Most readers of Sword and Sorcery are fans of Keith Taylor’s Bard series of stories and novels set in historical Post-Roman Britain. They are indeed some of the best S&S tales to come out of the late '70s/early '80s, but some folks might not know of some of his other heroic fantasy/S&S works that came later. I’m talking about The Danans trilogy of Historical Fantasy, published in the late '80s and early '90s.

The Danans Trilogy consists of The Sorcerer’s Sacred Isle, The Cauldron of Plenty, and Search for the Starblade. These tales are set in ancient Ireland before it was named as such (here known as Tirtangir), in a timeline that roughly coincides with the Bronze Age. It’s a mix of historical, Celtic myth and swashbuckling S&S that just plain works.

Taylor has a beautiful way with words, and here he tells the exciting story of the clash between the Danans (known as the Tuatha de Danaan in Irish mythology) and the Freths (rough, skin-clad folks, almost savages). Both races are proud and warlike, and both have magic and sorcery in their arsenals. Cena, Queen of the Danans, wants to forge a bond between the two races, and Sixarms, leader of the Freths, proposes a joining of the races through marriage. Of course there are those who detest the very idea of a joining of the two peoples, so much mayhem is instigated, reigniting the bloody war between Freth and Danan.  There are bronze swords vs. stone axe battles, evil sorcery, and horrific monstrosities to be found in these yarns, and the feel is similar to Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword but less doom-laden. This isn't surprising, since Taylor is a lifelong fan of Anderson's 'Northern' tales.

There are many scenes of blood ’n’ thunder combat, pitting the stone axes of the barbaric Freths against the whetted bronze wielded by the Danan warriors:

“He [the Danan] reckoned without the strength of a Freth. Stag Who Wins All His Fights stood fast, his shield never moving a nail’s width. The flint axe rose, crashed down through Varl’s shoulder and into his chest, almost severing his arm. He fell, aware of utter numbness in his limb, then staring in disbelief at the jumble of meat and bone it had become. Spurting blood covered it.”

There are also strange creatures and foul sorcerous beings;

“The Despoilers oozed through the grove, their scales rasping on silver-white birch bark. At their touch, the trees blackened from root to crown. At the gust of their envenomed breath, moles and birds fell dead. When the three serpents crawled from among the birches, nothing living remained behind them. The Freth sorcerers who had fallen to the foot of the hill lay there yet, withered as by the touch of pestilence.”

The three books each clock in at around 215-250 pages each, slim by today’s standards, but chock full of wonder, adventure and sorcery-steeped thrills. All three of these books have been out of print since the early '90s, but seem readily available from used book sellers online for reasonable prices, and I recently found all three available as affordable ebooks at Amazon. If you enjoyed reading the Bard series, you’re going to love these books just as much. It’s a shame that these books seem mostly forgotten, as they provide blood-stirring entertainment and wonder for any fan of adventure fantasy and S&S fiction, and they are written by a master of the genre.

Stan Wagenaar lives and writes in the frozen wastelands of Northwestern Ontario, Canada. His S&S yarns featuring Gunnolf the wandering Northman can be found in Barbarian Crowns II, Storyhack issue #5 and in an upcoming issue of Tales From The Magician’s Skull.