Prester John or Presbyter John was a supposed mythical figure, a priest of an Eastern Christian church and ruler of a famed kingdom of untold wealth, that people of the Middle Ages hoped would help quell the rise and encroachment of the Islamic world into Christian countries. Although some people believe he was a real historical character, Prester John’s origins have been traced to 1145 and a letter that was said to have been written by him and later shown to be a forgery. (Though that supposed forgery, in itself, could be a myth.)
Although I’d been aware of Prester John’s story for decades, I’d never thought about it until I started reading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams, but seeing the name rang an internal bell. The first book of the series begins in the kingdom of the realm King John Presbyter, and although the book is not about the mythical king, apparently Tad Williams borrowed the name for his own fictional king. I shrugged off the coincidence until later in the series when the young hero ends up in the house of a sort-of wise witch. She helps the young hero escape the bad guys, and while on the run, he stumbles on the stilt holding up her house and is shocked to see that it resembled a chicken foot.
Just like with King Presbyter John, the hut on chicken legs rang a bell — Baba Yaga, of course, a witch/wise woman in Slavic folklore. Then I realized that this series, like the Wheel of Time, took its inspiration from various myths and legends.
There are many other folkloric creatures in the series that I’ve noticed, such as the Kilpa, water spirits that lure sailors to their death, based on Scottish legends of the Kelpie. Sithis, the sort of good fairies based on the Irish Sidhe, and the Norns, the human-hating fairies based on Norwegian Norns. Certain episodes in the tale are based on historic battles and famous people, such as the War of the Roses and King Alfred the Great of England and three burnt cakes. And the religion of the story people seems to be based on the Osiris myth.
Although I spent years digging through all the references in The Wheel of Time series, not just the legends and myths, but world religions and philosophies, historical references and costumes, I’m not sure I want to do the same with Tad Williams’ series. But still, as I pointed out, many references echo in my head, so I might end up decoding his influences by default.
Two things stand out for me. One: that both these series —The Wheel of Time and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn — that are based so much on real world mythologies and histories began to be written about the same time. Though Tad Williams’ books were published first, there’s no doubt that Robert Jordan developed his ideas separately. It seems perhaps as if ideas are floating in the ether, and they belong to whatever writers happens to catch them. And two: that not only was The Game of Thrones inspired by Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, much of it seems to be a rip off, but who knows. Although The Game of Thrones came out much later, it’s possible Martin himself grabbed the similarities from the ether.
It does seem as if the fantasy genre that interests me is mythic based, which makes sense that so few fantasy novels appeal to me — too many are based on totally fake history and mythology and worlds that I cannot connect to.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One
