Off with His Head
Off with His Head is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the nineteenth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn. It was first published in the USA (by Little, Brown of Boston) in 1956, under the title Death of a Fool, and in the UK (by Collins) in 1957.
 First edition | |
| Author | Ngaio Marsh |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Roderick Alleyn |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
Publication date | 1957 |
| Media type | Print () |
| Preceded by | Scales of Justice |
| Followed by | Singing in the Shrouds |
Set in the freezing, snowbound Winter of a small English village, Mardian (based on the Kent village of Birling, where Marsh had recently stayed with her old friends, the Rhodes family), the plot concerns the annual performance in the courtyard of the decaying gentry's crumbling mansion of an historic folkloric ritual, "The Dance of the Five Sons", containing elements of Morris dancing, sword dance and Mummers play. This fictional version of the English Guiser/Mummers play, performed on "Sword Wednesday" of the Winter Solstice, includes carefully detailed characters: "The Fool", "Crack" The Hobbyhorse and the half-man/half-woman "Betty". Marsh is clearly fascinated by the idea, put forward in the novel by her detective, Roderick Alleyn, that "The Dance of the Five Sons" (traditionally performed by the local blacksmith and his sons, and during which the murder is committed) is a folkloric blueprint or ur-text for Shakespeare's King Lear, a play Marsh greatly admired and herself directed.
While sitting comfortably within the "classic puzzle whodunit" form of which Ngaio Marsh was so outstanding an exponent, the novel is highly unusual in its subject matter: England's ancient folkloric rituals in a modern and fast-changing world.
Plot
South East England freezes under the coldest winter on record, as Mrs Anna Bunz, an eccentric German folklore enthusiast, drives from her Worcestershire home to the tiny village of Mardian, in search of "The Dance of the Five Sons", a folkloric survival incorporating in uniquely rich profusion all the elements of English Morris, sword dance, guising and mumming. Given short shrift at Mardian Castle by the eccentric old Dame Alice Mardian and her in-bred spinster daughter Dulcie, Mrs Bunz puts up at the village pub and sets out to discover all she can and witness the Winter Solstice performance, fiercely protected by old William Andersen, owner of the local forge, and his five sons, whom he dominates tyrannically, and who traditionally enact the village's mumming ritual. He also repels Mrs Bunz furiously, clearly seeing her female intrusion on an ancient and only dimly-understood male tradition, as an ill omen. Andersen's grand-daughter Camilla, a student actress, is also staying at the pub, in hopes of reconnecting with the family who rejected her mother for marrying outside her class and community. Camilla is being assiduously courted by Ralph Stayne, Dame Alice's nephew (and heir), and the local vicar's son, who has previously enjoyed a no-bones-broken affair with the pub landlady and plays "The Betty" in the mumming play. Hovering uncomfortably around this class hierarchy is an affably boozy ex-RAF hero who runs the local garage and plays "Crack" the hobby-horse in the play.
When the Sword Wednesday play finally takes place, tensions have mounted around the small community, especially at The Forge, where William Andersen's 'simple' youngest son Ernie is desperate to take over his father's starring role as Fool. Mrs Bunz contrives to see the play, during the performance of which, the Fool (William Andersen) is found decapitated for real in the bloodstained snow, after his theatrical murder by the Five Sons in the culmination of the Sword Dance. Alleyn and Fox arrive from Scotland Yard to investigate. The solution ingeniously draws together the story's fundamental fascination with English folkloric traditions and the rapidly changing world that is impingeing on the long-established, rigidly class-oriented life of Upper & Lower Mardian villages, The Forge and Mardian Castle. A defining episode is Alleyn's dinner-jacketed attendance at a dismally-cooked formal dinner (with superb old wines from the cellar), hosted by Dame Alice in the icy-cold, crumbling Mardian Castle, where Alleyn is given the family document describing the old mumming ritual, providing the key clue to who has murdered William Andersen, and why.
Commentary