Challenge 178

From One Age to the Next

The story of Mikhal, “the king’s daughter,” is a memoir in which the narrator observes and interacts with powerful personalities and takes part in momentous events.

Technically speaking, Mikhal is a “passive heroine”: she does not influence or shape events; rather events and the people around her shape her life and, it might be fair to say, make her a victim. To an extent, Mikhal acts as a kind of one-voice chorus even as she takes part in a historical drama.

Such a story requires a balancing act: it is entirely too easy to forget the narrator and let history take over, especially when it is dominated by people such as Saul, Samuel, Ishbaal, David, Mikhal’s mother and the Sibyls of the goddess Ashtoret. Tala succeeds: Mikhal is a participant who remains firmly at the center of the story.

What does the story say, and how does it say it?
1. Why is it signficant that The King’s Daughter is Mikhal’s story rather than that of the people in her life? In what ways does Mikhal’s life fulfill her role as a priestess of the goddess Ashtoret?
2. How does Mikhal interact with and relate to the historical personages and fictional characters in the story?
3. What is the point of view in The King’s Daughter? Complete omniscience? Partial omniscience? Or is it first-person only, limited to what Mikhal herself can know or surmise? Or are all three viewpoints used?
4. Mikhal tells us in detail about Ashtoret, but she sees Yhwh as alien and is, frankly, not very interested in the rival god. What does she tell us about Yhwh? In what terms?
5. If some readers had to pronounce the name “Yhwh,” they might substitute another word; others, for their own reasons, might simply say “Yahweh.” Why is the name “Yhwh” spelled without vowels in the text?
What does the story mean now?
1. How do Ashtoret and Yhwh shape human events and how are they, in turn, shaped by events in The King’s Daughter?
2. Mikhal’s story is set in the First Axial Age, when local religions were giving way to world religions. How might Mikhal’s story be written for our own time, the Second Axial Age, when religion and faith itself are being redefined?

Responses welcome!