Freedom Cry: The Hidden King’s Trilogy, Book One, a novel, Matthew Burden, OakTara Publishers, P.O. Box 8, Waterford, Va., 20197, 573 pages., $21.99.
The outlines of human struggle between the forces of light and darkness, good vs. evil, come vividly alive in Maine novelist Matthew Burden’s new work of fiction. His fantastic narrative evokes the universal quest for justice, in the allegory of a fascinating set of characters, historical types that could be models taken from figures in the Old Testament, ancient Roman history, and Arthurian legends.
Matthew Burden’s allegorical saga evokes a universal history of all tribes, one told by nearly all ancient peoples; the story of how they realized themselves against oppression. For nearly all people start their history in a myth like the one Burden has imagined. And here the people are an ancient people in rebellion against enslavement.
The year is 761, presumably 761 A.D., when tribes resembling the Celts on the British Isles were conquered and enslaved by another tribe. Fast forward nearly four centuries, in 1056, and we find the Agban people as slaves to the Rameresses, still an Empire that oppresses them when it does not exploit them as slave labor. For centuries, the Agban have kept a glorious Agban past in collective memory, hoping one day to throw off their oppressor’s yoke. And they hoped to restore their lost kingdom.
In the first chapter, we find the conditions that compel the story in the form of debasement, tribal cruelty and suffering, and we’re caught up in our identification with the underdog over the ones who torment them. And of course what saga would be without a heroic leader, a Moses ready to fight the oppression of the Rameresses and lead his people to freedom out of bondage. The hero here is Dryhten who leads the Agban of the kingdom of Ferranor in revolt. And he and they pay a price, a spiritual as much as political quest .
Burden’s vision reflects the epic one reflected in myths about our tribal past. When interviewed in June, the New Sweden native reflected on the inspiration and models for his fiction. One, of course, was ancient history, he said. Another was the Old Testament. Still another was to be found in one of his favorite writers, Stephen Lawhead, author of the Dragon King Trilogy. And he credits his older brother Josh as a role model as well.
But the other major influence on Burden’s fiction came from his experience during his stint as a linguist and Christian missionary in Angola, Tanzania and Sudan. He first went to Africa as a missionary during high school sponsored by local Maine churches. But while still in college, he worked in Sudan on a trilingual dictionary for foreign workers for Arabs, Sudanese and English speakers.
“It inspired some of the adventures in my fiction. The original idea, however, began when I was in sixth grade, and when I was in high school I started writing fictional novels. In Sudan, I had this old story since I was 12 years old, so I just sat down and plunked it out in my evenings when I had nothing else to do in Sudan.”
Matt Burden, his wife Rachel and their children live in Calais. When he is not writing fiction, Burden serves as minister of Second Baptist Church in Calais. He is a graduate of Houghton College and Denver Seminary and the author of two other historical novels — “Tactus: A Quest for Truth” and “Soldiers of the King. Freedom Cry.”
Carl Senna is an author, journalist and publisher who lives in Calais.