Irony, twists and turns, and ancient mysteries in “Saranythia Part 3 - The Secrets of the Margspakr”

We get to the heart of “Saranythia” in this third part of the story. The protagonists begin a journey that will lead them to encounter ancient mysteries, not forgetting to entertain the readers.
The reading flows pleasantly between irony and twists, while the story unfolds on three narrative lines that intertwine with each other.
While in the first two parts we got acquainted with new and old characters and witnessed what brought them to this point in the story, in “The Secrets of the Margspakr” the action moves faster, keeping you glued to the pages, and the various previously introduced elements begin to interact with each other and take on a clear place in the plot.
There is no shortage of moments of hilarity, thanks to the edgy jokes of some characters and, above all, to the gags of the twins Erik and Dag.
As always, Richard J. Galloway manages to merge elements from the fantastic that seem to belong to magic or supernatural with real science, used as an explanation of the same elements. It’s very fascinating how he explains a real physical phenomenon, related to the behaviour of light, and then uses it as the basis for the extraordinary theory of the nature of the universe proposed by one of the characters.
In short, an exciting reading that has one flaw: having to wait for the publication of the next volume to finally know how the story will end!
In the meantime, I asked Richard to introduce the book in his own way and to answer some of my questions.
Here’s what he told me.

 

Time passes. Memories of events fade.
Half remembered history, blurred by embellishment, becomes myth.
More time passes. Generations of people are born and pass on.
Myth becomes diluted, sanitised, and relegated to long ago tales of heroes and kings.
Epic events of the past reduced to half remembered bedtime stories from childhood.  

And so it was with The Margspakr. To some, they were Wisemen from ancient times, advising the hero before battle and healing him afterwards, the basis of stories from their early years.
Others, like the Red Friars of the Saratarian Order, knew who The Margspakr really were, but not what they did. To them, The Margspakr were an unsolved mystery, a secret society who vanished without trace, taking their secrets with them.

For Amantarra, a journey beckons. A trap? That’s a good probability, but as a new player reveals himself, there seems no alternative other than to walk into it. It’s on this journey that they find evidence of The Margspakr, along with some of their secrets.

Stories from Earth hold their own mysteries, which the new player is very interested in. He claims to have explanations for the true origins of ghosts and twisted causality, but how exactly do you win a medal for falling off a beer crate?

With this third part of “Saranythia” we get over the mid-point of the story. At the end of the previous part, a twist had pushed the protagonists to a new course of events, namely to embark on a long journey to visit the Witch of Fossrauf. And it is precisely around the journey that this part of the story develops, which is joined by a couple of fascinating characters: the twins Dag and Erik, unbeatable warriors, but also great talkers.
Did you draw inspiration from something or someone in particular in creating these two characters?

Dag and Erik, yes, they had an interesting evolution which started with their opening argument as to which name should be introduced first. An argument that very quickly descends into farce. This opening salvo was based on the Tweedledee and Tweedledum characters played by Matt Lucas in the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland. So, Dag and Erik are identical twins born into a world where mind reading is the norm. It was obvious to me that they would grow to be two minds as one. They don’t perform well when they are separated, but together, in a fight, they are unbeatable two on two. Similarly, their explanation of why they are coming on the expedition to visit the witch appears almost scripted, with one warrior finishing the other’s sentences as they work towards a common goal.

After immersing ourselves in the medieval context of Setergard (except for some bits of Bruwnan technology), in the third part of “Saranythia”, as your readers can already guess from the cover of the book, our protagonists come across some advanced technologies. One of the most fascinating aspects is the way Pheenar’s characters react to technologies whose functioning is beyond their comprehension. And their reactions are funny, but most of all they seem realistic.
How do you put yourself in their shoes? Does it come spontaneously or do you use any particular tricks to identify with them?

The premise on which the story is based is that to primitive cultures all advanced technology looks like magic, or in the case of the peoples of Pheenar, divine. The Bruwnan technologies to which they are exposed are gifts from their God and not meant to be understood. The visitors from Earth bring new objects to be marvelled at, and as they are not divine, possibly understood. The reactions of the locals to things we take for granted is entirely spontaneous, I’m very good at getting hold of the wrong end of the stick. The humour comes from the complete misunderstanding of what they are being shown. Commander Vartii has a particular fascination with how things work, but he tends get overwhelmed by concepts, seeing things as a whole instead of breaking them up into more understandable component parts. Thus, the ropes, pulleys, and counterweights of a simple lifting platform fill him with awe and wonder. It’s through his eyes I introduce the fact that the people of Pheenar were once more advanced than they are now.

Let’s talk about the Margspakr. This is an Old Norse word, right?
Tell us a little more about its origin and why you decided to give such a name to these figures from the past that appear in the book.

Yes, it is Old Norse. “Margspakr”, this can be broken down into two parts: “Marg” (a shortened version of “Margr”) – meaning many, and “Spakr” – meaning “Wise”, so its literal translation is “Many Wise” or taken as a whole, “Very Wise”. I’ve taken the liberty of applying it to a collective to give the meaning “Wise men”.
Why Old Norse? Well, 16.3% of my DNA is Scandinavian, so I decided to release my inner Viking by basing the society on Pheenar very loosely around Old Norse culture, well the names at least anyway. This decision was clinched by a partially one-sided conversation I had with my dentist on the strange sounding place names we have here in the North East of England. Not being from the region she was curious about their origin and was fascinated to learn, between pauses in the drilling, that they were Norse.
“Fossrauf” is also Old Norse, “Foss” – meaning “Waterfall”, and “Rauf” – meaning “Hole”. So now you know that our intrepid band are travelling to “Waterfall Hole” to visit the Witch. If you’re wondering about “Setergard” it means “Mountain Pasture Farm”.

Raised amid the heavy industry of the north-east of England on a diet of Star Trek, Doctor Who and fantasy novels, RICHARD J. GALLOWAY rebelled against his school’s assumption that heavy industrial work would be his vocation. Having exhausted the only apparent option, the careers master would despair. “If you don’t want to work in the steelworks, where do you want to work?” His reply was always, “I don’t know.” The industry he finished up in would not materialise for another ten years. No wonder the master struggled. From school, via drawing office and architecture, eventually he found himself working with large computer systems.

Career aside, the thread that bound it all together has been fantasy. He has never lost his fascination with the imagery that a good story invokes. After all, it had shown him worlds beyond this one, and possibilities beyond the steelworks. It continues to do so.

Richard still lives in the north-east of England with his wife, family, and a large cat called Beano. The heavy industry has shrunk, but Richard’s world of fantasy has grown. He often wonders what advice he would have been given if the careers master had read the occasional bit of science fiction.

 

Richard’s first novel Amantarra was published in 2013, followed in 2017, 2018 and 2021 by the first three parts of its sequel Saranythia: The Gates of Setergard, The Varton, and The Secrets of the Margspakr.

All his books are available at Amazon and included in Kindle Unlimited.

 

Visit Richard online at: www.richardjgalloway.com
And follow him on Facebook and Twitter.