The Beheading Game

Knightly flash fiction inspired by Tolkien and medieval mythology!

Howdy everyone!

Between moving across the country and switching careers, writing has slowed these last few months, but I’ve still been poking away at a few stories when time permits. And, I’m pleased to announce, one of them is getting published by Havok this week! The Beheading Game will be available at gohavok.com on Friday, June 14, so be sure to check it out and let me know what you think. (Havok’s publishing model can be a little confusing, but they release 1 free story per day, only for that day. After that, the stories go into a members-only archive. So be sure to check out my story on the 14th before it disappears!)

I’ve been super excited for a while to share this story with y’all. It contains themes and tropes from medieval legends that I really enjoy, and I had fun trying to combine them into my own little piece of flash fiction.

In typical Ryan fashion, I’d like to ramble a bit about the inspirations behind the story. Also in typical Ryan fashion, I’ll probably use more words talking about the story than writing the piece itself! But for those who are interested, I’d love to share the thought process that went into The Beheading Game.

All I ask is that you read the story itself before you read the behind-the-scenes!

What Inspired The Beheading Game?

The main idea came from the Irish mythological hero, Cu Chulainn. Although I’m not well versed in Irish folklore, one aspect I enjoy about some of those stories is the importance of geasa (oaths or taboos), and how breaking them brings the hero to ruin. In the same vein, I loved the idea of a character swearing multiple geasa that come into conflict with each other. In Cu Chulainn’s case, he was bound to eat food offered to him by a woman, but had also sworn never to eat dog meat. (A bit gross to modern readers, I know). So when an old woman offered him dog meat, he had no choice but to eat it, thereby weakening him and leading to his death.

I’ve also been intrigued by motifs and tropes that were popular in ancient or medieval times, but have mostly died out in modern storytelling. One of these motifs is the Exchange of Blows, where a villain challenges the hero to deliver a blow, but the hero must later receive the same blow in return. A common way this played out in stories was through a Beheading Game, where the hero beheads his enemy, but the enemy lives and demands the hero still present himself to be beheaded. The most famous version of this is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but other tales contained this theme as well, including the story of Cu Chulainn!

I decided to write a Beheading Game story of my own, tying in the struggle of conflicting oaths. But how could I have a character swear multiple oaths that would contradict each other in only 1000 words?

The answer, of course, was Tolkien!

In the Lord of the Rings, a prophecy says that the Witch King of Angmar will not be killed by any man. For centuries, this prophecy holds true, and the Witch King arrogantly thinks himself invincible. But this arrogance leads to his downfall, as he doesn’t realize until too late that Eowyn is actually a woman disguised as a male soldier. With the help of Merry the Hobbit, she’s able to stab him and bring about his death.

So, why not work that idea into my own writing? What if a villain arrogantly swore never to harm a woman, not realizing that a woman would be the one to challenge him? And from there, the story was born! The giant agreed not to harm any women of the kingdom, never expecting the king’s sister to be the one to rise to his challenge. It took me a few drafts to work out the story’s kinks, but overall I’m very pleased with the end result!

As always, thank you so much for supporting my storytelling journey. I hope you enjoyed reading The Beheading Game as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this little peek behind the curtains of Ryan’s mind!

Image Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Other Works by Ryan Bush

Fantasy Short Stories

A Time Between Spaces - Free!
The Painter (The Kineru Chronicles vol. 1) - Free!
The Goddess of Storms (The Kineru Chronicles vol. 2) - 99¢
Wayfaring Stranger - 99¢
Storing up Treasures - Havok membership

Horror Short Stories

People Keep Dying in My Backyard - Free!
The Wreath - Free!
The Canyon of Se’l Hathoreth - 99¢

Other Short Stories

The Puppy Wrangler - Free!
The Green Goddess - Havok membership
The Iggle - Havok membership

Short Story Anthology

Vice and Virtue: Havok Season 8 - $3.99 on Kindle!