Week-End Update: Into the Archives

 

Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881 – 5 June 1965) was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Several of her works had illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Her work is cited as an influence by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. In discussing his introduction to poetry, Stephen Fry cited Farjeon's poems for children alongside those of A. A. Milne and Lewis Carroll as "hardy annuals from the garden of English verse." Farjeon's most widely published work is the hymn "Morning has Broken", written in 1931 to an old Gaelic tune , which in 1971 became an international hit when performed by Cat Stevens.” – Wikipedia [abstracted].  The Little Book Room is her selection of her favorite stories, republished here in the New York Review Children’s Collection series. “Morning Has Broken” has long been one of my favorite songs; I only found out she had written it when I got the book.

The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie, by George Macdonald. (1872 & 1883) Although I have paperbacks of these books, they are rather old and the print is small (The Goblin, an Airmont Classic, actually has the original Arthur Hughes line illustrations). I also have the books on my Kindle. Those were free, so come with all the misspellings and degraded text that implies. I’ve been looking for good new reading copies, and this softcover double seemed to fit the bill. What put it over for me was that it claimed to be annotated. This, however, did not turn out to be the case (always read those reviews on Amazon). There are only six pages at the back, consisting of a very short biography and a bibliography. Although the cover looks like a Warwick Goble, the interior illustrations are by Jessie Wilcox Smith (Goblin; rather muddy black and white reproductions of the original color plates) and James Allen (Curdie; line illustration). I suspect the whole shebang was reprinted straight from Project Gutenberg. Still, it is a very good reading copy, and I am glad (if not wholly satisfied) to have it.

I posted a while back about Song of the Dwarves (1988) by Thorarinn Gunnarsson and how attracted I was by the cover by Keith Parkinson. Finding that copies were relatively inexpensive I went ahead and sent off for one, as well as with its sequel, Revenge of the Valkyrie (1989). “Thorarinn Gunnarsson is the pseudonym of an American author of science fiction and fantasy. For several years, he claimed to be of Icelandic birth but eventually admitted that this (along with much of his biography) was false.” – Wikipedia. Song turns out to be a competent retelling of Norse mythology from the creation down to Fafnir claiming the Rhinegold and turning into a dragon. The sequel, Revenge, takes up and finishes the Ring Cycle; it has not arrived yet.

I had been noting that there were a few gaps in my collection of cheesy Eighties Fantasy films, so I sent off for Ladyhawke (1985) and The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), both of which I have not seen for years. I wondered if my opinions about them would change with a new viewing, but no, not so far. Ladyhawke, the better film, is still marred by its synthesizer soundtrack, chrome plated swords, and what I can only call too-modern 1980’s attitudes (which have aged none too well) transposed onto a medieval background. Yes, it’s a fantasy, but good fantasy is grounded in reality, and the movie is supposed to be set in the Middle Ages. Surely some middle way could have been found. As for The Sword and the Sorcerer, I have not been able to pluck up the courage to even attempt it yet; ‘the memory is very evil.’ However, I do think I need these movies for … well, scholarly and historical reasons.

Thinking about old fantasy movies brought up from the dark backward abysm of time the fleeting memories of a failed series pilot movie, The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire (aka Fugitive from the Empire, aka The Archer and the Sorceress) (1981). That was the year I graduated from high school. I remember going to watch it on tape at our old friend and Creative Writing teacher Mr. Fleming’s house. It had the becoming-familiar trio of adventurous Hero, lowly but talented Rogue, and snooty-but-melting Ice Princess. They were on the run trying to gather Items of Power to defeat the Evil Empire that threatened the Free Nomadic tribes, yadda yadda yoda. The Hero has a dead Mentor who passed onto him a powerful weapon. This is the Heartbow, which can turn any arrow fired by it into an exploding missile. The Empire has serpent-people in their employ. While the effects were of a low TV grade, prosthetics and make-up are remembered fondly by some; but for me, George Kennedy as King Balkus just makes me balk. In the US, there was only a VHS release in the 80’s; it has been more popular abroad, and there was a DVD release in Germany. It has a mild cult following, and like most cults appears inexplicable to those outside.