Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold (Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths, 3)

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Given how much we enjoyed the first two books in Stephen Fry‘s Greek myth trilogy— Mythos and Heroes—we’ve been eagerly anticipating the third book, Troy, a retelling of the Trojan War, which is now out. We asked him to tell us which sources and books he found most useful as he embarked on his retelling of the epic tale of the fall of Troy.

Runa – Wisdom of the Runes’ presents what is, without doubt, the most misunderstood, probably the most cynically abused set of runes in the history of runology. The Armanen runes have been ignored by scholars, abused by right wing extremists, and largely forgotten by students of the occult. Nevertheless, the Armanen runes are in many ways the quintessential esoteric rune row. Originally conceived of by the nineteenth-century German mystic Guido von List, the Armanen runes offer us the most esoterically charged futharks ever encountered.He writes, “Finally, Roger Lancelyn Green was one of the writers who woke me to the pleasures of Greek myths when I was young. His coverage of every aspect of the Trojan war is brisk and a little sanitised for children, but well researched and highly readable.” Atwood, E. Bagby. "Some Minor Sources of Lydgate's Troy Book." Studies in Philology 35 (1938), 25-42.

A romp through the lives of ancient Greek gods. Fry is at his story-telling best . . . the gods will be pleased' Times Steiner, George, ed. Homer in English. New York: Penguin, 1996. [ Troy Book Pro. 145-75, 2.7852-75, 3.5423-74, 4.7058-7108.] His death "thorugh necligence only of his shelde" (3.5399) is surely the most interesting contradiction of Lydgate's poem. Hector's fatal lapse, which Lydgate adds to Guido's narrative, does not compromise Hector's heroic stature so much as challenge the primacy of prudence as a virtue that can be applied to so many facets of human experience.Colonne, Guido delle. Historia destructionis Troiae. Ed. Nathaniel Griffin. Medieval Academy of America Publications 26. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1936. Neilson, W. A., and K. G. T. Webster, eds. The Chief British Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries: Selected Poems. Boston: The Riverside Press / Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916. [ Troy Book 2.479-768.] Traditional Witchcraft – A Cornish Book of Ways is a 21st century version of traditional Cornish witchcraft, of the kind recorded by Hunt, Bottrell and others. This is no neo-pagan or modern wiccan manual, but rather a deep drawing up into modern times of some of the ancient practices of lore and magic practiced by the white witches, charmers, conjurers and pellars of the Cornish villages. Their presence was still current when the 18th and 19th century antiquarians and collectors recorded them, and, although the 20th century largely put paid to their activities, nevertheless their lore never completely disappeared, and it continues to provide inspiration for practitioners today. Gemma draws on this knowledge, not only from published material, but also from the experiences and workings of ‘wise women’ and country witches living today.

Edwards, A. S. G. "Lydgate Manuscripts: Some Directions for Future Research." In Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England: The Literary Implications of Manuscript Study. Ed. Derek Pearsall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1981. Pp. 15-26.

Gray, Douglas (1970). "Later Poetry: The Courtly Tradition". In Bolton, W. F. (ed.). The Middle Ages. Sphere History of Literature in the English Language, Volume 1. London: Sphere. ISBN 9780872261259 . Retrieved 5 August 2012. A symbol within some branches of traditional witchcraft depicting, among other things, the altar of the Wise, the six-fold cross of the Ways, the witches’ God, the Huntsman and the sacrificial King. Walsh, Elizabeth R. S. C. J. "John Lydgate and the Proverbial Tiger." In The Learned and the Lewed: Studies in Chaucer and Medieval Literature. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Harvard English Studies 5. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974. Pp. 291-303. Brie, Friedrich. "Zwei mittelenglische Prosaromane: The Sege of Thebes und The Sege of Troy." Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 130 (1913), 40-52, 269-85. Benson, C. David. "The Ancient World in John Lydgate's Troy Book." American Benedictine Review 24 (1973), 299-312.