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The Novels of Lord Dunsany

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The Novels of Lord Dunsany Volume 7 Number 3 Article 14 10-15-1980 The Novels of Lord Dunsany Darrell Schweitzer Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Schweitzer, Darrell (1980) "The Novels of Lord Dunsany," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 7 : No. 3 , Article 14. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol7/iss3/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Critical interpretation of Dunsany’s novels, in chronological order, excerpted from the author’s book, Pathways to Elfland. Excerpt from: Schweitzer, Darrel. Pathways to Elfland: The ritingsW of Lord Dunsany. Philadelphia: Owlswick Press, 1989. Additional Keywords Dunsany, Lord. Novels—Critical interpretation This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol7/iss3/14 THE NOVELS OF LROD DUNSANY DARRELL SCHWEITZER An excerpt from the f orthcoming “book, PATHWAYS TO ELFLAND, in fact in a short story may be fairly intense, as in a play, whereas there is room far a certain amount of rambling in a novel. In the early 1920's Lord Dunsany, until then primarily (While the Sirens Slept, p. 38) a short-story writer and playwright, became dissatisfied with the meagre recognition he was receiving. So he turned to The trouble, then, is in Dunsany's conception of what novels, hoping to do better. In doing so, he encountered a novel is. A novel also needs compactness. Its greater the usual problems' of a short story writer trying to write length demands that there be more substance than there is in novels. It took him a while to learn that a novel is not a short story, not that the same amount be spread out thin. the same as a short story, only longer. Dunsany later stated that he saw novels as being about 70,000 words long. Obviously he wrote to that length, then A case in point is his first, The Chronicles of stopped, without paying much heed to the internal needs of Rodriguez (1922), which suffers for want of any overall plot the material at hand. Content should dictate length, not structure. It is little more than a chain of separate the other way around. Even writing as beautiful as events strung together on the slightest excuse. But, as Dunsany's can tire the reader after a while. The book might be expected from Dunsany, it has its strengths. would have benefitted from judicious trimming. The Chronicles introduce the typical protagonist of The same is true of his second novel, The King of Dunsany's novels, the naive young man who knows very little Elfland's Daughter (1924), which is s till his most famous about the real world but has a head fu ll of romantic notions. one. It would have been a masterpiece at half the length. Just as typically, the world fa ils to meet his expectations More u n if ie d than R odriguez, i t s t i l l b ogs down in an e x c e s s at first, but ultim ately events somehow manage to fa ll into of the inconsequential. place so that he isn 't too disappointed. One very definite advance in Daughter is an ability to Our hero is a Spaniard, Don Rodriguez, "son of the make the best of the thematic material. Don Rodriguez only, Lord of the Valleys of Argento Harez, whose heights see not occasionally touches on what it is actually about, without Va lladolid," who is bequeathed a sword and a mandolin by his exploring the differences between romantic preconceptions dying father and commanded to seek glory, romance, and adven­ and the real world in any depth. But in his second novel, ture. His brother, a b it of a dullard, gets the family Dunsany produced a fu ll treatment of his major subject, estates. In the space of twelve chapters, Rodriguez manages which might be dubbed The Loss of Elfland. to acquire a castle, a beautiful wife, and a Sancho Panza- like sidekick. He even rights a few wrongs, as a noble F irst, what does he mean by "Elfland"? It is more knight of romance should, even though sometimes he succeeds than just a country inhabited by elves. It is a timeless through sheer luck or the incompetence of his opponents. realm beyond "the frontier of tw ilight." One can see that frontier in the east sometimes in the glow of dawn, or more The story is Dunsany's version of Don Quixote. save often in the deeping shadows of evening. Elfland is filled that Dunsany has neither the heart nor the inclination to with unearthly beauty, "which may only be told of in song," burlesque romantic fiction with the ferocity of Cervantes. a ll created out of the mind of the Elfking, who is thus He is fully aware that life isn 't the way Rodriguez thinks more a god than a monarch, and on whose mental calm the it is, but seems to be gently saying, "Well wouldn't it be peace of his domain depends. At one point the place is com­ nice?" As a result, things end happily, even if the author pared to a deep, dim pool, in which fishes lie still. A must result to blatant string-pulling to make them do so. disturbance sends ripples throughout a ll the land, When our hero has captured a knight who turns out to be a fake, and thus has no castle with which to ransom him self, Elfland is both a place and a state of existence. It rather than leave Rodriguez forlorn, Dunsany brings in a d o esn ' t conform to mundane r u le s o f geography or a n y th in g bunch of outlaws, who seem to be strays from the Robin Hood else. ' If the King chooses, he can withdraw it so far from cycle, to build him a castle at the last minute. Thus, when mortal lands that the intervening stretch "would weary a a ll possibilities have been exhausted, and dreams seem comet," and then let it flow back like "the tide over fla t dashed, all is set right, just for sentimental reasons. It s a n d ." may very well be the whole point of the book that a deus ex machi na i s r e q u ir e d . It is also a liberalized, multiplex metaphor for the imagination, for the lost innocence of childhood, for every­ Some of the individual episodes are very good. There thing which lies beyond our grasp. At one point Alveric, is a v isit to a sinister inn where one pulls a rope for the the hero, while wandering through the wasteland le ft after doorbell and hears a scream, the rope being attached to a the King has pulled his borders back far from Earth, finds hook embedded in some unfortunate. After putting an end to an old toy which had been broken and discarded many years the host's poor hospitality, Rodriguez and his companion before. He also hears faint bits of old songs lingering in come upon a p r o fe s so r o f m agic, who sen d s t h e ir s p i r i t s to the air. When he grows, older and settles down with ah the surface of the sun in a stunning burst of imagery. The ordinary wife and thinks only of making a living, he ceases magician's house is fascinating. Unfortunately the whole to dream and thus loses the vision of Elfland. He can no sequence has nothing whatever to do with the overall story. longer see the Elfin Mountains when he looks eastward at dawn or sunset. All that is for youth, he says. Many of the episodes could almost stand as short stories, which suggests that Dunsany was not completely at ease with the idea of writing a novel. He remarked that he Since most of Dunsany's novels following this one deal preferred short stories: with the progressive loss of the vision, obviously the idea meant something to him. An autobiographical interpretation ...it appears to me that in a page of a short is certainly possible. He was forty-six when he wrote story there must be more art than in a page The King of Elfland's Daughter, which is not exactly young. of a novel, just as in a square inch of an The war was between him and that fir st, exuberantly imagin­ ivory carving there is more art than in a ative phase of his career. His enchanted dreams were square inch of a wall of a palace: everything slipping away, but, brilliantly, rather than write weaker 39 and weaker sto rie s, h e tu rn e d th is v e ry to be self-consciously poetical is at fault.
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