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crack_van2009-04-20 08:07 pm
espresso-addict.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-04-20 08:07 pm
Entry tags:
The Veins of the Forest by Ellen Fremedon (G)
Fandom: EARTHSEA
Pairing: none
Length: ~3500 words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ellen_fremedon
Author Website: On Skyehawke & Yuletide (Arithmancy.net appears to be down), but I'm not aware that she's written any more in this fandom
Why this must be read:
In my first five recommendations, I've introduced three of the main characters of the Earthsea series, and now plan an interlude where I highlight stories focusing on just a few of the host of minor characters who populate the islands. If there's time I hope to get back to Ged & Tenar at the end.
Azver is the only Karg to attend the Roke School of Wizardry, saying on his arrival simply 'I come to learn!', and becomes Roke's Master Patterner. He lives in the Immanent Grove, the heart of Archipelagan magic, whose trees are the oldest in the world. Introduced in The Farthest Shore, he's a major character in the novella 'Dragonfly' & also appears in The Other Wind. His story is intriguing -- why did he choose to come to Roke? How did this 'sword-begirt, red-plumed young savage' from a culture that rejects all magic become one of the wisest mages of the Archipelago?
Fanfiction that answers these questions is woefully sparse, which makes 'The Veins of the Forest' all the more wonderful. Ellen Fremedon runs with the Norse model for Kargish culture to give us a backstory for Azver that is beautifully detailed and absolutely perfect. The story also works in some thoughts about the Immanent Grove, whose roots Azver says are 'mingled with the roots of all the forests that were or might yet be'. The result feels like a lost short story from Tales from Earthsea. This was written for me in a past Yuletide, but it would be criminal not to share it.
When Azkil was a young man, his beard newly braided above his collar, he dedicated his spear to the Godbrothers and sailed to the west, to the lands of the accursed sorcerers. He raided in the sea-roads of Gont and the Torikles; he fought in the sack of Spevy and wintered over in the burnt hall of its lord. And after two years at sea, he returned to Karego-At wealthy with plunder.
The slaves and the Andrades wine, he gave to the gods and the Godking, in gratitude for his safe voyage; the jewels, he portioned out among his sisters, and the coin, he kept. But the war-banner of the Lords of Spevy, that he tore from the rafters of the Isle-lord's hall while the fire still raged, he carried down to the dockside, into the workshops of Kemmil Shipwright, and gave to the shipwright's daughter Metteir as her bride-piece. They married before the moon was out.
Metteir wore the crimson standard as her cloak all winter and spring. And when in summer she bore a son, she swaddled him in it, and she called him Azver, which is 'war-banner' in the Kargish tongue.
The Veins of the Forest by Ellen Fremedon
Pairing: none
Length: ~3500 words
Author on LJ:
ellen_fremedonAuthor Website: On Skyehawke & Yuletide (Arithmancy.net appears to be down), but I'm not aware that she's written any more in this fandom
Why this must be read:
In my first five recommendations, I've introduced three of the main characters of the Earthsea series, and now plan an interlude where I highlight stories focusing on just a few of the host of minor characters who populate the islands. If there's time I hope to get back to Ged & Tenar at the end.
Azver is the only Karg to attend the Roke School of Wizardry, saying on his arrival simply 'I come to learn!', and becomes Roke's Master Patterner. He lives in the Immanent Grove, the heart of Archipelagan magic, whose trees are the oldest in the world. Introduced in The Farthest Shore, he's a major character in the novella 'Dragonfly' & also appears in The Other Wind. His story is intriguing -- why did he choose to come to Roke? How did this 'sword-begirt, red-plumed young savage' from a culture that rejects all magic become one of the wisest mages of the Archipelago?
Fanfiction that answers these questions is woefully sparse, which makes 'The Veins of the Forest' all the more wonderful. Ellen Fremedon runs with the Norse model for Kargish culture to give us a backstory for Azver that is beautifully detailed and absolutely perfect. The story also works in some thoughts about the Immanent Grove, whose roots Azver says are 'mingled with the roots of all the forests that were or might yet be'. The result feels like a lost short story from Tales from Earthsea. This was written for me in a past Yuletide, but it would be criminal not to share it.
When Azkil was a young man, his beard newly braided above his collar, he dedicated his spear to the Godbrothers and sailed to the west, to the lands of the accursed sorcerers. He raided in the sea-roads of Gont and the Torikles; he fought in the sack of Spevy and wintered over in the burnt hall of its lord. And after two years at sea, he returned to Karego-At wealthy with plunder.
The slaves and the Andrades wine, he gave to the gods and the Godking, in gratitude for his safe voyage; the jewels, he portioned out among his sisters, and the coin, he kept. But the war-banner of the Lords of Spevy, that he tore from the rafters of the Isle-lord's hall while the fire still raged, he carried down to the dockside, into the workshops of Kemmil Shipwright, and gave to the shipwright's daughter Metteir as her bride-piece. They married before the moon was out.
Metteir wore the crimson standard as her cloak all winter and spring. And when in summer she bore a son, she swaddled him in it, and she called him Azver, which is 'war-banner' in the Kargish tongue.
The Veins of the Forest by Ellen Fremedon