I know what you’re thinking.
You’re thinking “Ugh, rings again?” No, I’m not psychic, it’s just that that same thought was in my mind as I wrote a 200,000 word epic poem. Still, it was the story in my mind and the one I felt I had to tell.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Yes, Tolkien is a massive inspiration to my writing. How could he not be. In trying to create a national mythology for England, and purge it of what he felt was the overly French Arthurian Legend, he ended up creating the modern genre of fantasy. Had he never written a word of fiction, I do not think that I would have. I hold his works above everything that came after, as they offer not only endless entertainment, but also real insight into what it means to be human.
However, while our stories share a similar Macguffins, our rings are really quite different. For my tenth birthday, I begged my parents for an illustrated encyclopedia of world mythology. In the Norse Mythology section, I read a story which captured my imagination, which I will give a short summary. Read the story in full if you have the time, it’s really good.
One day, Odin, Thor, and Loki are on a fishing trip when they spot a seal chasing a fish. Deciding that seal would be more filling than fish, they kill the seal and get ready to eat. Just then a dwarf bursts on the scene and tells the gods that they have just killed his son, who was wearing a magical seal suit. He demands a weregild, blood money for the death of his son. The gods must cover the seal in gold or be known as murderers.
Keeping two of the gods as hostages, he sends Loki to find the gold. Loki traps the wealthy dwarf Andvari, who happens have a massive fortune. The dwarf is let go on the condition that he give Loki the hoard. As Loki is leaving, he notices Andvari’s arm ring and demands it for himself. The dwarf tries to refuse, but Loki insists. Andvari does give the ring, but as he does he places a curse on the ring. Whoever wears it will be driven mad by lust for gold.
Loki avoids the curse because after he covers the dead seal with gold, the dwarf sees a whisker standing out and demands the golden ring be placed. The ring, Andvaranaut, goes on to drive various people insane, its history full of terror and death. The tale ends with the dragon Fafnir and the hero Siegfried.
Wagner was inspired by this story’s Germanic nature, Tolkien was inspired by its inventive magic. I was inspired by the curse, a vengeful generational disaster (yes, I recognize the arrogance of placing my work beside those two, but let’s see how it shakes out in 20 years).
Epic Poetry is the form which human beings have been telling stories with since before the written word was invented. The oldest fictional story we have is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Epic poems litter Europe, Africa, Asia. Unfortunately, because of the Spanish, we don’t have a whole lot of literature from South and Central America, but there are epic poems from Hawaii.
Particular among epic poems, Beowulf gave me inspiration for the setting. One hero kills three monsters and some narwhals. What’s not to love. That epic, probably more than any other, influenced my decision to write in this style. North Sea cultures (to which swords and rings were very important, a good king was expected to give these out as gifts) tell a great number of epics. The Icelandic Sagas and the Poetic and Prose Eddas tell of wars, battles, and personal vendettas. I read the Tain Bo while I was writing this story, and it immediately shot up onto my favorites list; though Irish literature in general needs to stop spending page after page listing things.
The Ring of Dain Thar Duin pretends to belong to this canon. One part history of a fictional island, one part myth of a fictional people, the poem tells of a time of flux when men came and went like the seasons; inspired by a world which spent five hundred years in turmoil, only gaining stability in 1066.
Michael Frutig 