Monday, October 4, 2021

Pulp Fantasy Library: Three Hearts and Three Lions

Appendix N includes just shy of thirty different authors whom Gary Gygax considered to have been "of particular inspiration" to him creating Dungeons & Dragons. Of these, Gygax singles out a handle for special mention: DeCamp & Pratt, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H.P. Lovecraft, and Merritt. I think it would be difficult for any fair-minded person to find fault with his selection of these authors; their direct influence on D&D (and on the wider fantasy genre) is undeniable. 

Nevertheless, there is one Appendix N author not listed among "the most direct influences upon AD&D" that I feel ought to be there – and, no, I'm not talking about J.R.R. Tolkien. That author is Poul Anderson, particularly with reference to his 1961 novel, Three Hearts and Three Lions. Anderson is generally seen as a science fiction author and understandably so, given his output in that genre, which might explain why he's often overlooked compared to Howard or Leiber or Vance when it comes to seminal D&D inspirations. If you look more closely at his fantasy works, however, I think it becomes harder to deny his direct influence on the game.

More than a decade ago, I wrote a very brief post about Three Hearts and Three Lions. While that post references many of the novel's major connections to Dungeons & Dragons, I thought it worthwhile to return to it at greater length in this post, focusing not just on those connections but on more of the details of its story. Like many older works of fantasy, starting with Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars, Three Hearts and Three Lions is presented as "true" account of the adventures of its protagonist, as told to the author of the book. In this case, the protagonist is a Danish engineer named Holger Carlsen, who had come to the United States as a university student sometime before World War II. Though enamored of America and intending to stay there, the invasion of his homeland by the Nazis in 1940 awakened in him a patriotic fervor that, within a year, resulted in his returning to Europe to join the resistance in Denmark. 

Carlsen fought in the resistance for a couple of years, evading capture and dealing significant blows to the Nazi war effort. In 1943, he helped Niels Bohr to escape to Sweden and, ultimately, to safety. This endeavor, however, brought him face to face with the Nazis, who shoot him in the head. He blacks out and awakens some time later in a place that is at once familiar but not. Like John Carter, Carlsen is naked, but it doesn't take him long to find some attire. An immense, friendly stallion (named Papillon, according to the engraving on his headstall) approached him, bearing medieval armor and weapons. The armor fits him perfectly – too perfectly – as if it were made specifically for him. His shield bears three hearts and three lions upon it, heraldry very similar to that of the coat of arms of Denmark, which has nine hearts and three lions. 

Carlsen is completely confused and begins to wonder if he is mad or dreaming. Over the course of the next several short chapters – the novel is arranged more or less as a series of vignettes – he comes to realize that, against all logic, he has somehow been transported to Denmark during the reign of Charlemagne. Even so, Carlsen is determined to find some way to return to the 20th century and enlists the aid of multiple magical beings to aid him in this. The first is Hugi the dwarf, but he is soon joined by Alianora the swanmay as well. From them, he learns much about the world to which he has been transported and it's this that is of great interest to players of D&D.

Holger got the idea that a perpetual struggle went on between primeval forces of Law and Chaos. No, not forces exactly. Modes of existence? A terrestrial reflection of the spiritual conflict between heaven and hell? In any case, humans were the chief agents on earth of Law, though most of them were so only unconsciously and some, witches and warlocks and evildoers, had sold out to Chaos. A few nonhuman beings also stood for Chaos. Ranged against them was almost the whole Middle World, which seemed to include realms like Faerie, Trollheim, and the Giants – an actual creation of Chaos. Wars among men, such as the long-drawn struggle between the Saracens and the Holy Empire, aided Chaos' under Law all men would live in peace and order and that liberty which only Law could give meaning. But this was so alien to Middle Worlders that they were forever working to prevent it and to extend their shadowy dominion.

This passage and others like it are the ultimate origins of Chainmail's alignment system, which, in turn, would become the basis for that in D&D. They're also, not coincidentally, the origins of Moorcock's own takes on Law versus Chaos from his Eternal Champion stories. Regardless of what one thinks about D&D's use of this idea, it's hard not to find Anderson's version quite compelling. Had D&D done a better job of grounding alignment in a larger, cosmic struggle, I suspect that many, if not most, of the objections to alignment in the game would evaporate (though gamers, being a querulous bunch, would still find ways to complain about it).

As the trio travel across medieval Denmark, they encounter all manner of fantastical creatures, such as elves, a giant, a dragon, and a werewolf. They also make the acquaintance of a Saracen named Carahue and a wizard called Martinus Trismegistus, both of whom provide them with aid. Throughout the story, Carlsen begins to have increasing flashes of memory. He remembers more and more about this fairytale Denmark, as if he'd been here before. In time, he realizes that he's in fact from this time and place originally and that he is in fact Holger Danske, the legendary Ogier le Danois of the Matter of France who was destined to return when Denmark most needed him. 

Three Hearts and Three Lions is a quick read, being about 150 pages in most editions. It's engagingly written and filled with lots of interesting characters and ideas. Aside from the aforementioned presentation of alignment and the swanmay, there's also the first instance of the regenerating troll in fantasy literature and Holger himself, who is a paladin both within the story and as the inspiration for the character class of the same name. There's much to enjoy here, both for fans of classic fantasy literature and archeologists of roleplaying. I wish more people were familiar with this novel.

20 comments:

  1. Holger Carlsen makes a cameo appearance at the Old Phoenix in A Midsummer Tempest, where he meets with a now grown up Valeria Matuchek from Operation Chaos. Just thought that was worth mentioning.

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  2. I liked Three Hearts and three lions (and the Broken Sword too) quite a lot, and its influence on D&D is undeniable.
    But in my mind, the novel (with some similarities) that I really equate with D&D gaming is DeCamp's Iron Castle and all the Harold Shea series.
    The fact that I read the Iron Castle at the time I was getting into gaming, definitely must have had a part in this preference of mine

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    1. Much as I enjoyed the Harold Shea stories, deCamp's Novarian books are the most D&D-ish of his works to me. If Clocks of Iraz didn't pre-date the game I'd accuse it of being written from someone's campaign notes. :)

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    2. Oh, yes the adventures of Jorian were another book I read more or less at the same time, and with great enjoyment. I sneak in the Grand Bastard of Othomae in my games whenever I can.

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    3. I seem to recall that rubbery green regenerating trolls made an appearance in The Broken Sword. At any rate in a Poul Andersen story.

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    4. It's in Three Hearts and Three Lions!

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  3. Moorcock was also a big fan of the slightly earlier Anderson novel The Broken Sword, which he praised as being better than Tolkein and credited with inspiring Elric's Stormbringer.

    I'm more of a fan of Anderson's scifi (particularly the earlier Polesotechnic League stories and the Hoka comedy stuff he co-authored with Dickson) but he did produce some very interesting fantasy works that are (like all his work) grossly underappreciated these days.

    SPI produced a boardgame based on his High Crusade novel, which I believe was only sold as a magazine insert in Ares. Quite good, and the mag included a short story addition to the setting that I've never seen reprinted elsewhere.

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  4. While it looks like 1961 was the first book publication, my copy also lists an earlier (1953) copyright date, presumably for a magazine publication. That's significant because it puts publication of this story prior to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

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  5. Interesting how many Appendix N Protagonists are people from "modern day" Earth thrown into another world, yet this did NOT transfer over to D&D, excepting the cartoon.

    Now I'm off to write up a retro clone.....

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    1. Kids these days would immediately recognize them as isekai stories, although they might wonder why so few protagonists get "sent to another world" through the traditional method of being hit by a truck.

      Yeah, John Carter is an isekai series. :)

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  6. One of my favorite stories of all time, and the source of my online alias which, until Wheel of Time had ogiers instead of ogres, was usually available. And then, after WoT, I had to go with stuff like ogier300 instead.

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  7. "Wars among men, such as the long-drawn struggle between the Saracens and the Holy Empire, aided Chaos..." Would wars between Faerie and Trollheim benefit Law? Is that why the Aesir have intervened on the side of the Elves in 'The Broken Sword?'

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    1. Presumably two "Chaos" factions brawling with one another would weaken teh overall cause, same way two mortal human factions fighting does to Law in the HRE v Saracen example. OTOH, Chaos likes disorder, so maybe the opposite is true if it benefits from any warfare, even between its followers?

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    2. Two negatives make a positive. :)

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  8. Hugi and Holger Carlsen are statted in Giants of the Earth in Dragon magazine's 49th issue (with the Hildebrandt dragon cover).

    Interestingly, Holger isn't made with the RAW.

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    1. Lots of characters statted in GITE don't fit RAW (though it would have been easier to do with Holger than with most).

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  9. I love Three Hearts and Three Lions (I have the first-print hardback, though alas only in Book Club version). Besides the obvious alignment stuff, the troll, etc. I think the way the elves were presented here may have also had some slight influence on the drow, with the "beautiful but villainous elves" trope.

    However, I think Anderson (and Moorcock)'s influence regarding alignment was ultimately baneful. Take that passage you quote, explaining Law and Chaos. Then substitute the more familiar terms "Good" and "Evil" for each iteration of law or chaos. NOTHING WOULD CHANGE. (It would be left to Moorcock - with his counter-culture sensibilities - to make chaos/law a bit more complex and distinct than this).

    But ultimately, I think OD&D (and the OSR who ape this part of) simply dropped the ball. The history of D&D alignment and the barrels of ink spilled on the subject would have been so much simpler and more comprehensible if Gary and/or Dave had never read Moorcock or Anderson and had simply said "you can be Good, Evil, or Neutral" and left it at that. And the only thing that would have changed is that people could have understood the damn thing without the need for complex charts and explanations.






    Given it's fundamental role in inspiring D&D it's sort of amazing that early era D&D never really went anywhere with the "modern day people reincarnated into a fantasy world" (even though that's now a staple of Japanese anime and light novels...) Especially when Gygax published a couple of scenarios in which the trip went the otherway (D&D to WWII, etc.)


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  10. If I remember correctly, Anderson may have also used the Law/Chaos system - at least a bit - in his modern-world with magic book Operation Chaos.

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