The Sword of Shannara
The Sword of Shannara is a 1977 epic fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks. It is the first book in a titular trilogy.
Author
The novel interweaves two major plots into a fictional world called The Four Lands. One follows the protagonist Shea Ohmsford on his quest to gain the Sword of Shannara and use it to confront the Warlock Lord (the antagonist). The other plot shadows Prince Balinor Buckhannah's attempt to oust his insane brother Palance from the throne of Callahorn while the country and its capital (Tyrsis) come under attack from overwhelming armies of the Warlock Lord. The novel contains themes of mundane heroism and nuclear holocaust throughout.
Brooks wrote The Sword of Shannara over seven years, during which time he also attended law school. Ballantine Books published the novel and used it to launch the company's new subsidiary Del Rey Books. The Sword of Shannara's success significantly boosted the commercial prospects of the fantasy literary genre. Critics derided the novel for being derivative of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Some accused Brooks of lifting the entire plot and many of his characters directly from Tolkien's work; others praised its execution despite the lack of originality.
Plot[edit]
Background[edit]
2000 years before the events of the plot,[2] a nuclear holocaust known as the "Great Wars" ended mankind's hegemony on Earth. These wars rearranged the planet's geography and wiped out 90% of the human population. Only traces of technological artifacts have been found; most advanced technology has been lost, but magic has been rediscovered. During this time, Mankind mutated into several distinct races: humans, dwarves, gnomes and trolls, all named after creatures from "age-old" myths. Also, elves begin to emerge after having been in seclusion and hiding for centuries. Man retreats southward while the other races settle elsewhere: the dwarves in the east, the gnomes in the hills of the northeast, the trolls in the north and the elves in the west. Due to this distribution, the territories, which roughly correspond to the Northwestern United States, are called the Four Lands.
A thousand years later, an Elf named Galaphile gathers all of the people who still hold some knowledge of the old world to the citadel of Paranor. Naming themselves the First Druid Council, they try to bring peace and order to all of the races. The rogue Druid Brona departs with his followers and the Ildatch, a magical tome that controls their minds. Hundreds of years later, Brona convinces all Men to attack the other races, triggering the First War of the Races. Although nearly victorious, he is ultimately defeated by the council and disappears. The Druids divide the Four Lands among the races and become reclusive, withdrawing to Paranor because of their shame at the betrayal by one of their own members.
Several centuries after the First War of the Races, Brona returns as the Warlock Lord, now with Skull Bearers as his servants. Chronicled in the prequel novel First King of Shannara, the Second War of the Races begins with the destruction of the Druid Order. A lone Druid, Bremen, forges a magical talisman to destroy the Warlock Lord; it is given to the Elven King, Jerle Shannara. As it takes the form of a blade, the talisman is named the Sword of Shannara. It succeeds in banishing the Warlock Lord. He is not killed, but his army is defeated by the combined armies of the Elves and Dwarves. Peace comes at a high price: interracial tension is renewed and the Druids have vanished.
Story[edit]
Five centuries later, Allanon, the last remaining Druid, arrives at the Ohmsford family inn in the Southland town of Shady Vale. He warns Shea, a half-elf adopted by the Ohmsfords, that the Warlock King has returned to the Skull Kingdom in the Northland and is coming for Shea. As the last descendant of Jerle Shannara, Shea is the only one who can wield the Sword of Shannara against the Warlock Lord. Allanon departs, leaving Shea three Blue Elfstones for protection. A few weeks later, the Callahorn prince Balinor Buckhannah arrives and tells Shea that the Warlock Lord's servants are pursuing him. Shea and his adopted brother Flick flee with a Skull Bearer on their trail. They take refuge in the nearby city of Leah where they find Shea's friend Menion, the son of the city's lord. Menion decides to accompany the two, and they travel to Culhaven to meet with Allanon and Balinor.
The council at Culhaven, which also includes the elven brothers Durin and Dayel Elessedil and the dwarf Hendel, assesses the Warlock King's current threat and decide to recover the Sword of Shannara from Paranor. During the party's trek to Paranor, they are attacked by a giant snake, which sends the panicked Shea plummeting over a waterfall. His companions reach Paranor without him and engage in battle with minions of the Warlock Lord, only to find that the Sword of Shannara has already been removed. Learning of the Warlock Lord's invasion of the Southland, the party decides to split up, with some going to mobilize armies and others conducting a search for Shea.
After being captured by gnomes, Shea is rescued by the one-handed thief Panamon Creel and his mute Troll companion Keltset Mallicos. Journeying to the Northland, they reach the Skull Kingdom and pursue the insane Gnome deserter Orl Fane, who has carried the Sword of Shannara. Meanwhile, a disguised Flick infiltrates an enemy camp and rescues the captive Elven King, Eventine Elessedil; at the same time, in Kern, Menion saves a woman named Shirl Ravenlock and falls in love with her. They organize an evacuation of Kern before the Northland army reaches the city.
Balinor returns to Tyrsis to activate the Border Legion only to find that it has been disbanded. Balinor is then imprisoned by his brother Palance Buckhannah, who has taken control of Callahorn's rule. His advisor, Stenmin, has driven Palance mad with poisoned food, making him his pawn. With help from Menion, Balinor escapes and confronts Palance and Stenmin. Cornered, Stenmin kills Palance as a distraction and flees. Now commanded by Balinor, Callahorn's reformed Border Legion marches out of Tyrsis and engages the Northland army at the Mermiddon River, killing many Northlanders before being forced to pull back; the Border Legion retreats to Tyrsis and makes preparations for defense.
During the siege of Tyrsis, Hendel and Menion come upon Stenmin and some of his supporters in an underground passage. Hendel is killed, but Menion kills Stenmin and closes the passage. After three days, the Border Legion is beaten back from the Outer Wall of Tyrsis as a result of treachery—the wall falls when the traitors destroy the locks on the main gate, jamming it open. At the defenders' last stand on the Bridge of Sendic, the Northlanders abruptly break and run.
Infiltrating the Warlock Lord's fortress in the Skull Mountain, Shea seizes the sword and learns of its true power: those touched by it are confronted with the truth about their lives. The Warlock Lord materializes and tries to destroy Shea. Although immune to physical weapons, the Warlock Lord is subjected to the sword's power and forced to confront the truth about himself: he had deluded himself into believing that he is immortal, but this is impossible. Faced with this paradox, the Warlock Lord is destroyed.
Without its master, the Skull Kingdom crumbles, during which Keltset sacrifices himself to save his companions. In the south, the Northland army retreats after the Warlock Lord's downfall. Allanon saves Shea's life and reveals himself as Bremen's centuries-old son. Shea reunites with his companions in Tyrsis as peace returns to the Four Lands. Balinor takes up his country's rule, while Dayel and Durin return to the Westland, and Menion returns to Leah with Shirl. Shea and Flick reunite and return to Shady Vale.
Television adaptation[edit]
The Shannara books were to be adapted by Mike Newell, the director of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but he left the project.[47] The books eventually were adapted for television by Farah Films and executive produced by Brooks, Dan Farah, and Stewart Till. They began with Elfstones, intending to leave Sword for a later date.[48] The Shannara Chronicles premiered on American television network MTV on January 5, 2016.