Summary by Gregory Thornquest

Before Lewis opened the wardrobe to Narnia and Tolkien sent Bilbo to lead us to Middle Earth, Lord Dunsany created Alveric to take us to Elfland in The King of Elfland’s Daughter. It is a land beyond the edge of the fields we know, passed the twilight, filled with deep colors and an elfish glow. The pale-blue peaks of the Elfin Mountains pull us eastward to a world of poetic literature and supernatural fantasy.

The theme of an adventurous desire for more permeates throughout the novel. We see this in a parliament of 12 men complaining they have “no new thing” and asking to be ruled by a magic lord, and in a man restlessly searching for his wife who is lost in a timeless place. This desire for difference continues with a group of trolls leaving the safety of home to explore their dangerous curiosities, and the longing of a mother to be reunited with her son in a foreign land her heart has grown to love.

While journeying through the chapters of this book one must question the intentions of their own internal desires. Are our goals, desires, and longings for the purity of love or to be “known among men”.  And what if we were to achieve our desires from youth? Would we celebrate our accomplishment or would the wisdom of age convince us we were wrong all along?