Introduction to The Godform Assumption of StarCrow the Wise

The Godform Assumption of StarCrow the Wise is an odd bit of Star Wars fan fiction because it is a framed narrative with a large epic poem at its center. The occurrence of a framed narrative is nothing novel in Star Wars literature. There is at least one short story from the Star Wars Adventure Journal which employed this literary technique (“The Most Dangerous Foe”), and I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. But epic poetry is strange. It is not a literary form invoked in Star Wars too often; the only other time I can think of verse being used was in Michael Kogge’s The Despotica, which was a work that deeply influenced my reading and writing of Star Wars literature, and was itself a story that had a say in the composition of The Godform. The writing of this text had a long incubation period, and when the story finally came in focus, it poured out of me with a strength and verve I was unaccustomed to. I was gripped with some sort of fervor which I can’t explain—but I’ll make an attempt to do so in the next few paragraphs.

The idea of writing an epic poem sat in my mind for quite a while after my third year of University.  I did my undergrad in Literature, and it was after reading epic poems like The Odyssey, The Iliad, The Aeneid, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Paradise Lost, I thought ‘I think I want to write an epic poem.’ These works had a profound effect on me; they left an indelible mark upon my soul, and I was changed after having read them. I then decided I wanted to write my own epic poem and a few ideas popped into my head.

Initially, I wanted to write a post-apocalyptic poem about Satan in the form of a dragon, enslaving the world, with the protagonist being Pope Patrick the First who converts the world to Christianity and defeats the dragon. What I ended up writing was The Godform Assumption of StarCrow the Wise (which I think is pretty close to my original idea), but not until many years had passed, after I was married with three children.

So, a few of my thoughts on this work to give you a bit of an intro into what you are about to read:

The Godform Assumption of StarCrow the Wise in my attempt at evangelizing the imagination. I wrote the story with this in mind: “If Jesus had entered history in the Star Wars universe (assuming it was a separate universe from ours), what would that look like?”

Well, what it ended up looking like was a lot of poetry about a lion-man messiah named Solomon who battles the 20^th century occultist Aleister Crowley reimagined as a Sith Lord who transfers his soul into a dragon in order to take over the universe.

The whole thing is odd man, I don’t know what to tell you.

The poetry sits inside a framed narrative of a retired Jedi historian of Sith literature named Master Francis Ovair. One of the padawans at the Agricorps where Master Francis has retired has taken one of his Sith texts without his permission—The Godform Assumption of StarCrow the Wise—and begins to read the work of poetry, which leads to dire results.

I did my best to pay homage to the poetic verse of Milton’s Paradise Lost, without being too derivative. I also made an attempt to come up with my own meter and rhythm. I also mixed in the occult obsession with numbers, with each book having 111 stanzas of poetry, for a total of 333, with 77 syllables per stanza, numbers occultists love.

Its epic poetry draped in a veneer of black magic with a heavy dose of Christian triumphalism, all wrapped up in the language of Star Wars. It’s all very strange.

I hope you enjoy it. I hope you enjoy the art by Davie Chang & Matt DeMino.

May the Force be with you, and with your spirit,

Michael K. Brennan

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READ THE SEQUEL HERE!

Biography

In the small provincial town of Guelph Ontario, Michael Brennan teaches English, Theology, and Geography at his local Catholic high school.  Michael earned his B.A. in English and M.A. in Humanities from York University, and his B.Ed. from the University of Toronto. He wrote a blog for a while titled The Star Wars Chronology Project (https://thestarwarschronologyproject.blogspot. com/), but stopped contributing to it after the Disney acquisition.  He enjoys gardening, reading, and writing poetry, and keeps busy as a husband and father of three young children.