The Eyes of the Dragon
Encyclopedia
The Eyes of the Dragon is a novel by Stephen King
published in 1987. Previously, it was published as a limited edition hardcover by Philtrum Press
in 1984. The mass-market version had been slightly revised for publication. At the time it was a surprising deviation from the norm for King, who is best known for his horror fiction
. This book is a work of classic fantasy
, with a clearly established battle between good and evil, with magic playing a lead role.
The Eyes of the Dragon takes place entirely within the realm of Delain (which itself is located within In-World
from The Dark Tower series). It is told from the perspective of an unnamed story-teller, who speaks casually and frankly to the reader, frequently adding his own commentary on characters' motivations and the like.
At the beginning, Flagg secretly attempts to assassinate Queen Sasha. He finally succeeds in forcing the Queen's maid to cut the queen while she was giving birth to Thomas, her second child, making her bleed to death. As time passes, and Peter, the older brother, grows older, it becomes more obvious to Flagg that the Crown Prince is a far greater threat to his position as royal wizard than was Sasha. Therefore Flagg has King Roland poisoned and Peter framed for the murder. Thomas witnesses this through the glass eyes of the mounted head of Roland's greatest trophy, the dragon. After a brief trial, during which the judge decides Peter is guilty, he is locked up in the enormous tower called the Needle in the center of the city. Thomas is then crowned King, although he is only twelve years old; due to his youth and his fearful inexperience, he allows Flagg enormous amounts of power. At the start of his long stay in the Needle, Peter manages to send a note to the judge who convicted him, Anders Peyna, with instructions by which to help rescue him. Peter escapes, with the help of his mother's dollhouse, and napkins which he asked for. After the escape he and his allies rush to get Roland’s bow and arrow. However, it is not to be found because Thomas had it once they got into the king's "sitting room". Flagg, now revealed as a demonic being, is about to kill them when Thomas reveals himself and tells Flagg that he (Thomas) watched Flagg poison Roland. Thomas shoots Flagg in the eye, but Flagg uses magic to disappear and escape. At the end of the novel, Peter is declared to be the rightful king. Thomas, who has become deeply hated in Delain, sets off alongside his butler Dennis to find Flagg. They find him and they confront him, but the outcome is never told.
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
published in 1987. Previously, it was published as a limited edition hardcover by Philtrum Press
Philtrum Press
Philtrum Press is a small publishing house run by Stephen King.Primarily the work of Stephen King's personal assistant, Marsha DeFillipo ,conducting small press operations from his front business offices in Bangor, Maine....
in 1984. The mass-market version had been slightly revised for publication. At the time it was a surprising deviation from the norm for King, who is best known for his horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
. This book is a work of classic fantasy
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...
, with a clearly established battle between good and evil, with magic playing a lead role.
Plot summary
All-World
All-World is a fictional location in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. All-World is the world known to contain the "Keystone Tower" in the Dark Tower series. It is the only world that contains the Dark Tower in its physical form; all others contain a representative of the Tower, such...
from The Dark Tower series). It is told from the perspective of an unnamed story-teller, who speaks casually and frankly to the reader, frequently adding his own commentary on characters' motivations and the like.
At the beginning, Flagg secretly attempts to assassinate Queen Sasha. He finally succeeds in forcing the Queen's maid to cut the queen while she was giving birth to Thomas, her second child, making her bleed to death. As time passes, and Peter, the older brother, grows older, it becomes more obvious to Flagg that the Crown Prince is a far greater threat to his position as royal wizard than was Sasha. Therefore Flagg has King Roland poisoned and Peter framed for the murder. Thomas witnesses this through the glass eyes of the mounted head of Roland's greatest trophy, the dragon. After a brief trial, during which the judge decides Peter is guilty, he is locked up in the enormous tower called the Needle in the center of the city. Thomas is then crowned King, although he is only twelve years old; due to his youth and his fearful inexperience, he allows Flagg enormous amounts of power. At the start of his long stay in the Needle, Peter manages to send a note to the judge who convicted him, Anders Peyna, with instructions by which to help rescue him. Peter escapes, with the help of his mother's dollhouse, and napkins which he asked for. After the escape he and his allies rush to get Roland’s bow and arrow. However, it is not to be found because Thomas had it once they got into the king's "sitting room". Flagg, now revealed as a demonic being, is about to kill them when Thomas reveals himself and tells Flagg that he (Thomas) watched Flagg poison Roland. Thomas shoots Flagg in the eye, but Flagg uses magic to disappear and escape. At the end of the novel, Peter is declared to be the rightful king. Thomas, who has become deeply hated in Delain, sets off alongside his butler Dennis to find Flagg. They find him and they confront him, but the outcome is never told.
Characters
- King Roland- The King of Delain. While renowned for slaying a dragon in his younger, more virile days, he has now become somewhat infirm and addled. He trusts Flagg, his advisor, but little does he realize that Flagg intends ill will toward Roland. However, early in the story he does favor his wife's advice more than Flagg's. He also is the father of both Thomas and Peter.
- FlaggRandall FlaggRandall Flagg is a fictional character created by Stephen King. Flagg has appeared in seven novels by King, sometimes as the main antagonist and others in a brief cameo. He often appears under different names; most are abbreviated by the initials R.F. There are exceptions to this rule; in The Dark...
- The Advisor to the King. Flagg is a powerful magician and has been around for centuries. In his incarnation in Eyes of the Dragon, he has served as an advisor to four successive monarchs: Roland's grandparents and parents, Roland himself, and Thomas. Though he has lived in Delain for roughly seventy years, he has only appeared to age ten. Later in the story, it is revealed that he has appeared in Delain multiple times, under multiple guises, the oldest of which that is mentioned in the book took place over five hundred years in the past. His ultimate goal is to cause Delain to overthrow the monarchy and be plunged into "a thousand years of bloody anarchy, give or take a few years". Flagg, whose first name is not identified here but is Randall in other books, can be found in some form in quite a few of King's novels. In The Stand, he is the personification of evil. He plays a part in the Dark Tower novels as well. Coincidentally or purposefully, the initials R.F. are used randomly in the names of antagonistic characters in a number of other Stephen King works. - Peter- Roland's older son and the heir to the throne. Peter is a tall, lithe, handsome young man who has inherited his mother's good looks and his father's love of the common man. He is the clear favorite among the people to be the next King.
- Thomas- Roland's younger son. Thomas takes after Roland in that he is slow and heavy even in youth. He (rightfully) feels overshadowed by Peter and resents his brother in the knowledge that Roland clearly loves Peter more. He is, however, a talented archer like his father, and in this he can outstrip even Peter. As Thomas gets older, Flagg becomes his only friend and sole source of comfort. Crowned "Thomas the Light-Bringer," he soon receives the nickname "Thomas the Tax-Bringer" due to the merciless 80% tax increase he imposed upon the people of Delain at the urging of Flagg.
- Queen Sasha- Roland's wife and the mother of Peter and Thomas. Sasha was chosen for Roland because she was an innocent girl from a lesser noble family and seemed to be the shyest of the lot that Flagg had selected for Roland. Flagg also believed she posed the least long-term threat to his authority. Roland chose her since she seemed the least likely to frighten him. However, she revealed herself to be a strong, independent woman, who truly loved (and was loved in return by) both Roland and the kingdom. She was murdered under Flagg's orders while giving birth to Thomas.
- Ben Staad- Peter's best friend. The Staad family is described as the most unlucky family within Delain; but Ben and Peter strike up a close friendship. Ben is strong, handsome and loyal.
- Dennis - Peter's butler. Dennis' family has been butlers to the royals of Delain for centuries, and Dennis takes great pride in his work. He is complicit in Peter's imprisonment. This is because he found the poison that killed King Roland inside of Peter's room. He was then later transferred to serving as Thomas' butler upon his father's death. He then aids in Peter's escape. He later goes with Thomas on his quest to find Flagg.
- Naomi- A peasant girl who is with the exiles (a developing resistance group). Who helps Ben to find where Dennis is with the aid of her dog, Frisky. She later marries Ben.
- Anders Peyna- The Kingdom's High Judge. The people are far more afraid of Peyna than they are of the King. It is Peyna who condemns Peter to his imprisonment, but later believes in the prince's innocence. Along with Dennis and Ben Staad, he helps Peter escape from the Needle by funding for the napkins which he escaped with.
Crossovers and allusions
- Flagg (Randall FlaggRandall FlaggRandall Flagg is a fictional character created by Stephen King. Flagg has appeared in seven novels by King, sometimes as the main antagonist and others in a brief cameo. He often appears under different names; most are abbreviated by the initials R.F. There are exceptions to this rule; in The Dark...
), the villain of this story, is directly involved with the Dark Tower series, appearing as one of Roland of Gilead's main antagonists. He is also the main antagonist in The StandThe StandThe Stand is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy novel by American author Stephen King. It demonstrates the scenario in his earlier short story, Night Surf...
. King hinted, in the afterword to The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, that the "wandering youths from Eyes of the Dragon" (presumably Thomas and Dennis, who had gone on a quest to find and destroy Flagg at the end of the novel) would make an appearance in the Dark Tower series; but they were only briefly mentioned in The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three where Roland says that he encountered both Flagg and Thomas and Dennis. - King references H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
's Cthulhu MythosCthulhu MythosThe Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
when he mentions that Flagg's spellbookNecronomiconThe Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...
was "written on the high, distant Plains of LengLengLeng is a fictional cold arid plateau in the Cthulhu Mythos, whose location seems to vary entirely from story to story. The Plateau of Tsang, referenced by H. P...
by a madman named AlhazredAbdul AlhazredAbdul Alhazred is a fictional character created by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. He is the so-called "Mad Arab" credited with authoring the imaginary book Kitab al-Azif , and as such an integral part of Cthulhu Mythos lore....
", is bound in human flesh, and can cause madness by too much exposure. - In The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, when asked about his grandfather Alaric, Roland says that Alaric went to Garlan, the land next to Delain, to slay a dragon but got there too late because the last dragon in that part of the world had already been killed by another king who was later murdered.
- Delain is scathingly mentioned in another King short story, The Little Sisters of EluriaThe Little Sisters of Eluria"The Little Sisters of Eluria" is a novella by Stephen King. It was originally published in 1998 in the collection Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy...
, as a country of liars. - In a passage where the narrator is describing a profoundly hurtful, jealousy-rousing experience for Thomas, King references a Stephen CraneStephen CraneStephen Crane was an American novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism...
poem when he writes [emphasis added]:He felt as if someone had reached into his chest and cut off a tiny piece of his heart and made him eat it.
The Crane line reads:
His heart tasted very bitter to him, and he hated Peter more than ever, although part of him still loved his
handsome older brother and always would.
And although the taste had been bitter, he had liked it.
Because it was his heart.In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."