The King of Elfland's Daughter

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fantasy / Dunsany, Lord	4-week checkout	Due 02-05-2025
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Fantasy / Dunsany, Lord	4-week checkout	Due 01-23-2025

A young prince ventures into a mysterious forest in search of the land of Faerie and of a princess bride, in one of the landmarks of modern fantasy fiction.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Linguistic Magic submitted by Jan Wolter on July 13, 2013, 3:35pm The King of Elfland's Daughter is a exceptional example of the kind of fantasy that was being written before there was a genre called fantasy. It is a cascade of poetic imagery that brings to life not only Elfland, but the life of a village that stands among the fields we know.

There isn't much plot to tell - a prince, equipped with a magic sword forged by a surprisingly helpful witch travels into Elfand to win the hand of the King of Elfland's daughter. The quest succeeds but there are consequences for all involved. There isn't much in the way of plot twists or character development. It's a story you read for the incidents and imagery, which are purely wonderful.

Though the book is eventful and often humorous, it isn't entirely easy to read because of the poetic complexity of the language. It can't skim it. But this language is here for a reason. When the prince first steps across into Elfland, the author says "To those who may have wisely kept their fancies within the boundary of the fields we know it is difficult for me to tell of the land to which Alveric had come, so that in their minds they can see that plain with its scattered trees and far off the dark wood out of which the palace of Elfland lifted those glittering spires, and above them and beyond them that serene range of mountains whose pinnacles took no colour from any light we see." So I thought for a bit there that he was going to chicken out, but then he says, "Yet it is for this very purpose that our fancies travel far, and if my reader through fault of mine fail to picture the peaks of Elfland my fancy had better have stayed in the fields we know." And then he proceeds to give us a description of Elfland that is truly magical. It's hard to imagine any writer who uses simpler language achieving the same effect.

Lord Dunsany not only applies this language to describe the magical world, but also to describe "the fields we know" in an endlessly charming and witty manner that makes ordinary life seem as enchanting as fantasy. So the book is a delight, but you'll need to do some work, unraveling those long, complex sentences before you can savor the imagery.