Book of Enchantments
Encyclopedia
Book of Enchantments is a collection of short stories by fantasy
author
Patricia C. Wrede
. It was first published in hardcover by Harcourt Brace in 1996, and was subsequently issued in paperback by Point Fantasy in 1998 and in trade paperback by Magic Carpet Books in 2005. Five of the stories had appeared previously in the anthologies Liavek: The Players of Luck
(Ace Books
, 1986), edited by Will Shetterly
and Emma Bull
, The Unicorn Treasury (Doubleday, 1988), edited by Bruce Coville
, Tales of the Witch World 3 (Tor Books
, 1990), edited by Andre Norton
, A Wizard’s Dozen (Harcourt Brace, 1993), edited by Michael Stearns
, and Black Thorn, White Rose
(Morrow AvoNova, 1994), edited by Ellen Datlow
and Terri Windling
.
The book collects ten fantasy stories by Wrede, together with a recipe associated with one of the stories and notes by the author concerning the inspiration of some of the stories. Two of the tales are set in the shared worlds
of Will Shetterley and Emma Bull's Liavek
("Rikiki and the Wizard") and Andre Norton's Witch World
("The Sword-Seller"). Two stories ("The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn" and "Utensile Strength") are set in the world of Wrede's own Enchanted Forest Chronicles
. Two ("Stronger than Time" and "The Lorelei") are retellings, or alternate versions of traditional fairy or folk tales. One ("Cruel Sisters") is based on a folk song, a variant of The Twa Sisters
, that Wrede once heard performed by Loreena McKennitt
as The Bonny Swans. McKennitt's change to a particular line ("and he had daughters, one, two three...") inspired Wrede to write the story from the third daughter's point of view.
A humorous story about a successful wizard, who, seeking everlasting fame and wealth, offers his beautiful daughter in marriage to whichever god helps him achieve his goal. The god who answers is a blue chipmunk named Rikki. Rikki only wants to eats nuts, and while the wizard has no patience for him, his daughter feeds him some chestnuts. Rikki, in gratitude for the daughter's kindness, gives her the ability to produce gold chestnuts from the empty chestnut bag. He also agrees to make the wizard famous forever. The gold chestnuts turn into real chestnuts when the wizard picks them up, as does everything else he touches. He soon becomes a laughingstock, unable to live down his reputation.
Princess Elyssa's happy home life (i.e., a kind father, loving step-mother, and friendly step-sisters)is constantly disrupted by the King's councillors, who feel that things should be more traditional. The step-sisters should be jealous of each other, the step-mother biased and cruel. In order to annoy the councillors who make her life so difficult, Elyssa runs away (with her family's blessing) to seek her fortune by disguising herself as a maid in the castle of her step-mother's friend Queen Hildegard. On her journey she falls in with a talking cat, who leads her into the Enchanted Forest, claiming that Queen Hildegard is bossy and unpleasant. Elyssa is annoyed but decides to make the best of it. She comes across a pool of water but is prevented from drinking by the unicorn who guards it. Although the unicorn is angry at first, when he discovers Elyssa is a princess he wants her to stay with him and pamper him. When Elyssa refuses to stay in the clearing admiring the unicorn's beauty and making garlands for him to wear, the unicorn becomes angry and holds her there by magic. Although Elyssa walks away, she ends up back by the unicorn's pool. Ultimately she is able to escape by walking with her hand on the cat's back. The cat seems weakened by their escape and in her distress Elyssa kisses him on the nose. He turns into a handsome prince and explains that he was changed into a cat by Queen Hildegard when he refused to marry her daughter. Elyssa claims that he doesn't have to marry her just because it is traditional, but the prince says that he likes the idea of marrying Elyssa quite a lot. Elyssa likes the idea herself, so they get married and live happily ever after.
A young woman named Adrian is bitter and jealous of her younger sister, Sam's, success, popularity, and looks. While avoiding Sam's party, she meets a woman who takes her to a garden of roses. Each rose contains a possible future for Adrian, success in work, love, failure, death, or continued bitterness against her sister. She finds one flower, only a bud, that shows her and Sam agreeing to work harder to get along. She is told she may pick just one flower, but she decides to forego the garden, and chose her own future. The woman and her garden vanish, and Adrian, still not wanting to go back to Sam's party, decides that there will always be time to talk to Sam tomorrow.
A king named Evan Rydingsword, whose land is threatened by a powerful enemy and torn apart by war, goes to ask the powerful Earthwitch, a person who channels the raw power of the Earth, for help. He arrives to discover that it is his old lover, Mariel, not a crone as he expected. Mariel left him 14 years ago because his ambition overpowered her, and she has served almost all of her seven year term as the Earthwitch. Evan is proud, but years of war and leadership have made him a better man than he was, and he offers his life to the Earth in exchange for help for his people. The Earth complies, and causes the ground to open beneath his enemies, and swallow them into the earth. The price the Earth then demands of Evan is Mariel's life. He feels his sword pulling toward her, and rather than kill her, cuts off his own hand with his dagger. He awakes blind and crippled. Mariel tells him that he is no longer king, although his people defeated their enemy. He will be the Earthwitch after her, but once he has served his seven year term, they may be able to be together, as "just Evan and Mariel," without any politics, power, or ambition to tear them apart.
The Lorelei is a retelling of the Scottish ballad Tam Lin
. Janet, an American student, is on a school trip in Germany. Mechanical trouble with the tour bus forces the class to stay at a hotel on high cliffs overlooking the Rhine. Legend has it that the Lorelei, a Siren
-like woman, used to sing from the cliffs and lure sailors to their doom on the rocks. Janet is unnerved by a statue of the Lorelei, and as the day wears on she becomes convinced that one of her male classmates is missing. However, since she is unable to prove her suspicions, Janet walks out to the cliffs where she hears faint music growing louder. She comes face to face with the Lorelei, who has taken someone from Janet's class, a boy named Dan. The Lorelei has been toying with Dan, allowing him to escape nearly to the road before calling him back to the cliffs with her singing. Janet covers Dan's ears which frees him from the Lorelei's power. When the Lorelei begins to ensnare Janet, Dan covers her ears, allowing them to break her power over them. The Lorelei commends Janet for her strength, and lets Janet and Dan return to the hotel.
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Patricia C. Wrede
Patricia Wrede
Patricia Collins Wrede is an American fantasy writer from Chicago, Illinois.The eldest of five children, she graduated from Carleton College in 1974 with a BA in Biology, married James Wrede in 1976 , and obtained an MBA from University of Minnesota in 1977.She finished her first book in 1978,...
. It was first published in hardcover by Harcourt Brace in 1996, and was subsequently issued in paperback by Point Fantasy in 1998 and in trade paperback by Magic Carpet Books in 2005. Five of the stories had appeared previously in the anthologies Liavek: The Players of Luck
Liavek
Liavek is a shared world brought to life in a series of five fantasy anthologies edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly.-Contributors:Contributors include Bull, Shetterly, Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, John M. Ford, Kara Dalkey, Barry B. Longyear, Megan Lindholm, Nancy Kress, Patricia C. Wrede, Steven...
(Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
, 1986), edited by Will Shetterly
Will Shetterly
Will Shetterly is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction best known for his novel Dogland . The novel is inspired by his childhood at the tourist attraction Dog Land owned by his parents...
and Emma Bull
Emma Bull
Emma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She has participated in Terri Windling's Borderland shared universe, which is the setting of her 1994 novel Finder...
, The Unicorn Treasury (Doubleday, 1988), edited by Bruce Coville
Bruce Coville
Bruce Coville is an American author of children's and young adult novels. He was born in Syracuse, New York and lives there currently; he has spent most of his life there, leaving to attend Duke University and then to live in New York City....
, Tales of the Witch World 3 (Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
, 1990), edited by Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
, A Wizard’s Dozen (Harcourt Brace, 1993), edited by Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercials, and themed attractions....
, and Black Thorn, White Rose
Black Thorn, White Rose
Black Thorn, White Rose is the second book in a series of collections of re-told fairy tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.-Contents:*Introduction -- Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling...
(Morrow AvoNova, 1994), edited by Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist.-Biography:Datlow was the fiction editor of Omni magazine and Omni Online from 1981 through 1998, and edited the ten associated Omni anthologies...
and Terri Windling
Terri Windling
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award...
.
The book collects ten fantasy stories by Wrede, together with a recipe associated with one of the stories and notes by the author concerning the inspiration of some of the stories. Two of the tales are set in the shared worlds
Shared universe
A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
of Will Shetterley and Emma Bull's Liavek
Liavek
Liavek is a shared world brought to life in a series of five fantasy anthologies edited by Emma Bull and Will Shetterly.-Contributors:Contributors include Bull, Shetterly, Gene Wolfe, Jane Yolen, John M. Ford, Kara Dalkey, Barry B. Longyear, Megan Lindholm, Nancy Kress, Patricia C. Wrede, Steven...
("Rikiki and the Wizard") and Andre Norton's Witch World
Witch World
The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasy novels set in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning of the series, is exclusively performed by women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the...
("The Sword-Seller"). Two stories ("The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn" and "Utensile Strength") are set in the world of Wrede's own Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Enchanted Forest Chronicles
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is a series of four young adult fantasy novels by Patricia C. Wrede titled Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons....
. Two ("Stronger than Time" and "The Lorelei") are retellings, or alternate versions of traditional fairy or folk tales. One ("Cruel Sisters") is based on a folk song, a variant of The Twa Sisters
The Twa Sisters
"The Twa Sisters" is a murder ballad that recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her sister. It is first known to have appeared on a broadside in 1656 as "The Miller and the King's Daughter." At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel...
, that Wrede once heard performed by Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...
as The Bonny Swans. McKennitt's change to a particular line ("and he had daughters, one, two three...") inspired Wrede to write the story from the third daughter's point of view.
Contents
- "Rikiki and the Wizard"
A humorous story about a successful wizard, who, seeking everlasting fame and wealth, offers his beautiful daughter in marriage to whichever god helps him achieve his goal. The god who answers is a blue chipmunk named Rikki. Rikki only wants to eats nuts, and while the wizard has no patience for him, his daughter feeds him some chestnuts. Rikki, in gratitude for the daughter's kindness, gives her the ability to produce gold chestnuts from the empty chestnut bag. He also agrees to make the wizard famous forever. The gold chestnuts turn into real chestnuts when the wizard picks them up, as does everything else he touches. He soon becomes a laughingstock, unable to live down his reputation.
- "The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn"
Princess Elyssa's happy home life (i.e., a kind father, loving step-mother, and friendly step-sisters)is constantly disrupted by the King's councillors, who feel that things should be more traditional. The step-sisters should be jealous of each other, the step-mother biased and cruel. In order to annoy the councillors who make her life so difficult, Elyssa runs away (with her family's blessing) to seek her fortune by disguising herself as a maid in the castle of her step-mother's friend Queen Hildegard. On her journey she falls in with a talking cat, who leads her into the Enchanted Forest, claiming that Queen Hildegard is bossy and unpleasant. Elyssa is annoyed but decides to make the best of it. She comes across a pool of water but is prevented from drinking by the unicorn who guards it. Although the unicorn is angry at first, when he discovers Elyssa is a princess he wants her to stay with him and pamper him. When Elyssa refuses to stay in the clearing admiring the unicorn's beauty and making garlands for him to wear, the unicorn becomes angry and holds her there by magic. Although Elyssa walks away, she ends up back by the unicorn's pool. Ultimately she is able to escape by walking with her hand on the cat's back. The cat seems weakened by their escape and in her distress Elyssa kisses him on the nose. He turns into a handsome prince and explains that he was changed into a cat by Queen Hildegard when he refused to marry her daughter. Elyssa claims that he doesn't have to marry her just because it is traditional, but the prince says that he likes the idea of marrying Elyssa quite a lot. Elyssa likes the idea herself, so they get married and live happily ever after.
- "Roses by Moonlight"
A young woman named Adrian is bitter and jealous of her younger sister, Sam's, success, popularity, and looks. While avoiding Sam's party, she meets a woman who takes her to a garden of roses. Each rose contains a possible future for Adrian, success in work, love, failure, death, or continued bitterness against her sister. She finds one flower, only a bud, that shows her and Sam agreeing to work harder to get along. She is told she may pick just one flower, but she decides to forego the garden, and chose her own future. The woman and her garden vanish, and Adrian, still not wanting to go back to Sam's party, decides that there will always be time to talk to Sam tomorrow.
- "The Sixty-two Curses of Caliph Arenschadd"
- "Earthwitch"
A king named Evan Rydingsword, whose land is threatened by a powerful enemy and torn apart by war, goes to ask the powerful Earthwitch, a person who channels the raw power of the Earth, for help. He arrives to discover that it is his old lover, Mariel, not a crone as he expected. Mariel left him 14 years ago because his ambition overpowered her, and she has served almost all of her seven year term as the Earthwitch. Evan is proud, but years of war and leadership have made him a better man than he was, and he offers his life to the Earth in exchange for help for his people. The Earth complies, and causes the ground to open beneath his enemies, and swallow them into the earth. The price the Earth then demands of Evan is Mariel's life. He feels his sword pulling toward her, and rather than kill her, cuts off his own hand with his dagger. He awakes blind and crippled. Mariel tells him that he is no longer king, although his people defeated their enemy. He will be the Earthwitch after her, but once he has served his seven year term, they may be able to be together, as "just Evan and Mariel," without any politics, power, or ambition to tear them apart.
- "The Sword-Seller"
- "The Lorelei"
The Lorelei is a retelling of the Scottish ballad Tam Lin
Tam Lin
Tam Lin is the hero of a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. The story revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies...
. Janet, an American student, is on a school trip in Germany. Mechanical trouble with the tour bus forces the class to stay at a hotel on high cliffs overlooking the Rhine. Legend has it that the Lorelei, a Siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
-like woman, used to sing from the cliffs and lure sailors to their doom on the rocks. Janet is unnerved by a statue of the Lorelei, and as the day wears on she becomes convinced that one of her male classmates is missing. However, since she is unable to prove her suspicions, Janet walks out to the cliffs where she hears faint music growing louder. She comes face to face with the Lorelei, who has taken someone from Janet's class, a boy named Dan. The Lorelei has been toying with Dan, allowing him to escape nearly to the road before calling him back to the cliffs with her singing. Janet covers Dan's ears which frees him from the Lorelei's power. When the Lorelei begins to ensnare Janet, Dan covers her ears, allowing them to break her power over them. The Lorelei commends Janet for her strength, and lets Janet and Dan return to the hotel.
- "Stronger Than Time"
- "Cruel Sisters"
- "Utensile Strength"
- "Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake" (recipe)
- "Notes from the Author"