On being the writer . . . .

It is quite a thing to be the person that wrote the poetic saga which, years later, becomes realised in film form.   There is a big helping of responsibility attached as I see this as an important (not at all irreplaceable but I would go so far as to say significant) step in the development of the very talented young Zak Wylde Holland's career.  The director, makeup artists, costumiers, actors, and so-on all heave expectations. I may steer the ship alongside the Director from time-to-time, however, I am not to be lauded as anything more than a willing project assistant with a clear view on how things can be progressed.  I am the writer and that is my raison d'etre.  I look forward to the production with unbounded enthusiasm but the depth of my pleasure will be felt equally when the special edition book is released and I am holding it in my ink-stained hand!

            On the matter of being a writer, I have been creating stories and poems since I was a very small child.  I can recall back to when I was four or even younger, when I couldn't get to sleep (which seemed often in the way of my recall) my mother would say to me "Lie down, close your eyes, and tell yourself a story!"  So I did.  And I have been doing just that ever since.  Songwriters and sometimes poets will tell you that if you can remember the words in the morning then it's a good piece, worth developing!

            Of course the greater majority of what I have written in my adult, professional years has been textbooks and academic work.  That's what happens when you go and get yourself a PhD (mine is Law and Business would you believe!) they expect you to research in-depth, write with great clarity and have a good, strong sense of purpose.  Now that I have moved on and can fully indulge my passion for writing fiction I am finding that research habit very enriching.
              Being a writer to the core also means that I am entrenched in the new book I am researching and creating as well as keeping a weather eye on my duties towards this wonderful Heartsfelled project.  In time my role on this particular Heartsfelled film will melt away and I will sink down deep into the depths of being a writer once again.  The fantasy fiction that I created in a previous life, under a different name was well received so, although I have no wish to revive that series or be that person again, I am very much enjoying the escape into my worlds and the people who come to me there.
               In the meantime, out here in the real world, sets are being built, choreography is being refined and all things are making excellent progress.

The Ghosts of Times Past! Video clip

The opening sequence of our film is designed to introduce you to the setting within which storyteller Heartsfelled exists.  You'll see the ghosts of times past going about their business because every life is a potential story and each one has, in some way, influence the storyteller in his trade. 

Our ghosts span some 1300 years. The building of Ayscoughfee Hall was completed around the year 1451.  It sits, grandly, in the town of Spalding, alongside the River Welland which runs through town. Of course, the site was occupied before this hall was started, although it is hard to say exactly who or what was there.  The important Spalding Priory was across the river opposite Ayscoughfee and was there at the time the hall was built.

Heartsfelled the storyteller occupies his “Museum of Stories” in a magical, slightly secret place which can, if you know how to look for it, be accessed through Ayscoughfee Hall and Gardens … but only if you know how to look!

So, when we created “The Ghosts of Times Past” to introduce our ageless, timeless storyteller Heartsfelled, the people who have lived their lives in this place readily represent a goodly, broad, cross-section of those who might have influenced stories and storytellers across time.  Anywhere you go in this human world, If you step through the right gateway, at the right moment in time, and if you keep your eyes and your mind open to all of life’s rich possibilities, if you let yourself see the rich reflections of the layers of lives past, and the ghosts of different times . . .

The first ghost we see in the sequence is the scampering Brother Scuttle (watch this blog for little posts from the ghost of Brother Scuttle - he’s quite a character and full of interesting information).  Brother Scuttle was born in 1068 and entered the Priory of Spalding when he was 15 years old.

And what about that elegant lady in her cream lace gown with parasol, strolling and reading among the ancient yews?  Well, she is almost certainly a ghost from the turn of the 20th century - late Victorian to early Edwardian. Don’t you love her summer hat?

The next we see is a beautiful, flaxen-haired lady that we would most likely describe as “Viking” although her heritage could actually be Anglo-Saxon … as she would have been running her errands during the time of the Danelaw sometime between the mid-ninth and the mid-tenth century.

Aaah, Sense and Sensibility!  See those two Regency coquettes running and giggling through the grounds!  They will have had their fun around the beginning of the 1800s at the time when people like Sir Christopher Wren, Capability Brown, Wedgewood, and Chippendale were shaping things.

And keep an eye on the background - see our Edwardian Gentleman, Mr. Seaton, stroll along a rather poignant path in front of the spot where a war memorial now stands to commemorate the bravery of those involved in WWI and WWII - perhaps even his own son or grandsons. What a handsome ghost he is.

Back in time next, to some time around 1540 where we see the ghosts of two golden haired Tudor children scampering through the maze with their handsome m’ma in the background to the left and a very elegant young tudor lady strolling along behind in the far background.

Our next ghost, from around 1910 - Just look at that sumptuous Edwardian walking suit and hat (all hand stitched).   What a purposeful walk she is on. I wonder where she was going . . .

My how I love the Victorian gardeners of 1890, Tom and Dan.  If ever there was a story being told, I think they really appreciated the grounds around the lovely Hall and were proud to be looking after it.  I wonder what they were saying?

Next . . . a little glimpse of the Victorian cook making her way to the kitchens at the back of the Hall.

It’s 1710 at the front entrance of the Hall and we see, perhaps that’s  Maurice and Elizabeth Johnson sweeping through the door in their finery.  Maurice was a famous antiquarian and the founder of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society.  If you don’t know about the SGS do look it up.

And finally, from around the 1860s, we see a young Isabella Johnson seeming to approve her own portrait in the library area of the Hall. She seems a little shy - for a ghost!

There were other ghosts but if we’d filmed them all then you never would get to meet Heartsfelled!!  So this is our selection - people from times past. Every time has its stories and storytellers. Maybe next time!

As the film narrator says:

Anywhere you might go in this human world, If you step through the right gateway, at the right moment in time, and if you keep your eyes and your mind open to all of life’s rich possibilities, if you let yourself see the rich reflections of the layers of lives past and the ghosts of different times - then you might just come across a little bit of magic that has been spinning around our world since the very beginnings of time.

Because when time began – the Storytellers were born!

And the Story Tellers are ancient, traversing time and space and in an intricate dance all of their own.  They are the keepers of Fīfmægen (fif-meyhan), that’s magical power!

The Storytellers are the keepers of fīfmægen, and it is their place in this world, to this very day, to be weaving the secrets of men and telling the magical, mythical tales of mankind.

But will you look?

Are you prepared to see into the shadows that run deep under the trappings of our modern society?

Are you prepared to listen with your heart for the voice that goes unheard?

Step through the long forgotten door . . .

Brother Scuttle's Reflections

Hello All,

Richard here, focus of 'Brother Scuttle' our resident ghostly, but very friendly and jolly
Heartsfelled Monk... Scuttle is a bit confused by the 21st Century, so I better pass over to him before he gets a bit grumpy! Over to you Brother!

What? Oh yes...  What ever is this Blogging? Sounds more like flogging to me! Those Normans were good at that I can tell you! I saw a few floggings in my time... The old Priory Bell would sound and a crowd would gather, no moving pictures or books then to entertain us!  Then the Normans would severely flog the miscreant outside the Priory gates...

But my beloved Priory has gone! Nothing much left at all now, just noise, hustle and bustle from horseless carts and too many people rushing about... Horrible!!!

I say those Normans... I'm half Norman myself and was two years after the conquest. By the time I entered the Priory King William I was still on the throne and Ivo Tailbois was looking after the interests of Spalding. His wife took much interest in our order and as a result the Priory grew into quite a powerful concern, far outgrowing those dunderheads at Croyland! Ha, they never got over that, and never allowed us to gain status as an Abbey...

As a cleric I was here, there and everywhere, so I was given the nickname 'Scuttle' which has stuck like fresh cow dung to thatch... Oh well, I have certain advantages and am treated very well, so I can't complain.

Then I suddenly find that I'm not only dead, but alive and well as a ghost channelled by this Richard fellow...

And I'm starring in a 'moving picture' called Heartsfelled! Actually I'm pleased. I knew old Heartsfelled back in the day and he can spin a good yarn or two I can tell you. You never know I might be brought back to star in a few more of these things... Who would have thought it?

Here's my role, scuttling into Ayscoughfee Hall with an urgent message...


Anyway I'm off back to the Netherworld to get a bit of sleep... I'll flog, er sorry, blog you again later!


Erm... yes, Thank you Brother Scuttle. More from him soon...


Richard.

Sneak preview, designs on a demon

Wowza!  Today I got a sneak preview of one of the bespoke masks for one of our demons. This is the second demon costume to come together (you've seen the preview of the first one modelled by beautiful Amy, in an earlier post).
It's so exciting to see such craftsmanship and to know that your characters are going to come to life and look so good.  The demon battles are going to be amazing, I cannot wait until filming starts this summer.
Don't forget you can pre-order dvd or book or both, or get yourself an exclusive T shirt or sweatshirt and at the same time be supporting this project just go to -  https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/heartsfelled

The Great Thirsty Higghorþ under design
in the workshops of  Barefoot Leather.

The story of a story . . .

Heartsfelled, a man of many guises

Those of you who've visited this blog before will be pretty familiar with our character, Heartsfelled.  
You'll know about him being a storyteller as old as time. And, you maybe know that in the upcoming film, Heartsfelled is telling a story called The Identity Stealer.

However, some folk are not so sure about the story of the Identity Stealer, so settle back and I'll explain:

The story actually began as a lengthy poem that I created when I was a performance poet.  

Patrisha, the Poet

The poem is called The Fyrdwhaet Saga and because I was feeling adventurous, it a few lines in Anglo-Saxon English.  
Based on someone I knew, it's a set of verses about a charismatic warrior who absorbs people's time and attention so much that I call him  Fyrdhwaet, The Identity Stealer.  
Being an academic myself,  but not being at all an expert or knowledgeable about Anglo-Saxon English, I took the poem to some learned experts to verify that I had written them well enough.  To be honest, I expected them to laugh and pat me on the head and that would be the end of that little project ...  so you can imagine how happy I was to be told to think of it as the beginning of a full-length saga and to keep on writing it.  And so it developed!

Patrisha, the scholar

In that first set of verses,  “Fyrdhwæt, The Identity Stealer” (his name meaning brave or warlike), we are told that his mother who bore him and all of his friends, his family, even his wife, find that in his presence their sense of self and identity become thwarted and sucked away.  So people turn away from him.

I spend happy hours researching Anglo-Saxon words and syntax to the best of my capability.

It's tricky, not least because our knowledge of this long-ago language is restricted to the few sagas and documents we have in the original (such as the wonderful Beowulf), but there's Bosworth and Toller's Dictionary and by the time I was writing this there was becoming some pretty good help on the internet too.

Coming back to the story itself, what we find in the tale of Fyrdhwaet is that he is brave and good at heart. So, when I extended his story to build the Saga it seemed right and proper that he become the slayer of his people's demons.

The Green Man is gone!

I thought hard about olde Englyshe customs and mythology and about how peoples seemed to 'worship' many gods and goddesses, each of which had a role to play in daily life such as bringing forth good crops, clean water or good weather or rain as and when needed. Similarly, the people's demons were creatures of nature, or rather of disturbed nature. So I designed my demons to be the bringers of bad times such as crop failure, drought, or scary darkness (eclipse).

Naturally, the people begin to starve and would have died out (apathy seems prevalent) if it weren't for one small, lone voice who manages to call upon Fyrdhwæt.  The sun won't shine so Fyrdhwæt slays the monster in the dark, alone and unrecognized.

In the second set of verses:  “Bealltain” and “The Silken Tretraw”  we are introduced to the first of three demons, the Tretraw. It is a beast which arrives at the beginning of spring, during the spring festival procession, and it commences to eat up all the trees and green growth, positing stones and rock in the place of sacred woods and vital agriculture.

In the third set of verses:  “Alban Heruin” and “The Thirsty Higghorþ” (a demon drank up the oxygen)

This Thirsty Higghorþ [pronounced High-hoarth . . . with a silent 'p' before the 'th' if you can manage it]  makes its living by drinking all the oxygen and goodness from the air. Once again a small, lone voice manages to call our hero Fyrdhwæt.  The sun won't shine on the battle so our hero struggles until he has slain the monster and saved the people.

In the final set of verses: “Samhain” and “The Miserable Maghmaugh” [pron:maw-maw] we witness our hero as he slays his third and final demon.  This one is a dwimor or ghost which dries out all the water supplies and sacred wells by turning the waters to rosin.

Having written all this, and performed it a couple of times, I set the poem aside to gather dust on a shelf somewhere and almost forgot all about it while tide and times shaped and reshaped my days.
. . . Then, during the Christmas break of 2017 while I was idle and supposed to be resting,

Patricia watches Zak of
Zak Wylde Productions

Julia Gant, Costumier and actress
Nigel Gant - Heartsfelled

I suddenly had the idea of taking the Saga to some new friends who just happened to be first class historians, re-enactors, experimental archaeologists and filmmakers . . !  I even discovered that Nigel Gant, who will play Heartsfelled, has actually studied Anglo-Saxon English. There's not so much of it in the film as we wanted the tale to be accessible to everybody, and lovely Nigel has made it perfect! 

Director and special action actor Pete
Holland of Zak Wylde Productions

As a production team, we've talked and we've worked and we've had a great time bringing this project together. 

At time of writing, we've got the opening sequence under our belts and are looking forward to a long summer of filming the three battle sequences as well as Heartsfelled himself in his Museum of Stories.






For the purposes of telling the story well, we have designed and represented the demons in animal

Amy - the beautiful side of the cunning
Miserable Maghmaugh!

form.  I felt this would be close to Anglo-Saxon thinking.    
The Silken Tretraw is a wolf, the  Higghorþ is a wild boar and the Miserable Maghmaugh is a deer.

. . . Oh, and Tretraw,  Higghorþ and Maghmaugh are names I made up! I hope that answers for you. Thanks again for your interest.

If you would like to pre-order your copy of the film, film and book or if you would like to have a special Heartsfelled T-shirt or sweatshirt or even a mug, or perhaps you'd like to come visit us on-set in Lincolnshire . . . then why not show your support and visit  https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/heartsfelled

Thanks
PB