Orlion reviewed The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Review of "The King of Elfland's daughter" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
It's funny how the public perception of how genres develop is almost entirely wrong. This becomes very clear with the fantasy genre when one reads this tale from 1924. It becomes quite clear upon finishing this novel that Tolkien did not invent/birth the modern fantasy genre, Lord Dunsany did. Many of the themes in Lord of the Rings seem to be lifted from this one novel, and seeing how Lord Dunsany was very prevalent during his time and wrote many short stories and plays of a fantastical nature, it is possible that he has the greatest unknown influence on speculative writers today than any but the bare folk tales.
All the big first generation fantasy writers were influenced by Dunsany. It simply can not be denied once you read this and them. Tolkien, Morcock, and even Mervyn Peake exhibit themes, ideas, or writing styles that are present in this quaint …
It's funny how the public perception of how genres develop is almost entirely wrong. This becomes very clear with the fantasy genre when one reads this tale from 1924. It becomes quite clear upon finishing this novel that Tolkien did not invent/birth the modern fantasy genre, Lord Dunsany did. Many of the themes in Lord of the Rings seem to be lifted from this one novel, and seeing how Lord Dunsany was very prevalent during his time and wrote many short stories and plays of a fantastical nature, it is possible that he has the greatest unknown influence on speculative writers today than any but the bare folk tales.
All the big first generation fantasy writers were influenced by Dunsany. It simply can not be denied once you read this and them. Tolkien, Morcock, and even Mervyn Peake exhibit themes, ideas, or writing styles that are present in this quaint little novel... and apparently a host of other writers, including Arthur C Clarke and Jack Vance, were influenced by Dunsany's other-worldly tales.
And that is where a lot of the charm and poetry in this novel come from: Dunsany is able to portray other-worlds, strange worlds, with inhabitants with different viewpoints, thinking patterns, and even physics. All this is presented in a masterfully told fairie tale that seems to be about much more...
It is a shame that nowadays, Lord Dunsany is mostly associated with being a major influence on H. P. Lovecraft. Though true, it gives a much different connotation to his writings, one with horrific undertones. That is not really the case with this novel. There is a lot of passion and emotion in the reading, sure, but there is absolutely nothing in the way of other-worldly horrors in this novel. As a result, the intended audience is much larger than most of the work of Lovecraft and should be given prominence. Not as a precursor of cosmic horror, but as a pinnacle of fantasy literature so few other works have even been able to scale, let alone pass.
