The Gallant Gravedigger by Lyra

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Fanwork Notes

The prompt that (vaguely) inspired this is from Plato's Republic:

“Poets and story-tellers are guilty of making the gravest misstatements when they tell us that wicked men are often happy, and the good miserable; and that injustice is profitable when undetected, but that justice is a man’s own loss and another’s gain - these things we shall forbid them to utter, and command them to sing and say the opposite.”


Not sure the story actually brings that across properly, but that, at any rate, was the starting point.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Atanacalmo of Armenelos, main censor, has to decide what to do about a political play. To make matters more complicated, Princess Vanimeldë is highly interested in the play's success...

 

A sort of spin-off to The Embalmer's Apprentice, probably only makes sense if you're already familiar with the characters. Written for August 2020's Utopia/Dystopia challenge. Contains no actual spoilers for TEA. No gravediggers or embalmers were (further) harmed in the making of this narrative.

Major Characters: Original Male Character(s), Tar-Vanimeldë

Major Relationships:

Genre:

Challenges: Utopia/Dystopia

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 2, 604
Posted on 14 September 2020 Updated on 14 September 2020

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

The Gallant Gravedigger

Comments

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I liked how you portrayed Princess Vanimelde in this piece--there is a feistiness and political savvy underneath all that veneer.  Very curious about who the author is and I appreciate that you let us see Atanacalmo's thinking process.  It's a bit alarming though reading about the "death" of the main character and then the king but I consoled myself with the thought that the King wasn't deposed and didn't die--perhaps Azruhar won't meet an untimely death.

Yes, it would be a mistake to underestimate her (as Atanacalmo starts to realise).

I could tell you who I think it is, but I'm not sure you really want to know! ;) And of course, it might end up being someone else after all.

It was nice being permitted to show Atanacalmo's thought processes (some of them, at least) for a change! :D

I waffled over whether or not this should need a spoiler warning for TEA, but since none of the future events in TEA are mentioned (except for the sudden appearance of the play, which may or may not make it into the actual story), I ended up not doing that. But yes, as you observed, no kings were deposed; and no gravediggers (or embalmers!) were killed in the making of this play. The author probably felt that exile would've been too obvious.

Thank you!

Surprised is one way of putting it. (Who knows? Maybe we'll see his reaction, a few years from now? ;))

Yes, he isn't getting paid nearly enough for this kind of hassle.

It's definitely good for him to realise that there are other players growing into their own - although it'll probably just make him come up with more complicated schemes...

Thank you for your comment!

Heh, what a nice piece of meta! Darkly amusing and incisive at the same time.

I love this portrayal of Vanimeldë, I must confess I've had enough of Tolkien's collection of incompetent and/or dysfunctional Ruling Queens. The proposed changes to the script reminded me of all those plays and operas of the XVIII century ending in a happy resolution involving the sovereign's clemency. The craziest stuff of this genre I'm aware of is an obscure opera from Mozart's teen years, called "Lucio Silla", where the evil tyrant literally makes a 180 degree turn in the last 5 minutes of the script. Perhaps you could write the play and have Atanacalmo pull something  jarringly over the top like that. :P

Aw, thank you!

I have to admit that using Tolkien's uncomplementary descriptions of certain (particularly female...) characters for more sympathetic descriptions has become a bit of a hobby-within-a-hobby for me. ^^
I definitely had those kinds of stuck-on happy endings in mind! I recall a 18th century version of King Lear in which (of course) everything turns out for the best and nobody dies, except for the evil sisters of course. I expect Atanacalmo (or the anonymous playwright) would do a better job, though - that's why he discarded the first idea of making the king change his mind and instead opted for one where the king was never wicked in the first place... although a bowdlerised version of the "original" play would also be fun! :D