THE CHRONICLERS – 1
I’m going to undertake a series of posts describing the different personalities of the four (so far!) Boadlian chroniclers – Harpo, Lace, Bekka, and Plumly. Here is a thumbnail sketch of Harpsandichord Lambsbottler, Harpo for short. Yes, he was the first chronicler chosen by the lavender witch to tell stories of Boad.
He was a roamer, a so-called wandering tailor. He introduced himself to me in the very first story, FAN WA. I didn’t realize he was the narrator until I began to write the third tale. I had written FAN WA and BABBLING JAM HATRACK, the first two stories, in my own voice. Well, when Harpo finally insisted on elbowing me aside, I went willingly, and the first two stories were rewritten. I let him prattle on in any old way he wanted, and he did show some peculiarities. First, it seems he always looked for a laugh. Fair enough. Second, he tended to stretch the truth all the way into fiction if it suited him. Well, okay. Third, he experimented quite a lot with style and form. That is, he was playful. Fine. When, after completing 7 chronicles, his eyesight began to fail, he wrote three shorter tales so that he could get them recorded before he went completely blind. Happily, the lavender witch sent Lace, who was to become the second chronicler, to be his scribe. Harpo finished four more stories, dictating them to Lace. His final story before he died was an autobiography, HARPSANDICHORD LAMBSBOTTLER. He was quite beloved and famous far beyond his own time, even 1000 years into the future where Bekka of Thorns knew and revered his tales.
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