It will take, as a frame story, the Lannister children (Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion) getting a new septa, an absurdly youthful and rather eccentric one, who will change their lives by telling them stories during the course of a week, while their father is away in King's Landing tending to affairs of state. On the days leading up to the twins' seventh name day, the septa will give the three siblings a new story every day. Stories that will introduce the children to the climates and cultures of Westeros, while simultaneously telling them love stories, adventures, and sometimes tragedies, but also funny stories and happy ever afters.
Of course Septa Poppine will leave no one indifferent!
The story arose from a plot bunny I had last week, and feature, aside from Septa Poppine, many more of my Westeros original characters.
Here is the list of the tales, in order, and the characters that will be in them:
- The Crow who Flew too Far: A Tale of the North (Ser Kyle Liddle x Night's Queen)
- The Secrets of the Golden Halls: A Tale of Dorne (Princess Nymeria Nymeros Martell x an unnamed Lysene youth, serving as cupbearer at the Water Gardens)
- The Suitors of the Rose Bride: A Tale of the Reach (Maester Willas Fossoway [maester, green apple] vs Ser Loras Fossoway [courtier, red apple] over Mallorie Meadows [x Lord Paxter Tyrell, whose sister Selyse marries Loras])
- The Princess of the Evening Isle: A Tale of the Stormlands (Princess Elysenne of Tarth x King Renly Durrandon)
- The Marvels of Uncharted Tides: A Tale of the Iron Islands (Ser Sedrik Harlaw x troll queen)
- The Good Bastard and the Wicked Lordling: A Tale of the Vale of Arryn (Waymar Stone x Princess Anya Arryn, Ser Byron Hardyng x Mya Daughter of Conn, leader of the Burned Men)
- The Courtship in the Godswood: A Tale of the Riverlands (Lord Edmund Tully x Lady Lysa Frey)
What do you say? There will be references to the Princess Bride, the MoV, MSND, and other works of Shakespeare, Cinderella, the Snow Queen, and other fairytales, history (a character will be the fantasy counterpart of Queen Christina of Sweden [combined with the clever princess in The Snow Queen], while others will be based upon Lizzie Bennett, Odysseus, Rasputin, Cinderella and the rest of the cast in that tale...!), and so on.
I will, like Nathaniel Hawthorne in his myth retellings, put chapters on what happens in the Lannister frame tale before and after the stories are told. The structure of the project will thus follow this scheme:
- A Moonless Night: Before the Story
- The Crow that Flew too Far: A Tale of the North
- A Moonless Night: After the Story
- A Blazing Day: Before the Story
- The Secrets of the Golden Halls: A Tale of Dorne
- A Blazing Day: After the Story
- A Moonlit Godswood Afternoon: Before the Story
- The Suitors of the Rose Bride: A Tale of the Reach
- A Moonlit Godswood Afternoon: After the Story
- A Stormy Evening: Before the Story
- The Princess of the Evening Isle: A Tale of the Stormlands
- A Stormy Evening: After the Story
- A Misty Morn on the Shore: Before the Story
- The Marvels of Uncharted Tides: A Tale of the Iron Islands
- A Misty Morn on the Shore: After the Story
- An Afternoon at the Table: Before the Story
- The Good Bastard and the Wicked Lordling: A Tale of the Vale of Arryn
- An Afternoon at the Table: After the Story
- A Bright Day of Celebration: Before the Story
- The Courtship in the Godswood: A Tale of the Riverlands
- A Bright Day of Celebration: After the Story
Are you excited to find out more about the stories?
Sounds like some good stories to retell.
ResponderEliminarI just hope that they are worth the pain... the Mary Poppins frame story sounds interesting... Mood whiplash at the stories will ensue...
I also love the countdown to the birthday...
Sounds like at least one of the stories will be worth the pain...
EliminarThe original story was about a shah who asked each of his seven queens for a story during a different day of the week.
ResponderEliminarThe original premise was to have an Ironborn lord keep seven salt wives from around Westeros and ask each one of them for a story in turn. This would include a Westerland bride, but the Westerlands themselves have very little to tell.
So I shifted my focus to the Westerlands, et voilà! I could have the Lannister children being told the tales!
Then, I added this Mary-Poppins-like septa, my alter ego, to give the frame story some power. And also Tyrion, for completing the gender-equal ensemble. And send Tywin away to the capital for the children to be left on their own when this septa shows up.
I hope the stories are worth the pain. Love your writing it as a homage to nineteenth-century kid lit and stories within stories (told, for instance, to a convalescent child, or at a royal court... Granny's Wonderful Chair and Social Evenings, to name only two examples).
EliminarWhite Walkers, courtly intrigue, trolls, a battle of wits, princesses, and a funny story for a coda. I just can't wait for the first story to open!
So you will have a feuilleton with stories within the story?
EliminarWill there be any parallelism?
The structure will always be the same: "It was a(n) X autumn day time, and N days from the twins' birthday."
ResponderEliminarChapter I will begin:
"It was a moonless autumn midnight, and six days from the twins' birthday."
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Eliminar"It was a(n) X autumn day time, and N days from the twins' name day."
Eliminar"It was a moonless autumn midnight, and six days from the twins' name day."
"It was a blazing autumn midday, and five days from the twins' name day."
"It was a moonlit autumn afternoon, and four days from the twins' name day."
"It was a stormy autumn evening, and three days from the twins' name day."
"It was a misty autumn morning, and two days from the twins' name day."
"It was a hearty autumn dinnertime, and the eve of the twins' name day."
"It was a lovely autumn holiday, for at last it was the twins' name day."
So we'll have a formula to start every episode: And to end every episode?
ResponderEliminar"Well, I'm glad at least one of you liked today's story, my children!", Septa Poppine said. "Hope that tomorrow's story, though it may be different, will be equally interesting!"
The last story will have a variation, when the septa takes her leave:
"Well, I'm glad at least one of you liked this week's stories, my children!", Septa Poppine said, drying up her tears. "Hope that the stories of your lives, though they may be different, will be equally interesting!"
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EliminarThis will be said by the children to Tywin in the end, thus framing discourse within discourse:
Eliminar"We ran up the road until we came across the septa, and we called out her name with glee. She stopped for a while, she noticed our presence, and then, before resuming her journey, she kissed us goodbye and stroked our cheeks.
'Well, I'm glad at least one of you liked this week's stories, my children!', she said, drying up her tears. 'Hope that the stories of your lives, though they may be different, will be equally interesting!'"