50 Nortons in 50 Weeks 1: Huon of the Horn by Andre Norton

[james_davis_nicoll]

Huon of the Horn by Andre Norton

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Having just read the 19th century EETS edition that Norton was drawing on[1], and then glanced through the Norton, I can say that the Norton is significantly abridged. The original *is* often quite fast-paced, but Norton elides a fair amount of political maneuvering, battle sequences, and just repetition. Also, she ends the book when Huon inherits fairyland, whereas the source material goes on for hundreds of pages and three generations of descendants. It's a pretty good abridgement, all told, but if you want more, more is out there.

The trope of "high-ranking person in pagan lands who is secretly a Christian (or long-time Christian sympathizer who hasn't formally converted yet)" was quite common in the source era. Heck, it shows up five or six times in _Huon of Bordeaux_ alone. So it may not be plausible, as such, but there was ample literary precedent.

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=tfUKAAAAYAAJ