The Sword is Forged

The Sword is Forged is a 1983 historical fiction novel by Evangeline Walton. It is based on the story of Theseus and the Amazon queen Antiope from Greek mythology.

The Sword is Forged
First edition cover
AuthorEvangeline Walton
Cover artistRowena Morrill
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical fiction
PublisherTimescape Books
Publication date
1983
Media typePrint (hardcover & paperback)
Pages347
ISBN0-671-46490-6

Plot

The Amazon queen Antiope is captured by Theseus and brought back to Athens to become his bride. They fall in love and she bears him a son, Hippolytus, but soon the Amazons besiege Athens to reclaim their queen.

Characters
  • Antiope, young queen of the Amazons
  • Theseus, king of Athens
  • Molpadia, Amazon War Queen and Antiope's aunt
  • Herakles, Greek hero

Development and publication

According to Douglas A. Anderson, Walton wrote a trilogy of novels about Theseus in the mid-1940s.[1] She completely rewrote all three books in the mid-1950s, but put them aside when Mary Renault published her own Theseus novels, The King Must Die (1958) and later The Bull from the Sea (1962).[1][2] After the success of the Ballantine editions of her Mabinogion tetralogy in the 1970s, Walton visited Greece and started reworking her own Theseus trilogy.[1] The first volume was published as The Sword is Forged in 1983.[1][2] Walton died in 1996, and the other two installments remain unpublished.[1][3]

Themes

In The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, John Clute and John Grant cite The Sword is Forged as an example of the use of the Amazon in sword and sorcery as "an icon of female autonomy".[4] They go on to explain that novel uses Theseus to present "a patriarchal challenge to the Amazon in terms which allow some inspired debate".[4] Kirkus Reviews suggests that the takeaway theme of the novel is that "love 'must always mean bondage' for women".[5]

Reception

Kirkus Reviews called The Sword is Forged "an earnest, hard-working, but spindly reconstruction" of the Theseus myth, noting that "Antiope has a certain pep in the first half here ... But the Amazons emerge as a kind of terrorist branch of NOW, and Antiope's decline into All-for-Love milque-toastery is truly tedious."[5] Don D'Ammassa wrote in his Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction that the novel is "an entertaining story but fails to measure up to [Walton's] Welsh stories".[3]

Mary Renault described The Sword is Forged as "a keen exploration of Greek myth", and Poul Anderson wrote that Walton's "scholarship and realistic detail never get in the way of an exciting and moving story."[6] Praising Walton's combination of feminism and romantic love, Fritz Leiber called the novel "the best fictional depiction of the Amazons that I've ever encountered".[6]

The novel was nominated for a 1984 Locus Award, but lost to The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.[7] Bradley had previously called Walton's novel "a book of wonderful humanity and great classic force."[6]

References
  1. "Interview: Douglas A. Anderson on Evangeline Walton". SF Site. November 22, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  2. Williamson, Jamie (2015). The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-51579-7. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  3. D'Ammassa, Don (2006). "Walton, Evangeline". Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. Facts on File. p. 368. ISBN 0-8160-6192-0.
  4. Clute, John; Grant, John, eds. (February 1999). "Amazons". The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 23. ISBN 0-312-19869-8.
  5. "The Sword is Forged by Evangeline Walton". Kirkus Reviews. 1983. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  6. Walton, Evangeline (1983). "Back cover". The Sword is Forged. Timescape Books. ISBN 0-671-46490-6.
  7. Walton, Jo (May 22, 2011). "Hugo Nominees: 1984". Tor.com. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
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