A Family Worth Fighting for! Gelduin the Dwarf's Motivation! The New Great Bulgarian Fantasy Novel of Our Times: Lord of Bones

A New Day, A New Chapter

“Dawn’s golden hands gleamed gracefully through the foliage. The bringer of all mornings caressed frost-covered leaf and algid branch with her rose-fingered rays. Tree, shrub, grass, and flower awoke, and joined the hum of the Elden growth. Frost transmogrified into warm vapor and droplets of pearly dew embraced Dawn’s light, for the joy of little bug and forest critter alike.
Mother Forest stretched her verdant shapes and breathed her life-giving breath upon they who were about to quest in defense of Life. Elden tree roots whispered of the Four who doomed life-stealing cadaverous wizards, and one after another, every daughter of this forest knew to expect them.”

This is the start of the next chapter, and relies on

The Black Knight

’s strong suit; mixing poetic prose with good descriptions and also references to mythology.

The detail he goes into regarding the Dawn is quite nice, it is the sort of detail that one hopes for from a writer of his experience and offers us insight into a beautiful world full of song, whimsy and poetry. It serves as a great mirror to our own very much flawed but also lovely in its own way world.

But then we get the following passage which carries with it a great many references that people are certain to like if they like DnD/Gygax and even JRPGs.

““Olden tradition it is for companions like ourselves to share our names on the first day of the Quest. You know that many a Four never saw a morrow, and thus the Sharing of the Names happens come dawn, on the Quest’s first day.” – The Knight reminded them, his visor lifted, and left hand on his chest, so they kept a hundred breaths of silence in honour of the fallen.”

This is something I think I’ve seen in a few games in the 90s, it reminds me of the Super Mario RPG game where the characters occasionally sat down to address each other. There’s other games with this sort of scene, as it was all the rage in Japan at the time (not sure why). The one that probably did it best was FF6 which I suspect may well have been an influence for this book.

“First Brother Dalnor of the Iron Knights Order, blade
and mind at your service.”
The Elf bowed his helmeted head, raised the long axe
and sang:
“Guardian Chanter Ainhart of the Vayila Temple, may
Her blessing be upon us all.”
Sword raised in the air, the noble Dwarf declared:
“I, Chief Forester Gelduin of the Elden Rangers, will
always find the true path!”
Hands holding the spear above her head, the
Sorceress graced them with a half-smile:
“Arkan Spear Bearer Eirunn, this humble servant of
Creation is here to guard your minds and heal your bodies.”

This is the paragraph where the characters introduce themselves, with it only being strange if you think about why haven’t they introduced their names to each other already but I’m going to assume that’ll be dealt with later.

But the plot soon takes over again, as the characters hurry along to push it forward at a break-neck speed.

Gelduin’s Motivation

“You are welcome to stay in my home. I did not know if they’d pick me to become part of the Four, though I built my house with two guest rooms, and a bath.” – The Dwarf chuckled when Eirunn gave him the eye – “And you, my dear She-Arkan, can sleep in my daughters’ bedroom.”

The place they go to stay in is that of the Dwarf’s and we learn something new about him we didn’t previously know; he’s a father to a daughter. This is a detail that is interesting, and that does change how one should view the character as it is a creative decision that few other authors might well have made.

The reason is simple as to make a character a parent, is something that is believed for some reason to ‘age’ a character. It need not be so, but it does usually mean that you can’t do the sort of romance drama you can do with single characters, and means the character must grow up or has already attained a certain degree of wisdom in some people’s eyes.

This is an interesting perspective, though not always the case and there are authors who have explored the full rang of parenthood. But few have ever done so within the context of the Genre.

What’s more is that we get a little more insight into the thinking of the Ranger:

“I trained myself to protect the ones I love. Makes no sense to hide behind tall walls, while the fate of our kin is decided elsewhere. I fall beside you, my companions, I die in defense of everyone, my wife and daughters understand that.”

We have here someone with an interesting mindset; he’s already prepared to die. Also calling it now; he’s a dead man walking ;) lmao. But the thing that’s also interesting is something that we see in FMAB the anime adaptation of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and that’s that elected King of Amestris Bradley says about his own thinking and his relationship with his wife.

It is that she is the woman that he chose to have at his side and therefore she understands that he will someday die in battle.

What’s so interesting about Gelduin’s motive is that it is a direct ‘lighter’ version of this motivation and thinking. So that we get a heroic version of a villain’s comportment. What is more is that Gelduin has more than one daughter which is interesting, though apparently one is still living at home… disgraceful, somebody ought to find her and call her a ‘Femcell’ or something (I’m joking here again).

This chapter which was pretty wholesome, comes along with a nice little ending where we get a proverb from

The Black Knight

’s world;

Gelduin and Dalnor laughed, and even Eirunn’s otherwise saddened face was adorned by a wider than usual grin, as she chortled, hand covering her mouth.
Indeed, the path ahead appeared safe, and their guide knew this forest better than his own beard. Their quest may not have started without trouble, yet, as the ancient Neldaeiri oft said: “The morrow is omniscient and the evening slumbers.”

**********

Also Crown of Blood has a new edition, with maps, character bios and more!