Minotaur Trilogy

The Minotaur Trilogy

Written in reverse order. Swann claimed that he would correct the inconsistencies between the two earlier books if there was a second edition.

• Cry Silver Bells (1977)
• The Forest of Forever (1971)
• Day of the Minotaur (1966; previously serialized as The Blue Monkeys, 1964 - 5 Science Fantasy)
• Collected as The Minotaur Trilogy (1997)

Thomas Burnett Swann (October 12, 1928 - May 5, 1976) was an American poet, critic and fantasy author.

Swann began writing fiction in 1958 with "Winged Victory", a science fiction chronicle based on the renowned headless statue known as the Winged Victory of Samothrace. In Swann's chronicle the statue's head is discovered and found to have been modeled upon an alien visitor whom the sculptor took for a divinity.

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Extraterrestrials also feature in "The Painter", in which the painter Hieronymous Bosch is abducted by hideous aliens and forced to paint them, thus providing the inspiration for the monstrous imagery in his painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. This and many other early stories appeared in the British magazine Science Fantasy. Some stories also appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF).

Most of Swann's fiction was outright fantasy. The early story "The Dryad-tree" is set in contemporary Florida and features a woman's response to the knowledge that her new husband's garden contains a tree possessed by a jealous dryad.

The body of Swann's fantasy fits into a coarse chronology that begins in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC and chronicles the steady decline of magic and mythological races like dryads, centaurs, satyrs, selkies and minotaurs. The emergence of more "advanced" civilisations constantly threatens to demolish their pre-industrial world, and they must continually seek refuge anywhere they can. They see the advent of Christianity as a major tragedy; the Christians regard magic and mythological beings as evil and seek to abolish the present creatures, although some manage to survive and keep some of their old conduct through medieval times down to the late 19th Century and perhaps the 20th.

An undercurrent of sexuality runs through all of these stories. Many of Swann's characters are sexually adventurous and regard sexual repression as spiritually harmful. Casual and sometimes enduring nudity is customary. Homosexual relationships between both male and female characters are regularly hinted at, although seldom made explicit.

The most openly homosexual relationship in Swann's stories is also the most controversial. His novel How Are the Mighty Fallen (1974) depicts the Biblical Jonathan and David as lovers, and furthermore suggests that Jonathan was himself a associate of an ancient winged half-human race. The book appeared from Swann's customary publisher DAW Books, but only after DAW's founder and chief executive Donald A. Wollheim fought to stop distributor New American Library from banning it. However, Swann was reportedly depressed with George Barr's cover artwork, which showed two of the characters being chased by a cyclops, because he felt it misrepresented the fashion of the novel.

Swann died of cancer in 1976. Numerous novels of his were published posthumously.