A Well-Told Tale

As I finished up reading The King of Elfland’s Daughter, I have to admit it was with a sigh of relief. While the book is a gorgeous piece of lyrical fiction–there is very little movement to pull you along. As such, it pales in comparison to some of the writers (like Tolkein) that write fantasy really well.

One reviewer I read wrote, “Dunsany’s Elfland is not so much a real place as a state of being, the ability to see heaven in every grain of sand” and further, “far better to enjoy the novel as a meditation on the nature of wonder and it is here the book’s strength lies”. I fully agree with these assessments. The book’s strongest passages lay in the ones that detail the joy of wonder and the sorrow at loosing it to childhood memories. One of my favorites is on page 6, I wrote it out in the last post, another example is when Alveric is searching for Elfland in the wasteland that once was Elfland and he kept finding pockets of songs and stories and childhood memories–even toys that were perfect and new, held that way by the magic of wonder. In fact, much of the book, in my opinion is about the delineation between “the fields we know” with its lure of the ordinary and the Elflands with its lure of magic. As an interesting note, as of chapter 13 there were 27 references to “the fields we know” and in the end the magic engulfs the lands of Erl (men) leaving pockets of ordinariness (homes) and as the book ends: “gazing over their familiar lands, [they] perceived that they were no longer the fields we know” (242).

Anyway, as a introduction to fantasy development in the twentieth century, the book is very important. In its pages it is easy to find the important ingredients to any high fantasy story:

• A magical land full of elves, unicorns, and trolls where immortality and eternal summerland rule.
• Speaking of trolls, one can’t help but think of Tolkien’s three comedic trolls in The Hobbit when reading the funny troll passages in this book.
• A prince on a quest, a magic sword, a fairy princess, and even a powerful witch to throw into the mix.

There is no question that much of fantasy owes itself to the work of Lord Dunsany, not only high fantasy like Tolkien, but even authors of modern fantasy like the reigning Neil Gaimen–read Stardust or watched the new movie?

For now, I’m happy to be picking up Tolkien’s The Silmarillian!