Fantasy Novella Review: Spear by Nicola Griffith

Spear is a Nebula Nominated Novella by author Nicola Griffith. The Novella, which has won praise and nominations for multiple awards, is a queer adaptation of Arthurian and Welsh (Fae) Myth featuring a genderflipped version of the knight Perceval named Peretur. I enjoy some Adaptations of Arthurian Myth but don't really seek them out, so I skipped out on Spear when it first came out...but the sheer amount of acclaim the novella received made it pretty much impossible for me to skip it for too much longer.

And well Spear is pretty damn deserving of its acclaim. The story features Peretur as its protagonist as she starts out being raised alone in a cave magically warded by her mother Elen - who fears Peretur's fae father who once enchanted Elen - and follows Peretur as she sets out against her Mother's wishes to explore humanity and to join the companions of Artos who she sees defend the land. Written in really gorgeous prose, the story sees Peretur grow up, bind her breasts to appear as a boy, grow interested in and have experiences with girls, and - armed with her trusty spear - come into contact with Artos' companions and learn the truth behind both them and her own origins...and how power can so easily corrupt. It's a really effective story that is very easy to recommend.


Plot Summary:  

In a cave, a girl grows up with no one to guide her but her mother. The girl has no true name - her mother calls her Dawnged (her blessing) when she's in a good mood and Tâl (her payment) when her mother is in a bad mood, remembering the suffering she incurred - and the two of them have no real possessions other than a great hanging bowl or cup that her mother hangs in the cave. There they live a peaceful life, eating off the animals the two of them hunt on the land around them.

But as the girl grows older and as other humans begin to inhabit the land around the cave, the girl becomes restless and unwilling to let this be all her life. And when she discovers the corpse of a soldier - carrying a ring, wearing a set of mail, and armed with a broken sword and two spears - she becomes especially determined to see the outside world. Soon she disobeys her mother's wishes and sets out to see the world...and perhaps to join the band of companions the soldier once belonged to - the companions who protect this land from the bandits who prey upon the people. Armed only with the borrowed spears and sword and a name - Peretur, her spear enduring - she will set out to make herself one of those companions...and her quest will change the world and its rulers for all time....

Spear is a story whose value is going to be lost in a review like mine because so much of what makes it special is its really really great prose, which makes it a beautiful joy to read, even as the prose retains that hint of Welsh/Middle-English form. I'm not really someone who usually cares about how something is written rather than what is written except in particularly special cases (see The Spear Cuts Through Water) and Spear is in fact one of those special cases. The story is written essentially in a detached third person omniscient voice and feels like an old epic text, which fits since this is itself an attempt at telling a new changed Arthurian story in the style of an old Arthurian text.

Which is not to say that the characters and themes of Spear aren't excellent as well. Peretur herself is an excellent protagonist to follow as she grows up, discovers the world, finds attraction, and always aims true as the spear that tries to do good and help people as she sees them. She's naive yes, but this isn't a story that critiques her for it, and instead she remains pure in that way, a force for good even as he never really couches her actions in moral terms (well with one exception). The story uses her genderflipped nature from Perceval and her attraction to women, as well as other queer attractions by other characters, in excellent fashion (in ways that make sense based upon the Arthurian Myths). The side characters and reimagined Arthurian characters are all excellent and the themes here of power and corruption in men, men who may have been the heroes in many of the classic stories, all work really well. It may not be especially profound, but the themes are solid and the characters and prose are excellent, and the author's note at the end really hammers home how well researched this whole thing is. Just a very good story that is well well worth anyone's time.