Interviewing Lucy Hounsom
Helloo!
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the awesome Sistersong by Lucy Holland AKA Lucy Hounsom tale that explores an old myth/folk song and turns it into something modern and heartrending. I was very lucky to have an opportunity to talk to Lucy about the book and the approach used.
How do you like to booktempt Sistersong?
If you like the way Madeline Miller blended history and myth, and the magical folklore of Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, I think you’ll enjoy Sistersong. It’s ancient Britain for a modern reader.
What drew you to this particular folk ballad? What is the appeal of this era to you?
I loved it as soon as I heard it. The jealousy, the murder, the transformation, the motif of the bone harp itself. I’m fascinated by stories of siblings and this one leaves so many questions unanswered. The early medieval era holds many secrets. We have so few primary sources that legend has all but replaced actual history in the minds of many people. This is the Arthurian age, whether Arthur existed as an individual or not. And, as such, it’s prone to reinvention and reinterpretation. I chose it for this aspect, but also because what we do know hints at a very turbulent time when Christianity clashed with paganism in the wake of a failing empire. Britons, Romans, Saxons… a complex intersection of cultures on a very small island makes for exciting storytelling!
This tale allowed you to give each of the siblings a different voice than the original tale suggested? What led to the characters you chose?
I kept aspects of the older and younger sisters, i.e. Riva’s pride and Sinne’s naivety. But the ballad paints both women as stereotypes, which robs them of their unique personalities. Their relationship is defined by jealousy, so I wanted to dig into that, uncover the deeper envy that must lie beneath it. I hoped in the process to free them somewhat from the roles of perpetrator and victim.
Keyne’s character was inspired by the invisible sibling that appears in some variations of the ballad. I felt strongly that they had been erased – or why would they have been mentioned at all? Which led me to wonder why people are deliberately forgotten, why they do not appear in the dominant social narrative. Many readers have said they empathise with Keyne/Constantine the most, that Sistersong is his story, and I would agree with that. He never had a chance to speak in the original ballad. I wanted to rectify that and, in so doing, enable him to tell his own story.
The scope of the tale mixes in various figures from history and other myths. Was that something you wanted to do straight away?
Yes and it’s something I’m doing even more consciously in the follow-up to Sistersong. Myth is a generous medium. There’s room for other myths, legends and folklore. History takes on a larger-than-life quality when viewed though a mythic lens too. You can draw out strands that would otherwise be hidden in the usual adherence to chronological facts. And peppering myth with genuine historical figures lends a sense of veracity, which fantasy sometimes lacks.
Gender roles in this story are much more nuanced than traditional fantasy have tended to portray. Why is it important we challenge these ideas?
Simply in order to reflect the wonderfully diverse society in which we live. Nothing about humans can be described as binary. Because fantasy is so archetypal, there’s a danger of rendering everything in terms of good and evil, right and wrong, male and female, black and white. But this genre can be so much more nuanced than that – we’ve seen proof of it in the brilliant work being produced today. The best fantasy can hold up a mirror to the world, so why settle for cloudy glass?
What else can we look forward to from you and where can we find out more?
The followup to Sistersong is out next summer (2022). It’s a sapphic re-imagining of the Wild Hunt myth set in the same world as Sistersong around 180 years later. A couple of characters might just be making a reappearance too! If you’d like to follow that book’s journey, you can sign up to my newsletter here: http://lucyhounsom.co.uk/newsletter/ and follow me on socials: @silvanhistorian on Twitter and Instagram.
If there was one book (not your own) that you wish you could get everyone to read what would it be?
Ok I know I bang on about this book all the time, but as it’s from a small press, it struggles with visibility and I think it’s just brilliant: Draigon Weather by Paige L Christie. The series is almost complete and it is hands down the best depiction of the dangers of toxic masculinity I’ve ever seen in a fantasy book; how it can destroy a man and everything he cares about. Plus it emphasises female education as a source of power – that’s rare to find in a genre where women’s power is often depicted in overly visual terms. Please read it!
