HOME | DD
HelevornArt — Wayfarer: Page 6
#anglosaxon #artnouveau #ballad #couple #england #fairytale #fantasy #folktale #hero #historicalfiction #history #imagination #love #magic #medieval #middleages #night #northumbria #oldenglish #princeandprincess #sea #series #shortstory #story #warrior #storybookillustration
Published: 2017-04-23 12:30:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 407; Favourites: 10; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
~ Wayfarer: Page 6 ~Merwyn, Aidan's mother, found freedom retreating in her fantasy world, and one of her poetic creations is the fictionalized version of her meeting with Halvor Halfdan. The illustration shows the elf princess and the warrior in her ballad.
If Merwyn, at first, uses this fiction to obstinately refuse to take part in the real world, after her meeting with Halvor she moves on with her life and uses her daydreaming only as inspiration to create ballads. Had she lived in a more permissive time and place, her talent would have made her a dedicated writer; but, in her reality, she can't pursue her passion and only Aidan truly knows her potential.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Notes:
Aliesend means the liberator in Old English;
Merwyn's fiction where she identifies herself with the elf princess first appears in Merwyn, chapter II: The Castle in the Sea 
It appears mentioned again in The Enchanted Isles , which takes place towards the end of Merwyn's life, when Aidan is 10.
Related drawings (showing this same place by the shore, buy in reality): You are Free and The Enchanted Isles 
drawing style inspired by Kay Nielsen's fairytale illustrationsCover: Wayfarer
Previous Page: Page 5
Next Page: Page 7
Related content
Comments: 19
Ahh, the illustration is so beautiful!! And the story is so emotional, you can truly sense Halvor's pain!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much! Halvor is pretty much the only one of my characters to talk so openly about love.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome! Ah, I see! Is he more of a poet than the others?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hmm maybe... he definitely has a way with words: he's a good story teller and public speaker and can be quite persuasive as a merchant. The ability to compose verse was very much valued in the Viking Age so he must have tried it himself (but definitely not love poems, that was nearly forbidden!). So Aidan inherited these inclinations from both his mother and father 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Such a pretty illustration to go along with a delightful page. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you very much for the appreciation! 
Thank you for your interest and great comments!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You are so welcome
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm so glad you find it interesting!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow I just finished reading this 6 part story. What an amazing read, I most of all enjoyed Halvor's journey through all of this, more precisely how you transliterated his emotions into writing.
Although not materially poor, I like how you introduced him as a beat down old man with nothing but sand in his pocket, with no hopes and no expectations, almost depressed. Then as the story progressed, his son's reveal and kindness literally put him back on his feet and brought him a glimmer of hope, perhaps even a new meaning in his life.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much for reading through so far and for the comment! The last page of the story is coming up later this week.
Indeed, Aidan's arrival means a lot to him in a moment when had resigned with a less-than-perfect life, so he's very taken with Aidan as his only son (if he's his indeed) and the child of the love of his life. I'm very glad you enjoyed it!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Finally had time to catch up with this story. You're doing a great job with it. I love how it is written - the emotions seem so sincere and real and the language is full of description yet not too flowery (if you know what I mean). This page in particular is lovely - I love the theme of the fantasy world being a sort of escape for Merwyn and the idea that she is so talented with words and implanted that in her son as well. And the illustration is beautiful - surreal and magical, like Merwyn's re-telling of the story.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for reading the series, it means a lot! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love the way you did the moonlight on the left and how they are looking at each other. The fact you didn't shade in the features of their faces makes this more like an epic, like something passed on from generations ago that can't be traced to any specific group of people any longer and thus, in a way, has become universal. Also, I didn't know that Merwyn's hair was THAT long! It must be hard to take care of. So it seems like she's never cut her hair in her life, for it to have gotten so long?
I like how Aidan realizes that Merwyn had gotten over Halvor and that she realized she had already learned what she needed to learn about him before he had to leave. So Halvor, finally having had heard this, feels much less guilt about how their lives turned out.
And also, Aidan's story illustrates that Merwyn is quite egotistical, in a sense, since she retells the story portraying herself as an aelf maiden and princess (is aelf old English for elf?). I know she's into fantasy but even in fantasy, she represents herself as being so up-high and important. Seems like she always saw Halvor in terms of how he related to her, and what he could do for her instead of what she could do for him.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you for the awesome comment and interpretation! I was trying to go for that style! Not sure if Merwyn's hair is that long or it's just the princess as her fictional alter-ego. I described Merwyn's hair as being below her waist, but that can mean a lot of things xD She's my only character that has a physically easy and static enough life to pull that off... so I think I should start drawing the real Merwyn her with this hair length as well
Indeed, her story does suggest that, and Aidan has analysed it enough to see it. And exactly, I'm glad that you noticed Merwyn's egotism - this shows not only in how she portrays herself in the story, but also in her attitude towards Halvor. Both Aidan and Halvor deduce that the idea of Halvor and what he did for her was more important to her than Halvor himself. So this realization helps ease Halvor's guilt, but it isn't very reassuring about her love for him (don't think he realizes it at this point or care much though since he's in a very martyrical state of mind, as you can see xD). I wanted to enhance the idea that she isn't the vulnerable and 'weak' person that some see her, naive and who dedicates herself to loving her man (even in the story, it's her in need of healing and not the hero, as it usually is), but she's rather obstinate and even conceited.
About the aelf princess - she's the noble one, so she wants to enhance the status, but the fact that she's an elf (yeah, it's Old English) may suggests that she was cast away from society because of her magical (always read as 'pagan' in the Christian world) nature, so it can be her way to explain why she doesn't fit in society, because of her inclination towards things outside 'real' world that other people don't care about. In The Enchanted Isles story where she's with Aidan by the sea, she really goes crazy with mystical symbolism (of Celtic inspiration, even), so I thought I'd take that further.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I do love how you've shown the other side of her that is not immediately obvious. When was it that Aidan started realizing that this was how Merwyn indeed saw Halvor? Was it during the process of finding out more about Halvor's location and thinking about how Merwyn often spoke about him, from a more adult perspective now that he's grown up? Before, as a kid, I bet he was one of those people who thought she dedicated herself wholly to loving (the memory of) Halvor (or the man who symbolizes him in the story, anyway).
Out of interest, which female character has the longest hair? Merwyn, as you've suggested, but who follows her? It seems like Rannveig may have the shortest (or Mara)?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes, definitely, Aidan had pretty plain image of her when he was a child, and it wasn't until he became conscious of her affair with Halvor that he actually began to dig deeper in his own memories and try to understand what she thought and felt and what she was like overall. And only then did Aidan learn that Halvor was still alive, so he was all the more interested to know him (if he had met him years earlier, he would've seen him as the man who drove Merwyn into sin, or something of the sort). And, understanding Merwyn better, he also understands Halvor's perspective when he explains why he hadn't returned and doesn't really blame him for it.
Hmm I think the order would be: 1. Merwyn, 2. Rannveig, 3. one of the Wise-Women, 4. Rannveig's friends Gertha and then Ashild, 5. the other Wise-Woman, 6. Mara.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Can you imagine a younger Aidan meeting Halvor? Would he be pretty much scolding him and be disgusted with him? And probably refuse to even think that Halvor could be his 'real' father out of honour?
Ah, good list. It would make sense Mara has the shortest hair now that I think about it. I suppose since she's old and a slave, she would need to cut her hair more often since it could get in the way. The more active a person is, the more likely they're going to cut their hair regularly. How about for the guys? Who has the longest hair? Yngvar?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, definitely, and it would take a lot to convince him the affair happened in the first place. He'd probably think he should fight Halvor to save Merwyn's honour or something of the sort xD
Yup, 1. Yngvar, 2. Hakon, 3. Aidan (in his later years), 4. Aedgar, 5. Lars, 6. Asvald, 7. Helgi
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Makes sense--it's as I thought.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0