Gauls, Gods, and Gideon: My Interview with Andrew Livecchi

Hello, hello, all! I recently had the pleasure of sitting down to chat with Andrew Livecchi, a professor from my alma mater and the author of the Lays of Athewain series, a trilogy in progress that is deeply informed by Andrew's passions for mythology, ancient literature, and honoring the Lord through his words.

It's not every day I get to chat with a PhD about writing fantasy, so I consider myself blessed to have captured some of our chat on the ol' YouTube channel (check out our first segment right here). And for those of you who prefer to get your daily inspirations in prose, please enjoy Andrew's insightful answers to all the questions I could throw at him!

An Interview with Andrew Livecchi

1. What inspired you to write The Lays of Athewain? What were your greatest sources of inspiration during the writing process?

I would divide my inspirations into three categories: ancient history and mythology, classic Sword and Sorcery, and the stories of the Old Testament.

The Lays of Athewain are set in a world that draws a lot of inspiration from the history of pre-Roman Britain. I’ve been interested in this period for a long time, and I really liked the idea of using a setting more unique than the typical quasi-15th century England (though don’t get me wrong—I still love a good medieval fantasy).

For anyone familiar with this period, you’ll notice I’ve borrowed lots of elements from the world of the ancient Celts. There are druids and Stonehenge-esque megaliths, a whole pantheon of gods and demigods inspired by Irish mythology, and battles characteristic of how the ancient Gauls and Britons fought, with heroic duels, tattooed warriors, scythed chariots, and more.

I also wanted to write a series that pays homage to the classic Sword and Sorcery tradition of Conan and Elric of Melniboné. Sword and Sorcery developed parallel to high fantasy but tends to tell much shorter stories centered on a singular hero’s quest. As much as I love The Lord of The Rings and the whole genre of epic fantasy that developed from it, there are some things that Sword and Sorcery excels at, like packaging a satisfying, epic tale into a short story or novella.

Finally, I grew up in a Christian home and the stories of the Old Testament played a formative role in shaping my imagination. With The Lays of Athewain, I wanted to tell a story that in many ways mimics those of Old Testament heroes like Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, and Elijah. I've incorporated several conventions from those stories: a hero arising from humble beginnings, the younger son chosen over the elder, and so on. 

I’ve always been fascinated by the dramatic tension of a hero who is empowered by God but also has to “prove” himself in some way. Even when God directly intervenes in these Old Testament stories, he rarely just waves his hand and makes all the problems go away. God chooses to work through people.

Take Gideon, for instance. The Book of Judges makes it clear that his victory over the Midianites is miraculous (he only has 300 men!) but he still has to do all the bloody work of fighting and killing them. God calls and empowers David, but Goliath doesn’t just miraculously fall down. David has to be the one to have courage, stand against him, and take him down with his slingshot. That tension is something I've found myself consciously and subconsciously working into my books.

2. What was your favourite thing to research? Least favourite?

Research is one of my favourite parts of the writing process, so it's hard to pick just one thing. But one of the highlights was digging into ancient Celtic warfare. I love reading primary sources, so I read through Caesar’s Gallic War and sections of histories by Livy and Tacitus. One of the quirks of this period is that basically everything we know about the Celtic peoples comes from Greek and Roman writers, who clearly have their own cultural biases and are sometimes basing what they say on unsubstantiated rumours. Luckily, I’m a fantasy author, not a historian, so I can freely use these sources for inspiration without having to worry too much about historical veracity.

Most of the Classical sources agree that the Gauls and Britons were ferocious warriors and incredibly brave, but that they lacked discipline. While the Romans fought in ordered ranks and operated as a unit, the Celts are said to have fought more as individuals. Their battles would often splinter into one-on-one combat. They also liked to begin large pitched battles with a duel between the champions of either side, preceded by ritualized taunting. If you read Son of the Thunder Goddess, you’ll see me weaving in lots of this heroic dueling. 

My least favourite, at least in terms of what was the most laborious, would have to be creating a fantasy language. In Rage of the Raven Queen, the Bodtha, goddess of war, has a magic spear that she controls using an ancient, dark language. There are only a handful of sentences of this language in the book, but I first had to create the basic structure along with several vocabulary words. This was still pretty interesting (like I said, I enjoy research) but it was a lot more tedious than other parts of the worldbuilding.

3. How has your interest in classical mythology and medieval romance made its way into the world of Logren? 

I’ll try not to ramble too long for this answer, but I did literally write my doctoral thesis about medieval romance, so it’s hard to be brief!

The main thing I’ve taken from pre-modern myth and romance is the sense of enchantment and wonder. When you read these stories, it’s hard not to be struck by their weirdness. Supernatural events often happen with very little explanation, and there are rarely “rules” governing magic. I find this sense of enchantment and wonder can often be missing in the fantasy of our own modern, rationalist age.

I think, if we want to be true to the spirit of myth, we have to work hard to resist our post-Enlightenment tendency to rigorously categorize everything. For instance, it’s a pretty common convention in modern fantasy to have a set pantheon of say seven, ten, or twelve gods, each with their own discrete powers and domains. You have a god of war, a god of the harvest, and so on. Everything is nice and tidy.

But ancient peoples were not so rigid with rules and boundaries for what gods governed what things. Their pantheons are full of redundancies, overlap, and contradictions. In Greek mythology, you have Ares the god of war, but also Athena who is goddess of wisdom and war (among many other things). Then there are minor deities like Ares’ sons Phobos and Deimos (gods of fear/dread). And you have Pan, who’s primarily a nature god, but is also responsible for the panic (the word derives from his name) that overcomes an army and makes it flee. Then you have regional differences, such as the city of Ephesus’s cult of Artemis; amalgamations of several gods, such as Egyptian Amun-Ra; and the appropriation of gods from other cultures, like the Romans adoption of Mithras worship.

To make the pantheon and religious belief in my books feel more natural and organic, I’ve tried to incorporate this fluidity and overlap. You have the major gods (the Sutathar) whose number is limited, but also a whole host of minor powers and deities. And even among the major gods, there is overlap. Gaillag is a thunder goddess, but she is also warlike and the driving force behind the conflict in both books. The Bodtha is the goddess of war but also associated with tactics, death, terror, and ravens. And there’s also Gallos, a male god of war, who is more closely aligned with rage and bloodlust.

4. What about this series are you most proud of?

I would say I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to reach a wide spectrum of readers. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from devout Christians (from a variety of denominations) as well as people outside the church.

There have been times when I’ve felt maybe I’m being too explicit with allusions to Biblical stories and scenes. My Christian readers usually pick up on these, but a lot of people don’t seem to notice—or if they do, they don’t seem to mind. For instance, most readers have picked up on the David and Goliath elements of Son of the Thunder Goddess but only a few of my Christian readers have noted the parallels to Job and Moses in Rage of the Raven Queen. Maybe that’s because Biblical literacy is pretty low in the West, so only the most popular stories are recognizable to the wider population?

I also think that fantasy as a genre has allowed me to get away with exploring theological issues without alienating a secular audience. Fantasy readers love stories about gods and mortal heroes who become embroiled in their wars. I’m being a bit sneaky in The Lays of Athewain, because I’m playing with that familiar premise, including a whole dynamic pantheon of gods, but then slowly revealing the existence of an even more powerful and ancient god: the Maker.

5. Which part of writing this series have you found most challenging?

The most challenging part has been writing the character of an omnipotent God. Omnipotence is inherently anti-climactic, and threatens to sap all the dramatic tension. If there’s an all-powerful God in your story, and he wants to defeat the bad guys, he can just do it. There’s no need for conflict, try-fail cycles, the low point at the end of Act 2—all the things that make for a good story.

Where it can work is if the POV characters themselves don’t understand why the all-powerful God chooses to act the way he does. I try to lean into the whole question of theodicy and have characters themselves wrestle with the problem of why God allows evil and suffering. That way it’s a feature of the story rather than a bug. But it’s definitely challenging to pull off.

5. If you could make sure readers take one thing from The Lays of Athewain, what would it be and why?

It’s normal to struggle with questions about why the world is the way it is and even why God allows terrible things to happen. Faith doesn't always look like certainty; sometimes it looks like desperately seeking answers to our questions about why life doesn't match the picture of justice and wholeness we all innately have. Rather than seeing those moments of doubt as weak and shameful, we can reframe them as courageous. Even heroic. That’s certainly a theme I’ve found myself writing into these books.

6. If you could give your past self one piece of advice about writing or publishing, what would it be? 

Firstly, your beginning attempts at writing are going to be rough! Keep practicing and studying the craft and you will improve. Also, short stories are a way more efficient way to level up than writing the first few thousand words of a sprawling epic and then losing steam before you get past Act 1.

Secondly, trust your instincts and write what you love and find fascinating. Don't worry so much about whether your interests are marketable or on trend. Readers respond to passion. And if you execute any subject matter well it will be interesting.

Finally, take your time with publishing your first book. It can feel like there’s enormous pressure to get your writing out there, but you don't want to rush out an unpolished product. Take the time for revisions, feedback, professional editing, and all the little things about self-publishing that you don't even know exist before you get going.

7. In our culture that runs on storytelling in so many ways, what do you think is the role of the Christian storyteller and how do you approach that through your writing?

As Christian storytellers, we have a unique opportunity to speak truth to the culture. And we have to be careful not to shirk our responsibility or to be so heavy-handed that we lose a wider audience altogether. There’s a balance to be struck, and I think every writer has to figure out what it looks like for them, based on their interests, their genre, and their audience.

For myself, I don’t try to force a Christian message, and I’m not even trying to make a specific point, though I do, of course, have lots of opinions and things to say. My aim is to write truthfully about the world. And to me, that doesn’t mean presenting a sanitized version of reality where everyone behaves like a Christian caricature. It means portraying the world in a way that resonates as true to people regardless of their religion. To do that, I need to be realistic about suffering and evil and portraying characters as flawed humans, rather than as object lessons or props to make a point. Because I am a Christian and my worldview is so deeply shaped by the Bible and Christian thought, my books necessarily end up reflecting my Christian perspective. I don’t have to make them Christian.

I’m reminded of the apocryphal Martin Luther quote about the Christian shoemaker who does his duty by making good shoes, not by putting crosses on his shoes. Obviously, the presentation of your book will be different depending on if you’re publishing in a Christian subgenre or not. But being a Christian writer goes deeper than that. We are made in God’s image, with a God-given capacity for language and imagination. Simply by striving for excellence and truth in our writing we give glory to the God who created us.

Just for Fun :)

1. Outlining or discovery writing? 

I'm definitely more of a discovery writer, but I have started outlining more. The outline changes as I write though, so I'm sort of a “discovery outliner.”

2. Who is your favourite biblical hero? 

Gideon. He has a great character arc, from cowering in a cave, to destroying Baal's shrine, to defeating the Midianites with a tiny force. And I find it relatable how he's constantly testing God, trying to get assurances that He is truly helping him.

3. Favourite epic fantasy book/series of all time?

I love Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy novels. Tigana is probably my favourite. Apart from that, Ursula K. Leguin's Earthsea and, of course, The Lord of the Rings.

4. How do you come up with your character/place names?

I base almost everything off of ancient Celtic languages like Brythonic. Bridunum, the major city in Book One, literally means “high city.” Other names, like Athewain, are more pure fantasy, and are based on what I think sounds cool and fits the setting.

Find out more about Son of the Thunder Goddess!

Find out more about Rage of the Raven Queen!

Like what you read? Check out Andrew Livecchi's Substack, The Mead Hall, to receive the first instalment of his serial novel, War of Princes! You can also find Andrew on Instagram @andrewlivecchiauthor.