Reservoirs (Day 15)
Aug. 17th, 2009 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosie_ruesis over here.
And, yes, I have quite a lot to say about this one.
I knew that I needed another AU slot here, but I was keeping my options open as to what (I was playing about with either Sherlock Holmes or Arthurian legend as the most likely). When the prompt of the day came up. My first thought was wing fic, and I played around with all sorts of strange and soaring ideas. Then I remembered that these AUs were supposed to rise from the minds of the characters caught in the daydream charms. So it had to be something pre-existing, it had to have birds and I really wanted it to come from Dumbledore. Something with a phoenix in seemed like a good route to go, in order to bring back and revise the fire imagery from earlier, and I vaguely remembered that there was an Anglo-Saxon poem called The Phoenix.
So I dug through my shelves and found a translation and it was exactly what I wanted, quite apart from the amusement value of Dumbledore's fantasies being based on something that obscure. The poem is based on a Latin poem by Lactantius (which I couldn't find a translation of). The first part of it describes the plateau above the world where the phoenix lives, a perfect garden, and I've drawn quite heavily on that. It then describes the phoenix's burning and renewal, and finishes with a careful explanation of the allegory, bit by bit, in case we missed something ;)
Drawing on it, I wanted to evoke a little bit of pre-Raphaelite colouring, and a little bit of late Victorian classicism, and keep the prose style elevated and unreal. This is supposed to be dreamlike and unreal, at least until Grindelwald turns up and throws a strop.
Ah, yes, Gellert's reaction - I think he would really hate being caught up in someone else's daydream. Dumbledore's already led to his physical imprisonment, and he hates the sense of being trapped in another way.
And, yes, I have quite a lot to say about this one.
I knew that I needed another AU slot here, but I was keeping my options open as to what (I was playing about with either Sherlock Holmes or Arthurian legend as the most likely). When the prompt of the day came up. My first thought was wing fic, and I played around with all sorts of strange and soaring ideas. Then I remembered that these AUs were supposed to rise from the minds of the characters caught in the daydream charms. So it had to be something pre-existing, it had to have birds and I really wanted it to come from Dumbledore. Something with a phoenix in seemed like a good route to go, in order to bring back and revise the fire imagery from earlier, and I vaguely remembered that there was an Anglo-Saxon poem called The Phoenix.
So I dug through my shelves and found a translation and it was exactly what I wanted, quite apart from the amusement value of Dumbledore's fantasies being based on something that obscure. The poem is based on a Latin poem by Lactantius (which I couldn't find a translation of). The first part of it describes the plateau above the world where the phoenix lives, a perfect garden, and I've drawn quite heavily on that. It then describes the phoenix's burning and renewal, and finishes with a careful explanation of the allegory, bit by bit, in case we missed something ;)
Drawing on it, I wanted to evoke a little bit of pre-Raphaelite colouring, and a little bit of late Victorian classicism, and keep the prose style elevated and unreal. This is supposed to be dreamlike and unreal, at least until Grindelwald turns up and throws a strop.
Ah, yes, Gellert's reaction - I think he would really hate being caught up in someone else's daydream. Dumbledore's already led to his physical imprisonment, and he hates the sense of being trapped in another way.
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Date: 2009-08-18 02:46 am (UTC)Grindelwald, as you write him, is quite a character, and I admit I'm more intrigued by Dumbledore with each chapter:D