Dear Gawain supporter,
I am writing with an update about my forthcoming third book from Unbound - my translation of the mediaeval masterpiece which is William and the Werewolf. If you have already supported this and are receiving this email in error, please accept my apologies. If, on the other hand, you are yet to be a patron and would like to join more than 250 others as named supporters, please do read on...
William and the Werewolf is one of the first of the alliterative romances and is certainly one of the most charming. It contains everything you would expect of a mediaeval romance: courtly love, chivalry, magic and a wealth of fabulous characters acting out their story in a wonderful mediaeval landscape of castles and kingdoms. The book is currently 67% funded so needs your help in becoming reality - please support it here.
Below is an excerpt from the romance to give you a flavour of its style and charm. In this exerpt, the two lovers, the exiled William and his beloved Melior, have been trying to hide their love from one another and from Melior's father, the emperor. The emperor has no idea that William is in fact the exiled prince of Palermo and considers him a forest foundling - so if he were to find out the two had been meeting in secret then William would be in big trouble!
Of course, in the way of romances of this period it is the lady Melior's maid, Alisaundrine, who arranges for the two lovers to meet and to do so in secret. What is so delightful about this scene is Alisaundrine's sense of duty to her mistress and the tension of young love which is a particularly powerful feature of the earlier half of the story.
And then Alisaundrine shortly after that
Asked Melior promptly to stint her mirth-making
And said, “It is so near to night that needs must you part;
I dread you being discovered for you have dwelled here awhile!”
“Alas this meddling mischief!” said Melior then,
“This day is shorter, it seems, than it first suggested!”
And surely William said the same at that time
But Alisaundrine afterwards answered and said,
“Make not any mourning, for you may meet often,
Discreetly henceforth each day, when you dare like;
Therefore, high ones, please make haste and depart.”
Then both see no succour; so they must separate,
And with clasping and kissing they caught their leave
And so each took promptly to their own chamber;
Both of them blissful their bleakness was cured;
Henceforth and wholly they had quickly recovered.
With all the delights of love all through the long years,
They played privately together and unperceived,
Such that none under the sun suspected any guile.
So well beloved was William by rich, poor or whoever,
So free with his fellows in presenting his fair gifts,
That honestly the emperor himself loved him supremely,
And so did everyone else who saw him with their eyes.
And Alisaundrine always served them at each turn
So discreetly and such that none suspected evil
And all gave good words whose company they graced.
Ah, keeping the secrets of passionate young love! This is just a fragment of a magnificent love scene which has an incredible poignancy which any lover, young or old, would fully understand. William and the Werewolf is packed with such delights and demands to be published; with your help it will be. If you have not done so already, please do help love come alive once more for Melior and William - your name will be published in the back too as a true supporter of love!
Thank you,
Michael Smith
Translator and Printmaker
PS - the image at the top of this update is just one of several which are available as pledge options for William and the Werewolf - and which will also appear in the book. If you'd like this particular one, there's only one available - but there are others! To be a supporter and own one of these special prints, please click here.