The Tale of the Tailor And The Three Dead Kings by Dan Jones

I would like to thank Lauren from Head of Zeus for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Head of Zeus

Published – Out Now

Price - £9.99 small hardback £2.59 Kindle eBook

One winter, in the dark days of King Richard II, a tailor was riding home on the road from Gilling to Ampleforth. It was dank, wet and gloomy; he couldn't wait to get home and sit in front of a blazing fire.

Then, out of nowhere, the tailor is knocked off his horse by a raven, who then transforms into a hideous dog, his mouth writhing with its own innards. The dog issues the tailor with a warning: he must go to a priest and ask for absolution and return to the road, or else there will be consequences...

There is this claim there are only around seven plots in the world and everything is just a remake of them. My own suspicion though is that stories like us evolve reflecting back at us both those common essential human emotions but also explore the joys and terrors of our current age. When we look back at the older tales we may see where how we got to where any genre tale is today. Reading Dan Jones’ interpretation of The Tale of the Tailor And The Three Dead Kings we see a very early piece of fantasy/horror folklore and can if we look hard enough see the way such tales developed in fantasy and horror today.

Dan Jones is a historian and while looking for an old ghost story came across the Byland Abbey folk stories a collection previously found by none other than legendary horror author as well as academic M R James. The Latin manuscript dates back to the late fourteenth century and is believed to represent common folk tales of the Yorkshire area – some barely fragments but some much longer tales can be found in a nameless monk’s handwritten missives. Jones decided to try and translate the longest into this spectral tale of an unfortunate Tailor named Snowball whose trek in the forest leads to various encounters with some less than kind spirits.

Snowball’s journey is stopped by a mysterious Black Dog that is actually the spirit of a notorious man who dies in a state of sin so bad he cannot get to heaven. He curses Snowball to find a way to release his spirit and then Snowball has to seek dangerous spells and finds out there are more than one eerie spirit they need to cross paths with…

Jones has opted for a more traditional gentle type of storytelling approach so while MR James has been definitely interested, I think those expecting one of his true spinechillers may be feeling unmoved. However, those of us interested in folklore and also how stories develop will find in this strange eerie tale quite a bit to chew on. Its absolutely fascinating that six hundred years ago we can still see key tropes and ideas that are used by authors today – menacing black dogs; shapeshifters, curses and spells to raise the souls of the dead. For a very short tale of circa 50 pages every few pages throws something uncanny. I loved the way a distorted nature is viewed as a major sign of terror – birds with broken wings or animals with some sinister malformity signalling here a world imbalanced and I suppose back then this very much would be outside the norms of the period. I also liked the personal touches in the story. Snowball’s horse is as much a character as he is; the priests are found to not all be incorruptible as their reputation says and there is a recurring client of Snowball’s constantly trying to get his coat and delays due to ghosts are not yet accepted as an excuse. These lighter moments add local colour to the story and again tell us a lot about social standards of the time

This is a short, strange piece of British Folklore brought in a lively way back to twenty first century readers. If you fancy a quick trek into the bones of British horror and fantasy this is a fascinating indicator of the types of tales that led to the likes of all the modern horror and dark fantasy that we also will be enjoying at this time of year. A suitable treat rather than trick for this time of year.