Lyonesse Trilogy - Commentary

Commentary

One view is that the characterisations of the various kingdoms are decidedly Anglo-centric. The Celts of Godelia are fickle and eccentric, the ambitious and aggressive King Casmir is a Germanic despot in all but name, the court of King Audrey of Dahaut is a caricature of the decadent excesses of a French monarch and the Ska are transparently cruel Viking raiders. The picture is complete with the Arthurian figure of Prince Aillas hailing from the plucky island race of Troicinet whose sea power is crucial to the story. Aillas' policies are based on the Balance of power doctrine, whereby Troicinet seeks to make sure no mainland power would become too strong by supporting the weaker party in any conflict – which is clearly reminiscent of the traditional British policy with regard to Europe. Also Aillas' later policy, after having become ruler of the entire central island of Hybras - to maintain only a limited land army and rely on a strong navy for protection against outside invasion - has a distinct British flavor.

Indeed, the entire background to the work is a re-working of the Arthurian myths, complete with a great mage (Merlin/Murgen), a Round Table (Cairbra an Meadhan), chivalric codes and a search for the Holy Grail.

The Arthurian hypothesis can perhaps be countered by strong indications that the author has delivered a very conscious melding of various other medieval folkloric and more formal story telling themes, characters and plot devices. The proto Arthurian characters are rather a "pre-working" of the later romance and still distinct from that tale. Similarly the Ska are repeatedly described as pre-Viking, and indeed pre-Neanderthal, giving them a far richer presence than “cruel Viking raiders”.

To take only Camelot and "Rule Britannia" from the books might seem a superficial reading.

Vance builds the history of his world using layers of facts, names and religions taken from various European cultures — Greeks, Romans, Celts, pre-Carolingian French and Spanish "kingdoms" etc., and adding in places and peoples imagined by those same cultures — Atlantis, Ys, Avalon, Formor and so on. This fantastical/factual mix is used to ground his tale in "history". It also seems to give some of the same depth that a longer series of books might develop where place, relationships and plot are built up over time (as in Thomas Hardy's "Wessex" or Trollope's "Barsetshire"). It seems to provide the believability that develops where a story is set in a well-known, well-defined historical setting as if the reader holds merely a hitherto untold story.

A third view is probably that the trilogy is not so much a melding as a partly mixed collection of history, fable, mythology, alternative history, sagas and romance — albeit a very enjoyable one. A comparison to Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby could be drawn where the energy and bravura in story telling is countered by weaker thematic drive and lesser plot cohesion especially compared to both authors' later works.

The combination of a tale that is apparently set in medieval Europe, but which contains significant elements of fantasy and magic lends itself to use as setting for role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. See for example Jouez Lyonesse which provides a detailed set of role-playing statistics for most of the major characters of the trilogy.