N10: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Book Review!

N10: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended the writings of Lord Dunsany without specifically identifying any of his stories so I chose the 1924 novel The King of Elfland's Daughter for my review today. This story struck me as a strange tale of fantasy romance and established a clear vision of the potential sadness of elves/half-elves living in a less interesting human realm.

The Good

*The point of view switched which character the narrator followed, starting with Alveric and changing as the story evolved.

*Lord Dunsany created a great sense of intrigue, leaving me wanting to know the ending of the story and thus propelling me to continue reading this book at a rapid pace.

The Bad

*The archaic language bothered me for the first few pages, but I eventually adjusted to the poetic style of the prose.

*The middle section dragged on some.

*About ¾ of the way through the tale, the narrator revealed that the Elf King actually married a mortal as well, which made me question whether or not that made the elf princess a half-elf (instead of the elf I imagined) and the new child a quarter-elf (instead of a half-elf).

*I disliked the sudden ending, even with the foreshadowing from earlier, I wanted a less happy way for the story to close out. Why not let the characters suffer from their mistakes? With a slightly different ending, this fairy tale could end as a didactic moral tragedy.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The Elfland of this book reminds me of the fairy realm in Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, establishing yet another link to the eventual D&D Feywild.

*The trolls in this story come across more like D&D goblins or gnomes than the typical monstrous trolls in D&D stories.

*One of the characters in this story hunts unicorns.

*The story included “the will-o'-the-wisps” that dwelled in the marshes.

Overall

For my tastes, I give the work a 3/10 rating because I like the concept of the story and respect its place in the history of fantasy as a genre even though the language, the ending, and the lack of character depth annoyed me.