Title The King of Elfland's Daughter Series --- Author Lord Dunsany Illustrator --- Publisher --- First Printing 1924 Category Classics Warnings None Main Characters Alveric, Lirazel, Orion Main Elements Elves, unicorns

The poetic style and sweeping grandeur of The King of Elfland's Daughter has made it one of the most beloved fantasy novels of our time, a masterpiece that influenced some of the greatest contemporary fantasists. The heartbreaking story of a marriage between a mortal man and an elf princess is a masterful tapestry of the fairy tale following the "happily ever after."

When I decided that I would be reading a faerie themed year I knew this classic had to be on my list. Now I wasn't expecting something like Lord of the Rings, but still I expected something magical.

It starts off lovely, with the villagers demanding of the king that magic be brought to their town, to make them special. The king thinks this is silly but he needs to do what his people demand (maybe this is a satire on democracy versus monarchy?) so he sends his son out to find and marry the King of Elfland's daughter. Told in a poetic fairytale style you can truly feel the magic.

He brings his wife back home, has a son, but she doesn't really fit in, finding the mortal Christian world confusing. She's not allowed to talk to the animals or the stars anymore, only pray to god, which she doesn't understand at all. The stars and animals and plants are right there before her, but this god person she's not really convinced exists. Unhappy, when her father sends a summons, she uses it and goes home.

Now its around here I start scratching my head a bit. I expected a tale directed towards adults, I'm even reading in some potential allegories and metaphors (though I could be wrong) and then appears the troll. I'm fine with him not being scary but instead of walk to the princess' castle, he rolls and summersaults. It was so absurd I felt the target audience had to be children...young children at that. I don't know why but it shattered my vision of what this book was going to be. I thought a lovely adult fantasy, instead it devolved into a silly child's tale. One can see how even now a lot of people equate fantasy with children, because, for a good long time, it kind of was.

Now the prince pines for his wife and goes on a quest to find her. This takes, let just say, a long time. And in the meantime his son grows up to be a great hunter, but as far as I can tell, I terrible king. I mean he never does anything kingly other than bring home yet another rack of antlers to hang in the hall. The villagers seem proud enough of him, maybe because he does leave them alone and doesn't bother with any of that distracting "ruling" stuff.

And then the son discovers unicorns, suddenly deer are boring and he puts all his efforts into hunting unicorns. Now as someone who loves unicorns I found this sort of shocking. Beautiful magical creature and this boy hunts them down with a pack of hounds, graphically cuts off their heads to be hung in his halls. He doesn't even want the magic of the horn, he just wants the hunt and the kill. There was definitely a time in England when going on the hunt was a big deal, but in the modern day, ugh. You'd think the kid could find a less bloody pastime that doesn't involve wiping out the entire population of a magical species. Oh, and he whips his dogs to keep them in line.

Sooo...this wasn't quite what I was expecting. It had some bits that were magical and wonderful, and some bits that made me cringe and yanked me out of the fairy tale world. It was also quite long with some bits going on and on for longer tha I would have liked. And I couldn't figure out if this was meant for children, due to the writing style and the moments of silliness, or was it a carefully crafted criticism of the society in Lord Dunsany's days? Was he making a point about useless monarchs, and villagers who actually got what they asked for and decided they didn't want it anymore. However I will say this, I was reading it on my eReader, which means I only read it is spits and spurts like at a doctor's office, and didn't sit down and give it a good hour or two sitting, which may have allowed me to much more appreciate the things that can be read into this tale - what is magical and what is mundane, otherness, the passage of time, and also being careful what you ask for.

Interestingly, one reason I know Dunsany's name is because he was one of the inspirations for H.P.Lovecraft. Of course this tale held no eldritch horror, but there is an aspect of peering into another realm and driving you mad, of catching a glimpse of something magical and then losing the rest of your life in an attempt to find it again.

A bit off track, but on Goodreads there's a section for "Readers also enjoyed" and on that list was Peake's Gormenghast, Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer, Vance's Dying Earth, and Beagle's Last Unicorn. All are mind-bending, a little weird, with a touch of madness and a side of magic. Along with Lovecraft, they are wildly different and yet I can also see how one goes from one to the other.