Three years ago, I launched a short story series on YouTube called Tapes from the Crawlspace. The stories were written as an exercise while I was traveling Europe just before the pandemic. Their had to 31 of them (once for each day of the month), and each one had to be 120 words or less.
The stories ended up mostly being about ghosts (or ghouls, in one case), so I released them as a Halloween special.
One of the stranger stories was called “The Light Bringer.” It was an attempt to wrestle with an interesting dilemma: many Arthurian stories describe the magician Merlin as having powers because he has a unique heritage. In Robert de Boron’s epic poem, Merlin’s father is a demon who impregnates a mortal woman as part of a long-range scheme to create the Antichrist. The church sanctifies Merlin before he can become too infernal, but he still has powers which regular people do not have. Hence his ability to perform magic.
So, how does one reconcile being fathered to be the Antichrist, and becoming a magician who mentors a Messianic king figure? “The Light Bringer” imagines Merlin having an encounter during Arthur’s coronation that cuts to the heart of this paradox.
Coming back to the story in 2023, I concluded it had an interesting idea. But perhaps too big an idea to be told properly in 120 words.
So, when a chance to write a short story about kingship for Fellowship & Fairydust’s May 2023 issue came up, I decided to expand the story. Work in a little more king imagery. A little more Last Supper imagery. A few allusions to de Boron’s poem. A stronger emphasis on how Merlin making Arthur a king is really him giving up a chance at the lordship he was sired to have.
That short story, now titled “My Crown I Gave Up for You,” has been republished on Fellowship & Fairydust’s website. Not a typical Arthurian story, but I think it works well for Halloween.
Enjoy.
G. Connor Salter 