Thomas Burnett Swann (October 12, 1968 - May 5, 1976) was an academic, poet, and fantasy author. He passed away from cancer at the age of 47. I learned about him just a few months ago from a post on social media that showed a collection of his books. I was surprised that I had never come across any of his work before as I’ve spent many years haunting the science fiction and fantasy shelves of used books stores.
In any case, after I read more about him, I learned that his fiction mixes history and mythology, two things I'm very much interested in, so I decided to keep my eye out for his books. So far, I’ve only come across a few of his paperbacks. Some of his work is also available as eBooks but I haven’t gotten any of those yet. Here are my thoughts on two of his collections.
The Dolphin and the Deep by Thomas Burnett Swann (Ace Books, 1968)
This is a collection of three fantasy novellas. The stories all have a fable-like quality to them, along with wonderful use of metaphor. Each story begins as an adventure story but by the end becomes something much more profound.
“The Dolphin and the Deep”
(Science Fantasy, August 1963)
The adventures of a young Etruscan while on quest to find the enchantress Circe. Along the way he’s joined by a merboy and a dolphin.
“The Manor of Roses”
(The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1966)
In medieval Britain, two young boys and a girl encounter Mandrakes and a mysterious manor in the forest after setting out for London in hopes of joining the Crusades. Nominated for the Hugo Award for best novelette in 1967.
“The Murex”
(Science Fantasy, February 1964)
Trouble ensues after a group of Amazons discover that one their own has befriended a winged Myrmidon boy.
Where is the Bird of Fire? by Thomas Burnett Swann (Ace Books, 1970)
This is another collection of three fantasy novellas. The lyrical prose, the melancholic atmosphere in each story, and the way the author mixed historical characters with mythological figures really spoke to me.
“Where is the Bird of Fire?”
(Science Fantasy, April 1962)
The story of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome from the perspective of a faun named Sylvan. Hugo Award finalist for Best Short Fiction in 1963. Expanded into the novel The Lady of the Bees.
“Vashti”
(Science Fantasy, May 1965)
After Xerxes banishes his wife Vashiti, the healer Ianiskos, follows her. Not as easy as it sounds as he is an adult in the body of a six-year-old. Starts out as an adventure story but then becomes something deeper.
“Bear”
(Appears to have been published here for the first time)
As Romans prepare to leave Britain, a druidess seeks to put a spell on her Roman lover so that he will take her with him. From light-hearted with many lines that had me laughing to ultimately tragic.
In Conclusion
My one criticism is that the stories can feel overly sentimental at times, but for me the beautifully written prose and where the stories eventually lead make up for that.
The reviews I’ve read of the books that he expanded from his novellas say they aren’t as good as the originals, but I was so taken with the writing in the two collections that I read that I plan on reading anything else of his that I can find. I’ll end with an interesting quote I found regarding his work from The Encyclopedia of Fantasy by John Clute and John Grant (1967):
“Almost all his fiction - beginning with ''Winged Victory'' for Fantastic Universe in 1958 - fits into a single vision of the course of Western history, and can be seen as comprising a sustained meditation on the theme of Thinning, viewed through a reiterated central story in which the matriarchal, prelapsarian old order - represented by ''Beasts'', including minotaurs, fauns, sibyls, dryads, halflings and occasional highly significant appearances by the god Pan - is destroyed by the world-devouring patriarchy of the Achaeans, or Romans, or Christians. There are several venues - ancient Egypt, Crete, Rome, medieval Britain - but all have a similar land-of-fable relationship to the mundane world, whose geography they rarely violate, and the general history of which is reinterpreted rather than ignored. Most of the novels describe rites of passage of children into ambivalent maturity; it is arguable that the author saw adulthood and thinning as very similar conditions.”
