In October 1975 an unknown writer named Dennis More appeared in Ted White’s Fantastic, his first tale garnering the cover by Marcus Boaz. The story was called “Fugitives in Winter” and was a first-person account of a young Celtic bard named Felimid mac Fal. The tale opens in King Oisc’s dun, a small kingdom of Saxons. There Felimid receives rough treatment, especially when he runs afoul of a shapeshifter named Tosti. Oisc hangs the bard over a pit filled with starving wolves. Felimid is saved by one of the Saxon’s slaves, Regan, who flees with the singer into the forest. The king and his men pursue, and it is only the chance encounter with a two-headed bear that Felimid is able to exact their escape. The story was well liked and readers wondered who is this man with a name from a Monty Python sketch?
With the sequel, “The Atheling’s Wife” (Fantastic, August 1976), the author switched from first person to third. As he explains in the opening note: “To write in the first-person about a sixth-century Celtic bard, even a fantasized one, is something I just couldn’t keep up. And it’s easier to juggle a number of characters this way.” He also explains that the name of Fel’s sword is given in English, and explains that Kincaid means “cat-headed one”. The third-person narrative was used throughout the rest of the series, and the first story was rewritten into third-person for the paperback re-release in 1981. Personally, I enjoyed the first-person version better but understand the technical requirements that drove the author to change it. Still, we have the first magazine version as a gem to treasure.
The plot of “The Atheling’s Wife” happens shortly after the first story. Wanting to find a ship westward, Fel comes to Cerdic’s Dun. (There is no sign of Regan but that will be explained later.) There Fel has to face two magical opponents, Tosti the shapechanger and Prince Cynric’s wife of the title, Vivayn. But he doesn’t have to fight alone. He rescues a dwarf smith named Glinthi, an unfriendly cuss, from a band of tormenters. Things begin well, with Fel rolling in the hay with Vivayn’s lady-in-waiting, Eldrid. After this Tosti shows up and tries to set Cerdic against the bard. Cerdic will not pick sides and invites both men to stay. Fel returns to the barn for more hanky-panky, only to discover the woman in his bed is not Eldrid but her mistress, Vivayn, magically altered. She explains how she became Cynric’s wife after Cerdic killed her father in battle and took her captive. Vivayn does not cry over her situation, but she is a queen and a witch and likes her fun. Fel unwisely sleeps with her, and fshortly after Tosti and two roughs take her captive. The shapechanger wants Fel’s silver blade. Before he can decide whether to give up his sword for the woman, Glinthi shows up with his hammer and kills one of the bullies. The other flees. Tosti and Fel begin a fight but the werewolf flees when the alarm is raised. Fel explains all this to King Cerdic, while Vivyan and Eldrid swap places. During the fight, Fel’s tongue slips and he uses Vivayn’s real name in front of Glinthi. Will the dwarf use this knowledge against the queen? Will Vivayn decide Fel is too dangerous to keep around? Fel decides instead of hanging around he will go to London to find a ship west.
With “The Forest of Andred” (Fantastic, November 1976), the author chooses to step back in time, to an event before “The Atheling’s Wife”. With Regan falling ill, Fel searches the dark forest for food. He comes across a giant spider that he kills, but sprains his ankle in the fight. The bard encounters a strange looking man named Pendor, a wizard, who patches up the pair. During their convalescence, a stranger on a beautiful horse appears, a rich hunting lord with a band of pig-faced killers. He is Lord Avraig and he demands Felimid’s life in lieu of the spider, an adversary he wanted to kill. Between Felimid, Pendor and Regan, the trio defeat Avraig, killing him and his hunters. It is while Fel is disposing of the bodies that he learns the Avraig’s horse is no ordinary nag, but a magical creature he calls Myfanwy. Felimid does not trust Pendor, so he keeps the horse’s true nature secret. This is a good idea because Pendor eventually tries to poison and kill him. It is Myfanwy who saves the bard so that he can sue for peace with the wizard, getting back his sword Kincaid and his harp, Golden Singer.
“Buried Silver” (Fantastic, February 1977) gives us the final showdown between Tosti and Felimid. The novella features a set of Bulgars working for a Roman named Sergius. Fel encounters him in a British village of where the locals have sent a woman named Celia away as the “carline”, a mock sacrifice to heathen gods. Fel follows her and spends the night with her. She has a purple birthmark that causes the villagers to fear her.
Sergius and his huns force their way beyond the palisade, abuse their hospitality and the local women, but no one can stop them, not even Fel. Sergius strikes Fel for insolence then takes his sword, Kincaid. Sergius lies about seeking an old Roman villa to rescue the bones of two saints. Fel doesn’t believe him but wonders what he really wants. Still, the bard gives him some possible information, having seen a possible site.
Fel gets his revenge when he uses his harp to magical render the newcomers into blubbering heaps. The bard burns their weapons, takes back his sword and horse, but leaves the villagers to kill the addled warriors. Fel rides off with Celia.
Fel does not get far before Tosti finds him. The bard wards him off with his magical blade but the mad race ends when the horse stumbles. Tosti kills the horse, giving Fel enough time to ready himself. The dawn sun rises, causing Tosti to turn back into a man. He runs off but Fel follows. He finds him on a gnoll dotted with boulders. Tosti surprises him and glancingly hits Fel with a large rock. The bard pressed on and stabs the shapeshifter to death. Cutting up his body, he buries him under a cairn, lying the wolfskin that Tosti used for transforming on top.
Another group of armed men meet Fel and Celia in the woods. It is Palamides, a captain of Arthur, who keeps the Saxons from Britain. Fel is acquainted with the men, having fought at Badon with them. Fel tells Palamides of the villa and the treasure as well as his battle with the werewolf. The captain decides the treasure would be welcome by Arthur, who needs cash like all generals.
That night the men are awakened by a new wolf howl. They search the woods and find the bodies of five dead Bulgers and their horses. The villagers had not killed them and they had been following Fel’s tracks. Palamides believes Tosti is still alive but Fel isn’t so sure despite the wolf being white in color.
The warriors follow Fel to the old ruin and there they find a stone slab as Sergius mentioned. They start to dig. The white wolf appears, attacking the bard. It grabs his sword-belt and runs off with Kincaid. This act is incredibly painful to the shapeshifter but it dumps the weapon somewhere in the dark woods.
Fel increases their digging. He believes it is their only chance, since Kincaid is the only weapon magical enough to kill a werewolf. When the beast attacks, men die with ordinary swords in their hands. But while they struggle, Fel breaks into the cache, finding it full of ingots and household wares. The werewolf leaps into the pit and attacks. Celia throws a plate at the wolf seeing it embedded in the monster’s side. Fel uses the silver treasure to beat the shapeshifter to death. The creature proves to be Sergius. The man had taken the skin from Tosti grave, perhaps for warmth, then ended up eating his Bulger crew.
The story ends with Palamides insisting on Fel and Celia accompanying him back to headquarters so no one learns of the horde. They do so reluctantly. Fel takes only a small share, half of which he gives to Celia. He must flee England but he tells Celia of Pendar the magician, and his magical abilities, powerful enough to remove the mark from her face.
“On Skellig Michael” did not appear in Fantastic, but around the same time in Swords Against Darkness II (1977), edited by Andrew J. Offutt. This short episode is not included in Bard. The bard is stranded on the island of Skellig Michael, where a church of Christian priests is at odds with the sea-dwelling Selchies near-by. The priests refuse to admit the existence of the sea-folk’s souls. The Selchies show Felimid respect because he is a bard, a lesser form of druid. They give him a boat so he can escape the island. When later he passes the island, he sees that the humans are gone but the seal forms of the Selchies still remain.
So who was this Dennis More? He is, in fact, Australian Fantasy author, Keith Taylor, who dropped the pseudonym with the later Felimid tale, “Hungry Grass” (1979) in Swords Against Darkness V . Never profilic, Taylor has written a small number of novels and stories that show the same high marks of quality that the Dennis More tales first displayed, well researched, character-driven, with a love of magic and the wonderful. Whether he was writing on Dark Age Britain, ancient Egypt or Ireland, Taylor has been about quality over quantity. He has won and been nominated many times for Australia’s Ditmar Award.
“My Sendings Return” (1981) was written to fill out Felimid’s first adventures when the stories were collected in book form, being placed after “The Forest of Andred”. Like the rewriting of “Fugitives in Winter” into the third person, this was a later revision done to prepare the first paperback called Bard. As such it isn’t really within the circle of what I am looking at here. In a sense, “My Sendings Return” is a Keith Taylor story and not a Dennis More tale.
Keith Taylor would return to tell more stories of Felimid the bard. The book series would include four more volumes, but also Taylor wrote a few more extant stories for Weird Tales in the 1980 and 1990s including “The Demon Cat” as well as two stories of Felimid’s father, Fal. He also collaborated with Offutt on two novels about Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Mac Art in the early 1980s. Perhaps in future articles we can follow the singer and his cat-headed sword Kincaid to other strange and magical places.