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31_days2005-08-03 07:56 pm
cibeles.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-08-03 07:56 pm
[August 3] [Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell] A Child's Dream
Title: A Child's Dream
Day/Theme: August 3 / Like Hamlet
Series: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Character/Pairing: Jonathan Strange, tons of mentionings of John Uskglass
Rating: G
A Child's Dream
Young Jonathan Strange, just seven years of age, had heard all of the stories. In his mind, John Uskglass was still king. A huge banner of the Raven Volant still flew over a castle faraway, the dark man inside master of three kingdoms.
He was entranced by the old stories that seemed to grow wilder and more elaborate with each whispered retelling. The words of the Raven King’s conquests could warm him on a sharp December day better than any fire. Of course, every other schoolboy had heard them, too, but what others had pursued them? What other boy once spent a whole hour intent on catching a single raven from the mysterious flock that settled in the fields?
They would all play at being the Raven King, draping themselves in their father’s best black frock coat, or perhaps tinting their hair with soot from the fire. The boys with naturally black hair always felt the proudest, and Strange did feel a little put out at his stubbornly red hair.
But the rest gave their games up unhesitatingly as they grew older, choosing to tease the girls and pour ink in one another’s tea. Jonathan was not entirely immune to the youthful appeal of such tricks, but he found himself humming the old ballads about their eternal hero who seemed to enchant everything he touched, magic dripping from him as water might drip from a man caught in the rain.
The Black King was legendary, the name of John Uskglass more of a symbol than a man’s name.
He thought incessantly of the man who dressed in mourning black, who was perhaps mad with magic. Some days he fancied himself to be the King, and others he was simply content to be the King’s servant, a fellow magician all in black, proudly displaying the Raven Volant outside his own home.
Young Jonathan Strange never gave up his dreams.
Day/Theme: August 3 / Like Hamlet
Series: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Character/Pairing: Jonathan Strange, tons of mentionings of John Uskglass
Rating: G
Young Jonathan Strange, just seven years of age, had heard all of the stories. In his mind, John Uskglass was still king. A huge banner of the Raven Volant still flew over a castle faraway, the dark man inside master of three kingdoms.
He was entranced by the old stories that seemed to grow wilder and more elaborate with each whispered retelling. The words of the Raven King’s conquests could warm him on a sharp December day better than any fire. Of course, every other schoolboy had heard them, too, but what others had pursued them? What other boy once spent a whole hour intent on catching a single raven from the mysterious flock that settled in the fields?
They would all play at being the Raven King, draping themselves in their father’s best black frock coat, or perhaps tinting their hair with soot from the fire. The boys with naturally black hair always felt the proudest, and Strange did feel a little put out at his stubbornly red hair.
But the rest gave their games up unhesitatingly as they grew older, choosing to tease the girls and pour ink in one another’s tea. Jonathan was not entirely immune to the youthful appeal of such tricks, but he found himself humming the old ballads about their eternal hero who seemed to enchant everything he touched, magic dripping from him as water might drip from a man caught in the rain.
The Black King was legendary, the name of John Uskglass more of a symbol than a man’s name.
He thought incessantly of the man who dressed in mourning black, who was perhaps mad with magic. Some days he fancied himself to be the King, and others he was simply content to be the King’s servant, a fellow magician all in black, proudly displaying the Raven Volant outside his own home.
Young Jonathan Strange never gave up his dreams.