Title: Legend
Author: celticbard
Rating: M
Genre: Drama
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,005
Updated: 20 Feb 2011
Published: 16 July 2009
Status: Complete
Library Category: General
Summary: There is legend. And then there is truth. In 9th century England, three wizards band together, not to found a school, but to concoct one of the greatest lies ever told. And thus began the history of Hogwarts.
Link: Link

This a fun founders era novella I found. The basic premise is that the history of Hogwarts as we know it is a lie and this is the true history. All four founders have distinct characters. Salazar remains an evil blood purist and Gryffindor a brave and noble man, so rest assured this isn't the "Slytherin was misunderstood" nonsense. The story is fast paced and the chapters go by in a breeze. Some cool battle scenes too.

I really enjoyed the story and can't think of any significant negatives, except may be that the Chamber of Secrets thing remains unexplained in this scenario. It doesn't bother me, but it would have been nice if the author managed to explain that as well.

The author has plenty of other stories centered either around minor characters or OCs. At least another one of them (about the founding of the Salem institute) is library quality, so if you want a break from the usual Harry-centric stories, look into the others as well.

 

There are some really good touches of descriptive writing throughout. It reads like a very pared-down amateur version of George R. R. Martin's style. It's a historical/fantasy original fiction disguised as a Harry Potter AU story. Even the author's actor casting for his characters are from the cast of A Game of Thrones.

The ideas themselves - imagining the Founder's era as a historic power struggle between the Celts, Saxons, and Picts, with the addition of magic, and the Founders as quasi-warlords who have their capitols and clans backing them - are cool.

But the author's approach makes the story feel like it's 'written wrong'. He writes as though he's already fully characterized the Founders and done the setup. They already have some kind of relationship and knowledge of each other, except for Rowena.

There aren't any fully-fleshed out scenes. Everything is kind of glossed over. The sense of geography is vague. I have no idea where the starting point for Godric is when he goes to where Helga is. I don't know whether it was from the north, south, east, or west, or how long the march was (since it was on foot). It feels like they are teleporting from one location to the next.

I think it's a 2.5/5, a 3/5 for the purpose of voting. The writing cosmetically makes the story seem a little better than it is.

 

The story was interesting enough I suppose, if a bit dry in places. I give it 4/5 because I enjoyed it well enough.

 

I liked this one. I'm a bit surprised it isn't rated higher.

It's definitely AU, and will require some suspension of disbelief, but it explores the era before the founding of Hogwarts in a way I haven't seen before. It's a brief character study of the founders imagined in a violent, Game of Thrones-style universe. The characters are distinctly drawn, even if they're not what we expect. Helga Hufflepuff is a badass. The story is vague in terms of the origins of magic in Britain, but it isn't really about that. It's more of a Shakespearean tragedy than anything else , and meant to be read slowly.

The writing has some nice rhetorical flourishes, but it occasionally lapses into purple prose of the 'rosy-fingered dawn' variety. This is forgivable because it's a well-told, suspenseful story. I couldn't predict what was going to happen next, and the epilogue that finally makes sense of it all was satisfying. I think it belongs in the library for its uniqueness if nothing else.

4/5