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Title: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Dunsany, Lord Dunsany, Neil Gaiman ISBN: 0-345-43191-X Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.72 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Where Fantasy Could Have Gone
Comment: Okay, let me say right off that I've been a Dunsany fan for about 15 years, having acquired "A Dreamer's Tales" back then and never having seen anything else by the fellow. The man had a way with words that is just amazing. And I'd heard that this was his best work. I don't know if that's true, it being a somewhat subjetive and my exposure being limited. (I personally think some of the short stories in Dreamer's Tales might be better, but that's a different thing.)
So forget everything Tolkien has taught you about elves and the way magic works. This book predates Tolkien and is a completely different view. The closest I have seen is some of Neil Gaiman's work, specifically Stardust, but I will give Gaiman credit there and say that while he sometimes borrows Dunsany's voice or pieces of his worlds much of it is his own creation. And yet, I think that Gaiman's faeries would not feel too out of place in Dunsany's Elfland and Dunsany's King of Elfland would happily host dinners for the Endless. (Conveniently enough, the edition I picked up has an introduction by Gaiman...)
This is a book about wishing for outrageous things, and getting them, and thinking better of it once you have it. The men of Erl take a petition to their king: They want to have a magical king, so Erl can be famous. So the king sends his son Averil to Elfland to wed the King of Elfland's daughter, Lirazel.
On his way, one of what should have been the best scenes in the book was ruined for me by ever-so-many bad horror flicks. Averil fights his way through a magical forest (with a magical sword that is unlike any magical sword you have ever seen) wherein he is attacked by ivy and pine trees. Unfortunately, there are just too many bad special-effects ivy-attacking-guy scenes out there now, so the effect was mostly wasted on me. But I will point out that the book, having been published in 1922, predates them all.
Anyway, when Averil brings Lirazel back and marries her, everyone is happy for a while. But there's a big difference between wanting wonderful, magical things and actually having them.
It's a fun little book, a different sort of fantasy, and I think I've given away as much of the plot as I'm willing too.
Rating: 5
Summary: Haunting and Lyrical
Comment: After reading mostly positive reviews on this webpage concerning Lord Dunsany's novel I went in search of it, and found it at my university library. Reading it was quite a different experience for me, but people who aren't prepared for the style of writing like I was might be disappointed, confused or scorning of the slow, dream-like pace, archetype characters and poetical language. This might be especially true of fans of typical 'fantasy' genre books (authors such as David Eddings or Terry Brooks) where a fantasy universe is deemed to be good only if it has a solid backing and an exhaustive array of facts and figures to add realism to the stories. Lord Dusany however, expects the reader to take for granted the existence of Elfland, trolls, elves and will o' the wisps, without trying to explain them. 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' is refreshingly free of geographies, biologies, cultures, or other infinite details that are so prevailent in other fantasy cult books.
The story goes that the Parliament of Erl approaches their king, eager for their small country to be known throughout the lands. The solution is for it to somehow imbue magic into its royalty, and to achieve this the king sends his son Alveric into Elfland to make the King of Elfland's daughter his wife. Alveric is successful in this, and brings the beautiful Lirazel back to Erl, where they have a child Orien. The King of Elfland however desparatly wants his daughter returned to him, and by use of three powerful runes, contrives to bring her back to her home.
Dunsany delves into several themes throughout the book, all framed by the contrasts of Erl and Elfland. Within this, he explores the differences between Paganism and Christianity, freedom and restrictions, the passage of times, mortality and immortality, male and female, parent and child - the list goes on. Running through these is the main story thread that makes clear that everyone desires what they cannot have, and although by the end of the novel their desires come to furfillment, it is in an ironic resolution that no one (including this reviewer) could have ever wished for. The ending is thus happy, but contains a certain sense of something bittersweet, like a lost childhood that Dusany continually likens Elfland to.
It was acknowledged by many later fantasy writers that they were inspired by Dunsany, including (obviously) Tolkien. It is no coincidence that Alveric and Lirazel have a certain resemblance to Aragorn and Arwen in way of their courtly love and somewhat 'forbidden' romance. However, I feel that Dunsany hits upon notes of inevitable dischord between the two that Tolkien neglects. I wonder for example if Arwen ever felt: 'the years that assail beauty, and the harshness that vex the spirit that were already about her, and the doom of all mortals hung over her head.' It is something for devoted Tolkien fans to think about, as well as potent storytelling. (That wasn't a dig at Tolkien by any means, just a thought to dwell on).
On the actual styles of storytelling, many people might feel frustrated at the continued use of 'the fields we know' to describe earth, and faery as a place 'only told of in song'. However, as I went through the story, I found the repetition to become quite familiar and comfiting, like a steady rhythm or heartbeat, and the final sentence making use of this repeated phrase made me take a deep sigh of contentment. Lord Dunsany's other gift is his use of metaphor and imagery. For instance, his use of the priest likening Lirazel to a mermaid, and then later echoing this thought with 'there was something in [the priest's] voice as he spoke, a little distant from her, and [Lirazel] knew that he spoke as one that walked safe upon the shore, calling far to a mermaid in a dangerous sea,' makes this not a book, but literature. Dunsany's soft, poetical, vivid, mellow language is what makes this book so appealing, and used to unforgetable descriptions of Elfland, twilight, the countryside, and beauty in all its forms.
A couple of times he faulters when he slips into what I've described above - trying to make story *real*. References to Tennyson and the infamous unicorn horn of Rome are jarring, and pull one out of the dreamy atmosphere. The archetypes are expected and unsurprising - the mighty king of Elfland, the elusive witch-upon-the-hill, the elfin beauty, the warrior-king, the hunter-prince, the trickster fey - we've encounted them countless times in one form or another.
But overall, this book has my recommendation, for a novelty to see how the fantasy-writers wrote before Tolkien, and for a wonderful escape into a glorious world. Plus, you can learn some little bits of trivia that you may of not known before, for instance - did you know that faeries hate dogs? That they cause clocks to stop? That their infants can talk?
Rating: 3
Summary: Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter
Comment: This book, alkthough highly influential in the world of fantasy is more of a fairy-tale than anything else. It does have some similiar relationships between itself and works influenced by it. Chief amongst these being: J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Triology. These include forbidden woods, deserted lands and characters such as goblins, trolls and elves. Trolls in Dunsay's world are more of a lark than a thing of great fear as they are in other classic works. Elves in his work are also more supsicious of mankind than they are in Tolkien's world too. This is especially the case in Tolkien's prequel to the Lord of the Rings triology, the Simallarion, where they eagerly anticipated the arrival of mankind.
Bottom line is, if you want to see where Tolkien derove some of his ideas from, read this book. However, it is best to read other contemporary sources of influence too, including the works of E.R. Eddison.
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Title: The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany, Lin Carter, John Gregory Betancourt ISBN: 1587156377 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: The Charwoman's Shadow by Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Dunsany, Lord Dunsany ISBN: 0345431928 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rucker Eddison, (E. R. Eddison), Keith Henderson (illustrator) ISBN: 073510171X Publisher: Replica Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany, Lin Carter, John Gregory Betancourt ISBN: 1587150794 Publisher: Wildside Pr Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Dreamer's Tales by Lord Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Dr Dunsany ISBN: 1587157306 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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