Masterworks: La Belle Dame sans Merci - Kathleen Guler - Interview

  Today is the second of a series on nine interviews I'm sharing on the Crowvus Book Blog. These are from the authors of the short stories included in the Masterworks anthology by the Historical Writers Forum. We're running through chronologically, some are video interviews, others are written.

Here is the brilliant Kathleen Guler, the author of La Belle Dame sans Merci, shedding light on her writing process, her inspiration, and her fantastic story...

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you write (besides Masterworks!), and what inspired you to begin writing.

Something about me, well…I am such a history nerd! I’ve been immersed in historical fiction since I was a teenager when my mother gave me a novel about Queen Elizabeth I. But then, if you count stories of Zorro in Old California or a John Wayne western, maybe my interest had already been implanted as a little kid. Anything historical appeals to me as long as it is pre-1920 or so. My first round of college (out of three!) reflected this with art history, music history, literature and drama (totally fell in love with Shakespeare after seeing the Zefferelli version of Romeo and Juliet).

Then I discovered Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy, which had a list of historical sources for further reading in the back of her novels. That led to stacks of books to study about Arthurian legend and Dark Age history, plus a research trip to the UK where I met the Arthurian scholar Geoffrey Ashe.  The result is my four-novel Macsen’s Treasure Series set in fifth-century Britain that portrays a spy’s efforts to help Merlin’s prophecy of the rightful king taking power—Arthur—to come true.  Can’t help it, I’m proud the final book in the series, A Land Beyond Ravens, won the 2010 Colorado Book Award.

My fifth novel rotates three interconnected stories that involve a tough warrior-priestess in ancient Scythia, an impulsive, headstrong widow on the run in early medieval Europe, and a suicidal female archaeologist in late nineteenth-century Britain. This book required an enormous amount of research, so I went back to school (this is the third round) and earned my masters degree in history. The university provided great access to otherwise unreachable resources. If I was going to do all that work, I thought I should get credit for it. Recently finished, the novel currently awaits an agent and/or publisher.

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Introduce us to your chosen artwork

I have always loved John William Waterhouse’s 1893 painting of La Belle Dame sans Merci. A large framed print of it hangs on my wall. It is a fascinating Pre-Raphaelite style depiction of a mysterious young woman in the woods seated on the ground with her legs folded under her like a fawn, a heart embroidered on her sleeve, and all the while pulling a kneeling knight in late medieval armour to her, possibly for a kiss. The mood is dark and brooding with subtle sexual undertones. Is she luring him into some unknown dire fate as suggested in John Keats’s 1820 poem of the same title? Or are these two simply falling in love and enjoying a brief tryst in the woods? Therein lies the inspiration for the story.

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What was your favourite thing to research for La Belle Dame sans Merci? Did you discover any gems?

Researching this story was quite a journey. I knew Waterhouse had drawn from Keats’s 1820 poem to inspire his images of the characters and setting. I also knew of a much older poem, also of the same title, written by French courtier Alain Chartier in 1424. Because of the style of the painting’s clothing and armour, I decided to focus on France in the year 1424 for the setting. 

Since my historical specialty is early medieval British history, I needed to brush up on late medieval French history during the Hundred Years War, which was fought between the French and English, mainly on French soil. I knew the French had an alliance with Scotland that paired them against their mutual enemy, the English, but I did not know how long it had been in place, how formal it was, and that it had a name: The Auld Alliance. This gave me the idea to make William a Scottish soldier and to have the long-standing animosity between the Scots and English play into the story. Jackpot! Then, in the process of this same research, I also discovered the town of Verneuil in Normandy was the site of a battle in August 1424 and the Scots played an important part in it. Double jackpot! 

An aside: when I was reading parts of this story to my writing critique group, you should have heard me mangle the French phrases I sprinkled in. I know zero about French, especially pronunciation. Fortunately, one of our members used to be a diplomat in Paris and another is married to a Frenchman. Instant help!

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What were the biggest difficulties in writing about the two cultures across The Auld Alliance in the story? Were there any aspects of the French and Scottish cultures which clashed with one another?

Medieval chroniclers wrote that the French, with their sense of refinement, disliked the Scots almost as much as they did the English. Despite their utter disdain of the Scots’ perceived crudeness, the French needed their fighting prowess, and so put up with them. The French considered them as having ‘vain arrogance and reckless haste.’ This may have been proven true more than once when arrogance and recklessness contributed to losing battles to the English, including Verneuil.

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La Belle Dame sans Merci is written in present tense. What are the biggest pros and cons of writing a story in this style?

I’ve come to like the immediacy of present tense. My four Arthurian novels were all written in a closely held third person, past tense. My fifth book, the one with the three interconnected stories, is all written in first person, present tense like the La Belle Dame story. I know some readers dislike present tense, but I believe that comes down to a matter of personal taste and what feels right for a particular story. Now that I’ve been working in present tense for a while, past tense doesn’t feel comfortable to me anymore. 

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Did you have any real people inspirations for William or Isabeau?

Both William and Isabeau are completely fictional. If the couple in the painting, Keats’s poem, or Chartier’s poem were based on real people, I have not been able to establish it. They don’t appear to be part of any literary cycle, either. They very well could have been based on real people given that Chartier was a royal clerk, notary, and financial secretary to the French king, Charles VII. He could have been writing about people at the French court, but without proof, I decided to place the fictional William and Isabeau into a slice of known French history. 

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Have you got a favourite line from La Belle Dame sans Merci of which you felt particularly proud?

Here’s a couple: 

‘No one can pry memories out of my head to read my mind like a proclamation on parchment.’

(Isabeau is afraid someone will discover her actions in the past.)

‘He eyes me with suspicion, as though I might turn him into a toad or some slimy thing that has crawled unnoticed in to the slice of peach the English commander is about to pop into his mouth.’

(Isabeau has wandered into a place in the castle where she doesn’t belong.)

I also strategically placed a couple of lines in both the beginning and ending that reflect these lines in Keats’s poem: "The sedge is wither’d from the lake/And no birds sing." The story has a river instead of a lake and my wording is a variation, but the idea is the same and fitting. 

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What do you hope readers will take away from your story?

I’d like to know that readers will learn a bit about this episode of the Hundred Years War through the eyes of William and Isabeau. In addition, while the main part of the story takes place in August 1424, Isabeau’s backstory deeply influences her attitude towards William and the grove where she finds her personal sanctuary. She suffered through the horrors of the English siege of Rouen in 1418-1419. When the English threaten to shatter her life again in Verneuil, she must decide: stay or flee. We see this happening in the world yet again today. So many people are still forced to make terrible decisions when there is little or no choice for them. Nothing ever truly changes.

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If time travel were possible (perhaps it’s only a matter of time!) would you choose to go back to 1424, or another year? Why?

That’s a hard question. In one way, yes, I’d like to go back to see if I’ve properly portrayed my characters, their time, and their place. On the other hand, since I invested a great deal of time and research into Arthurian Britain, I think I’d rather go there. And if I find that one of my characters in particular was real, I might not want to come back here! 

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What’s next for your writing? Any projects in the pipeline?

Lately I’ve been working on quite a few short stories that are related to each other and plan to create a novel out of them. One was published in a magazine last year, and another has been submitted to another anthology. This is still in the idea stage and not very coherent, but I hope to make it work. Thanks so much for listening!

You can find La Belle Dame sans Merci in the Masterworks anthology, which is available on #KindleUnlimited HERE!

Now, let's meet the author!

Kathleen Guler is the author of the multi-award winning Macsen’s Treasure Series: four historical novels set in fifth-century Arthurian Britain. The series includes A Land Beyond Ravens, which won the 2010 Colorado Book Award in the historical fiction category. The author has also published numerous articles, essays, short stories, reviews, and poems. Her work has appeared in Goose River Press, Eastern Iowa Review, Steamboat Magazine, and Saber and Scroll Journal, among other publications. She is a member of the Colorado Authors League and the Historical Novel Society. Her fifth novel intertwines a trio of stories revolving around a tough warrior-priestess in ancient nomadic Scythia, an impulsive, headstrong widow on the run in early medieval Europe, and a suicidal female archaeologist in late nineteenth-century Britain. The author lives in the magnificent Colorado Rocky Mountains with her husband, two parakeets, and probably what amounts to the entire county’s bird population.