Status Updates From De koningsdochter van Elfen...

I love a pre-Hobbit fantasy classic. I can already tell this is going to be great.

Finished it. I had a hard time getting into it, but found myself really enjoying it when I let myself not focus on details and just speed read. There’s a lot of core ideas of fantasy in this book. I love the magic. It’s presented as reality. No explanations, it just is. And the parable of Alveric, Orion, and Lirazel introduces the cross-world trope that is taken on by many afterward. Cool to have read this.

Oh cool. The king of elfland married a mortal woman and Lirazel was their daughter. And. The mortal wife died which is what brought him sorry. I love the parallel

The hunting of the unicorn was surprising! I didn’t think they’d do such violence. I love Dunsany’s trolls. They’re tiny and curious. Not the evil giants of Tolkien.

The prose is so interesting in this book. It’s like reading a dream. He starts many sentences with “and”. Which creates a strange flow for me. It’s also written in a distant third person and shifts between gloss and detail very fluidly.

The story is clearly archetype too. I love the lightning sword and the runes of power. The fleeting elf land. And its loss by Almurec. The magic feels real.