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Subj: Chief Shots / BoTC #16
From: kvw@monadnock.keene.edu
Dear Genealogy Masters,
This is the best issue of this series I've read. The others. . . I read them once, savored the interesting moments, and set them aside. 'Of the Fathers' drew me back into several re-readings, though. Everything, the art, script, coloring is just great. You created a wonderful, human 'bad guy' with Skar there, so I'm surprised he's been killed off so quickly. Then again, I have a feeling the influence he exerted will have a severe effect on the events of the next 100 or so years (at which time the Wolfriders will be burned out of the Holt).
This issue has bridged some time gaps in Wolfrider history, and I was captivated by the emerging chronology of events. Perhaps 'captivated' isn't quite the right word here; 'deeply concerned' would be more accurate. I mean, check out this timeline you've given us:
BoTC #12 Mantricker age 10, Demontricker age 10
** 30 years pass **
BoTC #15 Mantricker dies, Sohan scarred age 5
** 20 years **
BoTC #16 Mantricker 60, Skar 25, Skar's son 5
** 75 years **
BoTC #16 Skar's son 80, Taf & Ehok 15 & 16
** 10 years **
HY #5 Skywise born, Taf & Ehok 15 & 16
** 9 years **
NB #6 Skywise 9, Cutter born
** 17 years **
EQ Book 1 Bearclaw dies at +/-130
** 5(?) years **
Humans burn the forest
The conclusions here that bother me are the lifespans of Mantricker and Bearclaw. Bearclaw had legend of being the longest-lived Wolfrider, and we KNOW that there have been only 10 chiefs in ten thousand years.
I challenge the notion that Bearclaw only lived to the age of +/-130 years, as this timeline clearly suggests this. I always thought Bearclaw lived to the age of 800 or 900. I do see a way out of it though, and that is if the two boys at the end of BoTC #16 are NOT the same boys as in HY #5, but perhaps only their ancestors, and one with the same name. It's a long shot, I know, but I had to try.
Kevin VanderWoude
This letter worried us until we received the following... - RP
From: yngvar@vestnett.no
Subject: BLOOD OF TEN CHIEFS #16.
Well, I'm almost a month after everybody else. And everybody has talked about what a *gross* continuity error there was in this issue. Demontricker lived before Mantricker became chief, and is still alive years after his death. Well, here are some points I think are worth mentioning.
The story is a retelling of a retelling. Also, both in the narrative we see, and when the narrator himself got the story, an old man told it to a little boy. Obviously some things could have changed along the way.
Also, remember HIDDEN YEARS #5. Demontricker's name used to be held in high regard among the humans. Stories of his and Mantricker's pranks were popular in their folklore, and people tried to imitate him. So if there was any truth in this story at all, the narrator must have talked about one of those "wannabe" Demontrickers as the real one, and the meeting between him and the elves was told in a way that matched. Supposedly, his foster father was "Demontricker" himself. That would either have to mean that he got the impression that he actually *was* the Demontricker of the stories, or that he prefers to tell it that way to the children.
One reason for doing it could be that some of the point of the story was to show the similarities between the humans and the elves. Calling attention to the elves' long lives wouldn't fit.
All right. Having gone through this, I'll join the booing crowd. It seems to me as if Terry Collins is a bit prone to continuity errors like this, when he's writing his own stories, as opposed to adapting someone else's. (This is a new story, right?) There was something similar in BoTC #10. The way the High Ones' accident was described there, didn't seem consistent with the fact that the Palace was briefly seen in the sky in "KINGS" #9.
"Ohh, I suppose there might have been a few details and incidents I added or omitted, as seemed necessary to ensure the tale flowed properly." The Cluracan of Faerie -- THE SANDMAN #52
Yngvar
Thank you, Neil Gaiman, for putting it all into perspective. And if you think the storytelling's gone wacko so far, you're in for a serious shaking up when issue #20 hits the stands. No one can be ready for this... Keep those cards, letters and genealogies coming, and we'll see you in 45! - RP