Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Mythic Circle #43, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

Is it just us, or was 2020-2021 the worst year of the past hundred years? Infections, deaths, lockdowns, and quarantines too long for human endurance just kept on keeping on, intensified by squabbles between proponents of collective health measures (masks, vaccines, social distancing) on one side and of individual personal liberties, regardless of the social and health impact, on the other. But through it all, artists continued to think, dream, and produce new work.

Our Contributors, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

This is a list of our contributors for The Mythic Circle #42

Falling For A Cornish Maid, Ella Wallsworth-Bell

The Mythic Circle

It’s the girl’s blue eyes that hook me in. She sits at the back of the pub, staring at me through a sea of cigarette smoke and a chatter of voices, incessant as waves on rocks.

Read by Adrian Watts

Six Years After The Wedding, Joe R. Christopher

The Mythic Circle

Arthur: Our wedding is, on this sixth anniversary, still barren. You have not had so much as a miscarriage to suggest a possible later fulfilment. I need to have an heir to my throne. Two or three heirs—royal brothers—would be even better.

Version A read by Kelley Logan and Jon Woltz

Version B read by Nolan Meditz and Jessica Salmans

Editors' Introductions, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

The Mythic Circle is a creative writing journal devoted to fantasy-inspired creative works; it has been published by the Mythopoeic Society since 1987, and earlier versions of the Society’s creative writing efforts extend to Mythril (1971 to 1980) and Mythellany (1981 to 1987). These journals have now been archived in their entirety at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythsoc/ through the efforts of the Society’s archivist, Phillip Fitzsimmons, and digital assistant Benjamin Dressler. All but the current issue may be downloaded for free, and the current issue may be purchased as a digital download or ordered as a print-on-demand title from Amazon.

In its thirty-three …

Betrothal, Lawrence Buentello

The Mythic Circle

Grayson first saw her as she rode from the trees of the forest beyond his small house. The sun, with the last of the light it threw over the hills to the west, illuminated her astride her horse in burnished gold and yellow streaks.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

What Iphigenia Knows, Ama Kirchner

The Mythic Circle

1. Iphigenia is in a void. The space surrounding her is not black or gray, nor is it faded light that tapers off at the edges of her vision.

Read by Victoria Gaydosik

Epic, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

A back-to-the-future Shamanic telling for public recitation Sing in me, Muse, the epic tale of that Earth daughter who shook the foundations of the Dark Towers and challenged in combat the dread lords of tyranny and their master the Patriarch of Death. Before the Book, back in The Dreaming— over eons of Shaman Lore—it is attested that light is restoration for those who are eaten by their own shadows and fire is the bane of phantoms. From somewhere here, Muse, begin.

Read by David Sparenberg

Troll, Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

The Mythic Circle

Once upon a time there lived a troll who guarded a tollbooth on a bridge.

Read by Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

We Dreamed Ourselves Awake, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

One day we all woke up. Every one of us really woke up. We dreamed ourselves awake.

Read by Victoria Gaydosik

Deathwater, Dusk, Meg Moseman

The Mythic Circle

Lead us past the murky lakes, where all is laid to rest and sunk in earthIn overhanging twilight, seeking has no use, and understanding dies.

Read by Meg Moseman

In Memoriam: Ryder Miller, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

Ryder Miller, a long-time contributor to The Mythic Circle, passed away March 15, 2020.

Working Title, S. Dorman

The Mythic Circle

Mark Twain had gone into outer darkness on a comet, leaving his friend Jack Lewis at his desk musing on their great experience together—an awful vision of the crucifixion in which the crucified Christ was nothing but an insect.

Read by Scott Long and Steve Strickler

The Tree That Stood Forever, Mary Alice Dixon

The Mythic Circle

One day not long ago, as time is measured by trees, a woman wandered fields of thyme and lavender near a small, hard-to-find town. She was a traveler who had become lost looking for home. Her memory was lost, too.

Read by Phillip Fitzsimmons

The Dreaded Tome Of Urawn, Lee Clark Zumpe

The Mythic Circle

"Curse you, mortal," shouted the great gray dragon vexedly as the mortal on her back fidgeted nervously in his saddle. "By the gods, be still!"

Read by Kelley Logan

Mythic Blooms (Fatherless / A Vision), Mack W. Mani

The Mythic Circle

i. Papa sailed to Troy before I learned to sing, naming me and calling it a job well done.

Read by Nolan Meditz

Ritual, David Sparenberg

The Mythic Circle

Here is the place of the big tree Here is the place of coming together Known as the Ring of Gathering

Read by Nolan Meditz

Deathwater, Day, Meg Moseman

The Mythic Circle

at thought's edge, past a mountain peak in pine, there is a fountain, terraced, calciferous — silent in the sun, save for a susurrus of ripples — I met a wretch who said:

Read by Meg Moseman

Reviews, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

Reviews of our contributors' publications.

Loss, Holly Day

The Mythic Circle

I look for it everywhere, the magic I used to see around me.

Read by Nolan Meditz

The Ship Of Fools, Holly Day

The Mythic Circle

If you see a bird in a tree, don’t bother shooting at it.

Read by Nolan Meditz

Equuleus Of Troy, Dc Mallery

The Mythic Circle

In the waning days of The Trojan war, as Agamemnon's Army was losing hope, the Towering Horses of the wilds of North Africa were but myth and fable to both Greeks and Trojans.

Read by Helen Taylor

Mythic Circle #42, The Editors

The Mythic Circle

The Mythic Circle is a creative writing journal devoted to fantasy-inspired creative works; it has been published by the Mythopoeic Society since 1987, and earlier versions of the Society’s creative writing efforts extend to Mythril (1971 to 1980) and Mythellany (1981 to 1987). These journals have now been archived in their entirety at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythsoc/ through the efforts of the Society’s archivist, Phillip Fitzsimmons, and digital assistant Benjamin Dressler. All but the current issue may be downloaded for free, and the current issue may be purchased as a digital download or ordered as a print-on-demand title from Amazon.

In its thirty-three …