Dragon of Skyros : a study on the cultures of the ninth century through creative fiction

Abstract

To investigate the reception of Classical motifs within the early medieval world, as well as show the multicultural connectivity between peoples, this work of creative fiction explores the tradition of Neoptolemus in the Ninth Century CE. Rather than telling the story from a single perspective, a plethora of cultural perspectives are employed throughout the novel. From the war-ravaged boon companion of the heir to the Abbasid Caliphate, to a far-travelling Scandinavian intersex v��lva accompanying multicultural Rus merchants into Austrvegr, to a Khazar shaman plagued by her dreams of destruction and her brother's illness, all of the characters in the novel intertwine through imagery and myth, as a Bulgar monk searching out the missing fragments of Neoptolemus' story meets and brings together the patchwork of stor