Im just starting work on The Seer of Syland, book three of The Talismans. When I say starting work, I mean beginning to think about starting to get ready to consider certain possibilities that may or may not turn up in the book. One of these things is a dragon. Yes, I know, dragons have been done to death (both lit. and fig.) in diverse publications. But like most fantasy fans, I have a soft spot for the critters. I decided to do a spot of research on dragon lore. Start at the beginning in a motto of mine, so I Googled for earlier research in dragons. I wound up spending $20 on an ebook version of How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics, by Calvert Watkins. This is a very learned tome in which the author makes a good case for dragon tales, and more specifically, stories of dragon slaying by heroes, dating back to ancient times. His premise is that the stories have their roots in Proto-Indo-European legend, and his argument is based on the fact that the actual words used in ancient texts from India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and northern Europe use the same set of cognate words to spin similar yarns. In fact, the same phraseology is used in all the languages he cites. Pretty amazing stuff. However, fascinating as the subject matter is, I am no closer, after four hours reading, to starting to get ready to consider the possibility of having a dragon in The Seer of Syland. Its made me remember how much I love linguistics, and also made me realise how much Ive forgotten, but Im not one jot wiser on the basic elements of contemporary dragon lore. Maybe I just need to read Anne McCaffrey again and watch more Game of Thrones.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 09:10:48 +0000
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