The historical novel was invented by Sir Walter Scott. 

Sir Walter Scott

In 1814, he penned a book called Waverly. It took the revolt of Bonnie Prince Charlie, an exiled member of the royal Stuart family, who had been kicked off the throne of England and replaced by the House of Windsor (who are still in power in England). Charles Stuart tried to get the throne back, won a couple of initial battles, but his army was badly defeated at the Battle of Cullendon Moor in 1746. Charles escaped and the cause of the Stuarts was at an end. What Scott did that was innovative was to take a character, stick him in the middle of this historical event, and weave a story about how the series of events affected him.

Scott created a genre still followed today. Such novels as The Red Badge of Courage, Gone With the Wind, War and Peace, and, more recently, All the Light We Cannot See, are historical novels that follow this strategy. Short stories can do the same thing, and an early story of mine called "The Horses of Hoddington Marsh," plugged into the historical genre. It was also a paranormal story, so it mixed up genres a bit. Still, it showed that embedding story in historical reference is a good way to create unique and often compelling tales.

Thinking about historical stories brought Boudicca to mind.

Boudicca was a Celtic Queen whose daughters were sexually abused by Roman conquerors. She led a revolt against the occupying Romans, destroyed London, and won several victories until he army was trapped and slaughtered. She committed suicide by drinking poison.

At the same time, maybe because I was teaching Wuthering Heights, I had been thinking about British moor ponies—wild horses who live free in England's swampy midlands. Certain herds have lived in the same location for thousands of years and are protected by law. Thousands of years . . . ponies . . . Boudicca . . . the wheels began to turn.

I took my main character, Sossity Chandler, who is going to do a concert tour in England. Her children are with their father (in the aftermath of a painful divorce).  Sossity never tours alone and is traveling with Lynette, her cousin, a hard-luck girl who is living an unhappy life as a single mother. On the way over, Sossity dreams of English moor ponies, Boudicca, and of a young girl named Rowena who is commissioned to care for "the sacred horses of Hoder's Marsh." The dream is vivid—so much that when Sossity sees an icon in an Anglican church, she is struck by the resemblance of the saintly figure to the young girl she saw in her dream.  Locals tell her the figure is Saint Rowena, a pagan girl who converted to Christianity, married a Roman governor of the province, promoted the new Christian religion, and is believed to be a healer and protector by the pious.

She also learns that the Horses of Hoddington Marsh are dying from a mysterious disease. And she notices the tension in Lynette's life when an English soccer star, Mark Renbourne, arrives to coach a youth team in town. The dreams of the horses and of Rowena continue. The tension between Sossity and Lynette increases. Led by what seems to be promptings from the horses, Sossity finds that illegal chemical dumping by a local factory is killing the horses. Also, she discovers that Mark Renbourne is the father of Lynette's child, still loves her, and doesn't understand why she has left him and moved to Canada.

Saint Rowena is the saint of healing and restoration. Lynette and the horses are restored to wholeness by her invisible and indirect intervention. And Sossity too. She is hurt physically when she treks into the marsh to discover what is killing the horses; and emotionally by the divorce and her absence from her children. Restoration, she discovers, does not necessarily bring suffering to an end, but it brings understanding and the patience to endure it.

Combining the historical and the paranormal created a memorable story. History can be a spring to story—and not just to the recreations of the past authors usually end up doing in a purely historical novel. Postmodernism allows one to play with timelines and narrations, as in The French Lieutenant's Woman. 

Paranormal writing allows us to use magic and time-travel. And history offers many fascinating characters one can creatively work with. It's good raw material by which to construct stories of various types.

If you like writing about medieval or pre-medieval matters, read The Last Minstrel. The title is taken from a poem by Sir Walter Scott! It is a story of magic, sorcery, music, and love.

Or, if a full-length novel involving historical and paranormal elements appeals to you, you will like The Sorceress of the Northern Seas.

 

For other works, check out my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.