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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 7, Summer 1945
Page 144
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144 FANTASY COMMENTATOR "The Master Strike" was the climax of H. Warner Munn's writing career, and is unquestionably a forgotten classic. "The Master Fights" open abruptly on the decks of a Spanish galleon which has survived the battering the English fleet has given the Great Armada. Leon Gunnar is aboard, and the vessel is drifting toward the rocky Irish coast. Murderous Galics await it on the shore. At this point the Master appears, and offers Leon protection in exchange for his body after death. Leon accepts, and is guided inland to safety by means of the Master's invisibility. Later in life Gunnar again is forced to call on the Master for aid, and this being given he is granted thirty more years upon the earth. The time leaps ahead this thirty-year span and the scene shifts to France; Leon is with his son, preparing to unlock the tomb where the book relating the original Wladislaw Brenryk's tale is reputed to be hidden. Suddenly there is a stirring within. The two enter, and suddenly the dead bones leap from the sarcophagus---the Master has claimed his own. The final tale in the group, "The Master Has a Narrow Escape," shifts its scene to the British Isles during one of the numerous Scotch-English wars. As Joriam and Hanne are secreting themselves in a hollow an aged man leading a girl staggers forward. Gottfried Gunthar has been hounded all of his life and now is approaching his final doom as he leads his daughter Achsah to safety. Gottfried remains behind to hold off the advancing marauders as best he can, ordering the remaining three to safety... The final scence is merely a witchcraft trial taking place in Colonial America, with Achsah as its defendant. The proceedings are recorded in archaic English---almost intelligible--and the story culminates in conviction and the burning of the victim at the stake. The themes and treatments utilized by Munn are excellent. He traces a hereditary curse from generation to generation and from country to country with deft touches of descriptive realism that accentuate the impression of relentless Fate itself harrying the characters to their final doom. Had the author's style remained at its towering heights to the very end, each tale in the series would have become an unquestioned classic. As it is, Munn's reputation must rest upon first four of the half-dozen. Singly, each represents an integral piece of a puzzle; together, a magnificent picture is reproduced. And besides accomplishing all this, Munn must be credited with the creation first of events passing in rapid kaleidoscope fashion and then enlargement of the kaleidoscopic form in the final trio, smaller areas being magnified into reality. H. Warner Munn should in all justice be nominated as one of Weird Tales' best authors on the basis of his "Ponkert" series, which scarecely is deserving of the critical neglect that has so far befallen it. ---oOo--- The Mourner by Nora May French Because my love has wave and foam for speech, / And never words, and yearns as water grieves, / With white arms curving on a listless beach, / And murmurs inarticulate as leaves--- I am become beloved of the night--- / Her huge sea-lands ineffable and far / Hold crouched and splendid Sorrow, eyed with light, / And Pain who beads his forehead with a star.
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144 FANTASY COMMENTATOR "The Master Strike" was the climax of H. Warner Munn's writing career, and is unquestionably a forgotten classic. "The Master Fights" open abruptly on the decks of a Spanish galleon which has survived the battering the English fleet has given the Great Armada. Leon Gunnar is aboard, and the vessel is drifting toward the rocky Irish coast. Murderous Galics await it on the shore. At this point the Master appears, and offers Leon protection in exchange for his body after death. Leon accepts, and is guided inland to safety by means of the Master's invisibility. Later in life Gunnar again is forced to call on the Master for aid, and this being given he is granted thirty more years upon the earth. The time leaps ahead this thirty-year span and the scene shifts to France; Leon is with his son, preparing to unlock the tomb where the book relating the original Wladislaw Brenryk's tale is reputed to be hidden. Suddenly there is a stirring within. The two enter, and suddenly the dead bones leap from the sarcophagus---the Master has claimed his own. The final tale in the group, "The Master Has a Narrow Escape," shifts its scene to the British Isles during one of the numerous Scotch-English wars. As Joriam and Hanne are secreting themselves in a hollow an aged man leading a girl staggers forward. Gottfried Gunthar has been hounded all of his life and now is approaching his final doom as he leads his daughter Achsah to safety. Gottfried remains behind to hold off the advancing marauders as best he can, ordering the remaining three to safety... The final scence is merely a witchcraft trial taking place in Colonial America, with Achsah as its defendant. The proceedings are recorded in archaic English---almost intelligible--and the story culminates in conviction and the burning of the victim at the stake. The themes and treatments utilized by Munn are excellent. He traces a hereditary curse from generation to generation and from country to country with deft touches of descriptive realism that accentuate the impression of relentless Fate itself harrying the characters to their final doom. Had the author's style remained at its towering heights to the very end, each tale in the series would have become an unquestioned classic. As it is, Munn's reputation must rest upon first four of the half-dozen. Singly, each represents an integral piece of a puzzle; together, a magnificent picture is reproduced. And besides accomplishing all this, Munn must be credited with the creation first of events passing in rapid kaleidoscope fashion and then enlargement of the kaleidoscopic form in the final trio, smaller areas being magnified into reality. H. Warner Munn should in all justice be nominated as one of Weird Tales' best authors on the basis of his "Ponkert" series, which scarecely is deserving of the critical neglect that has so far befallen it. ---oOo--- The Mourner by Nora May French Because my love has wave and foam for speech, / And never words, and yearns as water grieves, / With white arms curving on a listless beach, / And murmurs inarticulate as leaves--- I am become beloved of the night--- / Her huge sea-lands ineffable and far / Hold crouched and splendid Sorrow, eyed with light, / And Pain who beads his forehead with a star.
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