The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #123654   Message #2727420
Posted By: Mr Fox
20-Sep-09 - 01:27 PM
Thread Name: Magical Ballads and Fantasy Fiction
Subject: RE: Magical Ballads and Fantasy Fiction
I believe "Pavane" by Keith Roberts has the the first verse of the Lyke Wake Dirge as an introduction...

This ae neet, this ae neet
Any neet and all
Fire and fleet and candle leet
And Christ receive thy soul


It does, Ed. And his later story cycle 'The Chalk Giants' has the medieval lyric:

    Fowles in the frith,
    The fisshes in the flood,
    And I mon waxe wood
    Much sorwe I walke with
    For beste of boon and blood.

He also refers to the lines "I leaned my back against an oak, thinking it was a trustie tree" in one of his short stories. Nice to see somebody else has read Keith Roberts - I was beginning to think I was the only one!

Much further down the scale is a short story by Gregory Frost called 'The Vow That Binds' which is about a strange fellow named Lant who can talk to animals - until he falls in love. Then, the only beast that will talk to him is Raven, the trickster. The raven offers to predict Lant's future. Fans of Fairport Convention can probably guess what happens next.....