Publisher Allen Arnold read the Song of Albion books when they were first published fifteen years ago. He has re-read them a few times since, and recently was able to ask Stephen Lawhead some questions about this exceptional trilogy and the world of Albion.
Arnold: What is an ‘endless knot’?
Lawhead: I use this term to describe the interconnected nature of the spiritual and material world–or, within the context of these books, the manifest world and Otherworld— as expressed in Celtic knot-work patterns. There is a classic knotwork patterns on the cover of these editions, and a smaller triquetra (three-fold knot) within the body of the text.
At first glance, these may appear to be simply pleasing swirls or interlaced lines. A closer examination will reveal that all the lines are continuous, that they follow a strict over-and-under path, and that eventually they return to themselves–an endless knot.
There is much conjecture by historians and artists about the meaning of the various traditional patterns. At the very least though, we see in these a harmony, symmetry, and whimsy that sits beautifully with strong lines and rigorous organisation of the design.
But if one of the lines were to get out of the pattern, if the knot were to unravel in some way . . .
A: Some characters don’t make it through to the end of the trilogy, and it comes as a shock to the reader.
L : Sometimes it’s a shock to the writer, too. Believe it or not, I never want them to die—but sometimes it does happen. I certainly don’t kill them off in order to heighten interest or because I’m bored with them. They died, or they get killed, because of natural consequences—within the sub-created world—or because death is inescapably a part of life, in fiction as well as the real world. At that point, my job is simply to report what happened.
A: Simon is a classic villain in the sense that readers absolutely hate him. Did he evolve as a character, and how do you feel about Simon?
L: In Simon we see where cynicism, egotism, and rebellion lead, once the humour is gone. When we first meet him in The Paradise War, he is an amusing guy whose jaundiced view of the world is quite entertaining. We all know people like that. But at some point, the stakes get higher, and the question is: how will this person respond? They’re good at identifying and satirising what is bad in the world, but do they have a positive vision of how the world should be—and are they willing to make it happen?
By the time Simon has used Albion to feed his own ego, and especially at the point that he begins imposing his own twisted worldview on Otherworld, he is well and truly the villain of the piece. His wilful refusal to return to the manifest world—thereby disobeying the Rule One, which is that it is forbidden for a mortal to remain in the Otherworld—sows the seeds of his own downfall.
How do I feel about Simon? Many actors say that they enjoy playing the bad guy, and on one level I enjoy writing into these characters. Simon is someone I know, because his type is endemic in our world. I despise and pity him.
A: Okay, I have to ask this, and not just because I’m the publisher! On behalf of the countless fans who are begging for a fourth SONG OF ALBION novel . . . is a re-visiting or return of some kind a possibility?
L: Absolutely not. I accept the compliment that many readers have paid in wanting the further adventures of Llew Silver Hand . . . but it would completely destroy the arc of the story and diminish what exists, spoiling the “divine” architecture of three books of thirty-nine chapters, as well as violating the central premise that it is forbidden to return to Albion!
As with the endless knot of Celtic art, this series—in which the last words of the last book are identical to the first words of the first book—is finished when it has returned to itself. The reader has, at that point, come full circle in the mythic cycle, and is now ready to face the circle of his or her own life as it begins anew—but this time with greater knowledge and awareness of what the journey is, and what is needed to travel successfully.