Magic in The King of Elflands Daughter - Essay Example

Teacher What is in  Load Dunsany’s The King of Elflands Daughter The novel King of Elflands Daughter was first published in 1924 and was considered as one of the pioneers in the fantasy genre of novels. Themes such as magic and fantasy in a novel were first introduced in this novel. King of Elflands Daughter was composed in archaic language perhaps due to the fact that it was written in the early 1900s where the earlier writing style of 18th century was still evident. It was also written in lyrical prose which added to the charm of magic which is the novel’s theme. Magic is the main theme of Load Dunsany’s fantasy novel. In the introduction of the novel of Lord Dunsany, he explained that The King of Elfland’s Daugter is a book about magic; about the perils of inviting magic into your life; about the magic that can be found in the mundane world, and the distant, fearful, changeless magic of Elfland (Dunsany xii). Indeed magic took varying form during the course of the novel and assumed different meanings. In the beginning of the novel, magic meant the folly of the people of Elk when they demanded that magic should rule them. The Lord of Elk cannot help but raise concern about the folly of this demand for magic to rule them yet he cannot refuse the demand because it was coursed through its parliament. What was more interesting was the manner on how the magic will be acquired. That is, “To wed the King of Elfland’s daughter. . . She was a princess of the magic line. The gods has sent their shadows to her christening, and the fairies would have gone, but that they were frightened to see on their dew fields the long dark moving shadows of the gods, so they stayed hidden in the crowds of pale pink anemones, and thence blessed Lirazel”(Dunsany 2). They acted with hubris that it was as if the Kingdom of Elfland was under their command to demand marriage of a princess just to serve their whim of being ruled by magic. The lord of Elk did not hide his disgust with the folly of his people saying that; "My people demand a magic lord to rule over them. They have chosen foolishly,. . . and only the Dark Ones that show not their faces know all that this will bring: but we, who see not, 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” (Dunsany 3). Naturally, Alveric, the son of the Lord of Erl was helpless but yield to it for it was a demand of the parliament and from then on, magic became a part of the everyday life of the city to the point that they have magic more than what they can handle. When magic became just too much for the kingdom, magic is no longer an amusement but a source of fear and anxiety. In this passage, magic meant fear in the novel King of Elflands Daughter and the consequence was not necessarily desirable. In the novel, Lord Dunsany cautioned “be careful of what you wished for” because it might come true only not to the liking of those who wished or demanded for it (the magic). Magic did not only bring fear in Lord Dunsany’s novel. Initially, there was a sense of wanderlust of this new supernatural nature that the parliament of Alveric had wished for. Clearly, magic in the Lord Dunsany’s King of Elflands Daughter also meant amusement as enunciated with Alveric’s first discovery of the deep lucency of the colours of the trees and flowers in Elfland that reflects in their waters. The process of procuring the Magic in itself was also magical in a romantic way and the romance between Alveric and Lirazel also meant magic. It is a sort of story that great romances are made of where they are sought from distant places under almost impossible circumstances. Alveric, son of the Lord of Erl, dared into the perilous and unknown kingdom of Elfland armed only with a magical sword given by the witch Ziroonderel to acquire magic that would rule his land. There he found Lirazel, who was the daughter of the King of Elfland and under the watchful eyes of his father. He wooed her and eventually became his love, got married and they eloped. On their way back to earth, Alveric with his elven princess has to fight through the traps and dangers of magic in an epic proportion. Magic here was the love that enveloped between a human and an elven princess that they have to fight for it for them to be together. Magic also meant a tool with the sword given to Alveric by the witch Ziroonderel so that he could survive as he ventured into the magical realm of Elfland. The sword was magical because it was made of thunderbolt iron that enabled Alveric to prevail over the hostilities in Elfland. Upon surviving Elfland, Magic came in the form of romance to the proportion of Arwen and Aragorn’s love story of The Lord of the Rings which may have been inspired by the Lord Dunsany’s novel itself. The Magic of Romance consummated with a human and an elven eloping and fighting on their way back to Earth. Alveric and Lirazel’s marriage produced an offspring which was also magical. Their child was named Orion after the magical set of stars and grew up to be an excellent hunter (Dunsany 105). Orion’s fascination with hunting could have been normal only that he wanted to hunt unicorns. In the process of the hunt, other supernatural creatures were also inadvertently hunted such as troll and People of the Marshes. In this regard, Magic followed the path of consequentialism of mortals that in every action there is a reaction. Alveric and Lirazel’s marriage produced an offspring and since one of the parents came from the magic world, it follows that the child will also be magical. In this part of the novel, magic followed the natural course of mortals and could mean that there is something that the world of Elf and human share which is the law of consequences. In the end, nature took over in the novel King of Elflands Daughter. It proved that magic and Alveric’s world are incompatible. Lirazel had difficulty assimilating in the mortal world. She may have loved Alveric in magical proportion to the point that she deserted her kingdom and tried to belong in Alveric’s world, but it just did not work because it is not her place. In fact, her attempt to assimilate with Alveric was found to be disgusting by Alveric as worshipping the stars and the trees belonged only to the heathens. The couple eventually separated and both became lonely. Alveric became lovesick and left his Kingdom to embark on another conquest to find Lirazel. Lirazel on the other hand became lonely being separated from her husband and son. The King of Elfland seeing that his daughter became unhappy from the separation used his magic for the couple to become together again. He knew that the circumstances of the couple would make it impossible for them to be happy together because they belonged in different worlds with different circumstances. For them to be reunited, he consummated the demand of the parliament of Elk not only to be ruled by magic but to become a land of magic. The King of Elfland transformed Elk as part of Elfland and became a part of magic world so that his daughter Lirazel and Alveric will be reunited. In effect, the wish of Elk’s parliament was more than granted when they were transformed to become part of magic as a province of Elfland. In the conclusion of the novel King of Elflands Daughter, Lord Dunsany conveyed the message about magic to be careful in wishing for it, because it just might come true. Work Cited Dunsany, Lord. The The King of Elflands Daughter. G. P. Putnams Sons. 1924 Read More