Slashing ancient canon?

Recently, I was reminded of an old gothy favourite character of mine, from an old stuffy favourite historical novel written in Victorian times (or rather, Wilhelminian as it is a German book) that I'd loved to bits in my early teenage years.

Then, on Thursday, I spontaneously apped him to milliways_bar, under the journal name of ostro_goth because he is an Ostrogoth, but he's also awfully, stereotypically gothy long before that term was even invented.

I read his canon many, many times when I was young, knew parts of it by heart, even; I tried re-reading it in the 1990's after reading 'Raptor' by Gary Jennings, which shares some of the same historical background and personnel, and found it completely unreadable. They style was so convoluted, stuffy, wilfully historical and lifeless, I gave up after a few pages, severely doubting the sanity of myself in my teenage years.

Yesterday, having apped Teja with no intention of taking him seriously in Milliways (which I do uphold!!), I have re-read parts of his canon at Project Gutenberg.

And in addition to the incomparably stuffy style and the cardboardiness of all the characters, there is something else that I didn't notice as a teenager and didn't get to see when I tried to re-read because I simply didn't get that far in the book: OMG do parts of his canon ever read slashy these days!!

Yes, of course, we're dealing with the ideals of romantic friendship popular at the time, all that hugging and snogging and talk of love and high-strung emotional stuff were acceptable back then, and as a whole, the book is rather innocent of sex. Sex exists within marriage, deep romantic love leads to marriage (or if it doesn't, it leads to deep romantic tragedy, or maybe even both), and never is there a hint that our noble heroes would think of as much as paying a tavern wench for a good time - even though they are supposed to be  conquering barbarians settling in the fallen Roman empire.

Which is bloody unlikely, from our point of view, but in 1876? Yes, of course, no sex please we're Wilhelminian.

Still, Teja's only two emotional attachments are with his comrades-in-arms. One is Totila, the beautiful sunny blond hero king that was his friend in his youth and who goes far out of his way, after a temporary victory over the Romans and Byzanthians, to recapture Teja's heart that had been lost to him over the necessities of fighting. It's Totila, on the night before his last battle, to whom he finally tells the terribly tragic story that has so completely crippled his soul. And then there's Adalgoth, a young peasant boy who turns out to be of noble descent and who becomes  cup- and arms bearer to the king, first Totila, then Teja. He is terribly young and beautiful, and the only person beside Totila that Teja opens up to at all; Teja teaches him to play the harp and sing (a skill he only ever practices in private otherwise) and finally dies in Adalgoth's arms, being kissed on the lips by the youth.

Now, if that isn't slashy for modern eyes then I don't know what is.

I haven't decided yet how I'll play Teja in Milliways in that regard - as a 19th century character completely innocent ot that sort of sensual shenanigans, or as an early 6th century character who, in the course of his life has most likely seen it all - which he is supposed to be, canonically, anyway, minus the sex. He has the chopped-off heads of would-be traitors catapulted into a city under siege, no problem with that. Just no sex. How awkward.

Any ideas?


 
P.S.: At the Mary Sue Litmus Test, Teja bombs beyond description with a score of 89, falling more than firmly onto the highest category of:

50+
Kill it dead. Or make sure you read the instructions properly (some people don't do this, which causes freakishly high scores) and take the test again.