The Elfstones of Shannara
From The World of Shannara
The Elfstones of Shannara is an epic fantasy[1][2] novel by Terry Brooks. It is the first sequel to The Sword of Shannara and the second book in The Original Shannara Trilogy. It provides the history of the Elves, which was only hinted at in the preceding story, and follows Wil Ohmsford, grandson of Shea (the hero of the first book) and inheritor of the Elfstones.
The novel intertwines two plotlines: the quest of Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil to find Safehold and create a new Ellcrys, and the attempt by the Elven army and their allies to slow the Demons to give them time to find it.
| The Elfstones of Shannara | |
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| 1982 First Edition Cover | |
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| Author: | Terry Brooks |
| Cover Artist: | Darrell K. Sweet |
| Series: | Original Shannara Trilogy |
| Genre(s): | Epic fantasy[1][2] |
| Publisher: | Del Rey Books |
| Publication date: | 1982 |
| Pages: | 469 pp |
| ISBN: | ISBN 0-345-30253-2 (First edition) |
| Preceded By: | The Sword of Shannara |
| Followed by: | The Wishsong of Shannara |
Contents |
Plot Summary
The Beginning
The Elstones of Shannara begins with the morning ritual of the Chosen in care of the magical sapient tree in the Gardens of Life. Lauren is horrified to discover that there is wilt on the tree, and shortly afterwards the Ellcrys speaks all of the Chosen telling them of her impending death. She tells them of the need for a rebirth, a process which will enable a new Ellcrys to be born and to maintain The Forbidding keeping the Demons trapped. This rebirth can only happen through carrying one of her seeds to a fountain at the Bloodfire. Lauren informs the Elven Prince Ander Elessedil, together they inform the Eleven King Eventine Elessedil of the matter. However, there is no one who knows of the location of the Bloodfire. A search in the ancient Elven library reveals one reference to the Bloodfire. It states that it lies in a place named "Safehold".
Elsewhere in the early dawn, the powerful demon, the Dagda Mor breaks through the Forbidding, bringing with him the Reaper and the Changeling. Aware of the possibility of a rebirth of the Ellcrys, the Dagda Mor sends the two demons to kill the Chosen.
The Last Chosen is found
The Druid Allanon appeared and went to the ancient Druid keep, Paranor, in an attempt to locate Safehold. After learning its location, Allanon was ambushed by the Dagda Mor and a handful of Furies.
He retreated to Storlock for a time, and then went to Havenstead with Wil Ohmsford--who is a Healer, a descendant of Jerle Shannara and bearer of the Elfstones--to find Amberle Elessedil, who is King Eventine's granddaughter and a Chosen, who abandoned her duty to the Ellcrys and fled the Elven capital, Arborlon. She eventually agreed to return to Arborlon with them, only giving in when Demon Wolves were closing in upon them.
Ambushed by Demons and the Beginning of the Quest
En route, close to the Silver River, Allanon, Amberle and Wil were ambushed by Demon wolves. Allanon fended off the Demons while Wil and Amberle escaped to safety. The King of the Silver River took them in and sheltered them just before they would have been caught; after talking with him, the duo managed to regroup with Allanon and return to Arborlon. Amberle received a seed from the dying Ellcrys and prepared to go to Safehold with Wil, six Elven companions and the Captain of the Home Guard, Crispin.
After they journeyed by boat to the Elven outpost at Drey Wood, however, the group found the entire garrison that had been stationed at the outpost dead--and the Reaper, who had killed all of them. They managed to escape by setting off down the river once more, but two of the Elven guards were ran down and killed in the process. The party then goes to the Matted Brakes, where another two of the group are killed by a unknown massive creature. After escaping from the Brakes, the remaining group of five found themselves at an ancient Elven fortress named Pykon. The group made the decision to rest the night there, but the Reaper found them again and killed the final two Elven hunters. Wil and Amberle ran into the network of tunnels inside of the Pykon to try to find Crispin, who had gone into there to try to find a way out. Wil and Amberle finally lost the Reaper by destroying a bridge over a gorge, but they lost Crispin as well. The duo met the young Wing Rider Perk soon after, who agreed to take them into the Wilderun on his Roc, Genewen.
"Good" versus "Evil"
Meanwhile, Allanon and the Elves went to war with the Demons, beginning the War of the Forbidding. The Elven army took up two positions in two mountain passes named Halys Cut and Worl Run. Having no weapons, the Demons used human-wave tactics in the ensuing battles and literally ran over the Elven army, even managing to injure King Eventine. Ander's brother, Arion Elessedil, was killed as well in Worl Run. Defeated, the Elven force retreated first to Baen Draw, successfully defending it until it was discovered that they were being flanked. They then retreated to Arborlon, their last line of defense. In the process, they lost their commander, Kael Pindanon. Shortly after their return to Arborlon, Dwarf and Troll contingents joined them, uniting banners from all four of the Four Lands for the first time in history.
The Hollows
Amberle and Wil traveled to the Hollows, domain of the Witch Sisters, but they found out that the Elfstones were stolen by Cephelo, a Rover. Wil leaves Amberle and pursued Cephelo. Eretria, daughter of Cephelo, helped Wil to locate Cephelo only to find that he and the rest of his followers were killed by the Reaper. Wil regained the Elfstones and traveled back to the rim of the Hollows with Eretria. He found Amberle missing. Hebel appeared and agreed to track Amberle for Wil. Together with Hebel's dog, Drifter, they tracked Amberle to Mallenroh's tower. Mallenroh captured them and decided to keep the Elfstones for herself , locking them up.
After the Witch Sisters fought and killed each other, Wil, Eretria, Hebel, and Drifter escaped with Amberle, the Elfstones, and Mallenroh's servant, Wisp; who brings them to the Bloodfire. Amberle absorbs both the Bloodfire and the seed of the Ellcrys. The Reaper attacks them and kills Wisp, but Wil destroyed him by focusing the power of the Elfstones upon his cloaked face. Wil had Amberle call Perk, who brought Wil, Amberle and Eretria back to Arborlon.
The Siege of Arborlon
By this point, the Demons had begun a full frontal assault upon Arborlon. Despite desperate attempts to blunt the attacks, the seven gates fell one by one to the superior numbers of the Demons. The Demons eventually broke through the last of the Elven capital's major defenses (the seventh gate). At this point, Allanon engaged and defeated the Dagda Mor in a titanic battle while the forces of "good", now severely depleted, regrouped at their last line of defense: the Gardens of Life, where the Ellcrys resided. The Demons tried to reach the Ellcrys to destroy her, but they were held back by those forces of "good" just long enough so that Wil and Amberle could fly in. Amberle touched the dead Ellcrys and was transformed into the new Ellcrys; and with this action, Amberle restored the Forbidding, banishing the Demons back to their alternate universe.
Characters
Main characters
- Allanon
- Amberle Elessedil
- Ander Elessedil
- Changeling (demon)
- Dagda Mor (demon)
- Ellcrys
- Eretria
- Eventine Elessedil
- The Reaper (demon)
- Stee Jans
- Wil Ohmsford
Minor characters
- Amantar
- Arion Elessedil
- Artaq (horse)
- Browork
- Cephelo
- Cormac
- Crispin
- Dancer (roc)
- Dardan
- Dayn (Wing Rider; Perk's uncle)
- Dilph
- Drifter (dog)
- Ehlron Tay
- Emer Chios
- Flick Ohmsford
- Flyn
- Gael
- Genewen (roc)
- Hebel
- Herrol
- Jase
- Kael Pindanon
- Katsin
- Kerrin
- Kian
- King of the Silver River
- Kobold
- Lauren
- Manx (dog)
- Mallenroh
- Morag
- Ped
- Perk
- Rhoe
- Rin
- Spitter (horse)
- Went
- Wisp
Film Adaptation
The rights to a movie adaptation for all of the Shannara novels have been sold to Warner Bros until 2010.[3] The Elfstones of Shannara, the first planned movie,[3] will be filmed and directed by Mike Newell,[4] who was also responsible for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.[5] This movie is expected to start filming in 2008 and finished sometime during 2009. The Elfstones of Shannara will probably be followed by an adaptation of The Sword of Shannara in 2010 or so.[3][6] Note that the sequence of the movies differ from the sequence of the books, although Terry Brooks believes that this is the best starting place for adapting the Shannara novels.[3]
References
- ^ 1.0 1.1 "Once Over" (Nov. 1977). The English Journal 66 (8): 82. National Council of Teachers of English.
- ^ 2.0 2.1 Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Terry Brooks' official website". Retrieved on 2008-05-19
- ^ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Speakman, Shawn (2008). "Terry Brooks Movies, on his official site". Retrieved on 2008-07-22.
- ^ The Elfstones of Shannara (2009)
- ^ Mike Newell at IMDB.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1047529/ The Sword of Shannara (2010)
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at The Elfstones of Shannara. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with The World of Shannara, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |
| Characters in The Elfstones of Shannara |
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Allanon · Amberle Elessedil · Ander Elessedil · Changeling · Dagda Mor · Eventine Elessedil · Reaper · Stee Jans · Wil Ohmsford · Minor Characters |
| Novels of Terry Brooks’ Shannara universe | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| | ||||
| Book I | Book II | Book III | Book IV | |
| | ||||
| Word & Void : | Running with the Demon | A Knight of the Word | Angel Fire East | |
| Genesis of Shannara : | Armageddon's Children | The Elves of Cintra | The Gypsy Morph | |
| Legends of Shannara : | Bearers of the Black Staff | The Measure of the Magic | ||
| Prequel to Shannara : | First King of Shannara | |||
| Original Shannara Trilogy : | The Sword of Shannara | The Elfstones of Shannara | The Wishsong of Shannara | |
| The Heritage of Shannara : | The Scions of Shannara | The Druid of Shannara | The Elf Queen of Shannara | The Talismans of Shannara |
| The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara : | Ilse Witch | Antrax | Morgawr | |
| High Druid of Shannara : | Jarka Ruus | Tanequil | Straken | |
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| Shannara in The World of Shannara | ||||
| Characters — Creatures — Events — Places — Objects | ||||
