Retellings

I post this evening from Pine Lake Resort.

Sometimes a combox discussion inspires another post. This is a Good Thing. We like it when new post topics appear as if from nowhere. In this case, see the combox for Cross-Temporal Comparisons.

Fiction and literature have two aspects. One familiar aspect is the creation of new characters and stories but an older aspect is retellings and adaptations. Greek drama retold myths. Shakespeare mostly adapted earlier stories and added History plays which also retell existing narratives.

Among Poul Anderson's works:

The King Of Ys (with Karen Anderson)  

Hrolf Kraki's Saga

War Of The Gods

The Last Viking

 

Isabel Allende wrote a Zorro novel.

It is for this reason that I suggest that established franchises like Superman, Star Trek and Doctor Who would provide rich material for radical retellings that would make readers feel that they were meeting the real characters for the first time. Needless to say, Poul Anderson would have been able to handle any of these three. When a legendary figure like the last King of Ys is transmuted in this way, he becomes a new character with an old name.