Time to dig deeper into the writing style of Eleanor Henrietta Hull in her book Cuchulain, the Hound of Ulster.
The first and most unusual note is that there were zero words that fit the criteria of my “common in the author’s time but not common in our time” filter. Instead everything that made the book unique was unique by both modern and contemporary standards.
This was surprising at first, but in retrospect the author was specifically trying to create a sort of “ancient legend” feeling in her writing. Consequently it actually makes quite a lot of sense that her word usage didn’t really match the average writer of her time. She was purposely trying to write something that would feel slightly old and out of place even to her original audience.
How did she accomplish this?
First off is the subject material. Legends don’t often dwell on normal everyday scenes but instead focus on moments of high excitement, so we see an extraordinarily high frequency for all sorts of battle terms:
- avenge
- battle
- blood
- camp
- champion
- combat
- comrades
- defense
- dying
- fight
- flee
- foe
- fort
- guard
An equally important aspect of many myths is a focus on the weapons the heroes wield. A legend can’t just grab his sword and go out to fight, we must spend a paragraph describing every weapon and piece of armor he takes into battle:
- armour
- blades
- bronze
- brooch
- chariot
- cloaks
- collar
- dart
- mantles
- scythe
- shield
- spear
And of course the book also relies upon that most classic of all mythological writing devices: A plethora of thee’s, thine’s and thou’s in place of the now mainstream you and your’s.
