When reading Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter, I was immediately struck by the theme of committing fully to one's choices. I seem to recall a variety of half remembered fairy tale "morals" that address this topic, and Lord Dunsany seems to come back to it in a number of places. I felt that he was exploring rather than moralizing this theme, though, because I could not pin down any particular judgment being put forth. Rather, he seems to merely observe potential outcomes or possibly to leave open-ended questions in place of the traditional better - or - worse endings.
The power of choice - and the difference between a whim and a deliberately thought out choice - are repeatedly underscored in this book. Beginning in the first chapter with the wish of the Parliament of Erl for a magical lord, Lord Dunsany toys with the traditional "moral" of being careful what you wish for, and of being prepared to pay the (full) price before making a choice.
The most obvious plays on this theme are the Parliament's wish for a magic (but not too magic!) king, Lirazel's wish to see Erl (but to retain Elvish view of the world), and Alveric's wish for a wife that would bring magic to Erl (but also maintain Erlish tradition). These characters would "have it both ways" as it were - they make wishes, but do not want to sacrifice as a result.
The Parliament of Erl's story at first closely follows the traditional story of the Three Wishes. First they wish for a magic King to bring fame to their land (pg 1). When this is granted, then they wish to see proof of the presence of the magic. This is on pages 123-124, where they hope a Unicorn has been seen, but are not convinced. This wish is granted when Orion brings back the head (pg 134-135).Then Lord Dunsany deviates from the traditional story by disallowing the third wish that reverses the first two. On page 211, Ziroonderel refuses to give them the requested spell to negate the magic that has come to Erl with their first two wishes, and they must live with the coming Elvish Erl. As is typical throughout the story, Lord Dunsany leaves open the question of whether this is in fact a greater tragedy than the Erl of before the wishes (or for that matter than an Erl with the magic wished away).
Lirazel is permitted to reverse her decisions repeatedly by the power of her father. She essentially chooses not to choose. She decides (apparently on a whim, since the calm of Elfland implies that she has not been overwhelming restless leading up to Alveric's arrival) to experience the fields Alveric knows. But she would have it both ways - she wants to marry and run off to Erl, but also wants to remain her father's child and retain Elvish customs. She repeats the same story in reverse returning to Elfland - she reads her father's rune on a whim (part petulance, part wonder… see page61). Once home, she embraces her role as her father's little girl, but then wants her son and the sunsets and stars of the fields she knew as a married Queen… Her choices take on the idea of the traditional third wish. She essentially reverses or re-wishes each whim she has, with questionable (but not specifically "bad" or "good") results for everyone around her.
Alveric also initially wants everything both ways, but he responds to "needs" rather than Lirazel's "whims". He needs to bring the magic of an Elvish wife because the Parliament and his father command it. But he also needs a traditional Erlish wife because custom and religion demand it. So he wants both. A political version of having it both ways - he tries to please everyone, and ends up losing his wife and kingship. He repeats this bid for both ways when he goes on quest. Unlike for Lirazel, however, this doesn't work consistently for him. Because it is a "mad" quest, he takes along a number of "mad" people. He then tries to appoint the sanest as guide, but this fails and he realizes that such an illogical quest can only be led by someone far removed from logic. So he commits himself fully to the spirit of the quest, and relinquishes the logical view taken by many of his subjects. This costs him his kingship. He allows this to go too far, though, and ends up seeking the help of the sane to control the madness of his companions. Since he remains committed to the quest, his attempts to enlist the help of the logical and sane do not work. This is a repeat of his original need to have both sides of his wishes.
Contrasting the characters that would have both sides of each wish (or reverse each one frequently), Lord Dunsany includes some characters that uncompromisingly cling to their chosen paths. Most noticeable are the old leatherworker, with his firm decision not to acknowledge Elfland (maintained even in the face of Alverich's two quests), and the freer who is so enamored of the beliefs he has that he would forbid the magic that allows wishes (or choices). For these two, there are no choices to be made, and no issue of paying for them by compromising what they have. Although they both sacrifice the magic of Elfland completely, their disbelief in Elfland makes this price null and this choice a done deal.
In the case of the leatherworker, one suspects that this was not always an only choice - he may once have wished for magic and rued it, or may always have wished for an Erlish life and discovered the way to keep it uncompromised - but if so it was prior to the start of the story. If he has feelings about the price of not seeing magic, he does not disclose them here and the reader must project them from his/her own responses. This is one of the many times where the reader is confronted with the evidence of a choice, but left to ponder whether it was wise or foolish in the long run.
The Freer's wishes are similar to those of the Elf King. They both want a land in which everything is always as they imagine it, and they set their minds to driving away alternatives much as the leatherworker shut out Elfland. However, they both want company sharing their wishes. This may be another set of three wishes - for a land of their beliefs made tangible without compromise, for company in this place, and for permanence of both these things. The Freer takes this wish all the way to its conclusion, bending all of his choices to keeping Erl unchanged. He ultimately sacrifices most of his congregation (company) and his land becomes a small island almost unbreachable by everything he has cursed. As a reader, one is inclined to think this is a narrow-minded choice, but Dunsany specifies that the Freer is ultimately content. One might imagine a parallel between his life after the speaking of the last rune and the life of the Elf King before the speaking, like seeing the two ends of one cycle.
The King of Elfland might have started by driving off all the changing things beyond his desired view much as the Freer does over the course of the book, although this story presumably took place prior to our story and is not told. We enter the King of Elfland's story after he has willed himself a place where all of his wishes are manifested without competition. Like the Freer, he never supports "the presence of any magic equal to his own" (pg183). This Elfland is the product of the Elf King's will to have everything always as he imagines it, and he is content. But the seeds of the altering of this wish are already planted - his wish for company in his land has already cost him some of his perfect happiness, because his wife chose to experience life beyond his borders, aged, and is now gone from his land. She may be dead of old age, or gone as Alveric and the Parliament of Erl will eventually be gone from the Freer's congregation… Presumably, she yearned for the lands of Erl, and the Elf King remained adamant about maintaining his borders and the runes that ensured their continued potency against material things (pg 222 on stored runes and future of border). So she crossed over and he lost her.
Lirazel is his company when the book opens, but she crosses over with Alveric. The Elf King sacrifices one of his precious Runes to bring her back, but this does not restore the contentment of his realm. He is forced to choose between the timelessness of Elfland and Lirazel's participation in the wonder. Unlike the Freer, he does alter his land (view, will) to recover the contentment of his subjects. Dunsany does not say whether or not he ends up happy with this…
Zoorenderel is the only character to specifically accept the prices of all the choices she makes. Most significantly, she loves all of the magic and chooses to be in the transition between the realms. She observes that magic is "the spice and essence of life" (pg 211). She studies, worships, and uses the magics of both Earth and Elfland, and thus has a life and power in both places. She is the only one to pass freely over the border throughout the book, and to have spoken to the author on Earth after Elfland has passed out of remembrance (pg 240).
Ziroonderel repeatedly accepts the cost of the choices she makes. She chooses to spare Alveric and to offer him a sword, presumably knowing that this would lead to disruption of the calm of Elfland (pg 4). She chooses not to keep either sword or Alveric when the time comes to make good on this offer (pg7-8). She chooses to nurse Orion "for the King" (pg 32) and to raise him knowing Earthly magic as well as Lirazel's (although the elf king does not like the changing magic of Earth, and the old king of Erl believed, on page three, that his people had chosen foolishly). She gives the questing Alveric the way to cross over to Elfland, and acknowledges that this will infuriate the Elf King, and does not care (184-185). When Elfland encroaches upon Erl and the Parliament seeks help, Ziroonderel praises the importance of magic as Earth's most treasured heirloom. She implies that age has blinded them, and sends them to witness the coming of a magic they are not yet blinded to. Ziroonderel continues to appreciate and transmit magic across the border in both directions after Erl is absorbed into Elfland.
Throughout the book she makes choices that encourage people who have ceased to be impressed by their local magic to seek farther afield. This makes me wonder if the transfer of dissatisfied Erl from Earth to Elfland was not ultimately her wish. She is at least the equal in power to the king of elfland, and as decisive in her wishes as this King and the Freer. But her place seems to be the transition between worlds. The events of Elfland (except those Ziroonderel is involved in) are a reflection of the King's will. The Freer is the only person in Erl able to withstand the Elf King's rune-transmitted will, and his island reflects his wishes. Since Ziroonderel is the only other character who weighs her choices and seems to accept their results, I am inclined to suspect that her will or wish is the third force active here. If wonder and appreciation of the magic of each place were her major concern, it would make sense for her to support efforts to bring a novel (elvish) magic to the unappreciative inhabitants of Erl, and to send the Parliament to meet their new magic with a chiding against blindness rather than a way of preserving Erl's earthly magic. Alone among the characters whose choices were directly related to the magics of Erl and Elfland (Elf King, Parliament, Freer, witch), Ziroonderel watches the coming of the shining line with evident joy (pg 236-239).
In a conversation with Alveric on page 32, Ziroonderel seems to claim understanding of the outcome of what has been wrought even as Lord Dunsany directly addresses the theme of will and of man's responsibility for the outcomes of his choices. Ziroonderel asks Alveric if the sword has been lucky for him. Alveric answers,
"Who knows what brings fortune, since we cannot see the end?"
and she answers,
"Who knows the end but we?"
This seems to directly imply that "we" (though evidently not Alveric) can willfully foresee the end of the story, probably by knowing what "our" choices will be in hypothetical situations. It also implies that the witch has considered likely outcomes and somewhat knowingly made her choices. Also observe that although the Parliament's dissatisfaction initiated the first quest, Ziroonderel offered Alveric the magic sword that made it possible BEFORE the plan was presented to Alveric. This suggests to me that Ziroonderel wished for the fields of Erl to be at least touched by an unfamiliar magic (to renew the wonder of the people?) prior to the start of the book.
Unlike traditional fairytales such as the Three Wishes or the Old Man and the Fish, most of the characters in The King of Elfland's Daughter do not express clear-cut regrets at the final outcomes of their choices. Instead, Dunsany gives a number of diverse characters "happily ever after" sort of endings. The Freer, who does not strike me as a protagonist in particular, lives to old age content with his limited company and view. We are told that Lirazel and Orion are happy. Ziroonderel is pleased, and continues passing back and forth over the new border of Elfland. Many of the minor characters, such as the leatherworker, Lurulu, and Niv, seem to get variants of happily ever after endings.
Only the Parliament of Erl and the Elf King seem uncertain about the outcome. The Elf King is calm, but in using his last Rune he has chosen to preserve the present peace of Elfland at the expense of future security (pg 222-223). This means his realm is no longer timeless and unchanging - he has brought the capacity for change by spending his last defense against material things. The only way he can maintain the wonders of his land now is to avoid contact with the material things of Earth, and this complete withdrawal shall cause Elfland to "become no more than a fable" (pg 222). Presumably this happens because Dunsany specifies that "Erl…with all the rest of Elfland…past out of all remembrance of men" (pg 240). It is a surprisingly limited tragedy, though, because only the Parliament, the Elf King, and Ziroonderel seem aware of the loss at the end….and Ziroonderel does not lose anything because she continues to visit both the fields and cottages of Earth and the endless summer of Erl-Elfland.
Lord Dunsany brings up the issue of choice once again when the trolls choose to come to Erl (161-167). He elaborates both sides of the arguments about the relative merits of Erl and Earth. The trolls are ultimately convinced to try Erl. Once again Dunsany does not give any indication of whether this is a wise or foolish choice on their part. Both cases could be made…whichever choice the trolls had made. I think this is a deliberate way of leading the reader away from the idea that their might be a "correct" choice. I think that Dunsany's playing with the theme, with his many references to being careful what you choose, considering the price, and not wanting it both ways, ultimately add up to this: either choice could be right or could be wrong. Yet this is clearly a significant theme that keeps reoccurring throughout the book.
On page 48, Lurulu invites a child to come to Elfland. The child turns down the wonder of Elfland for the sake of a jam-roll her mother had made that morning. Dunsany specifies the randomness of the jam roll that kept the girl in Erl; but I suspect this foreshadows Ziroonderel's future lecture on the significance of the magic of Earth. This also underscores the point I think Lord Dunsany was making in toying with the theme of choice, whim, and the power of will. On the one hand, we have the similarity between the wishes of the Parliament of Erl and the traditional Three Wishes tale. On the other, we have the apparent role of Ziroonderel as both the power (willpower?) in the transfer of magic between realms and as the wise, instructive character who understands what is actually occurring. "Be careful what you wish for" is one common moral of the Three Wishes story, but I seem to remember "Appreciate what you have" as another. I think Lord Dunsany is playing with this latter version, and his most serious working of the theme is the scene in which the Parliament goes to Ziroonderel for the "third" wish, and she gushes about the magic of Earth and upbraids them for blindness. In this view of The King of Elfland's Daughter, the importance of the otherworld magic - and the significance of maintaining a semi-permeable border between Erl and Elfland - is secondary to the importance of the magic in the fields YOU KNOW. The transfer of Erl from Earth to Elfland is less about the tragedy of loss of differences than it is about a second chance for the people of Erl to appreciate their (renovated) backyards. After all, the border of Elfland still exists, Erl is just on the other side now. The reader is to hope that the people of Earth learn to appreciate their own magic before the fable of Erl passes out of the remembrance of men.