Lord Rivers and Edward V.

Looking into the world from Beyond the Veil and the folklore that surrounds it.

Part 5.

 To my dearest friends and followers,

For the past 4 weeks, I have been analyzing my novel The Story of Hollyhocks (Tales from Beyond the Veil book 1) and discussing the folklore and history behind the story. If you would like to read the previous posts in this series, you can do so my clicking the Archive in the right panel of the blog, and checking out the 4 latest posts.

The entire book is told by the narrator who follows the protagonist, Hollyhocks, throughout the story. However, today I will be discussing chapters 16-19, wherein the narrator switches the focus to Edward and where he came from.

Chapter 16 begins as a flashback in time. It is unclear when exactly this chapter is set or how old Edward V would have been - I felt it unnecessary to set an exact date and left it up to the reader to decide. We see the routine that Edward went through on an almost daily basis, from being woken up early, dressed, attending prayer services and mass. He is taught history and geography. He is taught different languages, including French and Latin. He is also taught music and proper etiquette, amongst many other things listed in the book. We are told that he has a tutor and that some of his lessons are taught to him by his uncle, Lord Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, or Lord Rivers for short.

Historically, Edward was 1 when he became the Prince of Wales, and took residence in Ludlow. When Edward was only 3 years old, his father, Edward IV, placed him under the care and supervision of Lord Rivers. Edward IV wrote a lengthy letter, explaining in detail how Lord Rivers was to raise his son. The events I describe in the first part of chapter 16 are as close to the letter as I could get, since I have read only snippets of it (I am unaware if the actual letter has survived to the present day, but I haven't been able to find it online). Based on this letter and the fact that Lord Rivers was to care for his nephew, Edward V, I believe that the two had a close father/son relationship, which is why I painted it as such in my own book.

Chapter 17 sees Edward venturing into the Forest that Hollyhocks resides in, though the two don't know each other at this point in time. The reader is aware of the creatures in the forest and what their intentions are, though young Edward is oblivious to them. At one point, he sees a fairy ring (a patch of mushrooms grown in a circular shape - a portal created by the pixies to trap humans) and nearly steps into it, but is pulled away at the last moment. 

Edward realizes his rescuer is a large white unicorn. The dryads whisper the name of the unicorn to Edward - Anlon. Edward hears the name and then says, "Quite a befitting name, I should think." At the time that I wrote this line, I was not aware that the name Anlon had any meaning. It was simply a name that my mother and I came up with. To me, having Edward state this line was supposed to be humorous. Edward, like me, also had no idea what the name meant, but thought it was a befitting name for the unicorn, much in the way that I had. To my surprise, I recently found out the name Anlon is an Irish name and means "Great Champion". WHUT?! That's cool. Though I decided to keep the meaning out of the story, it's kind of cool for anyone who does decide to search the name. It also makes sense, as the character Anlon sort of is a champion, as he succeeded the Great White Stag, which will be written about in the 2nd book in the series.

In chapter 19, Edward V learns of his father's death, making him the new king at just 12 years old.

History tells us that Edward received this news 5 days after his father died. His mother was in London with his father at the time of his death. In my story, I placed Edward's mother, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, in Ludlow as well, along with Edward's siblings. The purpose of changing these facts was, I simply required them to all be in Ludlow for the sake of the flow of the story. These reasons will become clear to the reader of the book.

The end of the chapter sees Edward calling out to see a fairy, which ties us back in to chapters 12 and 13, before continuing on with chapter 20.

Thank you so much for reading!!

Yours truly,

Me

Additional:

To learn more about the world beyond the veil, check out the book,

The Story of Hollyhocks (Tales from Beyond the Veil book 1). Now available in paperback and as an ebook (free with KindleUnlimited)!!