once they were sure no eyes were watching, they wouldn’t hold back with one another.

Their long sessions of passion were matched equally with time just spent talking about the most trivial topics or in mutual meditation. Lajjita was not like other women Torben had known. After a month, Torben knew that he was in love.

That was when it began to happen. He was off-planet, on Low Voren, during a race when he thought of her. The track required a full ninety-degree turn and had an MG-inhibitor trap right on the corner. He knew all of that beforehand. He’d completed the turn so many times that he didn’t even have to consciously think of what to do, his body simply engaged in the correct motions to steer the ship. Except for that time.

Her bright eyes shone through to his deepest thought, and his mind wandered, missing her soft touch, her gentle kiss.

The meters on the control board blared, and his race manager’s voice shouted inside his helmet during the two seconds that the ship lost speed and drifted toward the electrified track edge. Instantly, Torben was back in the cabin of the ship, his body twitching into action, directing the ship back on course. He navigated around the trap and went on to win the race.

He had always won, but it had been the first time he had experienced a dangerously close call.

It happened again on Oceanus, and his race manager, Drizer, had taken him aside.

“What the hell’s up, Torben?” he asked in his smacky voice that sounded like he was always violently chewing a piece of gum.

Merkl 83 Torben didn’t answer.

“Don’t let it happen again,” said Drizer. “Take some drugs or somethin’. Go out with some ladies. Have a good time. Drink up, shoot up, hook up, whatever you need to. Just relax.

New policy: ease up on that brooding meditative stuff. I want you focused for our next race.”

The advice didn’t work. After having done all those activities—and a bit more—Torben had still missed Lajjita. That was the first time he finished a race in second place.

The holo-cams and microphones had never bothered Torben much in the past. In his mind, the equipment had represented his multitude of worshippers, and he, their god. They had reveled in his presence, wishing only for a moment of his attention or blessing.

But after his first career loss, they were no longer adorers, but an army of bizarre predatory eyes, watching for the slightest move of a muscle in his face that would betray the emotion of his defeat. Hungry, they watched as he shuffled toward the shuttle, one hand on his forehead covering his face. But the cams were all-seeing, and as he turned to look out from the air shuttle before the door sealed shut, not a single being across the thirteen inhabited planets of the IPC watching on their holo displays couldn’t see the glistening tear that fell to the cold steel deck of the shuttle platform.

Back on Olympus, Torben grew impatient at the public transport vehicle that ferried him through the capital of Aeon toward Lajjita’s apartment. If he had ever needed to see her, now was the time.

But she didn’t answer the door.

He got out his key card and swiped it. Entering, he could smell disease. Stuffy air, putrid vomit, even blood.

Merkl 84 She lay in the bed, wrapped in layers of blankets, only her face peeping out from between the Sherpa furs and quilts. Her emaciated, shivering mass barely resembled the Lajjita he had left behind weeks beforehand.

She could hardly speak, but in order to protect her identity—and more importantly, Torben’s—she had only called a friend when she had begun to feel sick. After many attempts to get her to a doctor, the friend had finally given up, stopping by only to deliver food.

His first thought was the depth of her sacrifice for him. She didn’t want any snoopy reporters to find out about them. She was determined that their relationship—that he—was more important than her own sickness. Never before had he felt so loved.

Torben opened his eyes and scanned the Himalayan landscape again. Every rapid breath of the thin air burned in his lungs. He had acclimated to the elevation, but the self-loathing anger pulsing through his veins was affecting every part of his body. Cold sweat formed all over his skin, and his muscles began to twitch, tense, and then relax randomly. In his meditative state, the thoughts of the mind and emotions of the heart could more easily express themselves in the actions of the body.

She had been dying. And all he could think of was himself. If only he could have thought more about her, about getting her medical attention, or about how much pain she was in. But, no.

He had been as selfish as a god. He had not treated her as an equal, but as a devout follower.

After the loss on Oceanus, he had been tracked even closer than before, and the usual cluster of reporters and holo cams were there to greet him as he entered the hospital with Lajjita in his arms. As the doctors examined her, Torben was faced to wait outside with the host of media personnel.

Minutes later, Torben’s PR manager, Norskin Bollin arrived.

Merkl 85 “Maneeshmah man, your vid’s are flashin’ all over the MetaNet,” Norskin whispered to Torben in the street dialect of Aeon. He took a quick drag of his cigarette and then threw it to the ground. “What’s the situation?”

“Gakkatu,” said Torben, waving him off. Don’t go there. “I love her, that’s all.”

“Aight, aight,” said Norskin, nodding. “I’ll see what I can do. Work some PR magic, tricks ’em. Damn reporters.”

Norskin thought for a moment and then turned to the waiting crowd and spoke in perfect Esperanto.

“Speaking on behalf of United Racing Systems and for URS captain Torben Sarel, we are disconsolate to announce that Torben’s sister, Ashwa Sarel, has been hospitalized for unknown complications that are currently being examined by medical professionals. Ashwa had been visiting Torben on Olympus upon his return from Oceanus earlier today when Mr. Sarel had to rush her to the hospital this evening. The URS does not predict that this will affect Mr. Sarel’s performance during the rest of the racing season, as Ms. Sarel is receiving the utmost care at St. John Paul II Medical Center….”

Torben chuckled inside. There was simply nothing Norskin couldn’t spin. And there was simply nothing the URS would not do to make sure his report would become plausible. Even as Norskin spoke, a URS representative light-years away was likely contacting Ashwa and moving her into temporary hiding, and another representative was probably hacking the hospital records to change Lajjita’s name at check-in.

As the seconds ticked by over the next hour, Torben could not sit still in the waiting room. Everything looked dullish grey, and sounds were muffled and mixed together. He hid his

Merkl 86 face in his hands and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He could hear two people approaching.

“Torben,” said Norskin, putting a hand on his shoulder. “This is Lars Burkett from the Net News Network. We have a contractual agreement with NNN. He’s got two minutes with you.”

Torben looked up as the reporter set up his holo-cam, and Norskin left to deal with the other reporters.

Lars tapped his stylus to the touchpad and began to scribble down notes.

“Mr. Sarel, if you don’t mind, I’m going to get straight down to business: who’s in that examination room?”

Torben didn’t answer.

“Ashwa was last seen on Valhalla four hours ago; she couldn’t possibly be here on Olympus right now. You have no surviving parents, aunts, or grandmothers. Who is she?”

Torben silently stared at the blank wall ahead of him. His mind began to empty, and he slipped into a meditative state.

“Mr. Sarel, are you going to answer my question….”

Opening his eyes, Torben breathed out more Himalayan air, holding the memory of the interview in his mind. The sting of every question. The steady, unblinking eye of the holo-cam gazing at its prey, devouring his slightest movement. Lars Burkett’s violently quick notes.

His mind had been in such confusion during that interview. His heart beat strong and fierce when he thought of Lars and whatever underhanded deal URS had crafted with the NNN, but whenever he thought of Lajjita, somewhere within the white walls of the hospital being inspected by a team of doctors and droids, his heart almost stopped with fear. He couldn’t lose

Merkl 87 her. He wouldn’t lose her. He simply would not allow it to happen. Again, his heart beat fierce, and his breathing quickened.

Lars waved his hand in front of Torben’s blank stare.

“Mr. Sarel, can you hear me? We’ve still got sixty seconds.”

Torben blinked but did not answer.

“Mr. Sarel, who is the young woman you brought to the hospital today?”

“I love her,” Torben said, still staring blankly at the wall.

Lars immediately began to take even faster notes.

Somewhere to Torben’s left, a door burst open, and he could hear the roar from the crowd of reporters and fans that had gathered outside. The door slammed shut, and Torben heard someone making his way quickly toward them.

“Mr. Sarel, how do you perceive this loss will affect your next race at the Circus Maximus?”

“Mr. Burkett, your interview is over.” It was Drizer, his manager.

“I’ve still got thirty-three seconds—” “Mr. Bollin will reschedule the remainder of your time with Torben at a later date. Leave.

Now.” “You’re impinging on the contract—” “Fuck the contract! Get out of this waiting room or I will call URS security.”

Lars snatched up his holo-cam, jammed his touchpad under his arm, and stormed off.

Drizer pulled up a chair and sat facing Torben.

“Explain the woman.”

Torben stared over Drizer’s left shoulder.

Merkl 88 “Bollin told me you might care about this one a bit more. This isn’t another Esmeralda, is it? You seemed to like her for more than two weeks. You had me concerned back then.”

Silence.

“You need to get rid of her. You can still be a hero: pay her hospital bill, send her flowers, but then send her on an off-planet vacation and forget about her. She might seem great now, but she’ll ruin you. Women always ruin racers. Hell, if I could find a way to separate the act of coitus from the woman, I’d make sure it was enforced for all my racing captains, particularly you.”

“I think you might have found it already. That’s why you whack off every night.”

“Damn, Torben, are you even listening to me? Are you even listening to me?”

Torben began to clear his mind and meditate again.

“I’m your race manager, Torben. I’m your boss. You need to listen to me. Drop the woman. New policy: don’t hold onto any one woman for more than a week. Got that? Now, Bollin worked some pretty good spin this evening, particularly for the pinch you’ve put us in, but the media won’t buy it for long. They know Ashwa is off-planet. We need to make a new sister for you. URS personnel are already screening potential actresses, somebody that looks like this latest fling of yours—” “I love her,” Torben said.

“Love her?” asked Drizer, eyebrows jumping. “Love her? Love? New policy: You cannot love anybody. Like, maybe. Make love, sure. But no more loving. Love makes people do dangerous things. You do things that are dangerous enough. I don’t want you doing anything unnecessarily risky, especially for love. Love is dangerous.”

Torben stared ahead.

Merkl 89 “Drop her, Torben. That’s the final word. I don’t think the Terran Sherpa type fit you anyway. You’re more of a blond-hair, blue-eyed kind; compliments your dark looks. Come on, get up. We need to go. If you stay at this hospital any longer, the crowd will start to think you love her too.”

Two days later, the doctors still hadn’t known the cause of Lajjita’s sickness, and she was growing worse each day. The disease ate away at her central organs—liver, kidneys, pancreas, and lungs—tearing them apart faster than her body could repair itself.

At first, Drizer wouldn’t let Torben visit her, but once Torben pointed out that Bollin’s story wouldn’t be believable unless Torben visited his “sister” frequently, Drizer relented.

So many tubes and wires monitored or maintained Lajjita’s health that Torben didn’t recognize her at first. As he approached her bed, her body quivered and her eyes shook in their retracting sockets.

“Torben,” she said in Sherpa. “Sem dukpa langginok.” I am worried.

Torben said nothing, but grabbed her hand and squeezed it. After looking into her eyes, he broke down and cried, kneeling at her bedside. For hours, he didn’t have the strength to do anything else but hold her shivering hand and weep.

The next morning, Torben’s phone bleeped with a message from the hospital. Every long minute during the voyage tempted Torben to commandeer the car from his chauffer and drive it like an MG ship. But regular cars didn’t operate like a racing ship, and Torben knew that he couldn’t drive in his current condition—not with Lajjita taking her last breaths.

When Torben had arrived in the hospital room, a crowd of doctors and medical droids surrounded the bed like a cluster of mad scientists carrying out some sick experiment. Anger burned in his lungs that it was Lajjita they were hovering over so carelessly.

Merkl 90 In the corner, the hospital parish priest was silently praying, and Torben’s heart began to pound harder. Religious men were weak and didn’t belong here, didn’t belong anywhere. Not during his moment of misery. Not when his world was falling apart.

Adrenaline began to pump through Torben’s system, and he fought the urge to force everyone out of the room. He strode up to the table and pushed a nurse out of the way, and when a service droid moved toward him, he grabbed its steel neck and threw it against the closest wall.

“Please, she’s not in a condition—” said a doctor, extending a hand toward Torben’s shoulder.

“Get out,” said Torben quietly. His body stood flexed and tensed, ready to repeat the treatment of the droid on anyone that dared to test him.

The other medical personnel all grew silent and slowly exited the room.

Lajjita looked worse than ever, bones visible through her sickly green-tinted skin. She coughed violently, spitting out blood onto the light blue hospital blanket. Her body shivered constantly, and Torben could see her muscles tense when she saw him.

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. Torben knew she didn’t have the strength to speak, so they spoke with their eyes. He caressed her hands, her arms, her face.

“I love you,” he said aloud in Sherpa. “I will always love you.”

Lajjita sat up suddenly and coughed up more blood. The coughing continued for a few minutes before it relented, and she fell back in the bed.

“I…” she whispered.

Torben leaned over and hugged her, and she began to cough again, but this time more violently. Blood mixed with mucus on Torben’s shirt as she coughed over his shoulder.

Merkl 91 “I…” she whispered again between coughs. But the effort cost her too much, and she sat up and vomited all over herself and Torben.

He made no move to clean himself off. He could smell it in the mix of blood and stomach juices: the hollow scent of death.

He couldn’t let her die. He wouldn’t let her die. It was impossible.

But somewhere deep within, he knew it was an impossibility that was about to happen, and he shivered. The sickening dread of death had seemed almost worse than seeing her suffer.

Her pain seemed like nothing compared to his fear.

Torben coughed in the cool mountain air. Again, his memories only showed how much he had only thought of himself, even in Lajjita’s darkest moments. He was sick of himself, and his stomach twisted into an angry knot. He coughed for another minute, remembering how Lajjita’s final coughs were so many times worse than this dry-mouth tickle.

Angry and afraid, Torben could feel himself lose control of his own body as he picked Lajjita up off the hospital bed, plucking out every tube, wire, and instrument that had been artificially attached to her body. She was so light—almost a third of the weight she had been before.

Tears flowed down both of their faces as he carried her in both of his arms, covered in blood, mucus, and vomit. He barely made it halfway to the door when he fell to his knees.

There, kneeling on floor with her wrapped in his arms, they both wept. Lajjita coughed again, adding another spattering of blood and mucus to Torben’s shirt, but this time, she didn’t stop. She had trouble breathing between each cough, and she put a hand to her side, massaging her sore ribs as best she could.

Merkl 92 Torben felt helpless, nauseous. He was unable to help her, unable to save her, unable to stop her from experiencing the pain. Tears continued to flow down his cheeks as he sobbed, tucking his head closer to hers and holding her even tighter in his arms.

“Lajjita…” he whispered.

She only continued to cough. Louder, longer, bloodier.

Finally, the coughing stopped, and Torben pushed the hair away from Lajjita’s eyes.

They had lost all their luster. Once they had been bright with life and energy, but now they were dull and sick. Their eyes wandered over each other’s face, and Torben had known the time had come.

“Nam…” she exhaled. “Namast…”

Torben’s heart beat faster even as he could feel hers slowing down.

“Nama—” “—ste” said Torben aloud to the Himalayan landscape before him. “Namaste.”

Merkl 93 Lucky Prime V General Outline: Chapter 2.0 Interrupting his meditation, Torben receives an emergency phone call at his location high in the Nepalese Himalayas. The call is from Drizer, who is visiting Terra [Earth] and is in Kathmandu.

Torben meets him at a bar in Kathmandu, and Drizer tries to convince Torben to return as a racing strategist for United Racing Systems (URS). Torben has a flashback of his career-ending crash on the Circus Maximus MG racetrack. Drizer can’t convince Torben to return from his self-imposed exile on Terra until he mentions that new evidence surrounding Lajjita’s death has surfaced—that she might have been murdered and that her disease had been a cover. Angry at this revelation, Torben agrees to return as a URS strategist on the condition that he can further investigate Lajjita’s murder.

3.0 Torben and Drizer travel to Torben’s apartment and pick up a few essential items for the space trip to Olympus. Drizer has already arranged for moving droids to take the rest of Torben’s things on a separate trip. The two men launch into space via the Kathmandu spaceport, and in a null-gravity pod of the interstellar ship, Torben begins to strategize for future URS racing teams and how he will begin tracking down Lajjita’s murderer.

3.7

Merkl 94 The moving droids come to Torben’s apartment, and as they are packing up Torben’s things and categorizing them, one droid comes across a family portrait that reveals Torben was actually born on Terra (instead of Valhalla, where he has publicly stated that he is from).

4.0 After arriving in Aeon, the capital city of Olympus, Torben meets his friend Draco Varga, a high official in the InterPlanetary Commonwealth parliamentary government. While walking in the centre court of the government buildings, Draco reveals the current political situation. Draco states that a new scientific discovery that he cannot divulge is stirring up trouble among the various parties and factions of the IPC. In exchange, Torben reveals to Draco several of the political moves that many racing executives are planning to make in order to gain an edge on their competition. Torben also asks Draco if he knows anything about Lajjita’s murder. Draco does not know but promises that he will inquire.

4.5 In the Aristocratic Palace [a branch of the IPC government], several geniuses of different alien species debate the ethics of taking over a new planet and how resources should be divided between existing planet dwellers and new colonists. One debater looks out over the court and seeing the figures of Torben and Draco, makes the point that every planet should be shared between different constituent parties, such as racing developers and government bodies.

5.0

Merkl 95 On his way to a meeting, Torben meets a URS administrative assistant, Asheela McNars, who is experimenting with a mysterious new computer program. After departing from Asheela, Torben convenes with Drizer and the URS junior executive Ethan White. Torben discusses with Drizer and Ethan the two freelance racers he intends to recruit: Yeshi Aiker, pilot of the Icicle, and Xue Soong-li, pilot of the Snow Leopard. The two other men agree, but when Ethan begins to discuss URS profit and development plans for the upcoming racing season, the boardroom debate heats up when Torben sharply disagrees. Before walking away with a contract for the racing season, Torben ensures that one of the terms requires URS investigators to help him solve Lajjia’s murder.

6.0 Meeting up with an old friend, Professor Hiro Sheridan, Torben watches an exhibition race at the Circus Maximus. Hiro is a Wetware, a species of sentient computer programs that evolved from human like creatures millions of years ago. While watching the race, Hiro and Torben discuss the upcoming racing season and identify key racers, including the Mercury Corp. racers Magnus Olsson, Bouwe Bekking, and Fernando Echavarelli. Other important racers include Tenbo Kleinder, Nikita Tsunoma, Ors Therek, and Youtsbi Moray. The two soon-to-be URS racers, Yeshi and Xue also participate in the race. Hiro, a mathematics professor at the University of Aeon, predicts that the statistically Magnus Olsson is most likely to win the race. When Magnus zips past the finish line in first place (quickly followed by Youtsbi and Tenbo), Torben asks Hiro his method of analysis.

7.0

Merkl 96 That night in the underworld of clubs and nightlife in Aeon, Torben mingles with the day’s racing pilots and personnel, and he runs across Norskin Bollin, his old PR manager. Torben asks Norskin about any sources he could pursue to find out Lajjita’s murderer. Norskin drops the name of a man known as “the Marquis,” saying that “if anyone is murdered in Aeon, then he knows about it.” When Torben meets the Arkad alien racer Ors Therek, he says something to Torben that causes him to question Norskin’s motives and Ethan White’s motivation for expanding URS operations. Before Torben can ask more questions, Therek is gone, and Nikita Tsunoma’s approach prevents Torben from pursuing. Nikita tempts Torben with a visit to her apartment but before the offer is carried out, Torben refuses, catching her in an attempt to get information out of him concerning the URS plans for the upcoming season.

8.0 On the URS training grounds, Torben and Drizer meet Yeshi and Xue for the first time. Meeting her up close, Torben finds that he is slightly attracted to Xue, but he quickly represses the feelings. Razi Nguyen is also added to the team as the new PR manager. Torben discusses team strategy with the new racers, and after a dynamic discussion, they strike up a deal to join the team for the racing season.

9.0 The URS team arrives on the planet Valhalla, and Torben has flashbacks of his late childhood, coming of age, and early racing career on the planet. The team begins training on the Valhalla racetrack, known as Bifröst but nicknamed “Hel” by pilots for its toughness. Through a series of tough exercises, the team grows tighter and Torben finds his feelings for Xue being reciprocated.

Merkl 97

9.35 Torben has an extended flashback of his secondary education on Valhalla in the IPC military academy before he had become the racing pilot of the Checkmate. He reflects on how his Chinese tutor gave him a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and how it sparked his interest in strategy. He also remembers how a young recruiter named Drizer Steil scouted him out as a potential racer, creating him into a superstar of the MG races.

9.8 On the planet Bogroml, Aea, the planetary queen of the Drom species, has a prophetic vision of Torben’s destiny, though Torben is not named. She predicts that Torben will suffer a great defeat but ultimately will find his destiny because of it.

10.0 The URS team participates in the MG racing season opener on Rikki’s Run, a track that runs between the binary planet system of Jijik and Gogol. Before the race, Torben shares a few words with Tenbo Kleinder, a Guoran and native of Jijik. Tenbo reminds Torben that Guorans, just like any other alien race, are not just “humans in another skin” but different beings entirely. During the race, Nikita tries to assassinate Xue with an illegal ship-to-ship missile. But a combination of Yeshi and Mundarius Yludge (a Drom racer) prevent Nikita from successfully completing her assassination. Just before crossing the finish line, Xue slows down on Torben’s orders, letting

Merkl 98 Mercury Corp.’s Bouwe Bekking slide past in first place and Tenbo Kleinder to jump forward to second place. Xue comes in third, and Yeshi in fifth.

11.0 In the virtual reality of the interplanetary network known as the MetaNet, Torben meets up with Draco and Hiro at a diner. They discuss Torben’s decision to let Bouwe Bekking win the race and the shifting politics in Aeon based on the race results. Draco also gives Torben a lead for his investigation on Lajjita’s murder, stating that she might have been poisoned with a disease known as the Kleeper Marrow Virus (KMV), a virus from the planet Bogroml that matches Lajjita’s symptoms when it infects humans.

12.0 The second match of the racing season happens at The Electric located on Hiro’s home planet of CentreNet (the core hosting server of the MetaNet). In the tactical room, Torben must make key decisions about the direction he gives his racers based on the corporate and political deals that are also being decided in the same room. During the deal-making and negotiations, Drizer lets slip something about Lajjita and KMV. At the same time, on the racetrack two racers from the planet Hive, Norb Zyx and Yr Ircht, attempt to eliminate Xue and Yeshi from the race. Youtsbi Moray helps the URS racers, but Ors Therek’s maneuvers outdo them all, and Xue suffers a minor crash while Therek crosses the finish line in first place. Fernando Echavarelli finishes in second, Nikita in third, and Yeshi in fourth.

12.4

Merkl 99 A spy for the mob boss known as “the Marquis” watches as Torben and his team prepare to leave CentreNet for Olympus. The spy then reports back to the Marquis about Torben’s ignorance of the new planet and why and by whom Lajjita was murdered.

13.0 Back in Aeon on Olympus, Torben gains an audience with the Marquis. The Marquis gives Torben details concerning Lajjita’s murder, such as the precise time of the event and the mercenary that carried out the KMV injection. The Marquis says that the original mercenary was exterminated by his hiring organization, but what organization that was, the Marquis does not know. He suggests that it was probably a racing corporation since he didn’t know any more details about the murder. Back with his racers, Torben discovers more and more that Xue cares for him affectionately. Yeshi pulls Torben aside and says that they need to talk privately some time.

13.2 Elsewhere in Olympus, Nikita and Magnus meet up, and Nikita offers to share a night of passion with him if he will give her information about the Mercury Corp. business plan and funding.

Magnus initially refuses the offer but later accepts.

14.0 The season’s third race occurs at the Circus Maximus in Aeon, the largest and highest quality MG racetrack. Under strict supervision by the Racing Commission, no racers try to eliminate one another during the race, but the prize money and stakes are the highest for the season. However,

Merkl 100 during the race, Mundarius delivers to Torben the prophecy that Aea declared concerning his eventual defeat. Nikita also communicates to Torben that her independent team owner, known as Rom Baro, wants Torben dead. Xue wins the race and the media covers the first URS victory of the season extensively. Yeshi comes in second place, and Magnus comes in third.

15.0 Back at Bifröst on Valhalla, the URS team regroups for the next race. Yeshi and Torben begin to grow closer as friends at the same time that Torben and Xue encounter communication difficulties concerning their relationship, which has its own negative effects on their training.

Torben visits with a local sanju Taoshi (a Taoist priest) to discuss his distraught feelings concerning Lajjita’s death and his confused feelings over Xue, both of which continue to disturb his meditation. He finds the priest to be of little help.

16.0 The fourth race of the season occurs on the planet Spectre on the older of the planet’s two racetracks: Miner’s Delight. The race is barely underway when more negotiations are being made in the tactical room where Torben is directing the URS racers. Torben comments to Drizer that the URS investigators haven’t yet helped him figure out Lajjita’s killer yet even though that agreement was part of his contract. Drizer makes an offhand comment that Ethan White wouldn’t want external ethics auditors to find out about the investigators because then the auditors would also want to follow the investigation of Lajjita’s murder themselves. Torben asks why the auditors would be a problem, and by the time Drizer has finished answering, Torben concludes that Drizer was the person that ordered Lajjita to be murdered because she was

Merkl 101 distracting Torben. Part of this has to do with references Drizer made to Lajjita’s death that gave away that he knew more than he should have if he had been innocent [chapters 1.0 and 12.0].

Filled with furious hate, Torben shoves Drizer through the windows of the tactical room, causing Drizer to fall down to the racetrack below, where the combination of electromagnetic radiation and graviton emissions burn and crush his body.

16.88 [Written in false documentation style.] Torben’s arrest and trial documents detailing his sentence and charges travel via the MetaNet from Spectre to IPC and MG Racing Commission offices on Olympus. Court summons and orders are then sent back to Spectre describing what Torben should expect at court the next day.

17.0 Standing before the regional law court in Spectre, Torben only goes through a few formal proceedings before URS lawyers and Racing Commission representatives whisk him away, making other legal arrangements for his murder charges. While in transit to a hearing in front of the Racing Commission on Olympus, Torben broods over his hatred of URS for arranging the murder of Lajjita. His desire to avenge Lajjita is unsatisfied by killing Drizer, and Torben’s hate begins to focus on Ethan White instead. Arriving in Aeon, Torben first stands before the MG Racing Commission, which concludes that he is not guilty of breaking any rules set down by the Commission. However, Torben still must stand before the IPC Supreme Court. The justices find him guilty of murder and sentence him to exile and forced labor at an undisclosed location.

Merkl 102 18.0 While being transported to his labor camp aboard the police spacecraft, Torben regrets that he had not been able to get more information out of Drizer before killing him. Torben still desires to get revenge on whoever tipped off Drizer to Lajjita’s existence. When the spaceship slows down, an unfamiliar planet comes into view. The guard tells Torben it’s the latest discovered habitable planet, nicknamed “Lucky Prime V” while waiting for an official name from the IPC. However, the discovery of the planet has not been made public. Suddenly, Torben understands the many ramifications that a new planet has for the IPC, explaining many of the assassination attempts on the racetracks this season. Since humans and Mongdhals are the only current species to occupy more than one planetary system, many of the other species of the IPC are vying for control of the planet.

19.0 When the shuttle lands on Lucky Prime V, Torben discovers that the planet is primarily covered in snow and ice (though warmer regions do exist), and once he is assigned to a work crew, Torben discovers even more why so much political conflict was occurring over the planet: a new racetrack named Titanos is being constructed on Lucky Prime V. Everyone from racing companies, the Commission, politicians, developers, and non-human species would be wrestling for control of the new track and the profits and prestige it would bring. Torben is assigned to work on a crew led by a man named Ernie that is constructing the physical track surface of the Titanos.

20.0

Merkl 103 After getting injured in a fight with another worker, Torben is bed-ridden for several weeks.

Ernie sends a Kuhani (priest or rabbi) to comfort Torben at his bedside. Torben and the Kuhani, Jyotis Haryune, have an extended conversation on God, luck, and the nature of reality. Jyotis surprises Torben with many of his answers and encourages Torben to seek forgiveness and peace with his enemies.

21.0 While still confined to bed, Torben plans to escape the work camp. Just before he executes his plan, his friend Draco Varga arrives, having been exiled due to political isolation and disfavor in Aeon. Draco is extremely ill when he first shows up, and Torben decides to stay and take care of him alongside Jyotis. Torben also delays his plans for escape because extra security measures are always put into place when a new worker arrives at the camp. While taking care of Draco, Torben learns to put into practice many of the ideas Jyotis had talked with him about, even though he doesn’t admit to himself that he believes any of it is true.

21.1 In a special media announcement in Aeon, Consuls Valens and Aattriba (the two executive leaders of the IPC) announce the official discovery of the fourteenth habitable planet to be included in the IPC: Lucky Prime V. The celebrations in the square are extremely festive and both consuls emphasize the near-perfect state that the IPC has now become.

21.12

Merkl 104 Out on the desolate ice fields of Lucky Prime V, an IPC exploratory crew finds the rubble of a spacecraft crash. Sifting through the debris, one scout discovers a strange sealed pod. The warmth from the scout’s touch activates the pod, and an alien creature bursts out. The scout dies seconds later, having his brain cells violently sucked out. The exploratory crew never returns to base.

22.0 Once Draco recovers from illness, he and Torben make their escape. Torben makes sure that Draco boards a public transport vessel bound for Terra (the nearest planet). Torben decides to stay on Lucky Prime V, and as he crosses a snow field overlooking a race underway on Titanos, the media identify him. Before long, the local police force puts him back under arrest, but not before armed URS guards intimidate the police into handing Torben over. Once in the hands of the URS guards, Torben is rushed to the tactical room on Titanos. Immediately, he begins to let Yeshi and Xue know about the tricks of the track (many of which he and his old work crew built themselves). During the race (the sixth of the season), every racer from Mercury Corp. (Magnus, Bouwe, Fernando) works to eliminate either Yeshi or Xue. In a surprise move for everyone, Nikita works to protect Yeshi and Xue, and equally mysterious, when Yeshi has a chance to strike back at Magnus, Therek restrains him. Despite the battles, Yeshi crosses the finish line first, followed quickly by Xue and then Tenbo.

23.0 The moment the race is finished, IPC soldiers reinforced by local police storm the tactical room and carry off Torben. Taking him to a military base not far away, they show Torben the creature

Merkl 105 from the pod that killed the exploratory crew. They explain everything they know about the alien creature, including their theory that it sucked out each person’s brain cells and transmitted the information via radio waves toward an unexplored sector of space. Torben asks why he’s been shown all of this, and the base commander says that the IPC would like to use his strategic and tactical expertise (in addition to his early military training he received on Valhalla), in exchange for a pardon of his outstanding murder charges. Torben agrees but still wishes to work out more details later. They examine the pod creature further where it is kept in a 1 Kelvin chamber (where it still shows signs of life). Torben asks why the creature’s apparent transmission should cause concern since the radio waves wouldn’t travel fast enough to any known planets. The base commander says that the creature’s initial transmission happened months ago, but that their instruments around the creature picked up a return transmission just 20 hours ago. From best the IPC technology could pick up, a foreign spacecraft was also headed toward Lucky Prime V. Before they can discuss further, a message enters the command center: The spacecraft has arrived, and it’s not just one ship. It’s a fleet.

24.0 The IPC military base prepares for immediate evacuation and sends a signal for other settlements on Lucky Prime V to do the same. Preliminary reports state that the alien fleet is in even bigger than the entire IPC fleet in sum (including from all other planets). Once in the IPC fleet command center, Torben spots Jyotis who briefly prays for Torben before loading onto an outbound interstellar craft with other refugees. Soon, the only populace on the planet that have not moved to evacuate are the MG racing personnel, which have blocked the distress signal from coming to any of their stations, racetracks, or support buildings. The local representatives of the

Merkl 106 Racing Commission believe that the signal to evacuate is politically motivated and choose to step outside IPC law. The Supreme IPC Commander, Joshua Speare, is about to have Torben convince the local commissioners of the reality of the threat of the alien fleet, but before Torben can, the newly arrived aliens hack into the MetaNet and send a message directly to Speare: “Your only chance for negotiation is if you let us talk with your newest strategist. Have him come to the Tea Room on Titanos.”

24.5 Meeting via the MetaNet, a council convenes to decide whether Torben should go back to the surface of Lucky Prime V and meet with the aliens that have now landed on the planet. The informal council consists of Torben, Commander Speare, Consul Valens, Chief Censor Lothar Calderon, IPC Admiral Toritzu Maran, Vice-Admiral Kudzai Mizrachi, URS executive Ethan White, Razi Nguyen (Torben’s PR representative), and MG Chief Racing Commissioner Clybe Chandra. The debate is fierce with most military personnel not in favor sending Torben and most racing personnel highly in favor. Torben does his best to convince the council that he should go and points out several times that the aliens probably can hear everything that is being said in the meeting since they had been able to hack into the MetaNet so fast in the first place. Eventually, Valens capitulates, confessing that he really doesn’t care for Torben’s personnel well-being and if Torben is so bent on going, then he should be allowed to.

25.0 Torben physically and mentally prepares himself for meeting the new alien race while he is shuttled back down to the surface of Lucky Prime V. He drives himself up to the abandoned

Merkl 107 Titanos colosseum and does not see a hint of the new aliens in the city around the track. After finding the Tea Room among the box suites high above the track, Torben enters and finds himself to be seated across from the most foreign sentient species he has ever encountered. The alien speaks to Torben in perfect Esperanto, introducing himself as “Xeno.” Xeno explains how the Xoatl (as the alien race calls themselves) are simply the most supreme species in the universe and how they will simply take over this whole collection of planets that calls themselves the InterPlanetary Commonwealth. He reveals that the Xoatl occupy approximately 54 other planets in the galaxy and are continually expanding. Torben asks why Xeno is even talking with him then, since there seems to be no chance for negotiated peace. Xeno replies as he wipes his mouth from drinking the last sip of tea, “As your poorly expressive language would state it, Mr. Sarel, we like to play with our food before we eat it.” Xeno then states that the game is ready and that Torben should make his way to the tactical room immediately.

26.0 Standing at the command module overlooking the battle stadium portion of Titanos, Torben desperately tries to contact any IPC personnel but finds that the Xoatl have blocked all communication with the outside world. While he is fumbling with different controls, Torben looks up and notices that all of the racing ships and pilots are lined up along the side of the battle stadium closest to Torben. When he puts on a communication headset, he realizes he can voice communicate with them. Most of the pilots don’t remember how they got to where they were, and their controls are all jammed, so none of them can move their ships. On the other side of the stadium, a force of warrior Xoatl enters. Xeno sends a message to Torben’s command module: “To use the cliché: let the games begin.” Torben quickly explains to the racers the situation and

Merkl 108 that their only hope for survival (though slim) is to defeat these massive warrior Xoatl now in the stadium. In order to accomplish that, however, they would all need to follow his commands.

Most of the racers squabble about this, but after some initial disagreement, they realize the gravity of the situation. Blending the strengths of the different racing and fighting strengths of the pilots and their ships, Torben quickly formulates a strategy for defeating the Xoatl warriors.

The band of racers carries out the plan and efficiently begins dispatching the Xoatl warriors with the weapons upon each ship. During the battle, some of the racers refuse to fight or fail to recognize their dangerous situation and are killed. Once victor is in sight, new Xoatl forces enter the battle stadium and initialize what appears to be a massive explosive. Xeno sends Torben another message that the game has come to an end, and Torben immediately tells all of the pilots to get out of the stadium any way they can and as soon as possible. But Xue’s ship lingers in the stadium.

26.99 Xue heads her ship straight toward the charging explosive. Cold and afraid, she recalls brief flashbacks of her mother and grandmother telling her to be brave.

27.0 Over the com headsets, Xue confesses to Torben that she is in love with him. Torben then realizes that he has been holding back his feelings for her the entire time but that instead of reciprocating her feelings, he had been cold and bitter about Lajjita. Xue then explains her actions and that she intends to sacrifice herself by running her ship into the explosive that is preparing to go off. Xue’s father used to work with explosives similar to this, and she knows that

Merkl 109 if she crashes into now, its explosive force will be minimal to the damage it could charge if fully charged. She then says goodbye to Torben and crashes her ship straight into the explosive, causing a minimal explosion. After a moment of silence, the remaining Xoatl in the stadium all retreat while the IPC begins landing ground troops into the stadium supported by air units. The Xoatl completely pull back all forces, and Xeno sends Torben a message explaining that the Xoatl do not understand this notion of love or sacrifice that they heard Xue mention and they are very afraid of its implications.

28.0 While the Xoatl completely pull back all forces into space and evacuate their fleet, Torben is shuttled back to the main command center in orbit above Lucky Prime V. Commander Speare and the other military personnel grill him for answers, but he only answers obtusely or vaguely.

URS personnel and MG racing developers also ask him for more information on the Xoatl, but he rebuffs all their questions. Once alone, Torben weeps for his loss of Xue and the others that died in the battle. Jyotis returns and comforts him.

29.0 Back on Olympus, Torben packs up his apartment in Aeon, preparing to move back to Terra.

Yeshi stops by and then takes him to the Circus Maximus. There on the track is a brand-new ship christened the Rhododendron. After a brief conversation, Yeshi challenges Torben to a race.

Finding solace in the company of a friend and the words of Jyotis, both men hop into their respective ships and together take off down the track.

Merkl 110 30.0 While Torben races Yeshi, an mysterious Arkad shows up at Torben’s apartment and slips a message under his door. It reads: “Dearest Torben, After our little chat over tea the other day, I said we would most assuredly crush your civilization like we had any other. The little antic of sacrifice that ended the neat game of ours gave my commanders second thoughts. However, after analyzing the nature of these terms you call “love” and “sacrifice,” we have determined them to be relatively harmless, though sentimental. We are coming. –Xeno”