Tales Before Tolkien
Douglas A. Anderson, ed.
Print $16.00
Ebook $4.99
Deuce Richardson has been encouraging me to read H. Rider Haggard for quite a while. I’ve been intending to, and this story provided me with the perfect chance.
This story is more historical than fantasy, but there are some fantastic elements. It takes place just before the Zulu uprising of January 1879. Philip Hadden is a ne’er-do-well who is working as a trader. When he kills a man in a fight, he is forced to flee into Zulu territory.
This isn’t the wisest of moves.
He’s trying to convince King Cetywayo to let him hunt buffalo. Hadden offers the king a rifle as a bribe. While the king is deciding whether to grant Hadden’s request or just kill him and take the rifle, one of the kings subjects from a different village, Nahoon, arrives and asks the king’s permission to marry a young woman named Nanea. He’s asking the king to grant his wish before another man can marry her.
Instead of granting Nahoon’s request, Cetywayo demnds that the girl be brought to him on a certain date so that he might marry her. He doesn’t want one of his warriors to marry when he’s planning an attack on the white settlers. He then commands Nahoon to act as a guide to Haddon on his buffalo hunt. Cetywayo doesn’t do this out of kindness to Haddon but to spite Nahoon.
During their hunt, they come upon an old witch who prophesies over both Haddon and Nahoon. Neither one really understands the prophecy, which will unfold exactly as the witch foretold.
I’m not going to give any spoilers from this point on. I can see some similarities to Tolkien in this story. There’s a sense of both history and impending tragedy. Hardly surprising, since this story is about a historical massacre.
There’s also a sense of impending doom from the prophecy. Haddon doesn’t understand exactly what the witch meant, but the alert reader will certainly see the outcome, if not the means by which that outcome is achieved.
Tolkien was a great admirer of Haggard. It’s easy to see why. I will definitely be reading more Haggard.
The Pre-Tolkien Challenge was to read three short stories. I read something by William Morris from this same book for the first one. I also compared Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft on Lovecraft’s birthday, but since I didn’t read any of Lovecraft’s stories for that post, I’m not sure it counts. Although I intend to finish this book, I’m going to read something from a different source for my third story. I’m not sure what yet. Others are reading Dunsany and Howard. I want to do something different. I’ll let you know what when I figure that out.
Yes!
Haggard is another lover of The Northern Thing, including when he’s writing about his beloved Africa.
Jim Cornelius
http://www.frontierpartisans.com
I need to simply make room for Haggard in my TBR pile and let some stuff slide.
If asked to named Haggard’s most sword-and-sorcery-like i would say <Erik Brighteyes. It has vikings and a witch-woman; what more could we ask?
This one has been on my radar for a while now. I’m hoping to work it in by Christmas.
I’m going to make a point to read this story because it is so close to home. It reminded me of the Retief Massacre.
http://www.voortrekker-history.co.za/massacre_great_trek.php#.W4RDZC17FsM
This one takes place before the massacre, but it’s well worth reading. Thanks for the link. I’ll look at it this evening.
A prophecy appears in his novel People of the Mist as well. People is a very underrated novel. It’s not as famous as She and King Solomon’s Mines, but I actually thought it was the better book.
I’ve got a couple of copies of that from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. I keep intending to read it and haven’t yet.
I had my copy for a couple years before I read it.
I could say that about a number of books, including many I haven’t gotten to yet. 🙂
I need to pick up that book! I’ve got the CS Lewis variant, and even if I didn’t love every story, it was really cool to see his inspirations.
What little I’ve read has been excellent.
“I need to simply make room for Haggard in my TBR pile and let some stuff slide.”
Roger that, Keith. I won’t throw stones, because it took me decades to jump in for the big win. HRH is the fountainhead. It’s all at Glashan’s library for free. One-stop FREE shopping. Welcome to the Brotherhood!
http://freeread.com.au/@rglibrary/HRiderHaggard/HRHaggard.html
Thanks, Deuce. I appreciate the link.
Welcome! As deuce points out, Haggard is the Fountainhead for adventure fiction and one of the grandfathers of fantasy. This story was a good first choice, but you’ve only just scratched the surface; HRH published stories over a 44 year period, there is a lot more where this came from.
I can’t thank deuce enough for that link to Glashan’s library; that site is a treasure house!
I have every intention of reading more Haggard.