The Outlaw of Torn
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The Outlaw of Torn is a 1927 historical novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, originally published as a five part serial in New Story Magazine from January to May, 1914. It was first published in book form by A. C. McClurg in 1927. It was his second novel, his first being the proto-science fiction work A Princess of Mars. His third was Tarzan of the Apes.
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[edit] Plot
The story is set in 13th century England and concerns the fictitious outlaw Norman of Torn, who purportedly harried the country during the power struggle between King Henry III and Simon de Montfort. Norman is the supposed son of the Frenchman de Vac, once the king's fencing master, who has a grudge against his former employer and raises the boy to be a simple, brutal killing machine with a hatred of all things English. His intentions are partially subverted by a priest who befriends Norman and teaches him his letters and chivalry towards women.
Otherwise, all goes according to plan. By 17, Norman is the best swordsman in all of England; by the age of 18, he has a large bounty on his head, and by the age of 19, he leads the largest band of thieves in all of England. None can catch or best him. In his hatred for the king he even becomes involved in the civil war, which turns the tide in favor of de Montfort. In another guise, that of Roger de Conde, he becomes involved with de Montfort's daughter Bertrade, defending her against her and her father's enemies. She notes in him a curious resemblance to the king's son and heir Prince Edward.
Finally brought to bay in a confrontation with both King Henry and de Montfort, Norman is brought down by the treachery of de Vac, who appears to kill him, though at the cost of his own life. As de Vac dies, he reveals that Norman is in fact Richard, long-lost son of King Henry and Queen Eleanor and brother to Prince Edward. The fencing master had kidnapped the prince as a child to serve as the vehicle of his vengeance against the king. Luckily, Norman/Richard turns out not to be truly dead, surviving to be reconciled to his true father and attain the hand of Bertrade.
[edit] Historical background
While Prince Richard is fictitious, a son of that name was attributed to Henry and Eleanor during the Middle Ages, though there is reason to doubt his actual existence. Richard, together with two equally suspect brothers John and Henry, are known only from a 14th century addition made to a manuscript of Flores historiarum, and are nowhere contemporaneously recorded.
The historical Simon de Montfort on whom the character in Burroughs' novel was based did have a daughter, but her name was Eleanor, not Bertrade. She was still a child when her father died, and she married Prince Llywelyn of Gwynedd, not the fictitious Prince Richard of England. There was, however, a real Bertrade de Montfort; Simon's sister, who like him was a child of the first Simon de Montfort.
[edit] Trivia
Burroughs wrote one other historical novel, I am a Barbarian, set in the Rome of Caligula. It was not published until 1967, seventeen years after his death.
[edit] Copyright
The copyright for this story has expired in the United States, and thus now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.
[edit] External link
- The Outlaw of Torn, available freely at Project Gutenberg
