H Rink – författare

The Trojan War is the most famous war ever fought. This is curious since its an accepted fact it never took place. But that doesnt matter. More people know about the Trojan Horse than about man walking on the moon. So even though it never was, the Trojan War cannot be erased from the conscience of humanity while man walks the earth. For a long time, Troy disappeared from the Western world. But Troy returned with full force in the Middle Ages, a time of quests, knights, courtly love and damsels in distress. And it was from this angle that first in France, with Le Romain de Troie, then in England, with Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde and then Shakespeares Troilus and Cressida. But each of these authors looked at Troy through their own time and Shakespeares Troy is not quite the same as Homers. In our own time, it is no different as can be seen in the various books and filmes on the subject. So the beauty of Troy is that it can be whatever anyone wants it to be and everyones version is as good as anybody elses. It is a truly democratic subject. So this is my Troy and as I love both Homer and Shakespeare, they are both here, entertwined, first Homer then Shakespeare, into what I hope is a seamless whole.

Riding the Wooden Horse tells the story of the various maneuvers of both Trojans in their city and the Greeks on the Dardan plain to end the stalemate between the two sides. The Greeks have Odysseus, the master schemer from Ithaca, forever scheming and looking for ways to delude the Trojans to their downfall. The Trojans have no one of such talents and must muddle along as best they can. The narrative also presents a host of females in Troy Helen, Andromache, Cassandra and others who would have been of enormous benefit to the Trojan cause, if the men had only listened to them. Vergil, the Roman poet who has been ordered by Emperor Augustus to write about Roman glorious beginning (the Aeneid) but who hopes the way may have another ending is also there. The fall of Troy is described in detail and what happened to the various characters on both sides of the War.