The Krakenmist

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Singularly this publication represents more than just a previously missing piece of the Marc Bolan fantasy-fiction mythological jig-saw. The Krakenmist manuscripts are an important discovery, providing valuable insight into the early works of the author.

The Krakenmist establishes irrefutable evidence that Marc Bolan wrote at least one detailed and multi-charactered extended work evolving his conceptual fantasy-mythology of Beltane; a land in a time long before the annals of recorded history.

The Kraken first featured in Tennyson's poem of the same name, but its most notable appearance is in John Wyndham's 1953 horror story, The Kraken Wakes, which took its title from the poem. While Wyndham's tale follows on from Tennyson's work, telling of the awakening and rise to power of forces of terrifying consequence from beneath the surface of the sea, Bolan's The Krakenmist preceeds it.

Agadinmar is first referred to in a series of Bolan's assorted notebooks dedicated to a work known as The Children Of Rarn, begun late in 1967 or early 1968. A possible hypothesis is that this was to be a multi-volume work intended for eventual publication, but interviews with Marc Bolan in 1970 suggest that it would more immediately be realised as multiple album set. The two notebooks reproduced in this publication may well come from The Children Of Rarn story, with The Krakenmist being a chapter from one of the volumes, or in expanded form, a volume in its own right.

The appearance of Agadinmar in this, the first publication of The Krakenmist, predates the earlier reference to the Elf Lord and Wizard on the sleeve of Marc Bolan's Tyrannosaurus Rex album A Beard Of Stars , which notes the contents as being "some lore from the books of Agadinmar." Agadinmar appeared again on an acoustic demonstration recording of a scene from The Children Of Rarn, performed slightly later: ". . . the ancient high priest . . . Old Agadinmar . . " This piece was re-recorded in 1974 with his band T.Rex, indicating a continued interest in this apparently uncompleted project.