D&D 5E We're Ready For The Thirteenth Warrior Campaign Setting

[Mark CMG]

Eaters of the Dead is presented as though its events actually happened to Ahmad ibn Fadlan's during his travels. I think we both agree that during his very real travels from Baghdad to Moscow ibn Fadlan did not encounter any neanderthals, nor did he journey with Northmen to fight said fictional neanderthals.

My overarching point the whole time has been that Michael Chrichton's novel uses an actual person that really did tavel from Baghdad to Moscow and really did encounter Vikings of all stripes as the narrator of a fiction that closely follows the story of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

So my whole point is that yes I know Eaters of the Dead and The 13th Warrior are basically Michael Chritchon's riff on Beowulf. However, the novel makes it seem like the story is based on actual real world events that happened in history but was a lost part of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's writings about his journey to Moscow.

Well, Crichton combines two tales, both supposedly true though Ahmad ibn Fadlan's tale (used as the setup and through line for Eaters) is likely more actual then the mythical Beowulf epic poem which oral tradition would suggest is also based in truth. So, better to say that Eaters is Crichton's take on Ahmad ibn Fadlan's actual story up to when Ahmad ibn Fadlan joins the group to travel north then becomes Crichton's take on Beowulf with Ahmad ibn Fadlan being a stand-in for the Christian elements that were likely woven into Beowulf at the time of it's first known written record or somewhere later in its oral tradition just prior to its being written down as we know it.

Point being it is strongly based on Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of his travels up to the transition into being a modern take on Beowulf (which, again, attempts to substitute real world analogs for the mythical Grendel, his mother, and the dragon). Since oral traditions take liberties along the way with re-tellings, as evidenced by the grafting of the Christian elements into the tale, it certainly seems like that tradition grants Crichton license to do as he did. Honestly, I don't think we're all that far apart except for your defending the use of the idiom whole cloth which simply doesn't apply in any sense of its usage.

 

[transtemporal]

13th Warrior is just generic Conanesque Hyperborea isn't it?

Be cool to mix up Outlander and 13th Warrior

 

[Samloyal23]

I was disappointed by the lack of sex in 13th Warrior after reading the book first. I want to see some Rus slave girls getting banged...