Book Review - 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' by Lord Dunsany

‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’ cover

‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter is the story of the men of Erl. Although mortal men, they desired a magic lord and to please them Prince Alveric armed himself with a special sword and crossed the misty frontier into Elfland, where time and the cruelties of time are unknown.
He brought back the king’s daughter, Lirazel, who loved him and bore a son. But Lirazel was unable to forget Elfland and disappeared. Prince Alveric went in search of her, but the frontier of Elfland always receded before him.
Their son, Orion, grew up and hunted unicorns and just as Lirazel believed she would be content in Elfland for ever, she heard the sound of a horn…
For the men of Erl, who had wanted magic, came the realisation that there can be too much magic in the world.’

I bought this book many years ago, the first and only book I possess by Lord Dunsany, but haven’t read it until now.

Why didn’t I read it sooner?

My usual dilemma – not wanting to lose the thrill of that first read.

The story, set in a bygone time, begins with the men of Erl going to their lord in his castle to voice their wish to be ruled by a magic lord.

As per the rule of the land, when the people speak in parliament, so it shall be.

The lord summons his son, Alveric, and even though it is far, bids him to ‘“… go from here eastwards and pass the fields we know, till you see the lands that clearly pertain to Faery; and cross their boundary, which is made of twilight, and come to the palace that is only told of in song… and wed the King of Elfland’s daughter.”’
‘The young man thought of her beauty and crown of ice… Her name was Lirazel… a princess of the magic line…’

The old lord knows that his people have chosen foolishly and says as much to his son, but ‘“we… follow the ancient custom and do what our people in their parliament say. It may be some spirit of wisdom they have not known may save them even yet.”’

Before he sets forth, Alveric visits the witch who lives on ‘high land near the thunder’ close to the Castle of Erl.

His previous courteous action had won him her gratitude and she had told him of a sword that ‘might be made of metals not sprung from Earth, with runes along it that would waft away, certainly any thrust of earthly sword, and except for three master-runes could thwart the weapons of Elfland.’

She fashions the sword for him, and he leaves for Elfland.

The story then tells of how Alveric finds Lirazel in Elfland and brings her home, and of their lives together, the birth of their son, Orion, the events leading to Lirazel’s return to her father’s palace, and what transpires afterwards.

Lord Dunsany, whose full name and title was Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, in County Meath, Ireland, was an Anglo-Irish writer who published more than 90 books in his lifetime.

‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’, first published in Britain in 1924, became one of his best-known works despite falling into relative obscurity after it’s initial publication.

Suffice to say, I love this book.

Dunsany’s writing is almost magical, his choice of words lyrical and perfectly suited to the genre.

For me, this seemed more like a fairy tale than a fantasy, but a fairy tale for grown-ups, with themes that make you think.

Some may well find Dunsany’s style too flowery, but I found his descriptions sublime, ethereal yet, somehow, real.

Here, magic doesn’t simply exist for the sake of convenience, it permeates every aspect of the story.

As expected, there’s the magical magic of Elfland and the witch, but there’s also the ‘magic’ of those who work the land and of the hunters.

Despite not being totally fleshed out, for me, the main characters are depicted well enough for this kind of story.

It’s through the actions and reactions of the characters that we get a sense of who they are and what motivates them.

The one thing I thought Dunsany described well is the passage of time in the mortal world and in Elfland, and the effect that has on the denizens of both worlds.

Time passes for the people in Dunsany’s Earth the same way it passes for us, but in Elfland, time basically stands still; it’s as if nothing changes, which begs the question, how would the rule of a magic lord impact the lives of the people of Erl?

There’s a passage well into the book that describes the passing of time, ‘… the restlessness of Earth…’ as noticed by a creature of Elfland:
‘… after a while he perceived to his astonishment… that even the shadows of houses moved; for he saw that the shadow of the roof under which he sat had moved a little on the roof below… Perpetual movement and perpetual change! He contrasted it… with the deep calm of his home, where the moment moved more slowly than the shadows of houses here, and did not pass until all the content with which a moment is stored had been drawn from it by every creature in Elfland.’

Another thing I found interesting was how Dunsany portrayed the different worlds.

Usually, the realm of Faery is shown to be a place of immense beauty teeming with magic and wonder, and our world is very much dull, mundane and boring.

Yet, through the eyes of Lirazel, Dunsany shows us how wondrous our world is.
‘When Lirazel looked upon the fields we know… their beauty delighted her. She laughed to see the haystacks and loved their quaintness… It was early morning and the sun was shining, giving soft colours to our fields, and Lirazel rejoiced in those fields… So glad was she… that there seemed thenceforth to Alveric a beauty that he had never dreamed of in buttercups, and a humour in carts that he never had thought of before. Each moment she found… some treasure of Earth’s that he had not known to be fair…’

A couple more examples of Dunsany’s style and descriptions, which highlights the ‘magic’ of the 2 hunters who mentor the young Orion.

There’s Oth ‘with his bow and his soft noiseless sandals, and his brown garments of leather…’
‘So softly Oth entered the wood that the blackbirds that guarded it… did not flee at his coming, but only uttered slowly their warning notes… and were never sure if a man had broken the charm of the wood. Into that charm and the gloom and the deep silence Oth moved gravely; and a solemness came on his face as he entered the wood; for to go on quiet feet through the wood was the work of his life, and he came to it as men come to their heart’s desire.’

And Threl who was not like Oth; ‘… he spoke of the things that he guessed in the deep of the wood and in the dark of time, the fables of men and of beasts; and especially he cared to tell the fables of the foxes and badgers, which he had come by from watching their ways at the falling of dusk… he sat… gazing into the fire, telling reminiscently of the ancient ways of the dwellers in bracken and bramble…’

While I did love reading this and will, no doubt, re-read it countless times, there is one part I did not enjoy, which I won’t be re-reading, and that’s to do with unicorns being hunted.

Dunsany’s descriptions of unicorns are beautifully majestic, I’d say one of the best descriptions of unicorns I’ve read, but he doesn’t hold back in the way they’re hunted and, eventually, killed… not my cup of tea.

In a way, ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’ reminded me of Tolkien’s ‘The Silmarillion’ – not in the scope of the latter, but more the lyrical style of writing and the feeling of losing myself in a time and place filled with magic yet tempered with loss and the inevitable consequences of one’s actions.

I’ll end with more of Dunsany’s words, referring to Orion who has grown, learning ‘the art of Oth, and… the cunning of Threl… And little he knew of the things that ink may do, how it can mark a dead man’s thought for the wonder of later years, and tell of happenings that are gone clean away, and be a voice for us out of the dark of time, and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of heavy ages; or carry to us, over the rolling centuries, even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills.’