And so we have this modest volume: The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings. Cut to 2020 and Dan Jones finds these stories and decides to retell the story of Snowball the tailor for a modern 21st century audience. In the early 1920s, an academic and noted ghost story writer in his own right, MR James, found this centuries-old manuscript and copied down the ghost stories appended at the end of it, publishing them to a wider readership for the first time. Most were a few lines long and the longest was the story of Snowball the tailor. These blank pages were filled with 12 medieval ghost stories by an unnamed monk in the 15th century. In the 12th century, monks transcribing texts by Cicero and various Christian theologists left some blank pages at the end of their transcript. Still kudos are due for Jones in uncovering this medieval story and making it known to a broader audience, 2.5 stars rounded up. Underlying it all is a quest for redemption in the afterlife, only to be obtained by an absolution of a priest.ĭespite being written in an abbey the church people don’t have a glamorous role in this book, more corrupt and haggling than pious.įor a ghost story the book nowhere feels scary, and its stretching the factual content thinly when trying to make it into a standalone slight book. Snowball the Tailor and Borin his horse travel and then a broken raven falls from the sky, lights up green and transforms in a kind of zombie dog, and later on into the titular king.
Rowling, while I also thought of the fairytale of the three dogs encountered by the soldier from Andersen ( The Tinderbox). The actual story itself gives vibes of A Christmas Carol, with three ghosts mentioned, The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Pages of the original can be viewed on the website of the British Library. The story of the original latin 14th century manuscript containing a dozen medieval ghost tales, and how this was later found in the British Library by an actual ghost story author, is just brilliant. A truly fascinating backstory makes the rendition of Jones in this slim book feel kind of underwhelming.
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