John Royce – Page 61 – THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT HORSE trilogy

Through the Looking Glass of History

Why I wrote “The Legend of the Great Horse”

A tragedy sparked The Great Horse trilogy (of which Eclipsed by Shadow is the first volume). I came to know of this sad event because I lived in Cambridge, MA, where it occurred.

It happened in the 1990’s as a wave of corporatization washed over Harvard Square, which was at the time a vibrant, diverse, spirited bright spot of educational culture situated near the heart of Harvard Yard. Due to the end of rent control, incoming corporate chains and commercial development replaced the great old used bookstores in Harvard Square, which housed decades of professor libraries on their shelves and in high-piled boxes and book stacks.

A trove of civilization’s knowledge, irreplaceable in aggregate, telling the story of the decades of the twentieth century in first person. Walking along the crowded aisles and browsing historical works was like running your fingers through treasure that was never to be yours—or anyone’s.

Happily, people haven’t stopped reading or buying books, and a few of the old stores do still survive around Harvard. You can still stoop and step down to get inside often cave-like entrances, to the honeycomb of ceiling-tall smooth-worn wooden shelves completely filled with reams of books, multi-varied colors in a celebration of thought.

History books can be the most colorful of all, and they noticeably contain horses. In all of human history, since prehistoric times of cave paintings, some successful part of mankind has had horses. Horses have adapted to human needs in every era throughout history, from pack animals to chariot teams–and yet have not essentially changed at all.

Horses are not domesticated in the sense of cats and dogs, but still retain full basic instincts. That inner permanence has made the horse a cultural barometer of sorts: flourishing horsemanship is very often associated with successful society. The reverse is also true, and horsemanship can be lost to barbarism. (ie, Eclipsed by Shadow, Bk 1)

The idea of The Legend of the Great Horse came from the ancient belief that horses were a gift from the supernatural. The time-traveling ability of the Great Horse is inspired and informed by the ancient legends. Flight, mobility and transcendent transportation are symbolized in the horse: time-travel is a development of that role.

The story of human history is one of many worlds, and the horse has galloped through them with us. The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy is a celebration of the adventures our horses have shared with us.

It has been an exciting ride!

The Looking Glass of History is a Mirror

I recently wrote that the spark to my writing “Eclipsed by Shadow” was triggered by the corporatization of Harvard Square and the loss of its venerable old bookstores. It was alarmingly easy to relate ancient nomadic destruction of religious settlements to the commercial invasion of these hallowed shelves. Both invaders had as their object mere material gain, and neither saw worth in the defenseless.

store-window My fascination with history was fueled by the doomed abundance of the historical record preserved in those sleepy bookstores. I was learning that history not only repeated but it echoed. As Faulkner said, the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past. It seems more evident today, twelve years later, as we watch world events take stunning turns that defy logic or intent. Reality does not correspond to our wishes or beliefs: it is necessary for humanity to correspond to the reality of human nature and social dynamics.

I began to see the trial and error component of human society, and discovered that civilization’s progress was not so much a smooth path upward as a broken one with pits and valleys. Societies grew as they learned, and as they grew they corrupted and lost their lessons and finally perished. Over and over again.

So what made the Harvard bookstore demolition so tragic in my view was not just the loss of the threads of our historical conversation, but that the act itself was already evidence of the process of forgetting. Unfortunately, what makes the 21st Century truly different from other times is the penalty for this kind of forgetting. Crowded humanity has come to a place when it can effectively destroy itself; our technology is too advanced for us to revert to failed ideas and patterns.

How will we avoid the old pitfalls if we cannot remember them? That was the problem that intrigued me: the answers are in the pages of history, if we can only be persuaded to look.

cavalry-horses

I wanted a way to thread history together, and looked for clues in the gilded pages of those ill-fated history books. A cohesive clue must be discoverable in all those old books, something nearly universal to all humanity. Perhaps an invention like the wheel, maybe music, or clothing, or food … if there were only some common link somehow obscured and hidden within all these colorful pages with their images of countless horses…

Horsemanship is a Mirror of Civilization

Chariots of early history (16th century BC)

This is my third “Mirror” post in a row, and where I finally explain the use of the metaphor and close the barn door after it.

In the first post of this Mirror trilogy, I mentioned becoming interested in reading about history while browsing the shelves of the doomed used bookstores in Harvard.

I didn’t and don’t have answers about what history people should remember, or what conclusions should be drawn. I am simply interested in knowing about factual history and discussing it. That interest led to the idea of The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy.

My blog’s “Mirror” Trilogy Concludes

Horses were a common factor in almost every time from primitive man and antiquity to the Renaissance and the American West. The animal has literally been with mankind every step of the way. As someone who competed in equestrian sports and worked in the horse industry, I found this to be an example of common knowledge not commonly explored.

Horsemanship was not an obvious process to humanity: it took thousands of years for mankind to learn to control a horse as a rider. While the first uses of horses are misty and inconclusive, truth be told early horsemanship was a dog’s breakfast of nose-rings, superstition and brutality. So poor were the prospects of the first mounted riders ending up where (and how) they wished to arrive, that as a practical matter driving appears to have been the main use for horses in the early days of civilization.

This changed in the last millenia B.C. with a new kind of horsemanship based on working with the horse in an empathetic and humane way. The horse responded to empathetic methods so well that the new art, today called “dressage,” led to a revolution in mounted riding. As the human consciousness arced up our horsemanship advanced to new levels of cooperation and partnership.

da Vinci’s “Rearing Horse”

However, when Rome fell into centuries of brutalized Dark Ages, dressage was lost to Western Civilization. In fact, dressage was one of the “rediscovered” Classical arts that sparked the new age of the European Renaissance. Riding schools were set up and Riding Masters emerged as students in the laboratory of the ménage. Horsemanship recovered its humane component and advanced to unprecedented heights of sport and art.

The history of horsemanship seems to highlight the relationship between empathy and human progress. It is fascinating to see how horses have adapted to the different stages of human development; horses are not only a true link with our past but a reflection of their times. Progress in horsemanship has mirrored the progress of mankind itself.

It makes for a fascinating study–and the greatest canvas on which to tell a story.

Well written, exceptional story, interesting characters, and a learning experience. – Midwest Book Review

The following is an excerpt from the most recent review of “Eclipsed by Shadow” by Shirley Johnson, Senior Reviewer for the Midwest Book Review:

“I enjoyed this book. I really had no idea of the extent the subject matter would educate me about the history of the horse. I truly admire horses, although I have never been one to ride them, I have always enjoyed their beauty. In this book I learned so much about their past and what an important role they played in the development of mankind. Some of the events left me disturbed, others were intense, but each episode was definitely a learning experience. The characters were well developed and the locals were defined in an exceptional way, definitely bringing you right in the center of the action.

“Final analysis: Well written, exceptional story, interesting characters, and a learning experience. It doesn’t get much better than that.”