Occasionally most writers, I suspect, find themselves down the research rabbit hole. The research rabbit hole is oft times far more vast than a reader would ever imagine and in much the same was as most writers tend to write far more than ever makes it to the page. Veritable warrens in fact, that stretches ever deeper, drawing the writer down amid twisting turning tunnels that gleam with promised wonders, in amongst the dirt…

To use another analogy, research is an iceberg, and your readers may only ever see the tip that lays above the water line, but you need the whole iceberg if your story is going peak even that much out above the waves…

As I said, most writers do this. Most however are probably less than inclined to hurl themselves down a research rabbit hole with only a vague idea of why they are doing so. Most writers probably do not feel the itch at the back of there skull in the same way. An undefinable urge to go chasing down a story for no other reason than the sudden pronounced conviction based on little more than conjecture. A conviction built on effectively nothing. A conviction caused by little more than a couple of neutrons firing at the same time, causing the vaguest of ideas to form. That was almost certainly not related to the rum…

Or may be they do… Maybe I’m not alone in this.

In any regard, thanks to the human incarnate of effervescence, queen of the mad clockwork pixie-girl’s and eclectically talented, Jessica Law*, introducing and singing an excellent, entertaining song based in part on a 17th century Italian poem called ‘Orlando Furioso,’ rooted in some of the wilder interpretations of ‘The Matter of France’… And so, down the rabbit hole I went.

In fairness, this is not a new rabbit hole. I’ve been down here before, which was why to no ones surprise I suspect, I was previously aware of the epic Italian poem in question. The Orlando in the title is the Italian name for Roland. The Roland who was cousin to Charlemagne and most famous of the emperors Paladin knights and the central hero of the French national epic ‘The Song of Roland’. By coincidence he is also ‘The Childe Roland’ of whom Robert Browning wrote ‘To the Dark Tower Came’ and by extension is also the inspiration for that other Roland of epic fiction, The Gunslinger in Stephen Kings ‘The Dark Tower’ series…

It was due to the one who on occasion ‘Forgets the face of his father.’ that I originally wandered down this rabbit hole, via this other entrance, which had led me to an awareness of epic Italian poems as well as the general madness that is ‘the Matter of France’. This previous foray down the rabbit hole of Charlemagne’s knights also seeded an idea at the time that I played about with then put to one side over a decade ago. It was at the time a half baked idea that didn’t pan out, not least because another idea took hold which became Passing Place. But I have always thought there is a story waiting to be told down this rabbit hole.

Unlike ‘The Matter of Britain’, the name given to the cycle of myths surrounding King Arthur and the knights of the round table, ‘The Matter of France’ contains verifiable historical figures, Roland and Charlemagne included. But just because there is some actual real history here doesn’t make the fantastical nature of the story’s any less mythic. If anything Arthurian legends are far more prosaic than their Gaelic equivalents. The rabbit hole is deep and full of madness… I mean there is a tangled web of wondrously bonkers stuff down there, magicians, heirs, prophecy’s, sea serpents, magic islands, hippogriff’s, Princesses from far off Cathey, wars, lovers, romance, magical fountains, rage fuelled murderous rampages, magic rings, magic swords, an elephant tusk horn, unrequited love, religious wars, jealousy, more madness… As well as a bleed in of Germanic and Spanish myths, a little North African, Mediterranean and near east while we are at it, oh and the catholic church of the first holy roman emperor himself. I’ve been down there a few days , I have a lot of notes…

I started back down this rabbit hole with the seed of an idea. An idea born of an unrelated short story I wrote about Sigmund Freud adrift in a pedalo asking a man who just appeared dressed as a pirate about his dreams and, because it was Freud, how this related to his feelings about his mother. This was an absurdity, clearly, and written as such, which made it fun to write. It was also playing around with an idea, the core of which I have danced with a while….

So I am down the rabbit hole, admit The Matter of France, Italian Epic Poems, adrift in the pedalo of an idea, that may become a thing… Currently its just a loose collection of notes for the most part, oh, and this dialogue…

“So Roland…”

“Orlando!”

“Orlando then, if you prefer. You were telling me of this battle you witnessed. What do you think it all means?”

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to tell me?”

“Well, yes, in essence, but my process is complicated, I do not merely interpret dreams… “

“They’re not dreams…”

“Are they not? Well let me ask you this, what year did this battle you speak of take place, Orlando?”

“The year of our Lord Seven Ninety-Three.”

“And today’s date is?”

Bitter laughter, “It matters not?”

“Matters not? I see. But we sit here amidst the dawn of the third millennium and you are speaking of a battle that by your own admission took place towards the end of the first.”

“It is still no dream Herr Doctor.”

“What prey tell then, Orlando, is it?”

“A memory…”

This then is what happens when you listen to Jessica Law* singing her songs, or maybe that’s just me…

*As I have taken her name in vain , click on her name and it will take you to her Bandcamp, enjoy.

https://jessicalaw.bandcamp.com/album/lovers-and-fighters