The Seven Knights of Princess Snow White - Commentary
A look back at the seven parter
Hi everyone!
I hope that you enjoyed The Seven Knights of Princess Snow White!
If you haven’t yet, you can find Part One here, or you can start with The Red Riding Hood Saga from the beginning!
Now that it’s come to an end, I wanted to take a look back and give some commentary on the seven parts!
So, please enjoy my commentary on the series!
Commentary
Wow, this story became a lot larger than I had planned.
I had originally thought that this would be a 3 or 4 part story, but it grew into 7 parts - which, serendipitously, is quite apt (I say with a cheeky grin).
The genesis for this story was because I had wanted to do a simple side story featuring the Band of Seven fighting a dragon - just a little something more fun and action-y before returning to Red for the final arc of the series.
For Part One, Caliburn's backstory was pulled from a variety of sources:
The most obvious inspirations would be the legends surrounding the Sword in the Stone, Excalibur, and the Lady of the Lake - after all, Caliburn is another name for Excalibur, King Arthur's legendary sword. Excalibur is said to have been forged by the Lady of the Lake, hence the water powers; and the Sword in the Stone (which may or may not have been the same as Excalibur, depending on the version) inspired the pulling out of sword along with the test of worthiness.
The Honest Woodcutter/The Golden Axe inspired the core of the plot - that being the main character telling the truth gets them rewarded (as well as the plot being started by throwing an item into a body of water).
And, of course, the imagery of the Parting of the Red Sea was evoked.
Part Two is one of the few times where I do some worldbuilding on a whim - something that I don't usually enjoy doing.
But, I felt that this alternate version of dwarfs was important to the story, so I included it in a way that I hope flowed with the story.
I also took Part Two as an opportunity to bring a newcomer up to speed, give Red a cameo, as well as to give long-time readers of The Red Riding Hood Saga a glimpse of who Snow White was.
As Princess Snow White had not really been present for most of the series (and she's only really been a satellite character attached to Red), I wanted to use the chance to show a bit more about who she was and why Red loved her so very much (as well as Caliburn and the rest of the Band of Seven).
For Part Three, I decided to speed through the rest of the Band of Seven's introductions - otherwise, they all could have had their own short story!
In a similar vein, I'll speed through their inspirations:
Galatine's backstory was inspired by how Sir Gawain (from Arthurian Legends) was enchanted by his aunt Morgan le Fey so that he would become stronger as the day proceeded closer to noon, be at his strongest at noon, and then his strength would wane to normal as the day proceeded past noon; Galatine was the name of Sir Gawain's sword.
Ascalon's backstory was inspired by Saint George and the Dragon, with Ascalon being the name of Saint George's sword. There's no mention of the colour of the dragon, but since Saint George is also known as the Red Cross Knight, I decided to give him and the dragon a red theme.
Joyeuse's backstory was inspired by how Charlemagne's sword, named Joyeuse, was said to have a hilt of gold and encrusted gems - so bright and beautiful that it could blind armies.
Durandal's backstory was inspired by how Roland's sword of the same name was said to be very sharp and durable. Roland is one of Charlemagne's paladins in the Matter of France and related stories - hence Durandal and Joyeuse's closeness in the story.
Dáinsleif's backstory was inspired by the legend of Högni and his sword of the same name - which, once drawn, could not be sheathed until someone had been killed.
Gram's backstory... was not really inspired by anything - however, his part in the story was inspired by Sigurd/Siegfried, who had a sword of the same name. While a lot about Fáfnir was changed for this story, Gram's defeat of the dragon and the heart being an important plot element was inspired by Sigurd/Siegfried's battle with Fáfnir.
As mentioned, Fáfnir itself was changed a lot for this story.
In the original, Fáfnir was born a dwarf. After slaying his own father and stealing a hoard of treasure, he became a treasure-hoarding dragon. Sigurd/Siegfried would later slay this dragon with his sword Gram, obtaining and eating the dragon's heart and gaining supernatural powers from it.
As you can tell, most of that was changed, and the only parts that remained were a dragon named Fáfnir, a sword named Gram, and Fáfnir's heart being important somehow.
And one last fun thing to mention before wrapping up - the order in which the Band of Seven were mentioned at the end of Part Seven is, of course, the same as how they were introduced in Part Two!
I had a lot of fun writing this story about how the fractured Band of Seven reunited, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it too!
Thank you for reading! If you’ve enjoyed my work, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, and/or buying me a tea - it really helps! Thank you!