Fictional Historical

I’ve no desire to continue sulking about the injustice pouring out of the United States lately. I don’t like there, and I’ve run out of mental energy regarding the cut rate villainy the fascists down south are enacting.

Instead I want to talk about heroes, and an important concept in the Song of Seven: Archetypes. Was King Arthur a real person? Did he exist? The answer, I feel, is probably no and then yes. I was truck by how much of the biography of King Alfred the Great maps neatly onto the modern Arthurian myth. Similarly, there are other historical figures whose actions line up with parts of the Arthurian myth as well. I want you to imagine that the mythic heroes and villains are not real people and not strictly fictional people- in fact no people at all. I want you to imagine that the heroes of myth and legends are suits of lyrical armor that one can don when the story calls upon you to act out a part. They may have been many King Arthurs, many Noahs, many Anansis. And you may yet be one of them at some point in the future, for a little while. You may contribute to to their story, maybe adding a line or verse to the tale. And you will be forgotten, but the hero will endure, and the story will be told.