L. Sprague de Camp was an old hand at Fantasy by the 1970s. The Conan pastiche business had slowed down since the 1960s but he and Lin Carter still wrote the occasional story. He expanded his Novaria series in novels but explored a new setting in short story form for a world he called Neo- Napolitanian. In these stories de Camp uses painfully archaic languages (these and thous) but with effect. He has written on composing Fantasy and the error of doing this in non-humorous stories. I can only assume he breaks this rule here for laughs.
The first short story was “Two Yards of Dragon” in Flashing Swords #3 edited by Lin Carter for Dell Books 1976. Eudoric and his man-servant Jillo go to far Pathenia to hunt a dragon so Eudoric can marry the sweet Lusina. At first they have no success, losing Eudoric’s destrier, then attempting to kill the beast with a gunpowder gun. By accident the gunpowder explodes and blows the dragon’s stomach out. Forest wardens arrest Eudoric and Jillo for hunting out of season without a license.
They are taken to prison in a stagecoach. Eudoric is sentenced to a year and a day. In an attempt to buy his way out of prison he gives Master Baldonius’ friend, the wizard Raspiudus, a power of attorney to fetch his belongings. The old miser keeps the money. Eudoic is released when a new king is crowned and a general amnesty is given. To get his horses and money back, Eudoric disguises himself as Baldonius and Jillo as his consort.
They trick their way into Raspiudus’s home and knock him out. They take back their belongings as well as the dragon’s hide. Returning home, Eudoric finds Lusina has run off with an actor. Instead of the girl he sells the dragon hide to Baldonius for a steep price so he can start a stagecoach business of his own.
“The Coronet” (Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1976) picks up with Eudoric after his dragon-hunting experience. His father-in-law to be, Lord Emmerhard, has all but renigged on their deal, to pay for Eudoric’s new stagecoach, his daughter’s hand in marriage (if she agrees) and a knighthood. After borrowing Count Petz’s coronet crown, Emmerhard accidentally teleports himself out of the king’s coronation, finding himself in a wood. The coronet contained a single use spell. Emmerhard poorly says, “I wish I was home.” The demon involved interprets this in a very general way, plopping him in a forest nearby. It is Eudoric who finds and saves him, but not until Emmerhard signs the knighthood and the costs of the wagons. When the new knight goes to Gerzilda, Emmerhard’s daughter, she rejects him. Eudoric is philosophical about it. He figures paying for the wagon was more important anyway.
In “Eudoric’s Unicorn” (Years’ Best Fantasy #3 edited by Lin Carter for DAW Books 1976), Eudoric expands his stagecoach business into the New Napolitanian Empire. To seal the deal he is offered a wizard’s daughter’s hand in marriage if he can procure a unicorn for the monarch to impress the Cham of the Pantorozians with. The girl is dumpy and Eudoric accepts for business reasons. Eudoric and Jillo return to their homeland to capture the beast. To do this they need a virgin. Unicorns are attracted to virgins, so they hire a witch to tell them who is actually a fifteen year-old virgin in the area. She proves less than useful when Jillo’s younger brother deflowers her. In the end they use the old witch who also is a virgin. When Eudoric brings the unicorn, actually a rhinoceros, to his charge, he finds the girl has fled with the Cham of the Pantorozians, who found her rounded figure to his liking. Eudoric doesn’t care about losing the girl so much as the fifty per cent tax the Napolitanians want to charge his stagecoach line.
“Spider Love” (Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1977) has Eudoric running a successful stagecoach business except for bandits that rob him. The culprit is Lord Rainmar, a red-bearded reaver. Eudoric can’t enlist any guards so he decides the best way to deal with Rainmar is to marry his daughter, Maragda, or at least pretend interest. Rainmar gets it into his head that Eudoric must prove himself worthy of maragda’s and so he sets the young man to kill the giant spider Fraka, who dwells in Dimshaw Wood. Rainmar claims that Eudoric must slay the beast with full chivalric honor, in other words, in hand-to-hand combat.
Eudoric goes to see Doctor Baldonius who tells him of the giant spider’s mating habits. That if one beats out a certain rhythm the spider will stop attacking and think to mate. This information proves vital when Eudoric steps in one of Fraka’s webs, which are invisible except in bright sunlight. Eudoric stalls the spider long enough to burn himself free and load his crossbow. But he doesn’t fire. Instead, he returns to rainmar and explains why he did not kill the monster. One of the tenants of knighthood is to protect females, especially those who show affection. Rainmar is furious but Eudoric takes him hostage long enough to escape. Having delayed the robber long enough, Eudoric protects his stagecoach with guards from now on.
All four stories would form the first five chapters of The Incorporated Knight (1987). The rest of the book follows Eudoric to new lands and his final wedded bliss. The Pixilated Princess (1991), while set in the same world, does not feature any of the characters from the first book.
Humorous S&S begins in the 1940s with John Campbell’s Unknown for which de Camp wrote the Harold Shea stories with Fletcher Pratt as well as “The Undesired Princess”, Portal Fantasy where people from our world encounter the Fantastic. The 1970s tales of the neo-Napolitan Empire aren’t all that different than de Camp’s stories of Pusad or Novaria from the 1950s. All have the shadow of John W. Campbell hanging over them, a kind of Science Fiction writer’s disdain for Fantasy. This may or may not be to your liking (I know it irks me on occasion.) Campbell approached Fantasy stories with the dictum that Magic is just Science that isn’t understood yet. Fortunately, de Camp was able to put this attitude aside when he wrote his Conan pastiches with Lin Carter.
These stories have another specter hanging over them — sexism. Eudoric is quite jaded in his dealings with women. De Camp can portray them as strong characters or weak depending on his need but his underlying attitude that homely girls are less valuable than attractive ones is certainly a left over of the 1940s. De Camp wrote the novels with his wife, Catherine. I wonder what her thoughts on this were?
