Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is Tad Williams's epic fantasy trilogy, comprising The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Stone of Farewell (1990), and To Green Angel Tower (1993). The paperback publication of To Green Angel Tower was divided into two volumes, so paperback readers may consider Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn to be a tetralogy rather than a trilogy.

The books are set on the continent of Osten Ard, whose inhabitants include Sithi (elf-like immortals), Qanuc (troll-like mountain-dwellers), and other races, as well as several distinct human nations. The youthful conquests of King John the Presbyter (also called Prester John) united most of the human world into a single realm, but by the beginning of the first book, the former conqueror is too old and feeble to stop his sons from quarrelling. As the conflict widens throughout their world and beyond, a young orphan struggles to understand enough of it to survive.

The world and story draw upon many sources from history and folklore. Several characters' elements and experiences mirror the legends of Great Britain and other lands (e.g., King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, Alfred the Great, Baba Yaga, and Amaterasu). The dominant Erkynlanders resemble the medieval English, with Anglo-Saxon/Biblical-sounding personal names in addition to the usual castle-based feudal/agrarian setting of stock fantasy. The other peoples of Osten Ard also have identifiable real-world parallels in their names, cultures, and native tongues:

Also, despite lingering polytheistic echoes of Germanic and Celtic mythology, the main human religion is a reinvented fantasy version of Christianity mixed with Norse mythology; its primary figure, Usires Aedon, was executed by being nailed upside-down to a tree, reminiscent of the crucifixion of Christ and of Odin being tied to the world tree Yggdrasil, also possibly the crucifixion of St. Peter, who according to tradition was crucified in this position so as to not resemble Christ's death.

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