Book Club - Week 1 of The King of Elfland's Daughter, Ch 1-9

[boredoom]

I agree. It's kind of a slog for me to get through. I do enjoy the recurring themes, "the fields we know" and so on.

These remind me of Homeric epithets - basically, stock phrases that were used to pad out the lines to the proper number of syllables when reciting an epic poem. It's not the only thing about Dunsany's writing that conveys to me the improvised feel of the spoken story. There's no sense of economy of words, and the plot has a somewhat haphazard feel to it. I'm reminded that Wikipedia says Dunsany never revised what he wrote, that everything was a first draft. I find him pretty charming, but he's really sloppy by today's standards, or even near-contemporary Tolkien's.

Now, given the title and Dunsany's reputation, I had expected high fantasy and fairy-tale language. So I was thrown for a loop by the first chapter, which gave me the impression that I was reading something quite different. (I'll dispense with spoiler tags since people will have read the first chapter by now.) It suggests that Alveric gained the good graces of the witch, who is by no means a milf, by sleeping with her. Hanky-panky on page 6! Then the witch is mucking about with "the thigh-bone of a materialist!" That's hilarious! I began to wonder if I was reading the proto-Pratchett.

On the next page, the aftermath of the meteor-melting fire is described as looking "like the evil pool that glares were thermite has burst." It's a glaring anachronism, but an interesting one that hints at Dunsany's experiences in WWI. It's followed by another hilarious passage, where the magical sword is described as smelling like thyme and looking like lilac and rhododendrons. Definitely a sword for the "seasoned" adventurer.

Unfortunately, these entertaining oddities subside after the first chapter, and the story goes into standard fairy-tale mode, as kajabor points out.

[boredoom]

There are some interesting parallels with Tolkien:

Animated trees

Elves as tangible, man-sized, organised people in a separate land, rather than diminutive fairies living hidden in scattered places or a semi-separate reality

Elven worship of stars

Contempt for democracy - the king accedes to the popular request for a "magic lord," but thinks it foolish


In contrast to Tolkien, Dunsany also displays a contempt for Christianity.

[Deliverator]

I liked the conservation of Ninjutsu (Google it) in Alveric's fight with the 4 knights.

[bar_sinister]

I'm caught up to chapter 9. I didn't mind the language, I found the book quite engaging and enjoyable so far. I haven't read a lot of contemporary fairy tales lately, mostly modern fantasy, so the fairy tale tropes are refreshing.

I did think, based on the title, that there would be more to the quest. Alveric goes into fairy land, picks up the princess, and hoofs it. It was kind of surprising.

The witch is probably the most interesting character to me so far. She definitely has more personality than Alveric or Lirazel.

[E.T.Smith]

I fully sympathize with complaints about the plodding prose style. The first time I read KoED, it took me well over two months. I can devour a novel in a couple days if it really grabs me, but something about Dunsanny's writing in extended format lacked inertia. Coming back to it now, I think that's a byproduct of his attempt to create a dreamlike atmosphere; even the most action-filled scenes lack tension.

It suggests that Alveric gained the good graces of the witch, who is by no means a milf, by sleeping with her. Hanky-panky on page 6! Then the witch is mucking about with "the thigh-bone of a materialist!" That's hilarious! I began to wonder if I was reading the proto-Pratchett ... On the next page, the aftermath of the meteor-melting fire is described as looking "like the evil pool that glares were thermite has burst." It's a glaring anachronism, but an interesting one that hints at Dunsany's experiences in WWI. It's followed by another hilarious passage, where the magical sword is described as smelling like thyme and looking like lilac and rhododendrons. Definitely a sword for the "seasoned" adventurer.

There's another nice bit commenting though Erl doesn't enjoy the timelessness of Elfland, its not nearly as bad as the city has to endure.

What Dunsanny's doing there, I think, is being straightforward about being a guy telling a story, making the ananymous narrator almost a background character to the story. Rather than trying to take a rigorously neutral third-person perspective, he's openly telling the story the way he likes and making his personality an overt influence.

[salvagebar]

I don't know whether to put this in the opening thread or here, so I'm sorry if this is not the right place.

After some research, I followed this trail of inheritance:

Bertelsmann owns Random House which acquired Penguin Group which acquired "King of Elfland's Daughter" from a series of mergers which included Dunsany's original 1924 publisher in the USA, G.P. Putnam's Sons, which (many mergers here) which is now part of the Penguin Group. Ballantine Books, another subsidiary of Random House, also published an edition of The King Of Elfland's Daughter in 1999 under one of its imprints, Del Rey, which has a sub-imprint, Del Rey Impact, which has mostly done scifi and fantasy. The Gale Group bought the online rights to some of Random House's library.

Questia is on online library under the imprint Cengage owned by the Gale Group which is owned (insert more companies here) part of Time Warner. Therefore, Questia has rights to some of Random House's library, including some of its subsidiary publishers acquired over the years, (search by publisher at Questia here: http://www.questia.com/SM.qst?publisher ... act=search) including The King Of Elfland's Daughter.

http://www.questia.com/questia/copyright --- Here Questia states their content may be used by individuals for personal research, as "Questia's use is de minimis and/or authorized by the copyright owner, and Questia has no reason to believe such use adversely affects the market for the sale of such third party material." The Gale Group is a corporation within the United States, which supports Questia's claim that this content available through their portal within the United States, under the terms they require for access.

Currently, no membership or fee is required to read The King Of Elfland's Daughter, which is here:

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98232026

Don't say I never did anything for you. I will now reward myself with a round of Angry Birds.

[TanRu]

Interesting, thanks for the link. Side note - Penguin Group has never been acquired by Random House. (I work at Penguin)

[Deliverator]

Finished with Ch. 1-9. I really like how, for all the fantasy/fairy tale stuff, it's ultimately something kind of petty and banal and culture-clash-y that causes Lirazel to read the rune and be swept back to Elfland.

Matt

[E.T.Smith]

Finished with Ch. 1-9. I really like how, for all the fantasy/fairy tale stuff, it's ultimately something kind of petty and banal and culture-clash-y that causes Lirazel to read the rune and be swept back to Elfland.

I noticed and liked that as well. Lirazel's and Alveric's relationship underneath all the fairy-tale flash is just another conventially dysfunctional one. There's no curse, prophecy or wrathful gods working directly against them. Just the typical situation of a couple once-infatuated kids finding out they don't really know each other after their blood has cooled a bit. He tries to turn her into something she's not, they have an argument, and she goes running back to her parents. I wonder if Dunsanny is committing on real life experience (he was an actual lord after all, so he might have seen something like it happen in person) or he's doing a basic deconstruction of fairy-tale tropes (what happens after the prince carries off the princess he's never met before).

[E.T.Smith]

Other specific things I liked:

*Lirazel's ice crown. Nothing inherently magical about it, but it was a neat image of a "mundane" thing that can only practically exist in the timelessness of Elfland.

*The encounter between the troll and the hare. Couldn't tell you why I liked it, or what mood it left, but it stuck with me.

*The parable of Lirazel's incomprehension of time being like a rich woman not intuitively understanding why her poor husband would feel guilty about losing a few pounds sterling.