There’s an interview with the capo of the Compagnie des Trouvères, Valentin. It’s over at the excellent blog run by Assaph Mehr (of Felix the Fox fame). Take a minute or three to learn more about Val, who has a rare moment of quiet in a decidedly odd forest.
The Trouvères are a company of performers–dancers, singers, jugglers, acrobats–all with at least some modest magical ability. While they seek only to entertain and make enough silver to keep their wagons on the road, they do have one other ability that seems almost magical: the ability to get into trouble.
Their adventures are chronicled in a series of six novels, the first of which will be published summer 2022. It is entitled The Signet Ring.
The setting is late medieval. That’s the 22nd century in Altearth, or 14th century in traditional Earth dates. The first novel is set on the island of Capreae in southern Italia. The next novel takes place in northern Italy, on Lake Garda, then two in Germania, one in Breizh (Brittany) and the last in Paris.
Watch this space for updates. And for the latest, subscribe to the Altearth Chronicle, published six times a year.
I have an author interview with the good folk over at https://unchartedlibrary.com/. You should check out the site.
My interview is here:https://unchartedlibrary.com/author-interview-ellis-l-knox/ Many thanks to Nils Ödlund for the invitation!
I have a little Christmas story that has been published over at Another Realm. Despite the title, it’s a happy story.
http://www.anotherealm.com/2020/ar120120.php
It is the only story of mine that is not set in Altearth. I’m not really sure where it is set, so maybe it can be counted as an Altearth tale after all.
Most people have heard about Hannibal, and if they’ve heard anything about him it’s that he crossed the Alps with elephants. Which he did. In October of 218 BC.
But that’s not the most remarkable aspect of Hannibal’s march, at least not to me. The more remarkable achievement is that he crossed the Rhône River earlier that same year. With elephants. With an enemy waiting for him on the other shore.
That the enemy waiting for him wasn’t comprised of Roman legions is another remarkable accomplishment by this remarkable general. Hannibal began his invasion of Italy over in Spain, and Rome expected to stop him there. After all, in Spain were major cities held by Rome, plus the Ebro River, plus the Pyrenees Mountains. All that should have slowed Hannibal even if they did not stop him outright. Rome sent armies to Spain to make sure Hannibal never got out of the Iberian Peninsula. Meanwhile, Rome sent armies into Africa, to strike at the Carthaginian homelands.
It was an excellent plan, which Hannibal promptly tore to shreds. He knocked out the Roman cities, slipped past the Roman legions, over the Ebro and across the Pyrenees.
OK, Plan B. Stop Hannibal in Gaul (southern France). Rome had made allies among the Gallic tribes, and she would send Roman legions to defend the Rhône River line. There was no way for the wily Carthaginian to get past that!
It would take time for the Roman legions to get to Gaul, though. New soldiers had to be raised and shipped to Massilia (Marseilles), for Rome had already committed troops to Spain and Africa, where Hannibal no longer was. So she depended on those Gallic tribes to delay him until the Roman troops could arrive.
So it was that Hannibal rolled up to the Rhône River in September 218 with about 46,000 men and 37 elephants. On the east side of the river were the Volcae, the local tribe, with perhaps a comparable number of men.
The river at this point was a half-mile wide, maybe even wider (as much as a thousand yards). This meant crossing in boats, and the Volcae had taken most of those from the western shore. Some of Hannibal’s men could swim, but that’s a long way to swim only to land on banks held by the enemy. Only a madman would make such an assault.
Or Hannibal.
As he had his men seize what boats they could find, others began fashioning canoes. Meanwhile, he sent Hanno, one of his commanders, with a few thousand men northward, to find another crossing.
Because Hannibal had a plan.
Hanno found a crossing twenty-five miles north, which was not a ford but at least had an island to provide cover and a resting point. Many crossed in boats, but some swam, inflating bags under their shields to carry equipment. They landed uncontested on the east side, rested, then moved south.
Hannibal had arranged for a signal. When Hanno was in position, he was to send up smoke. Hannibal, meanwhile, had used the time not only to build a crossing fleet, he did so openly, keeping the attention of the Volcae on him. They had no idea Hanno was on their flank.
At the signal, Hannibal attacked. Because it was Hannibal, it was an exceptionally clever attack. He chose to attack across a bend in the river, setting forward a line of heavier boats that served to moderate the current. The main part of his forces crossed downstream on smaller craft.
The Volcae gathered to throw back the Carthaginians, but Hannibal—who was in one of the lead boats—managed to gain a foothold on shore. At that moment, Hanno attacked in two prongs. One group took the Volcaean camp and set it on fire, while the other fell on the rear forces. Assaulted now on three fronts, the Volcae panicked and thought only of fighting their way out from this terrible foe.
The battle was pure Hannibal: careful planning, a thorough knowledge of the enemy and the terrain, and a boldly decisive blow. When the Romans landed at Massilia a few days later, they found their enemy was already on his way to the Alps. They never touched him or even saw him until he showed up in Italy a month later.
What about the elephants, you ask?
They crossed two days after the battle. On rafts.
Not just any rafts, but enormous constructions twenty-five feet and twenty-five wide. He ordered a chain of rafts tied together stretching out into the river. These were unmoving and were covered with dirt to make it look like land. The lead female elephant was brought out and the other elephants followed her.
The final raft in the chain was the only true vessel. Once an elephant was on it with its handlers, the raft was cast loose and towed across to the other side. A few elephants did panic and went into the river, but they swam and all made it across.
So, by the time Hannibal’s elephants arrived at the Alps, they had already not only fought in battles, they had crossed a mountain range (the Pyrenees) and a river nearly a half-mile wide.
Hannibal must be counted not only as one of the great generals of history, but one of the masters of logistics as well.
Oh yeah, and he managed to storm around Italy for the next fourteen years before Rome finally managed to drive him out.
You can read more about Hannibal online or in any of several books about the man and his times. One source, written by yours truly, is here
http://europeanmiddleages.info/westciv/punicwar/
which covers all three of the Punic Wars.
Murder in a cathedral. Fans of Assassins Creed will know which one I mean.
This is another in my continuing series of historical essays over at europeanmiddleages.info.
Here’s a list of all the articles.
Watch this blog for future announcements. Or past announcements, if you like time travel.
My article on banks and moneychangers is live over at Mythic Scribes. It’s aimed at writers of fantasy, but is worthwhile for those who only read fantasy as well.
Constance was the wife of Frederick at the time of my story, The Falconer. Naturally I wanted to know more about her beyond mere birth and death dates. What I found is worth relating in its own right.
Constance was born the daughter of Alfonso II, the king of Aragon, and Sancha of Castile and Leon. So she had royal blood on both sides of her family. She was born the second of nine children. We know almost nothing of her chidlhood, which surely came to an end in 1196 when her father died. She was sixteen.
Her older brother, Peter became the second Aragonese king by that name, and he soon set about arranging a marriage for his sister. Nothing would do but marriage into another royal family. In this case, it was to Emeric (Imre) the king of Hungary. So, in 1198 at the age of nineteen, Constance became the Queen of Hungary.
It had to have been difficult. Hungary was an entirely different culture from Aragon, and Hungarian is a very different language from Aragonese. The young queen could not have brought with her more than a few ladies-in-waiting to give her some sense of home.
Her time in Hungary was marked by difficulty and tragedy. Her husband and her husband’s brother fought almost continuously, and there were times when it was feared the king would lose that struggle. In the midst of this, Constance bore Imre a son, whom they named Ladislaus (Louis), in the year 1200.
The struggle with Imre’s brother Andrew continued back and forth. In 1204, Imre fell mortally ill, dying in November of that year. Constance was now a widow of twenty-four with a young child to care for and a kingdom that now fell to that same rival brother, Andrew.
From the outset, Constance found herself shunted aside and isolated. Far from helping to rule her husband’s realm, she found herself little more than a prisoner. The situation was so bad, Constance took her boy in hand and fled in disguise, reaching Vienna in the dead of winter. There she was protected by Duke Leopold VI of Austria.
Constance was still queen mother, for Imre in his final months had had young Louis crowned co-emperor. She might have formed a sort of court-in-exile, or at least been able to negotiate better terms for herself and her son. This can only be speculation, however, for Louis died a few short months after arriving in Vienna, on 7 May 1205.
Constance was now alone in a foreign land. Andrew, now legitimately king, demanded and got the body of his nephew, which he buried in his own castle. Leopold of Austria looked at his awkward guest and at his bellicose neighbor and made a political choice: he sent Constance back to Aragon.
You will remember that her father had died almost ten years previously. After his death, his wife had a monastery built, to which she retired for the remainder of her life. It was to this abbey of Our Lady at Sijena that Constance now also went. She lived there for three years and by all accounts was content. At the very least, the convent must have provided opportunity to grieve and heal.
But Constanza was still young and her big brother still had plans. We must first take a short detour to consider Frederick.
This young man (he was born in 1194) was the son of an emperor and a queen he was an orphan by the time he was three. His youth is a story in itself, but here we will note only that before his mother passed away, she asked the pope to be guardian to her son. That pope was Innocent III, one of the most important popes of the Middle Ages.
Innocent was now (1207-1208) considering marriage prospects for his ward, who at fourteen had officially become King of Sicily. Peter of Aragon was looking for papal support for a variety of reasons, and Innocent was looking for a suitable prospect for Frederick. And so a deal was struck. Innocent would annul Peter’s current marriage. In exchange, Constance would marry Frederick, and Peter would send 500 Catalan knights to Sicily to deal with rebellious barons (one of Innocent’s variety of reasons).
Constance’s
Sicilian crown
So, in 1208, Constance left the convent and sailed with her
Catalan knights (commanded by one of her younger brothers) to Sicily.
She was about twenty-five (her exact birthdate is a little
uncertain). Her groom was barely fifteen. She had already been a
queen, a wife, and a mother, and had lost a kingdom, a husband, and a
son. She had been a refugee and had crossed the eastern Alps in
winter, almost alone. Frederick, on the other hand, was ten years
younger, had never been beyond Sicily, and had scarcely been outside
of Palermo. It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely couple.
We know very little about these two as a couple, but what we do know points to them being content with one another. We hear that Frederick sought her advice at times. We know that of his three wives, only one is buried in the imperial tomb with him at Palermo: Constance of Aragon. We know further that when Frederick went north to claim the imperial throne, he made her regent in the name of their young son.
Constance did rule in Sicily for ten years, from 1212 to 1222. She dealt with rebels and threats of invasion. She managed to keep peace among the Muslim population at the western end of the island. She kept peace also with the Church, even though her husband repeatedly provoked papal anger, especially of Innocent III. She was eventually crowned Queen of Germany and Holy Roman Empress. She died of malaria in Catania (Sicily) on 23 June 1222.
When I learned all this, I knew I had to include Constance in any story about Frederick. You’ll have to wait for the book to see exactly how I did this. But there was no way I was going to write this remarkable woman out of Altearth.
One postscriptum: Important scenes in Frederick’s story take place in Switzerland, on Lake Constance. Frederick’s mother was named Constance. He himself was originally named Constantius. That was just way too many Constances. So I chose Costanza, instead. That’s actually Italian, which I excuse by pointing out she lived in Sicily. Close enough. Oh, the woes and tribulations of the historical writer.
We often hear of apprentices in fantasy tales — Ray Feist’s “Magician Apprentice” comes to mind first — but apprenticeship is only one step. This article is about the next step: the journeyman (they were always men; I know of no examples of female journeymen, although there were cases of women who became masters).
Once a boy’s apprenticeship was complete, he had to serve time as a journeyman. He left the service of his master and entered into a period during which he worked for other masters, normally in other towns. This was the Wanderjarhe, the years of wandering, of journeying. During this time, at least in theory, he was a master-in-training. No longer merely studying his craft, now he would be practicing it. The point of journeying was to expose the young man to other techniques and styles, but also to afford the next generation a chance to set up shop in a new place.
My new novel is available on Amazon. It’s an old-school adventure tale, involving plenty of magic with a side of science.
When Gabrielle Lauten sets out to cover the search for a missing explorer, it’s her big chance to be taken seriously as a journalist. What she finds will test her courage, her strength, and her faith in science.
The Queller Expedition is heading into the deepest caverns of Altearth, led by a crackpot professor and guided by a dwarf who claims to know how to get past the Troll Gates. Traveling along forgotten paths, the expedition discovers a lost civilization of fabulous magics, strange peoples, and fearsome monsters. It’s the story of the century.
But some civilizations don’t want to be found.
Now, Gabrielle and her companions must find a way to get home again, before the Second World kills them all.
Paperback
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1079288503
Ebook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TW3TGSM/