Описание
A young man crosses into a realm where time does not move and magic is as natural as breath. He wins the heart of an immortal princess and brings her back to the mortal world. And in doing so, sets in motion a longing that neither world can contain.
Written in 1924, The King of Elfland's Daughter tells the story of Alveric, sent by his father to bring back a bride from beyond the fields we know — from Elfland itself, where the air shimmers with enchantment and human years pass like moments. He finds Lirazel, the King of Elfland's daughter, and she follows him home. But Elfland does not release its own so easily.
At the heart of this novel is a collision of two irreconcilable worlds: the eternal and the mortal, the magical and the mundane, the wild and the domesticated. Lirazel cannot fully belong to Erl, just as Alveric cannot follow her back into the shimmering beyond. Their love is real — and it is not enough. This tension, explored with aching clarity and melancholy beauty, gives the novel a depth that goes far beyond the surface of a fairy tale.
Dunsany writes in prose that reads like poetry — unhurried, incantatory, rich with imagery drawn from myth and dream. His Elfland is not a place of escapism but a mirror for the human condition: our hunger for the transcendent, our fear of what lies beyond the known, and the quiet grief of belonging nowhere completely.
A foundational work of fantasy literature that shaped Tolkien, Le Guin, and generations of writers who followed, this novel rewards both first-time readers and those returning to it — always revealing something new about desire, identity, and the boundaries between worlds.
