Once Upon a Winter's Night

Table of Contents

 

 

“McKiernan brings his
Mithgar
series to a triumphant conclusion. . . . McKiernan’s fans—as well as those of Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind—will enjoy his usual array of thin-skinned, power-mad evildoers; hearty, honorable good guys; and grand magical fireworks.”

—
Publishers Weekly

 

“In the tradition of Tolkien, the author blends lore and prophecy with vivid battle scenes and emotional drama. A tale of high fantasy that should appeal to most fans of epic fiction.”—
Library Journal

“A page-turner.”

—
VOYA

 

 

“Once McKiernan’s got you, he never lets go.”

—Jennifer Roberson

 

“Some of the finest imaginative action. . . . There are no lulls in McKiernan’s story.”

—
The Columbus Dispatch

 

“McKiernan brews magic with an insightful blend of laughter, tears, and high courage.”

—Janny Wurts, author of
Grand Conspiracy: Alliance of Light

 

“McKiernan’s narratives have heart and fire and drive. His images and characters bring the power of the archetypes to his exciting adventure stories.”

—Katherine Kerr, author of
Days of Blood and Fire

 

“Heroic fantasy on the grandest possible scale.”

—Susan Shwartz, author of
Cross and Crescent

 

“Romance and disaster and plenty of magic—everything that makes a good, old-fashioned adventure story.”

—Kate Elliott, author of
Child of Flame

 

“Provocative. . . . Appeals to lovers of classic fantasy—the audience for David Eddings and Terry Brooks.”

—
Booklist

 

 

 

HÈL’S CRUCIBLE:
Book 1:
Into the Forge
Book 2:
Into the Fire

 

 

THE IRON TOWER:
Book 1:
The Dark Tide
Book 2:
Shadows of Doom
Book 3:
The Darkest Day

 

THE SILVER CALL:
Book 1:
Trek to Kraggen-cor
Book 2:
The Brega Path

 

Tales of Mithgar
(a story collection)

 

The Vulgmaster
(the graphic novel)

 

 

ROC
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand,
London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand

 

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

 

Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

 

Copyright © Dennis L. McKiernan, 2001

 

All rights reserved

 

Designer: Ray Lundgren

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

 

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, PENGUIN PUTNAM INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014.

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-11926-6

To all lovers, As well as to lovers of fairy tales

 

And to the many folks who grace
The Encyclopedia Mithgar,
The Halls of Mithgar,
and
The One-Eyed Crow

My dear Martha Lee, my heart, I appreciate and am grateful for your enduring support, careful reading, patience, and love.

Additionally, thank you, Tanque Wordies Writers’ Group, for your encouragement throughout the writing of
Once Upon a Winter’s Night
.

Lastly, thanks goes to Christine J. McDowell for her help with the French language. I would add, though, that in all the various words and phrases of the several languages the reader will find herein—Arabic, Irish, Japanese, Latin, and Norwegian, as well as French—any errors in usage are entirely mine. Of course, the errors in English are mine as well.

I
don’t remember when I heard my first fairy tale or even what it was. It could have been Hansel and Gretel, for I did act the part of Hansel in a school play when I was but six.

Nor do I recall when I actually read my first fairy tale, though I
do
remember checking out fairy-tale books from the library when I was nine or so. I read through the full spectrum of the Andrew-Lang-edited fairy-tale books, and I do mean “spectrum,” for the books were called
The Crimson Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book,
and on through
Orange, Yellow, Olive, Green, Lilac, Blue, Violet, Grey,
and
Brown
: i.e., the spectrum.

I loved those books, for, just as a
Captain Future Quarterly
had launched me into science fiction, these launched me into fantasy.

But, you know, it is my contention that many of the old fairy stories were severely shortened as the number of bards dwindled, and the people who were left to remember and pass on the tales simply didn’t have the oratory skills to tell stories of epic scope. Too, we also know they were altered to help promote different religions from those in the societies where told, hence they were shortened merely to get the point across.

And so, it is my thesis that back when bards and poets and minstrels and the like sat in castles or in hovels or mansions or by campfires, or entertained patrons as they travelled along the way, surely the original stories were much longer, with many more wondrous encounters than the later, altered versions would have them be. After all, in the case of a bardic storyteller, she or he would hold audiences enthralled for long whiles with accounts of love and seduction and copious sex and bloody fights and knights and witches and dragons and ogres and giants and other fantastic beings all littering the landscape of the tale as the hero or heroine struggled on.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not putting down the altered versions of the fairy tales; after all, I loved them. What I am saying instead is I’ve always felt that many wonders were lost by the shortening and altering of each folk and fairy tale to fit a different song from that which the old bards and my Celtic ancestors would sing.

For this reason, I decided to tell a fairy tale (in the traditional manner and style) as I would like for it to have been told had I either been one of those bards or one of those in the audience. Consequently, in telling the story herein, just as I think did happen in the past, I too have amended the tale, adding back those things—sex and fights and other such trappings—which might or might not have been in the original telling once upon a time long, long ago in a castle far, far away.

The tale I chose is one of my favorites, one you can find in
The Blue Fairy Book,
one that is said to have come from the Norse. But, you know, I always thought that this particular story should have come from the vales of France—it is a romance, after all, and who better than the French to have started it? Hence, sprinkled here and there throughout my telling, you’ll find French words to give it that flavor. You’ll also find other languages scattered therein, but the seasoning of French is strong.

By the bye, in my version of
The Blue Fairy Book
this story is but eleven pages long. I thought that much too short, and, as is apparent, I did lengthen it a bit.

 

Dennis L. McKiernan
Tucson, Arizona, 2000