Status Updates From La espada rota

Ninguno de estos personajes me cae bien, quiero que todos mueran por favor

Solo diré que espero que esté protagonista sufra de todas las maneras posibles y que maten a todos esos malditos elfos arrogantes del demonio

And since this is a tragedy, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that, yes, basically everybody dies in the end. The main character dies of love because he made the mistake of falling for his sister, as they always do. Even the old gods are facing the oblivion.

But the most annoying character did not die. A shame.

Bottom line - it's still good.

Poul Anderson certainly wasn't as hesitant to employ allegory as Professor Tolkien. I didn't even see the first time around how thick he lay the analogies to Cold War and even nukes. All that's missing is Valgard getting a really awesome weapon of his own to complete the mutual destruction.

The penny drops.

Elves don't care about morality or sin, but clearly, they also don't care about the danger of recessive genes. Among us shorter-lived creatures that breed like rabbits, some things just shouldn't be done.

All that being said, I'm enjoying the poetry a good deal more than I did the first time around. I wish I had any skill for these things myself.

Valgard digs himself ever deeper. Skafloc and Freda continue to romance more or less out of nowhere. All very melodramatic, as was the style at the time. Could've used to crank it up another notch or two, make it a parody, but it's still good.