Leslie Barringer (1895–1968)

I like all of this book except one bit of the ending. It is the third book in Barringer's Neustrian cycle. It is set thirteen years after the the original two stories, which occur virtually simultaneously. Although the hero of the first book, Count Raoul of Ger, is a respected statesman in the background, the heroine of this novel is Yolande, heiress to the duchy of Baraine in Barringer's Neustria, a fictional doublet of late medieval France. She eventually finds herself unwillingly nominally married to Balthasar, a really nasty young noble,an who throws her kitten to his dogs. He is also involved in a plot to revive the cause of the rebels who were defeated in the end of the original two novels. Spoiler warning: after various adventures and intrigues, Yolande and her two faithful squires (both of whom have become her lovers) manage to trap and kill Balthasar --she says "you should not have killed my kitten" just before she puts a crossbow bolt in his back.. All this is very satisfying,but then both the squires die in a final battle --leaving a bittersweet taste rather typical of Barringer's later fiction (notably Know Ye Not Agincourt, which reads like an indictment of Henry V for war crimes). The ethos of Shy Leopardess is strikingly "modern" for its period , with its strong, sexually liberated heroine, who is frankly of the opinion that God is on the side of her horrible husband.… (meer)

A friend of mine who happened to start this series with the second volume was shocked when the protagonist Joris raped a young woman (and murdered her elderly priest companion) early in the book. I had to tell him that Joris is not the hero of the series as a whole -- that is Count Raoul of Ger, the hero of the first volume. Overall, Joris is a villain,though almost the whole second volume is told from his viewpoint with a certain amount of sympathy. This volume overlaps with the first volume so that, as De Camp noted in his pioneering article "Knights and Knaves in Neustria," one fight is told from Raoul's viewpoint (defending) in Gerfalcon and from Joris's viewpoint (attacking)in this volume. This volume does carry on beyond the end point of Gerfalcon into a political crisis when the old king Rene dies and his feeble legitimate son is struggling with his more capable bastard for the throne (the bastard having been legitimized by the later marriage of his parents, as with the historical Beaufort line in England). (spoiler warning) Joris kidnaps the legitimate heir and is about to sell him to his rival on very favorable terms, when his captive is unexpectedly freed. Thereafter Joris's career runs downhill and he is finally slain (unwittingly) by his own son by the woman he raped early on.… (meer)

I discovered this book through the artuce "Knights and Knaves in Neutstria" in one of the Conan readers when I was young, and read a copy of the first US edition out of the Toledo (OH) Public LIbrary. I was delighted when it was reprinted by Newcastle. It has gone through several printings since then. As the article pointed out, it is only borderline fantasy, since there is almost no magic barring one appearance of a woman character as a ghost. It is set in recognizably late medieval western Europe in which England. Italy and other places exist as in our world. However, France has been replaced by Neustria and Germany (Holy Roman Empire) by Franconia, and there are still Viking-like raiders along the coast centuries after that ended in our world. The first volume is the adventures of Raoul of Ger, evetual heir to the county of the name ((along what would be the northern French coast)… (meer)

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Raoul will one day be baron of peaceful marshy Marckmont, but until his eighteenth birthday, he’s under the protection of his Uncle Armand, Count of the bleak and windy crags of Ger. Armand has no love for the slight and introspective Raoul, and can’t understand why his nephew would rather play chess and write songs than hunt animals. Raoul, a romantic, likes to think about beautiful things, but at Ger, “you must be smothered in blood before they think you are a man.”

When Raoul is told he can’t go with Armand’s company to the tourney in Belsaunt, he sneaks away and visits the tourney anyway. There he sees, and instantly falls in love with, the beautiful lady Yseult de Olencourt. He is flogged when he returns to Ger, so he runs away and seeks a position in a noble house until he is old enough to claim his quiet and solitary barony.

After leaving Ger, Raoul meets the folk of the land, including a runaway murderer, a few witches, a large warrior woman with flame-red hair, the three deadliest outlaws in the area, a brave serving girl, and several lowborn life-long friends. He also has several frightening adventures in which he surprises himself with his actions. His consideration of these episodes, and the advice he receives from wise people, teach him much about life, love, men, women, and himself. For example:

* “we have oftener to choose between two wrongs than between a wrong and a right.”
* There is “none so cruel as a slave come suddenly to power.”
* “Why do men like killing, boy? Because it is an usurpation of the power of God. What God began, they have ended; red with the mortal sin of murder, they feel godlike power, and fall into the mortal sin of pride.”
* It’s the men in the army who earn the fame for their Lord.
* To gain peace, there must be war, and sometimes brutal acts are required.
* The clod looks at a woman with two eyes: “The eye of contempt, and the eye of desire. No wonder women look for gold and gear beside.”
* “For the thing which sets men naturally at each other’s throats, and the other thing which bids them blush or frown at touch of a woman’s body, there must be somewhere a reason...”
* To be noble is “to have the power, and to refrain”

Leslie Barringer’s Gerfalcon is a beautifully written and exciting coming-of-age epic with a loveable introspective hero who learns that peace has a price and that his own heart’s desires are not to be trusted. The prose, though slightly archaic, is easily read and the story is full of incisive insights into (and sometimes gentle mocking of) human behavior. Gefalcon would be a great read for a mature teenager, if you can find it (Barringer’s fantasies are out of print). Beware of the ebook version which I read (Renaissance E Books) — it’s full of typos.… (meer)