In Praise of Dragonslayer

I've always been fond of the 1981 film Dragonslayer, which came out when I was in graduate school. It is, as far as I can remember, the first mature high fantasy motion picture Hollywood ever released, and with an original story, to boot (although it owes something to the tale of St. George and the Dragon). I could write a lengthy essay about this film, but I'll stick to talking about how it relates to The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

When I had my April shower vision, I saw the young man in the tower as a sorcerer's apprentice. My mind went at once to this film. The film follows the adventures of young Galen (Peter MacNicol), apprentice to  the sorcerer Ulrich (Ralph Richardson). The film opens with a party of travelers arriving at Ulrich's secluded keep to ask his help in slaying a dragon. I wanted my novel to begin the same way. Our apprentice is looking out a window at the top of a keep, pondering his life, when a band of men comes into view in the distance, headed for the keep. They will ask the sorcerer to aid them on a quest, our apprentice will come along, and his life will dramatically change.

The sorcerer Ulrich in the film lives alone, apart from his apprentice Galen and a servant, Hodge. Hodge (Sydney Bromley) is as old as Ulrich, apparently (they both have gray hair), but I find it borderline implausible that a "keep" could be maintained (and defended!) by two old men and an apprentice. I like the idea of keeping the staff at the keep few in number, though, especially if the sorcerer and his apprentice are soon leaving on a quest. Why spend a lot of my time (and the reader's!) developing a set of characters to inhabit a keep we'll soon be leaving?

So, one servant it is. But a skinny old man like Hodge doesn't seem up to the job, so my sorcerer's servant will be a teenage boy, ill-educated, unlike our apprentice, but strong and energetic, more plausibly able to keep up with all the work that needs to be done. Probably a child of misfortune, someone who ended up at the keep because he had nowhere else to go and the sorcerer took pity on him. Good enough of a character sketch for someone who's only going to be appearing in a few scenes, right?

That's what I thought. It turned out the servant had other ideas. But that's a tale for another blog post.

If you are at all interested in fantasy fiction, you must see Dragonslayer. George R.R. Martin was fully correct when he said that the dragon in the film, Vermithrax Perjorative, is not only one of the best cinematic dragons ever, but has the coolest name.

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