Victoria Gloriana

This was a labor of love. The original is in color but I enjoyed the sepia edit so much that I'm posting it instead; it suits the mood and setting of the story.

The text around the seal reads: "IN DEXTERA GLORIA LONGITUDO MULTA NOCTE EIUS ET IN SINISTRA" which (loosely) translates to 'In her right hand glory, a great long night in her left hand.'

I am an obsessive Sherlock Holmes fan. I've read a lot of pastiche and fan fiction but few have captured my attention like Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" pastiche. It combines A.C. Doyle's characters blended with the Cthulu Mythos.

I read it once and shouted with joy. I read it twice and shuddered with fear. I read it three times and began to have recurring dreams about an image of Queen Victoria as a tentacled minion of the Old Ones.

The following is an excerpt from Gaiman's wonderful pastiche "A Study in Emerald":

"She was called Victoria, because she had beaten us in battle, seven hundred years before, and she was called Gloriana, because she was glorious, and she was called the Queen, because the human mouth was not shaped to say her true name. She was huge, huger than I had imagined possible, and she squatted in the shadows staring down at us, without moving."

Oh, and also...I don't own the text, the characters or the revered Queen Victoria (whom I secretly admire).