Title of the work
Country of the First Edition
Country/countries of popularity
Original Language
First Edition Date
First Edition Details
Anna Banks, Of Triton. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2013, 350 pp.
ISBN
Genre
Fantasy fiction
Mythological fiction
Romance fiction
Teen fiction*
Target Audience
Young adults
Cover
We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.
Author of the Entry:
Michael Stierstorfer, University of Regensburg, Michael.stierstorfer@ur.de
Peer-reviewer of the Entry:
Markus Janka, University of Munich, janka@lmu.de
Elżbieta Olechowska, University of Warsaw, elzbieta.olechowska@gmail.com
Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton, s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk
Anna Banks (Author)
Anna Banks grew up in a small town named Niceville, Florida and lives with her husband and daughter in Crestview, Florida. Of Poseidon was her first novel, in her blog she called it: “A hybrid of mythology, fairytale, and hormones, Of Poseidon could be the modern, twice-removed cousin of The Little Mermaid.” The whole Syrena Trilogy (Of Poseidon, Of Triton, Of Neptune) is a New York Times bestseller. Banks works full time as a writer for Young Adults and complains that being a writer means not only writing but doing all sorts of other things, like promotion, meetings with readers etc. She writes also romantic novels under the pseudonym Anna Scarlett. She has a website and a blog and gives advice to beginning writers. What inspired her to become an author, was reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: September 9, 2019)
Blog (accessed: September 9, 2019)
Bio prepared by Michael Stierstorfer, University of Regensburg, Michael.stierstorfer@ur.de
Translation
German: Blue Secrets. Das Flüstern der Wellen, trans. Michaela Link, Munich: cbt, 2014.
Sequels, Prequels and Spin-offs
Legacy Lost (The Syrena Legacy), a 48-page prequel to Of Poseidon was published also in 2012 by Thor Books in Kindle format.
Prequels:
Anna Banks: Of Poseidon, 2012.
Sequels:
Anna Banks: Of Neptune, 2014.
Summary
In the second volume of the Syrena-Legacy-series Emma McIntosh and Prince Galen Triton are in love and are willing to stay together forever, at the risk of Galen losing his legacy of the house of Triton. His family refuses to accept a half-blood as a new empress. Therefore, they decide that Emma has to demonstrate to the members of the house of Poseidon that she is not just a powerless half-blood daughter of a man and a Siren, but a powerful girl blessed with the gift of Poseidon. She has to prove that she controls water just like the rulers of the houses of Triton and of Poseidon do. Therefore, she appears in an underwater arena in front of the Sirens of the house of Triton and shows that she indeed has supernatural power: at first she manages to control a big shoal of fish, then she swims with a killer whale, and, finally, she creates a big swirl of water and sings with her powerful voice frightening the audience. But soon a new antagonist named Jagen appears and says, that his daughter, Paca, is the only one who can control the whole underwater empire of the house of Triton. Luckily Emma, using her superpower, detects, that Paca’s power is just an illusion. Consequently, Galen’s grandfather, the former ruler of the house of Triton, is impressed and allows Emma and Galen to be a couple. But according to an ancient rite they have to abstain from intimacy before the marriage. Therefore, they plan a big wedding.
Analysis
In this second volume Emma is able to sing like a Siren in Homer’s Odyssey and frighten people listening to her voice. The parallel to Homer’s epos is not written into the text. In popular culture, the song of a siren enchants the listeners and deprives them of their free will. The difference between the Homeric Siren and the one in Banks’ book lies in the fact that Emma’s voice sounds very frightening, but doesn’t lure sailors to their death. In this novel Emma plans to connect the houses of Poseidon and Triton, because her intention is that both nations can live in peace in spite of several wars in the past. After demonstrating her divine superpower in the struggle against their enemies, the population of Atlantis recognizes her as their new princess. Besides being a Syrena, Emma also has the power of the god Poseidon, who is able to talk to fish and to cause sea storms. Therefore it can be said, that Emma is a hybrid between a Siren and Poseidon. Furthermore, traditional Christian values are imposed on a world created with elements of Greco-Roman mythology, because Emma and Galen must conform to the rule of premarital chastity. To sum up, it is a typical mythopoetic fantasy adaptation, which mixes together different myths like the ones about Sirens and Poseidon to create a new story of a hero saving the world. It focuses on the legend of the Sirens, to present typical problems of an adolescent girl who wants become a powerful princess and mirrors then in a parallel mythological reality.
Further Reading
Janka, Markus and Michael Stierstorfer, eds., Verjüngte Antike. Griechisch-römische Mythologie und Historie in zeitgenössischen Kinder- und Jugendmedien. Heidelberg: Winter, 2017.
Stierstorfer, Michael, Antike Mythologie in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur der Gegenwart. Unsterbliche Götter- und Heldengeschichten? [Ancient Mythology in Contemporary Children’s Literature. Immortal Stories of Gods and Heroes?], Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017.
