Review of "Reckoning" by Keith J. Taylor
A review on the Celtic themes in a short story from "Neither Beg Nor Yield"
This week, I make good on my declaration to review one of the two Irish mythology-themed short stories in the “sword and sorcery attitude” anthology Neither Beg Nor Yield, edited by
. While I will be providing some level of analysis for the Celtic elements in this story, they won’t go as in-depth as my scholarly reviews for Hound. There will also be some slight spoilers, but I won’t simply go over a beat-for-beat summary of the plot.“Reckoning” is the ninth story in Neither Beg Nor Yield and is part of a series featuring the character Nasach, a Fer Bolg who is a former slave turned wandering fighter. This story is not an adaptation of a singular story from Irish saga literature but pulls in elements from mythology and folklore to create an original adventure tale set in early Ireland. From the beginning, we hear that “Rome no longer ruled the world” showing that Nasach lives in a lawless time, amplified by the fact that he directly deals with pirates and raiders from the outset. Although Ireland never fell under Roman control, the waterways of the neighboring Britain are likely susceptible to opportunistic reavers and warlords.
The story calls Nasach a “Firbolg,” which is closer to the spelling used for Dungeons & Dragons’ depiction of this race. Above, I used the singular fer, to refer to him; it is common to see the Fir Bolg spelled this way as it refers to them in the plural sense (fir being the Old Irish for “men”), but I have noticed it leads to some confusion amongst English-speakers when trying to refer to them in the singular. In terms of characterization, Nasach is clearly human rather than any sort of nature-loving, cow-faced giant-kin as most gamers are prone to depict Fir Bolg. This is closer to how the Fir Bolg probably were in “actuality” as there is not really any source claiming them to be some sort of non-human race, although they do at one point coexist with the supernatural Tuatha dé dannan. It is likely that the tribes of invaders referenced in the Book of Invasions could be folk memories of previous generations of humans that came to Ireland during prehistory.
Some other linguistic notes I had while reading, although not incorrect, were a bit anachronistic when considering the time period of this story. Certain place-names like Cruacha Gorma (Irish for the “Bluestack Mountains”) and Lough Léine are closer to the modern spellings of these areas. It is also uncertain if these would have been what they were actually called during the time period this story takes place, but I suppose it can be overlooked in most instances. One interesting choice, however, is that characters refer to Scotland by its Latin name “Caledonia,” when really Irish people would have called it Alba.
The main supernatural focus of “Reckoning” concerns a character who may or may not be a merrow. The concept of a merrow in Irish folklore is similar to most universal beliefs concerning mermaids or mermen; the story uses the following description for them:
Merrows were said to be human from the waist upward and fish from there down, though sometimes, depending on the teller, with human lower limbs too. Always, even when they came to land and passed for women, they had betraying scales and fins somewhere. The women of their kind were always described as more comely than the men.
Wishful thinking, maybe. But another thing consistently said was that merrows often sought to live as human women on land, and to that end, take a human husband. They were variable, though, restless as the sea itself, and might desert their mortal spouses to return to the depths if they were offended, or their capricious terms were not met.
Taylor seems to pull in a smattering of different speculations concerning the folklore of merrows, which in the case of this story, seems open enough for audience interpretation but also serves as a bit of foreshadowing. The term “merrow” as well is obviously an anglicization of an Irish word; popular folklorists such as W.B. Yeats wrote at length about different creatures in Irish folk tradition that have since made their way into pop culture depictions of them (Yeats’ characterizations of these entities are often the points of reference used). It is also possible to find references of mermaid-like creatures in saga literature, though it is more likely to learn about merrows from folklorists’ collections, which seems to have been the case with “Reckoning.”
“Reckoning” also uses a somewhat folkloric device when it comes to a source of conflict in its plot, that being the “capricious terms” of the merrow. The main antagonist of the story, Srem the Strong, is a reiver captain married to the alleged merrow, Granha. She claims their marriage, however, is void if he strikes her three times—by the start of the tale, Srem has already struck her twice. This condition combined with its association with a folkloric entity made for quite the nice foreshadowing of a character’s downfall. It is something that is used quite often in both saga and folkloric tales in Irish tradition, and although it is not the “main conflict” of the story, I thought it really added a nice flare without being too obtrusive or overreaching in its need to keep in theme with its Irish roots.
Overall, “Reckoning” does not try to do anything too bold or brash with its mythic Celtic elements, keeping them rooted in the little mystery we actually know about the subject. It is a nice distinction from other stories that try to make complete and utter sense of the lore using as much fantasy worldbuilding as possible, and in the process destroying what little intrigue they were working with in the first place. As far as sword and sorcery fantasy goes, this one is quite grounded and in some cases could even pass as an “historical” S&S yarn This story definitely has inspired me to look for the other stories featuring Taylor’s Nasach to see what other kinds of creatures, tropes, and elements from Irish myth and folklore he has used over the years.
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Thanks for the Celtic bent of your analysis, Ethan! That was interesting.