I Read Books: The Well At The World's End
Ralph is the fourth son of the king of Upmeads; he gets the short straw and has to stay at home when his three older brothers leave to go on adventures. He decides to disobey and goes anyway. He goes through the Wood Perilous and encounters the Lady of Abundance (he meets her but doesn’t know, then hears about her and refuses to leave her castle until he meets her, then he leaves and meets her.) He learns she has drunk from the well at the world’s end, she saves him, then is killed.
He continues on to try and find the well, and also the maiden Ursula who the Lady of Abundance recommended him to. They are both captured by the evil Gandolf, and both escape and met a Sage who tells them more about the well. Wintering in a valley in the mountains they fall in love and after they fight a bear Ralph suggests “marrying” but Ursula insists on witnesses, which is generally a thing about marriages.
They meet some people and get properly married, continue on to the sea where they find the well, drink from it and bathe in the ocean. Then, spiritually refreshed they return, righting wrongs and fighting bad guys, finally having quite a large battle which they win. Ralph’s parents then install them as king and queen of Upmeads.
This is all written in high Victorian faux-medieval English that I didn’t get on with, so it took me a long time to read this. Which is unfortunate as usually I have a fairly high tolerance for this kind of thing. In addition the cod-Christian cod-medieval-England didn’t work for me, the various allegories/metaphors/parallels were simultaneously obvious in outline, yet obscure and unrewarding to unpick.
This concerns me slightly as some of my gestating fantasy projects have similar aspects to them.
All of this was a great pity as there was a lot of good stuff going on here, the Lady of Abundance being a mythical figure and also a woman who kept getting captured and fought over by knights, and yet still had enough agency to influence things, that was quite clever. I can see why such people as H G Wells, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien all rated it (and the latter two were clearly influenced). It’s just a pity it’s concealed by a style I didn’t like.
Read This: For some interesting takes on medieval chivalric romance
Don’t Read This: If this kind of language will put you off.
Out Of Copyright: And so available to read online.
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