The Bard's Tale - Prologue. Introduction

This story has its roots in a narrative poem I wrote for a friend on GA last August. He was having a rough time and I wanted to cheer him up. The poem was posted in two parts in my blog – they can be found here,

  and here,

The story is presented in the style of a screenplay. However, it is not written to be a functioning screenplay, and, although I've tried to avoid obvious errors, it should not be judged on that basis. All actions and descriptions are in italics within square brackets, the rest is speech. The central characters are deliberately not named or described in any detail, allowing you, the reader, the chance to imagine your own 'actors'.

The action takes place in what may seem to be mediaeval England – but it isn't, quite …

The tale contains verse – none of it mine.

All verse by, or attributed to, the bard is © 2017, Parker Owens. Parker has my deep gratitude for undertaking this commission at a time when his other commitments were more than usually onerous. That the bard has a poetic voice in this tale, is due solely to Parker's generosity and talent. The tale would be much the poorer without it.

Excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight © 1992, James Winny, published by Broadview Literary Texts.

Translated excerpt from The Canterbury Tales, The Knight's Tale © 1985, David Wright, published by Oxford University Press.

This is my first attempt to write in American speech patterns. Despite my editor's valiant efforts to keep me on the straight and narrow, there may well be some … issues. Please be gentle. Characters speaking non-standard English are not speaking with any particular dialect or accent.

Hopefully, a sequel will follow later in the year, featuring the same principal characters in the dark, gothic, mathematical tale of Count Drewcula.