The King of Elfland's Daughter in Into the Forest

Jan 04, 2016 Jalilah rated it liked it

This book is important for its historical significance. If one is expecting a fast paced epic fantasy they will be in for a disappointment. In my case it is not at all that I only want to read action packed stories. However for novel length books I prefer more in depth characters. One dimensional characters do not bother me in tales, but I expect more in novels.
I find I would have enjoyed the style of writing in this novel had it been shorter. I do appreciate the language and also the fact that ...more

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Aug 15, 2013 Eric Orchard rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fairy-tales-and-ghosts, fantasy, appendix-n

I first found this book in a social collections room at university. It was a first edition with uncut pages. A pretty magical reading experience.

A simple story but full of wonder and mystery. Definitely a different approach to fantasy, with ornate imagery and a sense of decadence and magic but with a simplicity of language, like a King James Bible. About a mortal prince who travels to Faery to bring back "magic" for his kingdom. ...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Merinde rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, folklore-fairytale-inspired, fantasy, fiction

This is a work of astonishing lyrical beauty. It was about magic, mortality, love and many other things, but in a very subtle way. I can understand how some people could be fooled into thinking it is about nothing at all, with its meandering, beautiful prose and lack of straightforward plot. Their loss.

One of my favourite bits: "Between the spirits of Alveric and Lirazel lay all the distance there is between Earth and Elfland; and love bridged the distance, which can bridge further than that; y This is a work of astonishing lyrical beauty. It was about magic, mortality, love and many other things, but in a very subtle way. I can understand how some people could be fooled into thinking it is about nothing at all, with its meandering, beautiful prose and lack of straightforward plot. Their loss.

One of my favourite bits: "Between the spirits of Alveric and Lirazel lay all the distance there is between Earth and Elfland; and love bridged the distance, which can bridge further than that; yet when for a moment on the golden bridge he would pause and let his thoughts look down at the gulf, all his mind would grow giddy and Alveric trembled. What of the end, he thought? And feared lest it should be stranger than the beginning."

Humans wanting what they don't have and not wanting it when they have it was both heartbreaking and hilarious affair. Lirazel praying to the reflection of the stars in a pool because Alveric won't let her pray to the stars themselves, always wanting her to be more human and assume his customs. Then seeking only Elfland and shunning everything human for years when she has disappeared, wandering with a bunch of madmen, no longer any part of society. The human parliament who first ordered more magic and so started the whole thing, only to want it driven away when they actually had it.

There is much more that could be said about this book but...for now I'll just stop at saying it painted some gorgeous mental images. Absolutely beautiful. Elfland leaving behind lost bits of childhood as it recedes from some stark empty place, madmen keeping Alveric from his love because the enchantment he could find would make them uninteresting in comparison. The descriptions of the deep colours of Elfland, like the colours of the world reflected in a still pool on a summer's day.

"And as the fancies raged and sang and called, more and more over the border, all crowding on one poor mind, her body grew lighter and lighter. Her feet half rested half floated, upon the floor; Earth scarcely held her down, so fast was she becoming a thing of dreams."

It was beautiful.

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