My ancestry is mostly British (which I assume includes some
Scots, too) and Irish, so I’ve always had a fondness for Celtic heroes. The latest
collection from DMR Books, CELTIC ADVENTURES, offers a fine assortment of such
heroes, too.
After an informative and entertaining introduction by Deuce Richardson, the book
opens with the poem “The Druids” by Kenneth Morris, an author whose name is familiar
to me, but I don’t believe I’ve ever read anything by him until now. It’s an
atmospheric poem that does a good job of setting the stage.
“The Devil’s Dagger” by the well-regarded writing team of Arthur Gilchrist
Brodeur and Farnham Bishop is set in 13th Century Scotland and finds a young soldier trying to solve the seemingly impossible murder of one of the
King’s officials. If he doesn’t, the father of the girl he’s fallen in love
with will be executed for the crime. There’s some great action in this one including
a lengthy swordfight that covers a lot of ground in the castle where the
majority of the story takes place. I really like the way Brodeur and Bishop
wrote. This is the first thing I’ve read by them, although I have a copy of
their acclaimed novel IN THE GRIP OF THE MINOTAUR and need to get around to
reading it. “The Devil’s Dagger” first appeared in the September 3, 1918 issue of
ADVENTURE.
One of Robert E. Howard’s many Celtic heroes was Conan the Reaver, an Irish
pirate who shared the same name as a certain Cimmerian. “People of the Dark”,
from the June 1932 issue of STRANGE TALES OF MYSTERY AND TERROR, is actually one of Howard’s “past
lives” yarns, in which a modern-day man bent on murder takes a fall in a cave,
knocks himself out, and winds up reliving a break-neck adventure that happened
to one of his ancestors (the above-mentioned Conan the Reaver). It’s a great
story, too, full of action as Conan and a couple of companions battle a
genuinely creepy race of little people who live underground (another common
element in Howard’s work). I had read this one several times before, but it had
been a while so I thoroughly enjoyed it all over again.
“The Harping of Cravetheen” is by-lined Fiona MacLeod, which was actually a pseudonym
for William Sharp, another author unfamiliar to me. It appeared originally in a
collection called THE SIN-EATER, published in 1895. It’s a very well-written
tale about romance, a young woman forced to marry a man she doesn’t want to, feuding
families, infidelity, and violent death, along with a supernatural element and
some harp music. I think. To be honest, half the time I wasn’t sure what was going
on in this one. It’s worth reading for the sheer beauty of the language, but it
wasn’t really to my taste, either.
“A Claymore for the Clan” is by Donald Barr Chidsey, one of my favorite pulp
authors, and appeared originally in the July 1948 issue of ADVENTURE. Told from
the point of view of a ten-year-old boy, it’s another tale of blood feuds and
desperate sword battles. Chidsey, equally at home with hardboiled contemporary
crime yarns and fast-paced swashbucklers like this one, is always worth
reading, and this story barrels along in very entertaining fashion.
Clyde Irvine’s story “The Horror in the Glen” first appeared in the April 1940
issue of WEIRD TALES. A Scottish warrior avenges the murder of his family by a
rival clan, but not before being banished for seven years to a supernatural realm
and acquiring eldritch powers. This is another well-written story that I
thoroughly enjoyed. Irvine’s name wasn’t familiar to me, so I looked him up and
found that he published 18 stories during the early Forties, most of them
adventure yarns in JUNGLE STORIES. I’ll have to keep an eye out for his work.
The highlight of this collection (other than REH) is “Grana, Queen of Battle”
by John Barnett. This was published as a complete novel in the October 11, 1913
issue of THE CAVALIER, but it’s actually a series of six linked short stories about
a beautiful female pirate in Ireland during the Elizabethan era. Grana can
handle a sword when she needs to, but she usually outwits her opponents. After
inheriting a castle and ships from her father, a famous pirate, she deals with
mutinies, English tax collectors, treacherous Spaniards, and rival pirates.
Finally, she’s captured by the English and sentenced to hang. This leads
to a smashing climax that manages to be very satisfying while still hitting a
slightly bittersweet note. I don’t know anything about John Barnett, but this
is a terrific yarn.
This volume concludes with a poem by Robert E. Howard, “Feach Air Muir Lionadhi
Gealach Buidhi Mar Or”. I don’t know what that translates to, but the poem itself
is dramatic and strikes an excellent ending note to this collection.
CELTIC ADVENTURES is available in paperback and e-book editions on Amazon, with an excellent cover by Jim FitzPatrick, and
I give it a high recommendation if you’re a fan of fine adventure stories. Up
above, I mentioned that my ancestry is mostly British, but the part that’s not?
That’s Scandinavian, so naturally, I like Viking tales, too! And DMR Books just
happens to have published a book called VIKING ADVENTURES, as well as a
four-volume collection of Arthur D. Howden-Smith’s famous pulp series about
Swain the Viking, so I have a pretty good idea about some of the books I’m
going to be reading in the reasonably near future . . .
