John Carter: Torn from Phoenician Dreams
Part Two: The Lives and Times of John Carter
A speculative chronology of the
lives and times of John Carter of Virginia and Mars,
as he knew them and as he knew naught of them.

By Dennis E. Power

And

Dr. Peter Coogan

In John Carter is Phra the Phoenician Dr. Peter Coogan established that John Carter began his existence as Phra the Phoenician. Philip Jose Farmer had previously speculated that John Carter had been Norman of Torn in the article The Arms of Tarzan. John Carter: Torn from Phoenician Dreams: Part One, the first part of a series of articles focusing on the life, times and influences of John Carter reconciled the discrepancies between the speculations of Dr. Coogan and Mr. Farmer, reconciled the discrepancies in the account of Phra the Phoenician as compared to the historical record and provided a psychological explanation for the periods of self- induced amnesia which culminated in the creation of the persona of John Carter.

Our earliest records of John Carter's life are the memoirs of Phra as edited by Edwin Arnold and published as The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician. However his account is not entirely accurate given that he was writing it as he remembered it not as it truly happened to him. Events as Phra remembered them are in blue text, the events in black text are speculations of about Phra's life that were hidden to him.

After the Morgor War, John Carter would eventually remember his life as Phra. He would also remember periods of his life which occurred when Phra was supposedly sleeping. How this occurred we are not at liberty to disclose. During these periods of amnesia he assumed many identities; many obscure, but a couple are rather startlingly renown.

88 B.C. Phra was born in Tyre

58 BC. Phra lived among the British for a few years. He was married to Blodwen and they had one child.

56 or 55 B.C Phra was present at one of the landings of Caesar. Taken captive, he escaped but was branded a traitor by his wife's kinsman and was forced to take part in a druidic sacrificial rite. Wounded unto death by a bronze adz to the back of the neck, Phra appeared to die.

 408 AD Phra the Phoenician awoke in a cavern. Britain had become Romanized during his great sleep. Phra was able to speak Latin and had dealt with the Romans in the course of his business and so was able to become acclimated to this new era fairly rapidly. A scrubber at a Roman bath discovered that Blodwen had covered Phra's upper torso with a tattoo detailing the story of her life. They had had one more child who was born after Phra's "death." This message from his long dead wife caused Phra to become even more grief stricken than he had already been. He underwent a personality change and became a libertine given to debauchery and libation. His dissolute lifestyle exhausted his funds, and he was forced to seek employment.

Phra became a guard in the service of Lady Electra, a Roman noblewoman, said to be the niece of the Emperor. Phra fell in love with Numidea, a slave girl. Lady Electra also fell in love with Phra and was enraged that he preferred a slave girl to her.

410 Emperor Honorius recalled the last of the Roman Legions from Britain. Phra aided Lady Electra and her house to flee from the encroaching Saxon barbarians. Due to an act of treachery, Phra and Numidea were plunged into a rapidly running stream and sent tumbling down river. Although Phra managed to pull both of them to safety on the river's shore and were helped by some friendly fisher folk, Numidea had drowned and Phra was near dead. As his body slipped into a healing coma, Phra went to sleep. Unable to bear the trauma of Numidea's death on top of the recent—to him—loss of Blodwen and his family, Phra's personality went into hibernation.

The fisher folk believed that this young, handsome man who slept and neither aged nor died was the product of some divine providence. They built a small shrine for him inside the woods and left him to his sleep.

430 Phra was found sleeping in a wooded shrine by Myrddin. As Myrddin examined him, Phra awoke. Phra however experienced the first of his periods of dissociative amnesia and was unaware of who he was, where he had come from, or how he had come to be there. Myrddin named him Ambrosius Aurelius. According to some legends Myrddin also bore the name Ambrosius and was called Merlin Ambrosius. It may have been that Ambrosius was more of a title or honorific than an actual name. Ambrosius is derived from the Greek word ambrosia, which means "immortal." Ambrosia was the substance that the Greek and Roman deities imbibed to retain their youth. Myrddin, upon seeing Phra's relative youth despite a twenty-year nap, realized that he was in the same select company as himself. Myrddin retarded his aging through measured doses of a bottle of the Elixir of Life he had acquired. Although Myrddin is most often portrayed as old man, this image may have been an illusion or careful use of make up to disguise the fact that he did not age as normal men did. It could be that lapses of his disguise could account for those tales wherein Myrddin was also reported to be living or aging backwards.(1)

For example, Myrddin was said to have been a youth in the time of King Vortigern, who came to power in 425. Vortigern was building a tower, but the foundation kept falling. Vortigern consulted his magicians, and they told him he should find a boy without a father, kill him, and incorporate his bones and blood into the foundations of the castle. Myrddin was able to defeat the magic of the most powerful of Vortigern's magicians.(2) He predicted that Vortigern would fall, defeated by a dragon.(3) The use of magic is often portrayed as having a debilitating effect on the person using said magic, especially if it is black or evil magic. It may be that over use of this in his youth rapidly aged Myrddin so that he was in fact an older man, and despite access to a virtual youth serum was fated to remain aged beyond his years by a curse he could not remove. The elixir would grant him youth for a short time, but he would rapidly age to the age he had been cursed to remain. He used the elixir to maintain his vitality and to prevent himself from aging further.

Aurelius is a Roman family that means golden, and it was also applied to Saints. The name may have been chosen for political reasons as well to confer upon Merlin and also later upon Phra a sense of legitimacy by having familial ties to the Roman British aristocracy.

The close connection between Merlin Ambrosius and Ambrosius Aurelius was such that they were often confused with one another. In fact it may have been the legend of Ambrosius Aurelius (Phra) sleeping in a wooden shrine because of Numidea that was transformed into the tale of Merlin having been imprisoned in an oak by Nimue.

Despite his amnesia, Ambrosius Aurelius knew Latin. Merlin filled him on the current situation of Britain, which had fallen to various British, Celtic, and former Roman leaders vying for power. The Saxons had made great encroachments as well, and armed bandits roamed the countryside. Ambrosius Aurelius proved himself to be a great warrior when, using only a quarterstaff, he defeated six bandits who attacked Merlin.

Ambrosius' obvious distaste for Saxons and the fading yet still visible tattoo on his body gave Merlin an idea. The tattoo reminded Merlin of the dragon that he had prophesized would defeat Vortigern. He told Ambrosius Aurelius that he had a vision to unite Britain, drive out the Saxons, and create a society that would blend the best elements of Roman, Celtic, and British cultures. Merlin believed that if Ambrosius heeded his advice, they could achieve this goal.

436 Ambrosius Aurelius began gathering followers and fighting against Saxon invaders and those British who allied themselves with the invaders. According to legend, Ambrosius Aurelius was the son of the true King of Britain, who had been living in exile in Brittany. This may have been a legend that sprung up around Ambrosius Aurelius that Merlin used and built upon, or it may have been a complete fabrication created by Merlin to further their political and military goals.

437 Ambrosius Aurelius appeared in Britain, traditionally presented as, seen as, historically interpreted as returning from exile in Brittany. With Merlin's backing he quickly became leader of the pro-Roman faction Vortigern's apparent relative, Vitalinus (Guitolinus), fought against Ambrosius at the Battle of Wallop. The latter was probably victorious and was "given all the kingdoms of the western side of Britain".

c.459 . "Vortigern took refuge in the refortified hillfort of Tre'r Ceiri in Yr Eifl (the Rivals) in Lleyn, but Ambrosius pursued him and drove him south, via Nant Gwrtheyrn and the sea to Ergyng and a wooden castle on the old hillfort of Caer-Guorthigirn (Little Doward) above Ganarew. Here, the castle was miraculously struck by lightning, and Vortigern burned to death!" (4) Other accounts such as History of the Britons by Nennius state that it was a ball of fire from the sky that ignited the castle "fire fell suddenly from heaven, and totally burned the castle. Vortigern, the daughter of Hengist, his other wives, and all the inhabitants, both men and women, miserably perished: such was the end of this unhappy king, as we find written in the life of St. Germanus."

460 Ambrosius Aurelius took full control of Britain; led the British in years of back-and-forth fighting with Saxons. British strategy seems to have been to allow Saxon landings and to then contain them there.

As the years went by, Ambrosius Aurelius did not aged. He relied upon Merlin's ability to mask his age, yet they knew that the time was coming close for Ambrosius Aurelius to pass on. They created a younger brother of Ambrosius Aurelius named Uther. Uther closely resembled Ambrosius but did not have gray hair and was clean shaven in the Roman fashion. In this way Ambrosius could wash the powder from hair and shave the white stained beard to become Uther.

A comet was spotted in the night skies, and Merlin saw this as a sign. According to legend, Uther and Merlin were sent by Ambrosius Aurelius to Ireland, from which they were to return with the Giant's Ring and place it in Britain as a war memorial; thus came the legend that Merlin used his magic to build Stonehenge. As Uther and Merlin were supposedly building Stonehenge, Ambrosius was poisoned and died.

Actually Merlin, seeing the comet as a portent, used the opportunity to end Ambrosius' reign. He also decided to search for the comet, which was rumored to have fallen to earth, and see if he could locate it. Uther (Phra) and Merlin left Ambrosius' castle. Phra doubled back and continued his guise as Ambrosius. He faked his own death by pretending to be poisoned, collapsing, and having a half-full poisoned wine cup nearby.

After Aurelius was entombed, Phra left the tomb and met up with Merlin, who was indeed at Stonehenge. He had located the fallen meteorite and had forged a sword with the metallic ore he discovered. In the forging and tempering process, Merlin drew some of Phra's blood to bind the blade and the king. The sword was named Cald Bog—Hard Lightning. Merlin's use of magic at Stonehenge did not go undetected, and so was born the legend that he had built Stonehenge, when in reality it had been there for thousands of years.

Uther and Merlin returned to Ambrosius' seat, and Uther assumed the title of High King. He took the name Pen Dragon or Head Dragon to signify his fulfillment of Merlin's well known. He called for all of the client kings and dukes to come to his seat and swear fealty to him. Igraine, the wife of Duke Gerlois of Cornwall, was an exceedingly beautiful woman. Uther fell in love with her upon sight. Despite a mutual attraction, she would not break her marriage vows. Gerlois however noticed the looks between Uther and his wife and grew angry. He broke the alliance with Uther and went to war with him.

Merlin refused to use his magic to make this romantic situation go as Uther wished, stating no good would come of the pairing. Uther could however not concentrate on their immediate goals and began losing his war with Gerlois. As to why Igraine instilled such passion on sight in Uther—he had not fallen so deeply, madly in love while living as Ambrosius—the answer is simply he had not met the right woman. Igraine evoked such passion in Uther because she stirred in Phra's sleeping mind the memories of Blodwen.(5)

465 Merlin finally relented and used his magic to disguise Uther as Gerlois. Whether this was a glamour he put upon Uther or whether Merlin accompanied Uther into the castle and used a form of mesmerism to make everyone they encountered believe that Uther was Gerlois is unknown. Even Igraine was fooled by the guise, although that Uther was able to duplicate Gerlois exact methods of marital congress is rather incredible. Perhaps because of her earlier attraction to Uther, Igraine was not as fooled as she let on. While Uther was trysting with Igraine, the true Gerlois was killed on the battlefield. This may be one of the terrible things that Merlin predicted would arise of this sordid affair. Igraine agreed to marry Uther almost immediately.

A child was born of this union, a child that Merlin collected from the mother. It is said that this was Merlin's price for performing magic for Uther. Actually it appears that the child was stillborn and severely deformed, and Merlin secretly buried the body in the woods. Although it is most likely this was merely a tragic yet rather common stillbirth, rumors were already circulating that Merlin had used magic to disguise Uther as Gerlois. The stillborn and deformed child might have been seen as a curse, as the tragic result of using magic as Uther had wished. The belief would have been that while Uther was filled with whatever magic Merlin had used, the magic negatively affected his seed and caused a deformed child. It would not have been politically expedient for it to be known that the king had fathered a monster. For this reason Merlin encouraged the notion that the child was being raised in secret and being taught to be a great king. Merlin may have been planning ahead.

As Uther, Phra was not as successful as he had been as Ambrosius Aurelius. There are several reasons for this. Having defeated most of the foreign invaders, e.g. the Saxons, the British princes were not united against a common enemy and so lost their focus and began to squabble among themselves. In addition to maintaining a Saxon-free Britain, Uther was forced to settle many internal disputes, often by force of arms. Uther was not perceived as an inspiring figure around whom the nobles could gather. He was rather seen as the younger brother of a great man and one who it is rumored seduced the wife of one of his sworn men. That he married her after his sworn man's death did not matter; it was the idea of his betrayal of the trust between liege and client that eroded the foundation of allegiance to the High King.

There was also the matter of Igraine. After her son was taken from her she became a changed woman. She removed herself from Uther's court, taking with her the daughters from her marriage to Gerlois. She is said to have taught her daughter Morgan Le Fey the arts of Celtic magic, including the darker worship. Some other accounts state that she became a devout Christian and studied religious texts, leaving servants to tend to her daughters' education. Without Igraine by his side, Uther felt lost. Uther's personal troubles cast a shadow over his political life.

As Uther became more involved with internal disputes, the Saxons began to land upon Britain once more and make successful attempts to establish themselves. A few years after taking her leave of him, Igraine died from what would be known as the Yellow Plague. This also brought upon Uther a serious depression and with it a desire to lose himself in action.(6)

Feeling ineffective as Uther and seeing that the situation was decaying rapidly, Phra decided it was time to die again. Merlin agreed that Uther's presence was too disruptive but that it was too soon to make a transition. There was however a way to ease the transition of power by having Uther cover himself in glory on the Continent, return triumphant and seemingly succumb to his war wounds, allowing the peaceful transition of his "son" to take his place.

469 Anthemius, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, provided Merlin and Phra with an opportunity to fulfill this plan when he appealed to the British for military help against the Visigoths. Reliable accounts by Sidonius Apolonaris and Jordanes name the leader of the 12,000 man Breton force, Riothamus. Riomathus was not a name but a title; it means greatest king and refers to the Uther's title as High King of Britain.(7)

There is a confusion of names here. There was a King of Brittany named Riatham, who lived circa 435-470. However, he appears quite clearly in the Breton pedigrees of the Princes of Domnonée, recorded in the lives of several saints. He is there recorded as a son of Prince Deroch II, though external evidence would suggest he was a son of Prince Deroch I and grandson of Guitol. Like so many Breton princes, Riatham appears to have been exiled to Britain after his father's death, presumably in the midst of a civil war. He eventually returned though and killed the usurping general, Marchell. Thus the true royal Domnonian line was restored. Riatham may even have been recognized as King of all Brittany.

Riothamus Uther of the British and Riatham of the Bretons combined their forces to drive back the Visigoths. Their conjoining led to much of the confusion about their names and backgrounds.

Despite a promising campaign, the bulk of the combined British/Breton force was wiped out in battle against Euric, the Visigothic king, and the survivors, including Riothamus, vanished and were never heard from again.

Merlin and Uther's plan came to naught as Uther's forces were defeated, and he stuck down by a serious but not fatal wound. The wound was bad, but not bad enough to send Phra/Uther into one of his healing comas. Yet despite having survived the blow, Uther was seen to have fallen with what appeared to be a fatal blow. Survivors of the battle spread stories of Uther's demise.

Hoping to dispel the rumors of Uther's death, Merlin returned to Britain. It was too late. Uther was known to have fallen in battle. The internal strife among the British kingdoms increased, as did the Saxon incursions. Uther's return would cause more chaos than it resolved. "Arthur" was still too young to come to power. Merlin created a unifying symbol to prevent the collapse of the social order that Merlin and Ambrosius had created and to keep alive the dream of a culture based on the best of traits of the Romans, Celts, and British. Merlin took Uther's sword Cald Bog, forged from the fallen star, and thrust it into a stone with the legend that, "Whosoever withdraws the sword from the stone is rightful King of Britain." It became a contest among the various kings to attempt to draw the sword. Merlin retired to renew his studies of ancient lore. It is possibly during this time that he married Vivian, the Lady of the Lake.

Once Phra was healed up, he knew that returning to England as Uther was no longer an option. Seeking revenged for his great defeat, he rounded up a force of men, made his way to Arles, and joined up with Anthemiolus, the son of the Western Roman Emperor Anthemius. Euric, king of the Visigoths, seeing the repeated changes of Roman emperors, attempted to bring Gaul under his rule, which brought him in direct conflict with the Western Roman Emperor.

471 AD Anthemiolus met Euric in battle. "Anthemiolus was sent to Arles by his father, the Emperor Anthemius, along with Thorisarius, Everdingus, and Hermianus the Count of the Stables. King Euric encountered them on the other side of the Rhone and, after killing the generals, devastated everything."(8) After this defeat the Emperor Anthemius abandoned any efforts to regain lost territory.

Phra traveled to Armorica, and while biding his time waiting for Merlin's signal to return to Britain he made contact with Romano-Celtic British refugees who had established kingdoms there. He established his identity of Arthur there. Arthur seemed to be man in his late teens, although this does not seem to be the result of magic but rather the result of the hidden Phra's persona's acting ability.

477 AD Saxon chieftain Aelle landed on the Sussex coast with his sons. The British engaged him upon landing, but his superior forces besieged them at Pevensey and drove them into the Weald. Over next nine years, Saxon coastal holdings gradually expanded in Sussex.

480 AD Merlin appeared at the site of the sword in the stone. He announced that Britain needed its king lest it fall forever into darkness. From all of the lands of Britain kings, princes, and nobles journeyed to the site of the sword. Among these were the nobles of the Breton kingdoms. Arthur accompanied Ector and his two grown sons to Britain to partake in the great contest. Arthur was of course not Cei's squire, and the story of his removing the sword unknowingly were also part of Arthurian legends that have accrued to this event. Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and was proclaimed by Merlin to be the rightful king of Britain. The spell that Merlin had laid upon the sword was "keyed" to respond to Phra's blood, which had been incorporated into the blade when it was forged.(9)

482 Arthur wedded Guinevere (Gwenhwyfar), daughter of Gwrawd "Gwent," the King of Gwent

480-496 Arthur spent the next few years in constant battle, consolidating his kingdom and driving out the Saxon invaders. Unfortunately because of being thrust into the stone, the sword Caladbolg was weakened and broke in half during battle. Merlin took the sword to his wife Vivian, the Lady of the Lake, whose artistry in metallurgy was greater than his. They reforged Caladbolg and its blade, infusing in it the strength of adamantine (diamond). She also created a sheath made of a silver material that was the only scabbard which would hold the sharp blade without being cut through. The legend grew around Arthur that the scabbard kept him from all harm, even the ravages of age.

Shortly after taking over Uther's seat, Arthur was visited by Morguase of Lothian, wife of King Lot and daughter of Igraine by Gorlois. A moment of weakness with her would cost Arthur his kingdom. She seduced him. This was in part because he was a handsome young man and also because she was a woman on the make; she wished for her husband and sons to have places of honor in Arthur's realm. After their tryst Morguase reacted with horror. She had not believed the tales of him being Uther's son. Yet upon Arthur was the same sort of birthmark that Uther had borne.(10) Although this knowledge put a damper on any further relationship between them, Arthur did bring her sons Gawain, Gaheris, Agravain, and Gareth into his circle.

Arthur's claim to the throne was legitimized by the appearance of Igraine at Uther's seat. Although she and Uther had been separated for a long time she immediately recognized him as closely resembling the dead king. She announced that Arthur was the son stolen from her by the wizard Merlin.

In a series of battles, twelve major ones that Nennius records, Arthur and Merlin recreated Ambrosius Aurelius' realm and expanded it. He drove out the Irish invaders from Wales and pushed toward the Saxon enclaves in Southern Britain.

496 The Siege of Mount Badon. British forces under the command of Arthur defeated the Saxons under the command of King Esla of Bernicia and possibly Cerdic of Wessex. Following the victory at Mt. Badon, the Saxon advance was halted with the invaders returning to their own enclaves. Moving north, Arthur pushed into Northern Britain and Scotland. From thence he moved into Ireland, defeating the Irish High King in single combat. Irish folklore collected from Irish oral tradition is not favorable toward "Arthur of Britain," who appears in Irish sources as a rapacious invader with few similarities to the Arthur of medieval romance.

506. Arthur and Merlin commissioned a special metal-shod ship, Prydwen, that would make them unbeatable against the Saxon ships. With this ship Arthur was able to turn the tide against the preying ships of the Saxons.

510 Arthur took the British navy to aid the King of Brittany (Armorica), Hoel I "The Great," one of his vassals, in repelling a sea-borne attack by the Visigoths of Spain. Many of the Breton royal house fled to Britain, including Budic [II], who sought refuge at the court of King Aircol "Lawhir" of Demetia (Dyfed).

511 Arthur repelled an invasion of Britain by attacking Danes, Norse, and Jutes; and also suppressed a rebellion of the barbarians (Anglo-Saxons) in Britain. Arthur expelled Aesc of Kent that year. Cerdic of Wessex returned again to Britain with another force of foreign mercenaries that year but was once more defeated by Arthur and fled back into exile.

512 Arthur carried the war with the Scandinavians overseas and attacked them in their homelands, Arthur’s "North Sea War." Johannes Magnus, a Swedish historian of the sixteenth century, speaks of the expedition of Arthur to Scandinavia, and narrates the circumstances that led to it. Arthur occupied Hlade, the Norse capital, and made a treaty with the Norse king Olbricht; he occupied Jellinge, the Jute capital, and made a treaty with the Jute king Gebolf; and he occupied Leire, the Danish capital, and made a treaty with the Danish king Aschillus. Tysilio’s "Chronicle" also gives an account of Arthur’s expedition to Scandinavia; however, the details of it vary so much as to show that Tysilio had never seen the account given by Johannes Magnus.

513 The British under Arthur invaded Gaul from the north and occupied Northern Gaul; while the Bretons from Armorica under Hoel I invaded Gaul from the west and occupied Western Gaul; while Ostro-Goths from Italy under Theodoric "The Great" invaded France from the south and occupied Southern Gaul. Arouz, Count of Flanders, resisted Arthur’s advance, but was finally overcome. Meanwhile, Claudas, Lord of Bourges, resisted the advance of Hoel I, but Arthur shortly came to Hoel’s aid and defeated Claudas and his allies, that is, other Frankishdukes. After which all the other French nobles called for a truce and came to terms with Arthur. Arthur and his vassals met with Theodoric "The Great" (called Ogrfan Ogyrvan; Gogvran "Gawr", i.e., Gogfran "The Giant" in British folklore) at Lyons in great pomp and ceremony where they made a treaty dividing France between them.

Believing that Arthur was close to achieving their goals and could do without his advise for a while Merlin went on sabbatical. Deciding to further his education of arcane lore Merlin traveled first to Rome, Greece and then Asia.

513-517 Arthur's campaigns in Europe to drive back the Visigoths and to extend his and Merlin's vision of a Romano-Celtic-British Empire brought him against the Theodoric and his brothers, the Kings of the Franks and then against the might of Rome itself. This proved to be too much for his forces to defeat and Arthur was forced to retreat to Breton. Word reached him that while he had been expanding the British empire afar, it had been crumbling from within. A coalition lead by his "half sister" Morgause and their son Medraut had made an alliance with several Saxon lords to open Britain to them if they would aid the pair in overthrowing the reign of Arthur. During this campaign, Anhir, Arthur's son by Guenivere, was killed. Arthur was so enraged by his son's death that he went about punishing the rebellious British with terrible severity and ravaged the whole British Isles. His methods were so extreme that the clergy begged him to show clemency to the people of Britain. He relented in his brutality.

517-521 As Arthur quelled the rebellion and once again fought against Saxon incursions, other parts of his empire rebelled, including Ireland, Scotland, parts of Wales, and finally Armorica. He concentrated on consolidating his position as High King once more and began to institute reforms to create a society of laws and justice. Joining Arthur's forces in this period was a young man of Roman descent who stated he was the commander of the last Roman Legion in Britain, The Sixth, although all of these "Romans" were descendents of Roman soldiers and had been born in Cymri or Caledonia. The young man, Ventidius Varro, bore some resemblance to Arthur. (11)

521-533 It was during this period that many of the actions later incorporated into the grail legends arose. Arthur reformed the government, pardoned his rebellious lords, and even brought his illegitimate son Medraut into the fold, although he stopped at acknowledging him as his son. Medraut, however, made it well known that he was Arthur's son. This angered Guinevere who had heard of Arthur's other trysts, such as with the daughter of Alles or the daughter of Theodoric of Rome. She also feared that if Arthur acknowledged Medraut he would throw her aside to make Medraut's inheritance legal. Medraut made certain that rumors to this effect reached her ears. She made an alliance with Lancelot, her protector. Medraut then made it common knowledge that Lancelot and Guinevere were having an affair. Arthur was forced to sentence her to be burnt at the stake in keeping with the codes of justice he had created. Lancelot however freed her and they fled to his castle in France. Arthur pursued them and laid siege to Lancelot’s castle. A truce was arranged, and Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot met secretly to decide what to do, for they did not have the heart to fight one another. Lancelot went off into self-imposed exile, and Guinevere entered a convent and became a nun.

Medraut began encouraging Arthur to once again expand the empire, to bring the age of reason and justice to Europe and rekindle the Roman Empire. Lacking the advice of Merlin and heartbroken at the loss of Guinevere and Lancelot, he agreed. Having no one else he could depend upon and knowing Medraut was popular with the populace, Arthur left him in charge of the British forces while Arthur once again took his expansionist policies to Europe.

Within two years, Medraut had consolidated his position to such a degree that he declared Arthur dead. To further his claims for legitimacy, he had Guinevere kidnapped from her nunnery and brought to his castle for a forced marriage.

536 Merlin returned from his journey of learning only to discover Arthur had not accomplished what they had planned. Merlin was commonly believed to have been trapped in a Hawthorne bush or shut away in a crystal cave by Nimue during this period.

537 Upon Arthur's return to Britain, his forces were met by a huge army commanded by Medraut. Despite their numerical superiority, Medraut's forces took heavy losses and were forced to retreat. Legend says that Arthur and Medraut fought three battles: the first in Kent at Richborough, where Arthur came ashore; the second in Wessex at Winchester, where Arthur liberated his queen Guinevere; the third and last in Cornwall at Camelford, then called Camlan.

At the battle of Camlan Medraut was killed and Arthur was wounded near unto death. Merlin however knew that chances were that he would recover and awaken from his sleep. Merlin stated that he had Arthur taken to the Island of Avalon, which lay off the coast of Lyonnesse, where he would sleep until he was needed once more. However Merlin did not disclose the actual location of Arthur's cairn, which was on a small island in the marshes some ten or so miles from Glastonbury Abbey. So that Arthur would not be slain in his sleep had he been found by any of Medraut's follower, Merlin stripped him of all but his kirtle and placed his arms and armor in a different location.

Merlin saw no hope that his vision of a great civilization could be built in Europe, but that he needed to start anew in a new land. Knowing of the lands to the west where St. Brendan had visited, he convinced Ventidius Varro and his "Legion" to establish a new Roman Empire in the unknown lands of the west. Using the iron ship Prydwen, they traveled to ancient America where Ventidius Varro made himself King of the Western Edge of theWorld, known by the titles of Nuitzition, Huitzilopochtli and Atoharo.(12)

877 Phra awakened, cured of his near fatal injuries sustained as Arthur. As before, he awakened with dissociative amnesia and wandered from "Avalon." Fortunately he wandered into Glastonbury Abbey, where the monks fed and clothed him. Although he spoke Latin and an archaic form of Saxon, they did not realize or even suspect he was their king returned. After he learned the current language and seemed to have recovered from whatever ailment had possessed him, they gave him the name of Roger and set him up as a cowherd. He built a cow shed on Athelney Island, over his cairn.

877-878 In a surprise attack during the winter of 877/878, the Vikings again overran Wessex and scattered the Wessex Army, whereupon, King Alfred was reduced to wandering among the woods and swamps of England, living off the land with only a few retainers. Alfred set up his headquarters in a cowherd’s hut on the Isle of Athelney in the fens of Somerset, an inaccessible marshy area where the Vikings could not find him. From there Alfred began to strike out at the Vikings in a campaign of guerrilla warfare, in which Roger the cowherd took part.

878 Alfred was pleased at the cowherd's desire to fight back against the invading forces. He was quite pleased when the cowherd turned out to be a natural soldier with an affinity for such guerilla tactics. Roger remembered having been a solider but could not remember when or how. Alfred thought perhaps Roger had been injured in such a way as to make him lose his memory.

Alfred emerged from his hideout the spring of 878, rallied his countrymen to arms, and launched a counter-offensive against the Vikings. He undertook the systematic liberation of the country from its foreign occupiers. Alfred defeated the Vikings at Edington, Wiltshire, in 878 in a string of victories.

880 The Vikings were completely driven out of Wessex. Roger became a staunch companion and was well regarded by Alfred for his advice, not only in military matters but also in administrative ones.

893 The peace treaty was broken by the Vikings. They renewed their attacks and made a determined effort to re-conquer England. This time Alfred proceeded to rollback the frontiers of the "Danelaw" territory of the Vikings, and, after defeating the Vikings in a series of battles over a period of three years, extended his sway over the whole country. Here England as a united kingdom under one sovereign grew out of Alfred’s kingdom as shires proceeded from London and eventually covered the whole country following the path of Alfred's recovery of the country from the Vikings

895 Roger fell with a Danish spear in his stomach. Apparently dead, he did not however corrupt. Alfred, who had nearly become a priest before being asked to become king, was certain that his friend had been a saint sent by God to drive the pagan Saxons from England. He arranged that Roger be kept in a small reliquary in Canterbury Abbey.

1050 Abbot Wulfric of St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, embarked on a flamboyant program of building work at his abbey. He added a further western chapel and bell-tower to the monastic complex and began to join St. Mary's to the Abbey Church with a huge rotunda based on that of St. Benigne at Dijon. Disturbed by the reconstruction going on about him, Phra awakened with amnesia and climbed out his tomb. His awakening went without notice. Stealing clothes, he worked as a laborer as he got his bearings.

1053 Death of Godwin; his son Harold succeeded him as Earl of Wessex. Earl Harold of Wessex began a program of building at Waltham Abbey, which included the addition of a huge eastern crossing. Phra, using the name Robert and posing as a laborer called out a pointer or two to the Earl Wessex during Harold's sword play In a good humor, the Earl threw a sword to the laborer and asked him to teach him the finer points of swordplay. After Phra defeated Harold in short order, Harold had him join his staff as a Master of Arms (weapons instructor).

1063 Harold and his brother Tostig, the earl of Northumbria, subdued Wales. Robert (Phra) accompanied them and was invaluable not only in the fighting but also in providing sound advice on battle strategy.

1064 Harold was shipwrecked in Normandy; while there, he swore a solemn oath to support William of Normandy's claim to England. In this shipwreck Robert was drowned. He went into a coma from which he did not awaken. Harold sent him to the best healer in all of England. He resided in this healer's hut.

1066 Harold II was crowned king the day after Edward the Confessor died. Harold's brother Tostig and his ally Harold Hardraada of Norway invaded England. Harold defeated them at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, killing both. In the Battle of Hastings nineteen days after battle of Stamford Bridge, William of Normandy landed at Pevensey, defeated and killed Harold. William of Normandy became William I, the Conqueror, first Norman King of England (to 1087)

Phra the Phoenician awoke. Phra regained consciousness in a hermit's hut on the eve of the battle of Hastings. He remembered nothing since falling asleep in 410. The hermit was astounded at his lack of knowledge. Phra overheard and saw Harold talking with his wife Adeliza. After Harold left to do battle with William the Conqueror, the hermit sent Phra to bear a message to the Earl of Mercia. He returned in time to see Harold perish. He struck a Norman solider, rescuing Editha, a young woman of Harold's retinue, from molestation. William gave the girl to a knight named Des Ormeux and ordered Phra be hung from the nearest tree. Phra overcame the guards sent to hang him and rescued Editha. They fled into the English woods and thence to her homestead of Voewood.

The above text in blue is how events progressed so far as Phra recorded them in his Memoirs which became the WonderfulAdventures of Phra the Phoenician. Having heard Phra had awakened Harold had come to see him. However after his initial awakening Phra had gone to sleep for two days so he was sleeping when Harold arrived. Harold realized he would have to go to battle without the counsel of his friend and advisor. He took time to grab a quick meal with his wife before riding off to meet William the Conquerer's forces. As Harold and his wife were eating, Phra awoke and went to eat. He recognized Harold as the King of England, although purportedly he had never seen him before. Something made Phra hang back in the shadows so Harold never actually saw him. Why Phra hung back in the shadows is never really explained. Perhaps he did not wish to disturb the monarch at his meal or perhaps the sight and recognition of Harold, whom he did not recall having met before, created a psychological confusion in Phra that caused Phra to stand hidden and indecisive. Harold finished his meal, said his goodbyes to his wife, and went off to battle. Phra was moved to console the crying Adeliza yet also held back from doing so. Instead he sought out the hermit who sent him on an errand to have the Earl of Mercia and his forces hurry to the battle.

Phra did as he was bid and arrived with the Earl of Mercia's forces in time to see the English forces broken and scattered.

1066-84 Phra married Editha and lived in relative peace for twelve years as a Saxon lord. They had two children. The Norman conquerors instituted a poll of all land holders and a mandatory pledge of allegiance to the crown. The Normans taking the poll treated Phra's Saxon servants and to an extent Phra and his wife as if they were beneath contempt because they were a conquered people. Angry with this, Phra defied the clerics who came to make the poll and refused to give them any information. He had a flash of fancy wherein his refusal to cooperate would lead to a general rebellion in which Editha as the last of the Saxon line could be put on the throne and kept there by the force of his sword.

However the Normans returned in an overwhelming force, and Phra and his family were forced to flee. They were spotted on the road and had to run for their lives. On the way Phra defeated a Norman knight in single combat but sustained no discernable injuries. They raced towards the presumed sanctuary of St. Olaf's Monastery. At first the priests refused them entry and the Normans nearly fell upon them; however, they were let into the monastery in the nick of time. Despite not having any discernable wounds or having suffered any sort of trauma other than losing his castle, Phra fell into a centuries-long nap.

When Phra came to consciousness in 1346, he found a marble statue of his beloved wife Editha and his little children. It would seem that they had not long survived him. As with other parts of his dissociative amnesia, Phra remembered events slightly differently than they actually occurred. It is probable that the family did not reach the shrine in time and the Normans killed Editha and the children before his eyes, shooting them down with arrows just as the doors were opening to the monastery. The monks dragged Phra inside, but could not save Editha and the children as they had already perished. The Norman knight's lance that broke against Phra's chest may have caused him severe internal injuries, which is why he slipped into a healing coma; the trauma of losing Editha and the children is why he later awoke with another case of dissociative amnesia.

1112 Waking up with amnesia, Phra stumbled out of the reliquary in which he had been placed. He wandered towards London. While on the road he was accosted by a knight who attempted to run him down for not showing the proper respect due his station. Phra ended up killing the knight and taking his arms and mount. Using these he established himself as a wandering knight under the name of Ferraut. Through a series of trial combats he achieved a small amount of fame for his prowess at arms. This fame eventually led to his being added to the King's guard, to guard especially the royal children. Sir Ferraut was one of the six guards who accompanied Matilda, King Henry I's daughter, to Germany when she married the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V.

1114 to 1125 Matilda and Ferraut were in Germany until Henry died and left no issue. Ferraut's duties were not onerous, and he kept his martial skills honed by being a well regarded champion of the recently invented sport of tourney.

1122 At one such tourney Ferraut had a favor tied to his arm by a beautiful young lady. Usually he would demur such favors, but Henry V said that it would be politically expedient for Ferraut to accept this particular favor. The favor belonged to Judith of Swabia, the wife of Duke Frederick II of Swabia. Bavaria and Swabia had come to an uneasy peace with the marriage of Judith and Frederick The duke and duchess had been trying for an heir but without much success, which had led to a distance between the couple.

1223 Early this year Judith bore a child, Frederick. Frederick's red hair dispelled any base rumors that Frederick was the dark-haired Sir Ferraut's son. Through an odd set of circumstances, Frederick would become the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire known as Frederick Barbarossa (Red Beard).

1225 The twenty-four year old Empress was recalled to her father's court when her husband died. Her champion, Sir Ferraut, accompanied her. A widower, Matilda felt that she was free to divulge her feelings towards her champion. Sir Ferraut acknowledged that he had yearned for her upon seeing her. (13). Sir Ferraut also became her lover. However because of his unknown origins and because she was a valuable commodity, Matilda soon found herself being bartered for dynastic ties.

1227 Matilda was forced by her father Henry I to marry Geoffrey of Anjou, the fourteen-year-old heir to the Count of Anjou. Theirs was not a happy marriage. Matilda left him three times and each time was sent back by her father, who desperately wanted a male heir. While Geoffrey took up with Adelaide of Angers, Matilda carried out her affair d'amour with Sir Ferraut. Due to the need of a male heir by both the English Crown and the Plantagenet County, none ever disputed the legitimacy of Henry I when he born in 1133. However the English Plantagenets continued to carry the facial features, if not always the coloring of Sir Ferraut for generations.

1135 In the summer, Geoffrey demanded custody of certain key Norman castles as a show of good will from Henry; Henry refused, and the pair entered into war. Henry's life ended in this sorry state of affairs of war with his son-in-law and rebellion on the horizon.

Despite having sworn to uphold the claim of Matilda to the crown of England, the English barons and Henry I's nephew Stephen refused to acknowledge her accession. Stephen was crowned king by public acclaim with papal approval.

1139 Stephen proved to be a poor king, as cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. "In the days of this King there was nothing but strife, evil, and robbery, for quickly the great men who were traitors rose against him. When the traitors saw that Stephen was a good-humoured, kindly, and easy-going man who inflicted no punishment, then they committed all manner of horrible crimes . . . And so it lasted for nineteen years while Stephen was King, till the land was all undone and darkened with such deeds, and men said openly that Christ and his angels slept."

Matilda, along with her husband and her illegitimate half-brother Robert of Gloucester, invaded England. The trio dominated western England and joined a rebellion against Stephen in 1141. Robert captured Stephen in battle at Lincoln. Stephen's government collapsed and Matilda was recognized as Queen. The contentious and arrogant Matilda quickly angered the citizens of London and was expelled from the city. Stephen's forces rallied and attacked Empress Matilda's forces in Winchester. Empress Matilda fled the city while Robert's forces met Stephen's and fought them on retreat. Empress Matilda's forces were able to escape. Stephen's army captured Robert at Lincoln and exchanged Robert for the Stephen who had been captured earlier. Ferraut was wounded and fell in the fighting somewhere between Winchester and Lincoln. He was heard from no more. The pursuing army probably stripped the insensate body of armor and valuables and threw it into the woods.

Empress Matilda eventually tired of the struggle and returned to Normandy in 1148, leaving her son Henry to pursue his claim to the throne.

1188 Out of the woods of Nottinghamshire came a wild man. He was hairy, covered in dirt and leaves and ravenously hungry. Given food, he fled back once more into the darkness of the forest. Over the next few days people left offerings to this spirit of the woods, whom people called Robin Goodfellow after the forest sprite of the same name. People were certain that they were being spied upon and chores were completed as if by magic—a stone fence finished, wood chopped, etc. Mischief also was afoot as clothes were stolen and a bow and arrows.

A youth garbed in green and calling himself Robin appeared in the village of Loxley. Being extremely proficient with the bow, he found employment as a huntsman. Hearing of an archery contest sponsored by the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Robin decided to travel there and test his skill against other men.

While on the way to the village of Nottingham where the contest was being held, he met up with four foresters who asked him his business. Telling them of his intention to participate in the contest, they mocked his ability. Angrily he claimed he could pick out deer from a herd frolicking in the distance. When he felled the deer, the foresters refused to pay their wager and instead told him to be gone; he had killed the King's deer and so should by rights have his ears cropped.

Robin turned from this fight for they were the King's men, and he had no wish to be outlawed. One of the foresters sent a shaft at Robin, which quivered in a tree inches from his head. Robin turned and fired, transfixing the forester with a shaft through his heart. Robin was forced to kill two of the other foresters. The remaining forester turned and fled. Robin knew he was a wanted man and took refuge in the great forest of Barnsdale.

This was when Good King Harry ruled England; however, at this time Good King Harry was fighting with his son Good Prince Richard over the throne. King Henry was in France, and so while the governing of the state continued in his absence, many lords and officials over-reached themselves in power and grew corrupt. Over the next year Robin met and was joined by a variety of fellow outlaws, including his boon companion John Little. As his acts of poaching increased and the deaths of the foresters became attributed to him, a price was put upon his head.

In one early incident, the Sheriff set up an archery tournament to draw Robin out of the woods. The prize was to be a butt of October ale. In reality it was to be capture and execution as the Sheriff reasoned that the best archer would be Robin Hood. This was the famed incident in which he split an arrow already lodged in a target.

The Sheriff's plan went awry however; many of the bystanders turned out to be followers of Robin. In single combat Robin defeated the Sheriff and cut off his head.

Guy of Gisborne made arrangements with the new sheriff to collect the reward. Wearing armor of his own devising, created from cured horse hide and including a cowl and mask made from the beast's head, Sir Guy strode into the forest. Unwittingly meeting up with Robin by accident, Guy declared his plan to take Robin's head back to the Sheriff for the reward. After Robin proved by prowess on the bow that he was the Robin whom Guy sought, they fought with broadswords. Robin took Guy's head, mutilated the face, and stuck it on a spear. Donning the horsehide armor, Robin went to the Sheriff to collect his reward. Little John had however been captured by the Sheriff, and so when Robin saw this he told the Sheriff he would forgo the monetary reward for also having a chance to kill Robin's second-in-command.

The Sheriff, wishing to pocket the reward, agreed. Robin revealed his identity to John, and they fought their way clear. Little John killed the Sheriff with an arrow as they departed. Another Sheriff soon rose to take his place.

Robin and his Merry Men's efforts to keep the good people of Barndsale, Yorkshire, and Nottingham safe from corrupt officials, from nobles who over reached their stations and rebuked their duties, and from roving bands of brigands did not go unnoticed. After winning the war against his father and inheriting the Kingdom of England upon Henry II's death, good King Richard was about to leave England to go on the Third Crusade. He needed good fighting men and thought that Robin and his men would be doughty warriors.

Richard asked his mother Queen Eleanor to find Robin for him, thinking that the wily Robin might believe it to be a clever trap should he seek him out in person. Robin proved his identity to the Queen through a contest in which he beat several of the King's best men-at-arms. However, one cloaked man nearly matched him in prowess. The cowled man declared Robin a cheater and challenged him to a fight. Robin bested the man in a fight using quarterstaves, and it was then revealed that this was King Richard incognito.

1190-1192 Robin, Little John, and a few others joined Richard on the crusade. Robin lost favor with the King for disapproving of his actions at Acre, when innocent women and children were slaughtered.(14)

1192 Richard needed to return to England. It seems that Richard's brother Prince John was working with Philip II of France to usurp the throne of England. Robin and his troops were sent ahead of Richard. Richard was captured enroute to England by the Holy Roman Emperor and held for ransom, a ransom John refused to pay.

Robin and his fellows returned to their old hunting grounds to discover that much of the government structure had broken down and lawlessness had become a terror to the good people of Nottinghamshire. The brigands worked in concert with the Sheriff, who in addition to collecting new taxes imposed by "King" John also levied their own illegal taxes.

John had been called Lackland because his father's realm had been distributed to all his sons before John's birth. Richard had given John lands in part for his role in their rebellion against their father. It had also been among their father's last wishes for John to have been given lands. John became the Count of Mortain. He had been given lands equal to a small kingdom inside England. Among the lands given to John were those in the environs of Nottingham. One thing that rankled John was that he had not been given title to the castles in Nottingham or Tickhill.

Essentially, John wanted the castles that he had not received with their honors. Castles were status symbols and

having an honor without the honorial castle was an impossible situation for a 12th-century baron to countenance. However much land he held, the lack of the castles diminished his status amongst other barons. Moreover, both Nottingham and Tickhill Castles were strategically important. Whoever controlled them and their respective honors was someone to be reckoned with and well-placed to commit both mischief and, if necessary, an act of defiance. John seized the castles of Nottingham and Tickhill in 1191, and held them more or less continually for the next three years, despite the protests of the Council and his mother and attempts to dislodge him.

Robin and his Merry Men reformed even larger than before as more discontented and landless men rallied to the cause. He had seven score and perhaps more men. Robin and his men began to protect the citizens from the oppressive forces of the illegal government; they also embarked on a campaign to gather a ransom for Richard since John refused to pay it. They did this by robbing from the rich and the corrupt, including church officials.

It was during this period that Robin encountered Sir Ivanhoe and most of the exploits of Robin Hood in Nottingham actually occurred.

1194 Aided by Robin Hood and his Merry Men, King Richard laid siege to Nottingham Castle and took it. After the siege King Richard spent the day in Sherwood Forest.

1194-1199 Robin Hood and Little John accompanied King Richard when he went to war with the King of France to win back the continental possessions that John had bargained away.

1199 While besieging a castle at Chaluz, Richard received a crossbow bolt, the wound of which festered and Richard died of gangrene. Robin and Little John returned to England. Count John was now King John.

1129-1216 John's reign as King was a troubled one. He angered his French subjects by orchestrating the murder of his nephew Arthur of Brittany to forestall claims that the popular young man had more of a right to the throne than did he. He lost the last of his French possessions in 1205 and returned to England. In his absence, the Justicars and administrators appointed by Richard and trained by Henry II had run the nations smoothly without too much social unrest or injustice. Robin had met and become involved with a maiden named Marian. He and the Merry Men were looking forward to years of peace. When John returned to England, he was more directly involved in running the government. While in many ways he was a better king than Richard so far as being concerned about the realm and having ideas on how to increase its stature and his own, he proved to be very unpopular with the populous and nobility. This became especially true when he defied the Papacy and England was placed under a papal interdict in which masses could not be said or other sacraments administered by priests.

It was during this time that Robin met the man called Friar Tuck, who was a monk and a former soldier. It does not appear that he was actually a friar however.

As a result of John's struggle with the Pope, the King had to levy new taxes to pay tribute to Rome. Unhappy with the new taxes, his barons revolted.

Robin and his men were kept busy aiding the folk of Nottinghamshire against predations from the King's men, from the corrupt officials taking advantage of the chaos in government, and from the rebellious and often feuding barons. Robin Hood was loyal to the people of England rather than to this king. The discontented barons captured London in May 1215. At Runnymeade in the following June, John succumbed to pressure from the barons, the Church, and the English people at-large, and signed the Magna Carta. The document, a declaration of feudal rights, stressed three points. First, the Church was free to make ecclesiastic appointments. Second, larger-than-normal amounts of money could only be collected with the consent of the king's feudal tenants. Third, no freeman was to be punished except within the context of common law. The Magna Carta, although a testament to John's complete failure as monarch, was the forerunner of modern constitutions. John only signed the document as a means of buying time to keep his barons from forcing him to abdicate, and his hesitance to implement its principles compelled the nobility to seek French assistance.

It was about this time that that King John had all of his personal possessions, including the crown jewels, moved to Lincolnshire. Robin and his Merry Men set a trap and attacked the carriage and its escort at a river crossing. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, it looked as though Robin and his men would once again win the day, until the horses pulling the treasure panicked and the cart flipped over into the river. The treasure was lost. The loss of the crown jewels inspired the soldiers to fight more vigorously than Robin or his men had counted on. After losing several men, Robin called a retreat. Robin marked the trail to lead back to the site later on, but by the time they had returned most of the treasure had been washed away.(15)

The barons offered the throne to Philip II's son, Louis. John died in the midst of invasion from the French in the South and rebellion from his barons in the North.

1217 In the negotiations that followed John's death, the rebellious barons agreed to support Henry III, King John's nine year old son, under the regent William Marshall. They rallied and drove out the forces of the Dauphin, Louis. Robin and his men participated in the fight against the French forces.

For his part in the defense of the realm, Robin was granted an earldom. Although he called himself Robin of Loxley, his earldom was a small holding within Sherwood Forest. The defining characteristic of a forest is that it was governed by forest laws. Much of Sherwood was not a heavily wooded area. There were large fields, meadows, and even towns inside of Sherwood. Robin married Marian and they raised a family together. Because of Robin's eternally youthful demeanor, it soon began to be believed among the people who knew him that he was a spirit of the forest, equating him with the Green Man from Celtic mythology or a son of Herne the Hunter.(16)

1233–34 Baronial revolt against King Henry III over his use of French administrators. Robin sided with the barons in this particular revolt and was one of the few who had his title revoked and was outlawed. Robin and his family returned to the outlaw life in Sherwood.

1247 The newly appointed Sheriff of Nottingham captured Lady Marian as she visited the town market. Robin and his aging band gained access to Nottingham Castle. Although they managed to free Marian, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, and Milch the Miller's Son were killed. Marian soon died of her rigors from the combination of wounds and exertion. The Sheriff of Nottingham invaded Sherwood Forest with a large force of men under Lord Ranulf. In single combat Robin slew the sheriff and Little John slew Sir Ranulf. Robin was sorely wounded however, and Little John took him to the Prioress of Kirksly, who was Marian's cousin.

The Prioress was warned of his coming and set a trap for him. She had been the lover of the Sheriff of Nottingham. She sent for Red Roger, the Sheriff's brother.

Despite a warning from a local peasant woman who knew of the treachery afoot, Little John and Robin submitted to the ministrations of the Prioress. She bled him near unto death, and when he was greatly weakened Red Roger crept into Robin's room to slay him. Robin mustered his strength and fought back. He received another wound in the side before beheading Red Roger. Feeling the life ebb from him he lay back and grew still. Little John burst into the room and was going to kill the Prioress but Robin told him to slay not the Lady.(17)

Asking for a bow he told Little John to bury him where the arrow landed and shot an arrow out of the window.

Lay me a green sod under my head,
And another at my feet;
And lay my bent bow by my side,
Which was my music sweet;
And make my grave of gravel and green,
Which is most right and meet. (18)

Little John did as he asked, at first. He heard, however, that men of evil intent planned to dig up the body of Robin, cut off the head, and claim a reward for his death.

Little John dug up the body and covered the grave over again. Realizing that the body was not decomposing, he became convinced that the tales of Robin being a spirit of the woods might be true. He laid Robin in a grove in the forest between Nottingham and Derby and covered him with boughs and leaves. When Little John died a couple years no one knew where the true grave of Robin lay, still clad in his chainmail and with a broadsword placed under his crossed arms.

1243 The Gascon Jean de Vac, a superb swordsman and one of Henry III's men at arms defeated the king at sword practice. The angry King slapped Jean de Vac and spat upon him. Jean de Vac had grown old in the service of the English Kings, having been brought to England by King John, yet he hated all things English and these English Kings. This slap was the final insult. De Vac plotted revenge

He kidnapped the King's three year old son Richard. The King and Queen believed that the child had been thrown into the Thames and drowned.

1247 King Henry III and Queen Eleanor had another son they named Richard. He died of disease at the age of nine.

1243-1257 Jean De Vac raised the kidnapped Prince Richard as his son, naming him Norman of Torn. He trained Norman to be a master swordsmen and also instilled a great hatred towards the English and the Plantagenet Kings in particular. De Vac planned to use Norman to lead a rebellion against the king, pitting son against father with only De Vac knowing the truth. Details of De Vac's grievance against the Plantagenets and his tutoring of Norman of Torn are found in Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Outlaw of Torn.

1258 The Gascon Jean De Vac and his "son" Norman of Torn traversed the woods one morning in Norman's eighteenth year. They came upon a knight sleeping in a covered bower in rusted armor and tattered clothing. Norman prodded him with his sword; this proved to be a fatal mistake. The knight lurched to his feet with a scream of fury and launched himself at Norman, who defended himself with good account but soon faltered under the onslaught. De Vac joined in the fray and was astounded that the man was able to defend against two great swordsmen. De Vac landed a blow against the head of the strange knight, throwing him off balance. As the strange knight lost his balance and lurched forward, Norman lunged forward in attack. By happenstance the point of the stranger's broadsword was driven through Norman's gorget and into his throat

Seeing his work of years ended in one single blow, De Vac spun around to decapitate the senseless stranger. Rushing upon him, De Vac got his first good look at the knight's face. What he saw astounded him beyond belief, and he was forced to turn aside his blade at the last second so that it plunged into the dirt next to the man. The stranger knight bore a great resemblance to Richard Plantagenet, the just-killed Norman of Torn, enough so that they could be as brothers. De Vac wondered if this were one of Henry III's by-blows, or more fantastically some type of changeling. With his initial scheme ruined, De Vac thought of other possibilities, all of which were dependent on the stranger's cooperation. De Vac bound the knight tightly and then stripped Norman of his armor and placed his body in the grove of tree where the strange knight had lain.

The strange knight awoke after several hours and in a peculiar state. He claimed to remember nothing of himself, not his name, identity, or past. De Vac wondered if it were the clout on the head or just providence smiling upon him. De Vac fixed the man a draught of herbal tea, which was supposed to aid in healing his head wound, but actually it kept the man in a stupor. De Vac thought of a bold plan, one bolder than his previous scheme. He took the unconscious man to a witch woman of the woods, one who knew the old arts of the druids. He paid the old woman for a supply of a potion to keep the stranger is a confused state, but the key to his plan to have her tattoo a birthmark on the stranger's chest. After she had finished this task, he rewarded her with a swift and painless death.

Using the potion, he convinced the amnesiac that he was Norman of Torn and provided him with Norman's history. Even after the stranger's head wound healed, the brainwashing stood up. To his relief, De Vac discovered that the man was either a fast learner or was remembering skills and knowledge previously acquired. He learned French and skill at arms rapidly. The man appeared to be in his early twenties although at times he seemed older and at times even younger.

According to Phra's manuscript, edited by Edwin Arnold, purportedly after losing his wife and children in 1084, Phra slept until 1346. Phra's persona slept but I believe that he went through another period of dissociative amnesia and fugue. It was during one of these periods that he became convinced by Jean de Vac that he was Norman of Torn. As I speculated Jean de Vac used a potion that kept the amnesiac Phra in a state of confusion. De Vac's rather crude methods of brain washing probably would not have been successful had not Phra's desire for an identity to fill the void of his amnesia also played a role. Even so, "Norman" began doubting many aspects of de Vac's story; primarily that de Vac was his father.

De Vac had also had Phra tattooed once more, a tattoo that was supposed to be the birthmark of Richard Plantagenet.

After a sojourn of six months, De Vac and "Norman" returned to Torn Castle. De Vac explained the changes in Norman's behavior and personality as being the result of the head wound he had sustained.

It was in this period that Norman made the acquaintance and friendship of Father Claude rather than earlier as Burroughs had stated. This Norman of Torn felt oddly comforted by the presence of the cleric. Their friendship was sealed when Norman saved Father Claude from some ruffians. After defeating and sorely wounding them, Norman recruited these ruffians as the start of his outlaw army, which grew rapidly over the next two years. De Vac discovered that his more mature Norman had much more charisma and innate military intuition than his predecessor. Norman preyed upon the King's men and followers.

Norman of Torn's band attacked the King's tax collectors. They rose against brigands and thieves and attacked the knights and nobles of the English aristocracy whenever they were abroad or even at their castles. Norman always wore a helm that hid his face, at his father's request. Despite Jean de Vac's urging, Norman would not however carry his war against the English to the common people of England. In fact he acted as a protector of the serf and yeoman against the depredations of the brigands and aristocracy.(19)

De Vac became intimidated by his new Norman because of the powerful charisma that the young man possessed. Freebooters and mercenaries from all of the world came to join Norman's band of outlaws until they became a thousand strong, ten companies in all. Norman would cut the initials NT into the foreheads of his victims to further terrorize the English aristocracy. Despite his bloodthirsty and violent ways, he was regarded as strangely honorable, for it is said that he never lied and would not allow rapine.

On one occasion however he rescued a young woman and her party from being molested by some knights. Since he was not wearing his helm they saw his face and believed him to be Prince Edward. As he escorted her safely to the castle of de Stutevill, she asked his name. He knew his identity as Norman of Torn would horrify her, so he told her he was Roger de Conde from Normandy. She was Bertrade de Montford, the daughter of Simon Montford

Having felt immediately smitten with this woman, he accepted the hospitality of the castle of de Stutevill for a few days. He learned that the reputation of Norman of Torn was considerably mixed between honorable outlaw and outright villain. He left after a few days but Bertrade de Montford had awakened a passion in him.

Norman and Bertrade's love does not run an easy course as her father objected to the idea of her marrying a possibly low-born outlaw. As this troubled love affair played out, the larger drama of a rebellion led by Simon de Montfort of the Barons against King Henry IIII brewed:

In 1258[,] Henry levied extortionate taxes to pay for debts incurred through war with Wales, failed campaigns in France, and an extensive program of ecclesiastical building. Inept diplomacy and military defeat led Henry to sell his hereditary claims to all the Angevin possessions in France except Gascony. When he assumed the considerable debts of the papacy in its fruitless war with Sicily, his barons demanded sweeping reforms and the king was in no position to offer resistance. Henry was forced to agree to the Provisions of Oxford, a document placing the barons in virtual control of the realm. A council of fifteen men, comprised of both the king's supporters and detractors, effected a situation whereby Henry could nothing without the council's knowledge and consent. The magnates handled every level of government with great unity initially but gradually succumbed to petty bickering; the Provisions of Oxford remained in force for only years. Henry reasserted his authority and denied the Provisions, resulting in the outbreak of civil war in 1264. Edward, Henry's eldest son, led the king's forces with the opposition commanded by Simon de Montfort, Henry's brother-in-law.(20)

Norman and his large outlaw force were seen as a possible key factor in the war between the barons and the king. Yet it was well known that Norman did not support either faction and had opposed them both. King Henry III offered a pardon to Norman and his forces if they would aid in the fight against the barons. Norman made the messenger eat the message and sent him back to the king.

At the Battle of Lewes, Norman threw his force on the side of the Barons because this is what Bertrade would have wished. Norman's outlaw band turned the tide and Simon de Montfort defeated Edward, captured both king and son, and found himself in control of the government.

But Norman quickly made an enemy of Simon by asserting his intention to marry Bertrade de Montfort. While Norman would have matched his forces man for man against twice their number, his force of a thousand men would have no chance at all against de Montfort's fifteen thousand men. He resolved to return to the environs of Torn castle, although he needed to see Betrade once more, despite her being betrothed to Philippe of France.

Norman left his men and met with Bertrade. They revealed their love to one another, and she resolved to leave with him. But Norman was betrayed by none other than the Gascon Jean de Vac. He burst in on the feast that de Montfort had arranged for the King to resolve their differences and told them the whereabouts of Norman of Torn. This was the culmination of his plan to have Henry III kill his own son unknowingly and hang him from a gibbet.

Lead by de Vac, Norman was surrounded by de Montfort and the King's knights. He refused to surrender and was set upon by twenty knights. He held his own despite being sorely outnumbered.

Impatient, Jean de Vac declared that only he could kill Norman of Torn and engaged him in personal combat. Norman was wounded and became unconscious just as his sword pierced de Vac's chest.

De Vac revealed his identity and told them to look at the chest of the seemingly dead Norman. It was thus revealed that Norman had the same birthmark as the long lost Prince Richard. This plus his great resemblance to Edward made the King and Queen acknowledge him as their lost son.

Norman's wound was not fatal and he began to mend in a few days.

Despite the relatively happy ending at the end of The Outlaw of Torn wherein the Outlaw lives, marries the woman he loves, and is acknowledged by the Queen and King as their son, the true story of the Outlaw of Torn did not end altogether happily. Despite the private acknowledgement of Richard/Norman as their son, acknowledging him publicly was not politically feasible for the monarchs. So far as the world knew, the only child named Richard Plantagenet that Henry III and Eleanor of Provence had ever recorded was born in 1247 and died in 1256. Norman had caused too much strife and had led a rebellion against the crown. Too much blood had been shed for all to be forgiven.

A compromise was reached in which Norman ended his career as the Lord of Torn and was in turn removed from the list of outlaws. He married Bertrade de Monfort, but she died in childbirth within a year. After Bertholde died he adopted the name John Caldwell. This name may be significant considering Norman/Phra's recent loss. Caldwell means cold spring or stream, which he might have adopted perhaps because the death of Bertrade unconsciously reminded him of the loss of Numidea, who had drowned in a cold stream so many centuries past.

Edward Longshanks, Henry III's eldest son, had never truly believed that Norman of Torn was his lost brother. It was he who had convinced his father that granting Norman amnesty and full acknowledgement as a prince would be unwise. However Henry and his mother were overjoyed to have their lost son returned to them, so Edward kept silent and bided his time. So long as the upstart knight kept to his place and demanded nothing from the royal family, Edward was content to let him live. Shortly after Henry III died in 1272 and Edward Longshanks became Edward I of England, John Caldwell found himself outlawed once again.

Although outlawed, Norman of Torn, now John Caldwell, continued to have loyal friends. One of these was the second Baron of Grebson, whose daughter Alicia John Caldwell married. Since Alicia was his only child, Grebson allowed the marriage on the condition that Caldwell add the Grebson name to his own. Being a landless knight, Caldwell agreed. On his new coat of arms he added a golden spinning wheel, which in the Middle Ages, was also known as a torn. This proved be too much for Edward, who had turned an otherwise blind eye to the pretender.

1280, Edward I made dispatching Norman a priority and sent a team of assassins to kill him. In Tarzan Alive Mr. Farmer believed that Norman had died of wounds after having defeated the five knights sent to kill him. A violet lily-shaped birthmark identified the body as that of the son of Henry III.

However in "The Arms of Tarzan" Farmer made this speculation: "It is possible that John Caldwell was not killed, that he slew all of Edward's men, who actually numbered six, mangled the face of one tall corpse, and stained a violet lily mark on the corpse's left breast."

It seems that Farmer was closer to the mark in his first speculation. Norman did die after defeating his attackers; which is to say he sustained some serious wounds and from all appearances was as dead. Since in reality Norman was Phra and because of the severity of his wounds, he fell into a comatose healing sleep. This was one of Phra's hibernative periods. As Farmer speculated, Norman did acquire amnesia, but it was the self-induced amnesia that Phra often employed to maintain his own fragile sanity.

Although Phra's initial healing period lasted four hundred years, it seems that as his body became accustomed to frequent periods of healing, the time period for recovery was shortened. It could also be that the wounds Norman sustained were more severe looking than they were actually life threatening.

Although Philip Jose Farmer also speculated that Norman was John Carter in The Arms of Tarzan, so far as we know John Carter never had such a birthmark. Yet he never had a great tattoo such as Phra had been given. I hope I have demonstrated that by living for such a long period of time with much exposure to the sunlight, which would be one of the reasons that John Carter had been so bronzed, the large tattoo had faded. Therefore it would be very easy for a relatively smaller tattoo to have faded by the time Phra became John Carter.

Norman's friends and family arranged for him to have a Christian burial, despite his being outlawed. This was done in secret so that Edward would not go to the lengths of having Norman's corpse mutilated. Norman's body was hidden in St. Olaf's Abbey behind the relic of a saint in the reliquary. This resting place was chosen because Norman had been drawn to the abbey after the death of Bertrade for reasons he could not explain, and he often prayed in the chapel there. The actual body of an unknown saint had been placed there by St. Baldwin in 1188, but by 1280 the bones and the cloth that wrapped them had rotted. Sometime in the next few years Phra's slumbering body was moved atop of the crumbling relic. Since the original relic had crushed to dust by the weight of Phra's body, it was thought to be the body of the saint, miraculously preserved. When Phra awoke in 1346, not remembering his waking periods, he believed that he had been placed there shortly after going to sleep in 1084.

1296 As Phra slept, consequences from his life as the Outlaw of Torn continued to be played out against his family. Not content merely with killing Norman of Torn, Edward I also turned his attention towards Norman's son John Caldwell-Grebson, the 4^th Baron Grebson. Although the exact circumstances remain unknown, "in 1296 John Caldwell-Grebson was outlawed, he fled with relatives and retainers to the hills of Derby as his father had. A great bowman, dressed in Lincoln green, he became known as The Green Baron or as The Green Archer. The story of his long fight against Edward I and Edward II has, according to some, been incorporated into the legend of Robin Hood, along with that of Robert Fitzhooth" and others. "The 4^th Baron was pardoned by Edward II in 1325. The baron died in August 1297 in an attempt to rescue his king who was imprisoned in Berkeley Castle and murdered there in September, 1327."(21)

1346 Phra the Phoenician awakened in St. Olaf's Abbey. According to his own account, Phra had been here since 1084. A cleric told him that he had been found on a shelf around 1188 by Baldwin, the Archbisop of Canterbury, as a wrapped mummy and had been worshipped as a saint. The actual relic that Baldwin had discovered was a pile of rotting bones wrapped in decaying cloth.(22)

Phra had no trouble understanding the monks as they spoke among themselves. He walked in on a feast while they were inebriated and was pleased at the shock he caused. Near the monastery he found a small chapel with a marble statue representing his murdered wife and children. Devastated by this discovery, he wandered the countryside, dependent on the charity of others to provide him food and clothing. After wandering aimlessly—or so it would appear—Phra managed to find a fortune in jewels scattered in a brook. Once again Phra made a rapid acculturation to his new surroundings and was able to fit into to the highly structured society of medieval England as a member of the lesser nobility, a knight with armor. He became a guest at the castle of Oswaldton and, as he repeatedly did, became infatuated. This time with Alianora, the eldest daughter, yet it was the youngest, Isobel, who fell in love with him. Alianora rejected his troth, and he decided to journey to France to lend his arms to the King. A friend of Isobel's named Flamaucoer accompanied him and fought by his side at Crecy with the army of the English King Edward III, who was enforcing his claim to the French crown by power of arms.

During the campaign one of Phra's feats of arms caught the eye of King Edward III. He called Phra to his presence and asked him to lead a company of men whose captain had been killed. Since Phra had recently arrived from England, the King asked him to dine with him. Among the discussion at the table was the miraculous translation of the holy relic at St. Olaf's.

As the campaign continued, Phra realized that it was Isobel he was in love with not Alianora. With Flamaucoer's aid, he devised a love letter to Isobel, although Flamaucoer had doubts that this was the way to the woman's heart.

During the main battle of Crecy Phra defeated the High Constable of France in single combat. Flamaucoer took a charge meant for Phra and was killed by a spear. It was revealed that Flamaucoer was Isobel in disguise. Once again Phra lost his love. He was pledged to recount the tale of her demise to her family. King Edward allowed him to leave, but charged him to also take a note to the Queen. His ship tossed in storm, and he was thrown overboard. By coincidence, he came ashore where he had first landed on Britain a thousand years before, at the long deserted village of Blodwen. Tired and weary, he climbed into a burial crypt to sleep and was sealed in the tomb by a falling slab of marble. The fully awarePhra would next awaken in 1586

1346 Phra's narrative here conflates the end of two waking periods that were separated in time. Tossed overboard, the nearly drowned and unconscious Phra was swept into a sea cavern near Brighton by a storm-driven high tide. The force of the tide also weakened the structure of the cavern mouth, collapsing it and sealing him in an air-tight chamber. Trapped and without air, Phra remained unconscious until years later when erosion opened the cavern and let fresh air in.

1400-1453 Phra awoke with amnesia. After digging himself out of the darkened cavern, Phra dove the few feet to the ocean and swam to a nearby accessible shore. Phra did not know who he was. He remembered being in a shipwreck, he remembered that he was an archer, and he remembered that he needed to go to London.

Adopting the name William, he took service on the road to London with the King's army as a longbowmen. Fighting first against the Welsh rebellion, he remained in service fighting under Henry V at Agincourt and then under Henry VI against the forces of Jeanne D'arc.

After Jeanne was burned as a witch and Henry was crowned King of France, William of Brighton left the King's service and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

After visiting the Holy Land, William took service with the Emperor of the Eastern Holy Roman Empire and was present at the fall of Constantinople in May 29, 1453. Sorely wounded in the battle, he fell into a sleep. In his incorruptible state, he was thought to have been one of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus come to aid in the fight in the fight against the Saracens. A couple of clerics smuggled him out of Constantinople and placed him in a cave in Ephesus

1500-1520 Waking up in a cave in Ephesus without any memories, Phra eventually heard of the tale of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. These were seven saintly youths, who according to legend, sleep in a cavern until the return of Christ and the final resurrection. Although he was quite certain, without knowing why, he was not any of them he chose two of their names as a surname, Anthony Martin.(23).

Wandering through Europe for a decade, Phra felt compelled to find his way back to England. Upon his return to England, he answered the call to arms. He distinguished himself in the battle to turn back the invading Scots at the Battle Flodden Field in 1513. The Scottish had invaded as a diversionary tactic to draw the English back home from their participation in the League against France, which the Papal seat had formed to dislodge France from its Italian holdings.

After being discharged, Phra traveled to Southern England. As if drawn there he discovered an old druidic settlement, the one inhabited so many years ago by Blodwen's tribe. As night fell he took refuge in an old tomb. A marble slab dislodged and trapped him inside. After the oxygen in the chamber was depleted, his body went into hibernation.

In his narrative, Phra conflated this incident with the much earlier shipwreck because when he awoke in 1586 his last memory was of being washed overboard. He recognized the landscape of Blodwen's village and assumed that he had made it to shore and been trapped in the crypt by a falling slab of marble.

1586 Phra the Phoenician is awakened and freed of his confinement by two graverobbers. Despite exhibiting the usual symptoms of a long sleep, he seemed unaware that a great deal of time had passed. He still believed that he needed to deliver a message to Edward III's Queen. He traveled northward to London. Upon the road to London he met an old fellow, Adam Faulkner, a great scholar whose companionship made the trip enjoyable. Upon reaching London Phra managed to see the Queen, who was amused to see him. This was Queen Elizabeth I (24)took his message from King Edward III as great wit. Phra soon discovered it was the year 1586.

After his audience with the Queen he sought out his traveling companion. Upon meeting up with Faulkner again, the older man asked him to be his guest at his home. Adam Faulkner had a young daughter whom Phra fell in love with, invoking the great jealousy of their Spanish servitor Emmanuel Marcena. Faulkner's estate had become downtrodden as he devoted all of his energies towards his great work, a mechanical marvel that turned out to be a monstrosity. It was a steam driven automation that nearly killed both Phra and Faulkner. Phra destroyed it and was attacked by the maddened inventor.

Faulkner came to his senses and agreed to the courtship of Phra and Elizabeth. Phra began to write his memoirs. At their wedding feast, Phra and Elizabeth drank poisoned wine. Elizabeth perished. Phra was affected but was still strong enough to kill Marcena the jealous poisoner. Yet he was certain he would die, despite having survived near decapitation and drowning twice. This last awakening in 1586 is a bit odd in that Phra usually awakens just as an invading force threatens England. Yet despite waking up close to the time of the Spanish Armada, the problems with the Spanish were not featured in the in this episode, except symbolically in that his main nemesis was a Spaniard. Also a featured villain was Adam Faulkner's mechanical monstrosity gone awry. Perhaps the real villain of this episode, in either Phra' or Arnold's eyes, was the industrial revolution that would soon alter England forever.

1600-1630 Depending upon the type of poison he had been administered, Phra's healing hibernative state could have taken anywhere from a year to a decade. He awoke once again in a dissociative fugue with dissociative amnesia. So far as we know, although he would eventually regain his memories he never again reassumed the persona of Phra. Something unique occurred and his body does not appear to have gone into a hibernative state again until 1866. During this time a new persona was born, combining the personality traits of Phra with a psychological stability; however, the final form of the personality did not coalesce until 1766

During this time we can only speculate that Phra—under a single guise or a series of guises—became a British soldier and joined with the East India Company. The East India Company was also known as John Company, which was an Anglicized version of the nickname of the Dutch East India Company that had preceded the English version. It is perhaps appropriate that this emergent persona used a name that resonated with his new allegiance; he called himself John Carter. Carter is someone who carts, that is someone who carries or transports. So Phra chose the name Carter to indicate that this persona would carry him forward, that Phra would be a safe passenger inside Carter. These initials also hearkened back to John Caldwell.

John Carter was part of an exploratory group that became lost in the Himalayas. He and his men were attacked by a mountain tribe and left for dead. Monks of a nearby lamasery rescued John Carter and his party. However only John Carter survived his wounds; that he had done so without losing consciousness was remarkable to the monks who saw this as a sign of a man of great inner fortitude and mental discipline. Although a Westerner, they offered to teach him what knowledge he could learn. Upon seeing the unarmed-and sword-fighting styles of these monks, John Carter stayed with them for a decade or so. These little known techniques, some of which are now incorporated to the lesser forms of Kalaripayit and the Roaring Lion martial art tradition, helped John Carter in doing something that his preceding personas had failed to do, keep him from suffering serious harm despite living primarily as a warrior.

These fighting techniques would also help John Carter when he was transported to a world where he became the preeminent swordsman.

In addition to the martial arts, John Carter also learned mental disciplines that helped him to discipline his emotions and to experience trauma without being overwhelmed by it. These mental disciplines allowed the John Carter persona to become the dominant personality, incorporating the personality traits of Phra but shutting away the Phra identity's emotional baggage along with all of Phra's personal memories. Any memories of not being John Carter were also shunted away. Although the John Carter persona may have experienced some episodes of amnesia, these were not a general amnesia in which the personality was lost but rather a specific amnesia that targeted John Carter's odd immortality and eternal youth. Since the origins of the immortality and the various episodes in which he slept and awakened were all related to Phra, who wished to "die," these memories were walled off.

John Carter's memories seem self-limited so that in his recorded adventures he does not recollect being alive for more than a hundred years despite evidence from the narratives to the contrary, although he does recollect however that he spent part of "his strange, wild life in all parts of the world." Upon leaving the Lamasary, John Carter decided to test his new found discipline in mind and body by climbing Mount Everest. Although he failed to reach the summit, his Sherpa guides assured that he had traveled higher than anyone had ever done.(25)

1630-49 After leaving Tibet John Carter decided to visit Cathay, the wondrous land he had heard so much about. Traveling with others along the old Silk Road trade route, he made his way to Changan (now Xian), the Imperial Capitol. From Changan he traveled towards Canton where he heard Europeans had established trading houses. Along the road to Canton he came across a merchant caravan being attacked by Chinese bandits and lent his sword to the effort.

The merchants were members of the Dutch East India Company returning from Changan with a load of silk, tea, and porcelain. As a reward for his efforts, the Captain in charge of this company offered John Carter food, clothing, and a set of arms. He also offered him a position and an advance on his salary. Carter was believed to be deserter from the English East India Company, which was of course not far from the truth. Carter discovered that by accepting employment he had in fact signed a five-year contract.

He spent the next five years under contract with the Dutch East India Company fighting against Malay pirates, helping guard the colony of Fort Zeelandia on Formosa, and defending the Dutch East India Company's headquarters at Batavia. In 1640, he transferred to the Dutch West India Company because he was interested in seeing the New World. He was sent to help guard settlers at the colony of New Amsterdam and the Hudson Valley. He enjoyed the early part of his stay here and thought perhaps to settle in the area one day.(26)

In 1643 the Wappinger-Dutch War broke out because of an atrocity perpetuated by Dutch Soldiers. The Dutch had signed a treaty with the Mohawk. The Mohawk took advantage of their alliance with the Dutch to attack their hereditary enemies the Wappinger. The Wappinger moved closer to the Dutch settlements in the hopes of receiving protection by their proximity to the Dutch. When a contingent of Dutch soldiers surrounded the village of Pavonia and set it on fire, all those trying to escape, including women and children, were brutally cut down. After beheading the Wappingers, the Dutch soldiers played games with the severed heads. Although John Carter did not condone the reason for the war he did his duty. The end result was that the Wappingers were depleted and the Dutch colony was weakened. The Dutch had even allied with the English Colonists in Connecticut for aid in putting down the uprising. Carter's contract with the Dutch finished in 1645, and he traveled with a group of British soldiers from Connecticut returning to England. He met up with some other Carters and insinuated himself into their family by pretending to be a long-lost cousin. This family had long roots in Buckinghamshire, England.

Tired of solitude, it appears that John Carter married and became a family man. Since he desired to keep his memories of his family, he, by necessity, mentally acknowledged his immortality. Yet because the root of the immortality and any investigative thought processes pertaining to it eventually led back to the repressed knowledge of Phra's existence, John Carter was oddly disinterested in how he had become immortal or even in his true origins. In A Princess of Mars, He states, "I am a very old man: how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more but I cannot tell because I have not aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood, so far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty."

1649 In "The Mysterious Case of the Carters," Todd Rutt and Arn McConnell recounted the migration of a John Carter from England to America. They write:

A distressed loyalist by the name of John Carter moved his family from their ancestral home in Buckinghamshire, England, to the settlement of Corotoman, Virginia, in the New World. Carter was a man dedicated to his mother country and his king who became disgruntled when he saw the king's power being siphoned away by the rising democracy in England. He moved to America, where he felt he could be sure of his community's loyalty to their liege. Carter and his family prospered there in the Colonies. Within fourteen years, he and his wife had successfully established a plantation in Corotoman.(27)

Despite having been misled about his motives and the actual location of his origins, Rutt and McConnell's research has pinpointed John Carter's migration to the New World. He left England for the same reason he had searched the world and would continue to search the world in later years. He was searching for his lost love yet did not consciously know it, and this made him all the more restless.

It was here in Virginia that after over a thousand years Phra finally put down permanent roots; he even went so far to retain the name John Carter for generations. He married into a Virginian dynasty, which, according to his "nephew" Edgar Rice Burroughs, was cognizant of his immortality but kept it family secret. Because of Carter's stronger persona, he was able to weather the tragic loss of watching his family age and eventually die without suffering the "sleeping syndrome of Phra."

1663 John Carter's wife Sarah, gave birth to their son, Robert.

1669 John Carter "dies"

1705 The grandfather’s great-grandfather of the author of the introduction to A Princess of Mars' was born in approximately this year. John Carter dandled this child on his knee.

1715 While traveling in Europe, John Carter entered military service in the forces of Emperor Charles IV. He remained in this service until 1740 when Charles died. During this period Carter most likely fought in The Quadruple Alliance of 1718 that was formed by Great Britain, France, the Holy Roman emperor, and the Netherlands when Philip V of Spain, guided by Cardinal Alberoni, sought by force to nullify the peace settlements reached after the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession (1733–35), and the Turkish war of 1736–39.(28)

1725 Recorded birth of a John Carter, supposedly the son of Charles Carter.

1740 John Carter returns to the American Colonies

1754-1663 French-Indian War

1775-1781 American Revolution

1781 Not entirely satisfied with the new government under the Articles of Confederation and once again feeling wanderlust, John Carter travels to Europe.

1781-1790 John Carter serves in the military of Joseph II the Holy Roman Emperor. Joseph II was a man after John Carter's own heart, autocratic and yet a reformer. He contemplated nothing less than the abolition of hereditary and ecclesiastic privileges and the creation of a centralized and unified state administered by a civil service based on merit and loyalty rather than birth. He planned a series of fiscal, penal, civil, and social laws that would have established some measure of social equality and security for the masses. A strong exponent of absolutism, he used despotic means to push through his reforms over all opposition in order to consolidate them during his lifetime. This was met opposition revolts in Hungary and the Austrian Netherlands. Joseph II planned to annex Bavaria but this plan was opposed by Frederick II of Prussia who formed the Prince's League against Joseph II. Joseph also formed an alliance with Russia to fight against the Ottoman Turks and even accompanied her forces to the Crimea during their joint war against the Ottomans.

As part of this alliance many German people were persuaded to come to Russia to develop and settle the area along the southern portion of the Volga River and near the Black Sea. Many promises were made to the German peoples in exchange for their hard work and expertise. Among these promises were exemption from taxes and military duty. As an expert in fighting against savage nomads, John Carter was assigned to accompany some of these emigrants.

1790 Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor, died and was succeeded by his brother Leopold II who immediately began to counteract the reforms that Joseph had put in place. John Carter left Austria and Europe all together. He had an opportunity to become partners in a commercial venture in Africa. For some reason the idea of being a trader in that region resonated with him, and he joined the venture. Upon arriving in Africa, he discovered that the venture was to be slave traders. Although Carter believed in slavery, he felt that this was a dehumanizing and filthy business and would have nothing to do with it. Instead he became a trader in yams and copra.

The African sun baked his normally dark skin even darker. In early 1791, he was hired by a man named Daniel Houghton to be a guide. Although Carter had scant knowledge of the area, he had befriended some of the native tribesmen and so took on the task. A historical account of this incident is here.

The Africa Association, a group of wealthy dilettantes laid the groundwork for the expansion of the British Empire into Africa by hiring several independent explorers to carry out expeditions of exploration. In July 1790 a third candidate was interviewed. Daniel Houghton was a sturdy and cheerful Irishman, a retired army major. During his career he had been posted on Goree Island, just off the coast of Senegal, where he had learned the native Mandingo language and had become friends with native princes. Bankrupt and desperate for employment, he asked only for 800 pounds for expenses. When he sailed he left behind his wife and three children; the Association sent her the sum of 10 pounds. Banks explained that "As an Association, they were not justified in appropriating money subscribed for the purposes of discovery to the maintenance of individuals, who happened to be connected to those whom they employ."

Houghton was to move up the Gambia River, approaching the Nile from the west. Almost immediately he ran into trouble, having to swim across the river to escape traders who were trying to kill him. Many of his supplies were burned in a mysterious fire and much of what was left was stolen as he moved inland. His only communication, a letter to Beaufoy that slowly made its way back to London, suggested that he remained in good spirits and added that he had met a merchant who would guide him to Timbuktu. Beaufoy thought that he had good chances of success, adding that "such is the darkness of his complexion that he scarcely differs in appearance from the Moors, whose dress in traveling he intended to assume". A scribbled note to a local trader some months later was the last word from him, but it did say he had reached the village of Simbing, halfway to his goal. Nothing further was known until five years later when another British explorer was shown the site of his robbery and murder at that village. Houghton did report that the flow of the Niger was to the east, his principal achievement.(29)

This account is further substantiated by a story Carter told to Dejah Thoris and Tar Tarkas of an expedition he led into Darkest Africa. They ran across some cannibals and were captured in hidden nets. A shaman made a hoodoo doll using the clothing and hair of the man who had hired Carter as a guide. When the man refused to be cowed, the shaman pulled a bit of legerdemain and caused Carter's employer to burst into fire. Carter had noticed that the hoodoo doll actually sprayed a powder on his employer before the man had burst into flames. Carter kicked the doll up against the shaman who then burst into flames. Bursting his bonds, Carter ran to freedom.(30)

1792 In another three months he was tired of the bush and longed for civilization. Hearing of the Marquis de Lafayette's support of the French Revolution, he decided to see if he could do anything to promote goals of reform while preserving the social order. He of course had heard of the French Revolution and believed that it was a just revolution against a weak king and an effete aristocracy that exploited the lower classes instead of leading them.

Lafayette also supported the revolution and felt that its goals could be turned toward a positive social good of achieving a fair and equitable balance between the aristocracy and the common people. Carter knew Lafayette slightly from the American Revolution and joined his National Guard.

The Marquis de Lafayette was a moderate liberal devoted to social reforms consistent with the maintenance of public order. He was appointed, on the declaration of war against Austria, 20 April, 1792, to command the army of the center, 52,000 strong, between Philippeville and Lauterbourg. From his camp at Maubeuge, 16 June, he wrote the famous letter to the National Assembly, in which he denounced the dangerous policy of the Jacobins. The insurrection of 20 June followed. On the 28^th Lafayette came to Paris, and appeared before the assembly to defend his course. After two days, finding the Jacobins all-powerful in the city, he returned to camp, and formed a plan for removing the king from Paris. Before the plan was fully matured, and while his army was at Sedan, only four days' march from the capital, there came the news of the revolution of 10 Aug. and the imprisonment of the king. Lafayette now refused to obey the orders of the assembly, and arrested the three commissioners sent by that body to his camp. In return the assembly removed him from command and appointed Dumouriez in his place, 19 Aug.; his impeachment was also decided upon, and it became evident that his soldiers were in sympathy with the Jacobins. He fled into Belgium with half a dozen companions, was taken prisoner by the Austrians, and handed over by them to the Prussians, by whom he was imprisoned first at Wesel, afterward at Magdeburg. He was offered his liberty on condition of assisting the allies in their invasion of France, but refused.(31)

John Carter accompanied the Marquis de Lafayette to Austria and was among the first troops to defend the new regime against Austria and Prussia, which he still had ill will against for not supporting Joseph II's policies . When Lafayette was removed from his command after protesting the arrest of the King, John Carter was among those companions who went with Lafayette to Beglium, his purpose was to guard Lafayette. When Lafayette was arrested, he feared for his family and for the life of the King. Lafayette asked John Carter to do what he could to make certain that his family and the King were kept safe. John Carter returned to France.

Through a series of incidents and subterfuges too convoluted to recount here, John Carter as Jacques Cartier gained renown as a "loyal" soldier of the Republic. Yet at the same time he was working with the man known as Le Mouron Rouge, the Scarlet Pimpernel. He seems not to be a recorded member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel but one of their agents.

Although John Carter was not able to save the King or Queen, his efforts, along with the Scarlet Pimpernel's, allowed for the rescue of the Dauphin which was chronicled in Eldorado by the Baroness Orczy. As for the Marquis de Lafayette's family, Carter was able to secure release of George Washington Lafayette and ensure his passage to New York; however, Lafayette's wife and daughters were imprisoned and many of her immediate relatives were executed by the Committee of Safety.

Madam de Lafayette's release was finally granted through diplomatic influence from the United States Consulate, James Monroe. Once freed, Madam Lafayette insisted on traveling to Austria to see to her husband. Carter accompanied her as a guard. Despite her pleas, the Emperor of Austria-Hungaria would not release the Marquis de Lafayette, considering him to be a traitor to his class, blaming him for the cruel punishments inflicted upon his kinswoman Marie Antoinette, and also seeing him symbolic of the republican sentiments sweeping his realm. He did however allow Madam Lafayette and their daughters to stay in the same cell with Lafayette.

The Marquis asked John Carter not to attempt to rescue them. The Marquis feared any harm coming to his wife or daughters.

The climate in France had changed. The Reign of Terror had ended shortly after Madame Lafayette and Carter had left. Lafayette believed that should France be victorious against Austria and England, his freedom would be assured. Carter would not fight against England but he had no problem doing so against Austria. He returned to France and became attached to the Army of Italy under General Sachet. His commanding officer was a Colonel Gerard.

When Austria was defeated in 1797, Lafayette was freed shortly thereafter. When Lafayette went to Holland, John Carter visited England and then returned to America.

1799 Marriage of Jack Carter, a man of unknown antecedents, to Whitney Smith Trout. Jess Nevins in "The Carters of Virginia: A Tragedy" records this account of Jack Carter:

Carter was very popular with Richmond's high society, being seen as something of a catch himself, despite his dubious background. It was bruited about that he was a war hero, having served heroically in the front lines or perhaps behind them in the fight against the British. Few details were available, however, and Carter would only smile cryptically when asked about them.

Jack Carter is reported to have looked thirty years old until the day he died. It is indeed a shame that so much of his life is unknown, as his activities and the source of his extended vitality are interesting historical curiosities.(32)

1800 Whitney Trout Carter gave birth to sons Nathan and Simon and according to some accounts a son named John. The birth was not an easy one and she died from its complications.

1821 Jack Carter's enduring youth was beginning to raise eyebrows, and with his sons grown he found himself seized with a wanderlust. He left the estate in Nathan's hands despite the fact he was second born, although only by a day. Simon had very little interest in the plantation and wished to go to the East for an education. Jack Carter intended to travel west but upon hearing of the revolution in Greece, had a great desire to travel there.(33)

1821-1824 Greek War of Independence.Nevins writes:

There is at least one account by a Turkish survivor of the sack of Tripolitsa (October 5, 1821) that mentions a sword-wielding black-haired "foreigner" who tried to stop the independence-hungry Greeks from massacring the Turks of Tripolitsa. If this "foreigner" was indeed John Carter, his participation in the Greek War of Independence anticipates that of the Philhellenes by two to three years. However, given the number of massacres that took place during the War, and the barbarous fashion in which the Greeks treated those Turks who were unfortunate enough to fall into their care, we can only hope that John Carter was either elsewhere or considerably lessened the treatment of the captured Turks.

1824 After the death of Lord Byron and feeling disgust at the factionalism inside the Greek Independence movement, Jack Carter returned to the United States. Seeing that Nathan had made the Carter estate even more profitable, he left it in his son's control. Simon had not yet returned from the North, and Nathan claimed not to have heard from him. It may have been about this time that Jack Carter began using the name John and claiming to be the brother of Nathan and Simon Carter.

1825. Rutt and McConnell record:

John Carter married Sarah Carter of Virginia, a distant relative also descended from John Carter-1 and named after his third wife. Sarah bore John one son, George Fairfax Carter. P Hopkinson Smith tells of George 50 years later in his book, Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1891). The book describes Col. Carter as a tall, graying man living at Carter Hall in Fairfax County, Virginia. Smith even goes so far as to tell us that Col. Carter's father was John Carter, who was believed dead in 1875. Nor can it be ignored that the Colonel's feelings toward his native state are practically identical to those expressed by Burroughs' Carter. "I am a Virginian, suh," is how the Colonel puts it. His card reads, "Colonel George Fairfax Carter of Carter Hall, Cartersville, Virginia." The book states that "he omits 'United States of America' simply because it would add nothing to his identity or his dignity." How similar is this to John Carter's cry of "Virginia first!"

1836 John Carter took leave of his family and went to fight in the Texan revolution.

1839 After George Carter entered the first class of Virginia Military Institute, John and Sarah emigrated to the Republic of Texas. John distinguished himself in the Republican military and received honors for his part in the revolution.

1843 Sarah Carter dies

1846-1848 Mexican War

1849-1851 John Carter took part in the Gold Rush for a few months. He joined the military and did a two year stint. He became part of a military detachment sent to quell hostilities among the Sioux. His fighting the Sioux was stated in A Princess of Mars. In the 1840s, an increasing flow of emigrants to Oregon and California brought cholera, smallpox, and measles to the Indians (the California gold rush occurred in 1848-49) as well as accelerated buffalo hunting for the fur trade. This caused hostility and some attacks against the emigrants and traders. In 1849, the US military took over the American Fur Company trading post in eastern Wyoming and renamed it Fort Laramie.

Carter's admiration for the Sioux led to his joining with a band of Lakota. Adopted into their tribe, he became a warrior of some note. When his small band was warred upon and butchered by another plains Indian tribe, (from descriptions it appears to have been the Pawnee), he rejoined the United States Army hoping to get vengeance against the killers of his adopted family.(34)

1855 John Carter returned to Virginia on leave after his duty on the Plains. He courted and became engaged to Bianca Rice with the intention of marriage. However before the wedding could take place he was recalled to duty at the outbreak of the Third Seminole War. Bianca insisted on consummating their relationship prior to his departure. John Carter was among a group of soldiers taken hostage by the Seminoles and presumed dead by the United States Army. Having learned of this, Bianca found herself in a bind; her night of passion with John Carter had left her pregnant. Social convention took precedence over grief and rather than suffer the stigma of bearing a child out of wedlock, Bianca Rice married one of her other suitors, Matthew Carter, a distant kinsman of John Carter. Her son Matthew Nicholas Carter was born late this year.(35)

1855-1858 Third Seminole War

1859 John Carter returned to Virginia to discover that his betrothed had wed another. Although John Carter had felt passion for Bianca Rice when he had left for Florida, this passion had cooled over the past few years. Leaving Virginia, he visited North Carolina where his son Nathan had some business interests. A war hero, he was feted in North Carolina society. His eyes fell upon a vivacious redhead named Margaret Butler. She was the sister of the esteemed Rhett Butler.

Attracted to one another and caught up in the pre-secession patriotism, Carter and Butler wed only to have their short marriage interrupted by the outbreak of the civil war. Despite the diligent research of Rutt and McConnell, their claim that the Margaret Carter gave birth to Nicholas Carter in 1865 or 1866 is likely in error. It appears that she gave birth to Nicholas Carter in 1861. The confusion lies in the fact that the name Nicholas is a recurring one in the Carter family annals throughout the many branches. The Nicholas Carter born circa 1866 that Rutt and McConnell assert was John Carter's son and who became the premier private detective of the late nineteenth century was actually John Carter's grandson through his son Simon. The 1866 date was uncovered by Wold Newtonian researcher Jess Nevins.

1860 John Carter first met his "nephew" Matthew Nicholas Carter, who was five years old.

1864 Margaret Butler Carter and her son Nicholas were in Atlanta when it was burned and were not seen again. They were assumed to have perished. Yet John Carter remained hopeful that they had escaped.

1865 John Carter searched for his wife and child but found no trace of them. He returned to Carter Hall, wishing to check on the welfare of his son Nathan and his family and hoping that Margaret and the child had somehow made their way to his Virginia estate. He discovered Carter Hall was being attacked by a band of renegades. During the fight Nathan Carter was killed, John took a serious but non-fatal wound, and Carter Hall was set afire. Nathan and John were left on the porch to be destroyed in the fire. John pulled his son's body off of the porch and when he had recovered from his wound, buried him. Since his sons were passing him in age, John Carter put out the story that Jack Carter, Nathan's father had died in the blaze along with Nathan. He then claimed to be Nathan's brother John.(36)

With Carter Hall burnt to the ground John Carter was destitute. Not knowing where his son Simon was located, John Carter looked up his brother-in-law Rhett Butler and tried to interest him in going west to prospect for gold. Rhett, however, was only interested in Scarlett O'Hara and demurred. However John Carter's fellow soldier and brother-in-law James K. Powell was enthusiastic to go.

1866 Carter and James K. Powell went to Arizona to prospect for gold..
They were attacked by Apaches, and his friend was captured. John Carter rode into the Apache camp and rescued the body of his friend. Although the account by Burroughs does not mention Carter have been wounded, we can speculate that he received a bullet to a vital spot and went into shock. Extremely drowsy, he took shelter in a cavern and was overcome by a strange paralysis, which according to the narrative by Burroughs appears to have been caused by poisonous gas. He fought against this paralysis for several hours and then with a click like the snapping of a steel wire he stood over his dead body. His new form, however, was naked. Walking out of the cavern, he spotted the red planet of Mars and having a momentary desire of traveling there found himself flitting in that direction.

Examining this incident we can see an inconsistency with the theory that the paralysis that John Carter experienced was caused by poisonous gas. If this is so, why wasn't the secondary body that he somehow created also affected? We know that this body was susceptible to asphyxiation as shown in the end of A Princess of Mars when John Carter dies of that very thing at the Atmosphere Plant of Barsoom.

In keeping with the theory of his previous experience as Phra with his body going into a hibernative coma whenever he was "fatally" wounded, John Carter was probably fatally injured by an Apache bullet, went into shock, and did not feel the pain. The extreme drowsiness he felt was his body's attempt to go into a healing coma. But John Carter fought going into the trance; he fought it with every fiber of his being. Even as his body slipped into a paralysis, which was part of the coma, he fought it. One can certainly understand why. John Carter unconsciously realized that that if he allowed this trance to overcome his consciousness, there was a good chance that he—as John Carter—would never wake up again. Phra's created personas never seemed to last more than one incarnation. If John Carter had allowed himself to fall into the trance, he might indeed have suffered a genuine death. One of the factors, besides John Carter's strong will, that aided him in his struggle against falling into the trance may have been the remnants of Phra's persona. Phra had no desire to return to life and knew that if John Carter disappeared it was likely that he himself would once again be forced into consciousness. Aided by Phra, John Carter fought back with all of his might against the veil of sleep; in doing so he used the mental disciplines taught to him so many years ago in Tibet

Realizing that he could not stop the inevitable coma, John Carter did the next best thing; he created a duplicate body and channeled his consciousness into it. For many years it has been debated what body John Carter used on Barsoom. It was a mentally created doppelganger of his own body into which his consciousness was channeled and projected. He however remained connected to his own body as if by a psychic rubber band, to be snapped back into when this duplicate perished. This duplicate body was flesh and blood, identical to his own body, but it was also a form of thought projection that he had learned from the Tibetans. The duplicate body was a tulpa. Although the Tibetan monks most likely learned to create tulpas on their own through sheer mental discipline, members of this sect may have had some contact with the ancient Barsoomians since the Lotharians of Mars also had the ability to create tulpas.(37)

John Carter in his tulpa form lived for ten years on Barsoom and died saving the red planet by telepathically opening the locked door of the atmosphere factory. When the Tulpa perished, Carter found himself in back in his original body that had recovered enough from its wound for him to regain consciousness.

1876 John Carter found himself transported back to the same cavern in the Arizona desert.
In Phoenix, Arizona Territory, Carter encountered Rhett Butler, who had left Scarlett O'Hara in 1873. Butler was in the West seeking to enhance his fortune and also attempting to discover what had happened to his brothers-in-law, John Carter and James K. Powell. Butler insisted they go after the vein of gold that Carter and Powell had found and also retrieve Powell's body, but Carter was reluctant. Carter did not wish to disturb the cavern in case that was his only means of returning to Barsoom and Dejah Thoris. Because of Carter's adamant refusal to help him, Butler went off on his own. Carter went after him, not so much to aid him but to physically prevent him from disturbing the cavern should he find it. Like James K. Powell before him, despite his having fought in the Civil War, Rhett Butler proved little match for a band of Apache warriors.

John found Rhett's mutilated body near the cavern. He buried Rhett Butler in the same cavern as James K. Powell.

In Princess of Mars, Carter and Powell discovered a rich vein of gold worth a million. After burying Butler, John Carter decided to establish his claim on the gold mine he and Powell had found a decade earlier. He found the remote and inaccessible site in the condition he left it, with a million dollars in ore waiting to be dug. He filed his claim, purchased the necessary machinery to properly mine it, and returned with a sufficient workforce to exploit the mine. During the next ten years Carter strove to find some way to return to Barsoom and to Dejah Thoris, the woman who was his true love, the woman who would live a thousand years with him. He was unsuccessful in this because he had not yet learned to consciously create a tulpa or to physically teleport his body to Barsoom.

1877 John Carter returned to Virginia and stayed with his Carter relatives including Matthew Nicholas Carter for a year.

1878 John Carter purchased an estate on the Hudson. Why did he travel to New York of all places? He may have learned of the whereabouts of his son Simon and his grandson Nick, or at least learned that they were in New York. Also although his conscious memory only went back about a hundred years, Carter may have remembered being in the Hudson Valley during the Colonial period.

1885 Matthew Nicholas Carter visited John Carter at his estate on the Hudson.

1886 John Carter saw the red orb of Mars beckoning in the sky and had a sudden insight as to how he might be able to return to Barsoom. Using the Tibetan-taught mental disciplines again, he stopped his heart and kept it stopped. He may in fact have caused great damage to it so that he sustained a fatal internal wound. He felt the paralysis grip him and the onset of death; this was of course the healing coma to which his body was subject at such times. As before, he fought against this coma and was able to create another tulpa into which he channeled his consciousness. The cause of his death was thought to be heart failure by the doctor who examined the still warm corpse. Matthew Nicholas Carter took John Carter's body to Virginia.
As per his instructions, his body was placed in a casket that could be opened from the inside.

1887/8 John Carter returned to Barsoom and Dejah Thoris

1898 Carter returned to Virginia and told Matthew Nicholas Carter the story of The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars and Thuvia: Maid of Mars. This may have been the year of Tara of Helium's hatching. Carter may have come to Earth to see how Earth had fared in the aftermath of the Martian Invasion. John Carter and Ulysses Paxton (erroneously called Gullivar Jones in one account) were instrumental in driving the invading Sarmaks from Barsoom, although independent of one another and in different regions of Barsoom.(38) When Carter realized the Sarmaks were heading towards Earth, he was instrumental in destroying the method of launching their space traveling cylinders.(39)

1920 As revealed in the introduction to The Chessmen of Mars, John Carter would learn to enhance his psionic abilities through his association with Kar Komak, the ancient Lotharian. Among these skills would be the ability to create tulpa's at will. He used these temporary mental constructs to keep in contact with his "nephew" Matthew Nicholas Carter.

1925 John Carter visited Matthew Nicholas Carter and gave him Paxton's manuscript for The Mastermind of Mars.

1930 Matthew Nicholas Carter was contacted by Ulysses Paxton via Gridley Wave.

1933 Carter visited Matthew Nicholas Carter in Arizona.

1940 About this time, the events of Synthetic Men of Mars were transmitted to Matthew Nicholas Carter via Gridley Wave

1947 About this time, John Carter visited Matthew Nicholas Carter in Oahu

1949 About this time, John Carter and Dejah Thoris were taken to Sassoom (Jupiter).(40)

As to how John Carter remembered being Phra the Phoenician, we cannot disclose at this time.

Eventually this epic story will be told.

NOTES

1. As seen in the accounts of Arthurian legend by T. H. White, The Once and Future King and the Book of Merlyn.

2. Although Merlin was thought to be able to use actual magic, this may in fact have been a combination of sleight of hand or innate psionic power. It could also be that he merely knew of the magicians "tricks" and was able to expose the trickery used by the King's magicians.

3. While it may be possible that this was an actual prophesy , it was one that Merlin worked very hard to be fulfilled.

4. Citation from Britannia Arthurian Biographies: Vortigern

5. Blodwen may in fact been reincarnated in Igraine although she was unaware of the fact.

6. This seems to be one of the two main responses of Phra to tragedy and grief; to work through the trauma by using it as a spur to action or to avoid working through it by withdrawing into a depressed state in which the personality literally withdraws from the world.

7. Anthemius was Emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 467-472. Information on Riothamus, can be found in David Nash Ford's Early British Kingdoms. Discussion of a letter from Sidonius Apollinaris can found at Britannia: Sources of English History http://www.britannia.com/history/docs/sidonius.html.

8. Taken from the Gallic Chronicle of 511 "Antimolus a patre Anthemio imperatore cum Thorisario, Everdingo et Hermiano com. stabuli Arelate directus est, quibus rex Euricus trans Rhodanum occurrit occisisque ducibus omnia vastavit" (Chron.gall.511 no.649 s.a.471).

9. This spell may have been simply chemical in nature. After thrusting the sword into the anvil, Merlin sealed it in with a cement of his devising. Arthur's (Phra's) blood acted as a catalyst that dissolved the cement and allowed him to withdraw the sword.

10. We can assume by this that the tattoo Phra received circa 56 B.C., which was still vivid in 410 AD, had faded to a great extent but was still visible in some regard. Although as Uther Arthur had known that Igraine had a daughter, he did not know that Morguase was her. He had known her only as a child, and she had originally been called Anna. The accidental incident of incest, or believed incest—since in reality they were not related to each other—was a good excuse to keep Morguase from his court lest she eventually recognize him as Uther. This incident of supposed incest, however, preyed upon her mind and turned her affection for Arthur into hatred. The son who was born from this union was poisoned from birth to hate Arthur.

11. To see why please read " Sleeper's Wake, the Forgotten Family of Phra" by Dennis E. Power and Dr. Peter Coogan (forthcoming).

12. Please consult King of the of the World's Edge by H. Warner Munn, published as part one of Merlin's Godson, Ballantine, 1976.

13. Like most of the women Phra with whom fell deeply in love, Matilida too may have been Blodwen reincarnated. This theme is extensively examined in Undying Love: The Eternal Romance of Phra and Blodwen by Dennis Power and Dr. Peter Coogan

14. This time in the hot, dry sandy, wastelands of the Middle East would later be transformed into a memory by John Carter of having fought in Egypt. As soldiers of Richard, Robin and John did fight against the Egyptian forces of Saladin, who was the main Paynim general during this, the Third Crusade. John Carter's recollection of being in Egypt is mentioned in Marvel Comics' John Carter, Warlord of Mars of Mars #4.
    Carter states "I do have vague memories of great wars on the China Hills and on the cold Russian wastelands. There were magnificent battles over the Egyptian desert and endless struggles in Rome and Greece but those wars and the years as well have become blurs for they were fought so long ago" (16).
    As will be seen, the timeline of this article places most of these references. The mentions to Rome refer to his time during the Roman occupation of Britain and his fighting for Rome as Uther and Arthur. The Greek references allude to his time at Constantinople and later fighting for Greek Independence. The China Hills reference is his fighting against Chinese bandits as a member of the Dutch East India Company. The cold Russian wastes probably refers to his guarding German colonists on the Volga River during the reign of Catherine II of Russia, but it might be a reference to his sojourn as one of Emperor Joseph II's guards.

15. The treasure would be found by Phra in 1347 who unconsciously remembered where it had been washed away.

16. For a discussion of the pagan associations often placed upon Robin Hood please visit The Legend of Robin Hood site

17. Here may be another aspect of the personality of Phra spilling over into the created personas of Arthur and Robin. Both Arthur and Robin were legendary worshippers of the Virgin Mary, although Robin never referred to her by name, only by the term "the Lady." In his narrative Phra records two conversations with the spirit of his dead wife Blodwen. While I will not dispute the possibility that these might be actual spiritual manifestations, I will however state that they could also be signs of a deeper psychological problems than Phra exhibits in his narrative. Such hallucinations can also occur with a disassociative disorder. The great worshipping of the Virgin Mother could also be in part a remembrance of his lost love, who he wished were as immortal as he.

18. The Death of Robin Hood, edited by Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren. Originally Published in Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales, Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University for TEAMS, 1997.

19. Echoes of his previous persona of Robin Hood may still have been influencing this new persona. As Norman of Torn stated "Only do I collect from those who have more than they need, from my natural enemies, while they prey upon those who have naught."

20. "Henry III" Britannia British Monarchs: Edward III

21. Farmer, Tarzan Alive.

22. When Baldwin made the discovery of this holy relic, Phra was alive and active in his Robin Hood persona. Oddly enough Phra may have known Baldwin since Baldwin accompanied Richard's crusade to the Holy Land and died during the siege of Acre.

23. The choice of these names is significant and may have come from his subconscious. Both are Latin derived. Martin derives from Martinus the god of war. Since Phra often saw himself as an eternal warrior this is appropriate. The name Anthony is also Latin derived, although it may originally be of Etruscan derivation. It means Flower, as does Blodwen

24. Oddly enough when Phra met with Elizabeth I he was meeting with his own descendent. Although Phra was a Phoenician his influence on British history has been quite remarkable. As we have seen he was the inspiration for two of its great mythic heroes. He was also the ancestor of the Plantagenet, Tudor and Stuart monarchs. His affair with Empress Matilda resulted in Henry Plantagenet who was believed to be the son of Matilda's second husband Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou. Henry Plantagenet would become the King of England and Normandy. His sons were Richard, Geoffrey and John. Although Richard gets much of the fame, the Plantagenet dynasty was continued through John's son Henry III which continued to Richard III. Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at Bosworth, assumed the throne of England and began the Tudor dynasty. The Tudor dynasty continued the Plantagenet line, albeit in a diluted form. The family was descended from the strongest Welsh clans; Owen Tudor, the first man to use the surname, was a direct eighth-generation descendent of Llewelyn the Great and Joan (daughter of King John ). The Tudor dynasty continued until Elizabeth I died without progeny. She named her cousin James Stuart, King of Scotland as her heir. James I was born in 1566 to Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He descended from the Tudors through Margaret, daughter of Henry VII : both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor.

25. Carter refers, briefly, to his time in Tibet and a failed attempt to summit Everest in John Carter Warlord of Mars #15, p. 16. The clothes shown are mid-20th century, so the illustration is all wrong. For an explanation of the nature and provenance of Marvel's John Carter Warlord of Mars series, see Peter Coogan's "Lost in Translation: Marvel Comics' John Carter Warlord of Mars." (forthcoming)

26. This may be one of the reasons why he would later buy an estate in the Hudson Valley.

27. It is unknown if this John Carter, the patriarch of this Virginia dynasty was Phra in his John Carter persona or if John Carter somehow assumed this man's identity at a later date.

28. Charles IV is probably the old and powerful emperor John Carter mentions as having served in A Princess of Mars, "However, I am not prone to sensitiveness, and the following of a sense of duty, wherever it may lead, has always been a kind of fetich [sic] with me throughout my life; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and powerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service my sword has been red many a time." The three republics comment is a bit more problematic, as it may refer to any of the following, depending on the accuracy of Carter's memory at the time of writing: The United States of America, the Republic of France, the Republic of Texas, the Greek Republic, or the Confederate States of America, all republics Carter served in the militaries of.

29. Quotation from Richard N. Moersch's "Mungo Park and the Opening of the Niger: The Race to Timbuktu and the Role of the Saturday Night Club." http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/mungo.htm

30. Carter's account of the African expedition is retold in John Carter, Warlord of Mars #8, pp. 7 and 10.

31.Excerpt from Edited Appleton's Cyclopedia American Biography. http://www.marquisdelafayette.net.

32. Despite his impressive research in this article and elsewhere, Nevins seems to have been given misleading information. For a possible explanation, see Peter Coogan's "Burroughing Beneath the Page" (forthcoming).

33. This may have been an unconscious memory of his earlier defense of Constantinople and his time as a sleeper in the Cave of Epheus.

34. Verifying John Carter's military career is problematic at best. His records tended to disappear. This was quite probably deliberate on his part. Remember at this time all records were kept in writing and had to be physically transported. Records were lost as a matter of course. Carter thus avoided exact knowledge of his service record and his age. He maintained a rank of a lower officer, deliberately never rising above captain. We can only imagine John Carter bluffing his way through each "assignment" when he would show up and no records could be found to verify his assignment. We only know of his presence in the Mexican War and the early Sioux conflict and even the Seminole War through diaries and correspondence of various Carter members, collected by Matthew Nicholas Carter. John Carter's presence in the California gold rush nearly went undetected except that a sharp-eyed reader spotted the name of Jean Charretier as a traveler who met Alexandre Dumas in chapter eight of Dumas' A Gil Blas in California, although in many editions this passage is curiously missing.

35. Matthew Nicholas Carter is the "nephew" of John Carter who writes the various prefaces of the Barsoom series and the other series. For a biography of his life and an explanation of his relationship with Edgar Rice Burroughs, see Peter Coogan's "Burroughing Beneath the Page." (forthcoming).

36. Both of his sons being twins, Simon and Nathan inherited a longevity that made them age much more slowly than the norm. Although Nathan and Simon were over 65 years old they still looked to be in their thirties, so John Carter's claim to be Nathan's brother would not have been as remarked upon had Nathan looked his actual age. Although Carter had many children over the ages, only a very few inherited any form of longevity; yet in the Virginia era within a short span of time, three of his children and possibly a grandchild seemed to have inherited some form of longevity. The simplest explanation for these seems to be inbreeding. Bianca Rice and Whitney Smith Trout both seemed to be descended from John Carter. It was perhaps the reinforcement of the longevity genes that produced the long-lived offspring of Matthew Nicholas, Nathan, and Simon Carter. Nicholas Carter—the son of Simon Carter—also seems to have inherited longevity from John Carter since he seems not to aged past twenty-five. This is one possible explanation for Nicholas Carter's longevity; the trait would have seemed to have been reduced in two generations, but Nicholas seemed to have possessed not only longevity but also stamina, enhanced recuperative powers, and super strength. Nicholas Carter's mother was Winifred Ludlow, the product of an afternoon of passion between Eugenia Ludlow and Jesse Clayton, the 4^th Duke of Greystoke. As a result of Clayton's genes, Nicholas Carter was a member of the Wold-Newton family proper. It is perhaps the combination of John Carter's and the mutations caused by the Wold-Newton event that gave Nicholas Carter his anomalous gifts. Another possibility is, considering Nicholas' odd upbringing, that he was given a chemical elixir or exposed to some form of radiation that endowed him with beneficial mutations.

37. In the novel Masters of Death by Maxwell Grant, the Shadow also appears to create a tulpa form. He learned this psychic ability from Tibetan lamas.

38. See the article Gullivar of Mars is Ulysses Paxton by Dennis E. Power and Dr. Peter Coogan. (forthcoming). It is possible that Moore's account in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, volume 2, in which John Carter and Gullivar Jones (Paxton) fight the Sarmaks together is based upon an unrecorded adventure, a version of which found publication in Marvel Comics John Carter Warlord of MarsAnnual #1.  For the explanations behind the discrepancies between the Barsoom portrayed in the Marvel Comics and the one chronicled by Edgard Rice Burroughs please see "Lost in Translation" by Peter Coogan. (forthcoming).

39. See the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 2, No. 1, and the short story, Mars: The Home Front by George Alec Effinger in the anthology War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, Bantam, 1996

40. For more details on John Carter's Barsoomian exploits, please read Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoomian series: A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, Warlord of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars, Chessmen of Mars, Mastermind of Mars, A Fighting Man of Mars, Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana of Gathol, and John Carter of Mars. For more of John Carter's Barsoomian exploits not contained in the Burroughs records, please visit The Worlds of ERB Timeline by Win Scott Eckert.

SELECT SOURCES

Arnold, Edwin The Wondrous Adventures of Phra the Phoenician, A.L Burt.

At Health Inc. "Disassociative disorders." AtHealth.com Website. Jul. 2002. <http://www.athealth.com/Consumer/disorders/Dissociative.html>.

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. A Princess of Mars. 1912. New York: Ballantine, 1963.
---. The Outlaw of Torn. 1914. New York: Ace Books, 1968.

Coogan, Peter. "John Carter is Phra the Phoenician!" The Wold Newton Universe. Ed. Win Eckert. 2001. <http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Articles5.htm#PHRA>.

Eckert, Win Scott. The Worlds of ERB Timeline. 11 Dec. 2001. <http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Tarzan_Chron.pdf>.

Farmer, Philip Jose. "The Arms of Tarzan." Burroughs Bulletin. 22 (1971). The Wold Newton Universe. Ed. Win Eckert. 2001. <http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Farmer_articles.htm#ARMS>.
---. Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.

Ford, David Nash. "Riothamus, Prince of Domnonée." Early British Kingdoms. 2001. http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/riothdo.html

Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain. Trans. Sebastian Evans, revised by Charles W. Dunn. New York: Dutton, 1958.

Hughes, David. "The Age of Arthur." David Hughes Website. <http://hometown.aol.com/rdavidh218/kingarthur.html>.

"Monarchs of Great Britain." Britannia .2001. <http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html>.

NicEilidh, Hester. "The Legend of Robin Hood." Hester's House. 2002. <http://hesternic.tripod.com/robinhood.htm>

Nevins, Jess The Carters of Virginia: A Tragedy, Jess Nevin's Wold Newton home page 1999 <http://ratmmjess.tripod.com/wold2.html>

Roy, John Flint. A Guide to Barsoom: The Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs. New York: Ballantine, 1976.

Rutt, Todd, and Arn McConnell. "The Mysterious Case of the Carters." Wold Atlas 1.2. (1977). The Wold Atlas. Ed. Mark K. Brown. 27 July 2000. < http://www.pjfarmer.com/chronicles/Carters1.htm>.

Turner, Ben. Robin Hood. 30 Apr. 2002. http://www.benturner.com/robinhood.

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© 2002 Dennis Power

© 2002 Peter Coogan