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pegkerrI found out a Cool Thing today reading Icy Pleasures which, like the fish in the ice block, gives me the feeling that I am onto something real, something true. Something that will resonate, will give me something meaty to chew on, thematically. It has to do with the stories surrounding the first ice palaces. I discovered an earlier story than the one that I knew, a much more sinister story that perhaps changes things. It certainly gives the events of my book more gravitas. (Anyway, I hope it does.) I read in Ice Palaces by Fred Anderes the story of "the first well-documented ice palace," built in the winter of 1739-1740 by Empress Anna of Russia, niece of Peter the Great. She built it because she was pissed at a courtier in her court, Prince Mikhail Golitsin, and decided to punish him this way: she ordered him to marry an incredibly ugly woman vastly below him in class, a servant, and then she built a fabulous ice palace and forced the couple to spend their wedding night there. On a bed of ice. You understand: a transparent building, just to complete the humiliation.
Now: here's the spoiler: when I was plot-noodling with Lois McMaster Bujold, it was her idea that this courtier was Rolf. Something as a result of what Empress Anna did to him, he accidently stumbled upon a way of magically extending his life, using the magic of the ice palace. I have not worked out the details at all. Lois suggested that Rolf has been regenerating himself through history since then, somehow using power in succeeding ice palaces. But another piece fell into place today, reading Icy Pleasures.
It seems that there's another, older legend, which was reported in newspapers in 1867. A tale is recounted at that time that Peter the Great in 1720 got pissed at a courtier in his court, because the courtier asked permission to marry a beautiful woman of the court, and when mocked by Peter the Great for it, the courtier made the mistake of turning his caustic wit on the emperor. The emperor repaid him with the woman of his desires and an ice palace, complete with furnishings and chandeliers--only to seal him and his bride up in their nuptial chamber. The tale ends with the luminous tomb gradually giving way to sun and soot "until even the emperor could no longer bear to look at its congealed and blackened features."
This presents a timing problem: if Rolf was involved in the 1720 ice palace, he couldn't be Prince Golitsin. Golitsin was older than 19. However, maybe I can get away with fudging or simply not mentioning the dates. I had already written the scene where Jack tells Solveig the story of Empress Anna's palace. But I think Rolf might tell the story of Peter the Great's palace at the climax of the book. It is getting at something at the heart of the magic, involving blood guilt, life sacrifice, which is part of what Rolf is up to with Solveig and Ingrid, and I won't get into the details now, because I've spoiled you enough already, thank you, by telling you this. The triangle in this older legend is replicated in the triangle between Rolf, Solveig and Jack. I think of the legend of the Frost King (one of the origins for this book), leaning forward and whispering to the girl "Are you warm, maiden? Are you warm?" as he's freezing her to death.
Yes. Perhaps I'm getting closer to the magical reason why those fish are frozen into the cornerstones of all the ice palaces.
Now: here's the spoiler: when I was plot-noodling with Lois McMaster Bujold, it was her idea that this courtier was Rolf. Something as a result of what Empress Anna did to him, he accidently stumbled upon a way of magically extending his life, using the magic of the ice palace. I have not worked out the details at all. Lois suggested that Rolf has been regenerating himself through history since then, somehow using power in succeeding ice palaces. But another piece fell into place today, reading Icy Pleasures.
It seems that there's another, older legend, which was reported in newspapers in 1867. A tale is recounted at that time that Peter the Great in 1720 got pissed at a courtier in his court, because the courtier asked permission to marry a beautiful woman of the court, and when mocked by Peter the Great for it, the courtier made the mistake of turning his caustic wit on the emperor. The emperor repaid him with the woman of his desires and an ice palace, complete with furnishings and chandeliers--only to seal him and his bride up in their nuptial chamber. The tale ends with the luminous tomb gradually giving way to sun and soot "until even the emperor could no longer bear to look at its congealed and blackened features."
This presents a timing problem: if Rolf was involved in the 1720 ice palace, he couldn't be Prince Golitsin. Golitsin was older than 19. However, maybe I can get away with fudging or simply not mentioning the dates. I had already written the scene where Jack tells Solveig the story of Empress Anna's palace. But I think Rolf might tell the story of Peter the Great's palace at the climax of the book. It is getting at something at the heart of the magic, involving blood guilt, life sacrifice, which is part of what Rolf is up to with Solveig and Ingrid, and I won't get into the details now, because I've spoiled you enough already, thank you, by telling you this. The triangle in this older legend is replicated in the triangle between Rolf, Solveig and Jack. I think of the legend of the Frost King (one of the origins for this book), leaning forward and whispering to the girl "Are you warm, maiden? Are you warm?" as he's freezing her to death.
Yes. Perhaps I'm getting closer to the magical reason why those fish are frozen into the cornerstones of all the ice palaces.
