How the Comrades Came to Be

arching green trees
The first thing I’ll say is that it’s not my fault; if it turns out badly, blame someone else.

Law School; two little words and a whole heap of bother. In my second year, I saw the school ‘playboy’ dragging around a big fantasy novel. Making certain my wedding ring was flashing protective bolts of lightning, I asked him when he found the time for ‘free reading.’ He told me if he didn’t read something that wasn’t law, he’d lose his mind. Incredible! The kid had a point which didn’t involve hitting on me.

So, armed with new knowledge, when I got home I grabbed the first volume of Lord of the Rings and read for a bit, then decided to take a nap. I was promptly transported into a dream I’d had when I was 12. Great looking guy, beautiful woman and I had no idea who they were. All I knew was that wherever they lived was cold, with wind blowing in from an ocean.

As the days went by, every time I closed my eyes it was like watching a movie.

The guy’s name was Evan, and he had cousins who were warriors. After a few days, I knew their names, (Gareth and Owen.) They had a big grudge with a neighboring kingdom. The drop-dead gorgeous woman was called Morleyna.

One day a scholar showed up at law school to give a lecture on ‘The Tort Contract Matrix.’ After about 10 minutes, I gave it up as a Matrix that could understand itself, since I hadn’t a clue. All the students had been advised, commanded or press-ganged into attending, so I couldn’t leave as the professors watched the doors like hawks.

On the page where I was supposed to write Brilliant Notes I ended up in the fall-back position of all bored students. I drew a map of the country I’d been seeing. A mountain range here, one kingdom here, another one over there, and when I got home I dragged out an encyclopedia.

I’d drawn a picture of Wales.

That explained the names. When I had a break, I haunted the law school library, since it linked to the main university. My first hit on the computer was troublesome, since it said the law school had a book about Wales but I couldn’t find it. The head librarian told me it was in the rare book collection, produced it and asked “May I be your first footnote?” We laughed because only a few people knew I’d been published in a Law Journal before I went to law school. (283 footnotes; makes me feel a bit sick just thinking of it.)

So, wearing gloves to turn pages, I transcribed bits of the book to my laptop. There was a song that described the men of Powys and dozens of pages on customs and history and battles. I’d discovered a gold mine. Gwynedd was the neighboring kingdom where the beautiful woman lived. Ah ha! A love story separated by a grudge and mountains.

Many books and laptops later, I had a story with people that lived and breathed.

The question became: would anybody want to read it?