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Title:
The Throme of the Erril of Sherill
Series:
-----
Author: Patricia McKillip
Rating:
4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
22
Words: 10K
With
this reading, I have read all of McKillip’s bibliography except one
semi-biographical novel and a few short stories not gathered together
into her own books of short stories. The novel I have zero interest
in reading and I am not enough of a fan (despite loving her works
immensely) to search out individual short stories just so I can say I
have read them all.
This is a bittersweet moment. The last new-to-me McKillip story that I will probably ever read. This is just like that moment when, over a year ago, I drank the very Last of the Coconut Pineapple Rockstars. I was happy and sad, all at the same time, filled to the brim with conflicting emotions. So to with this read.
This was early McKillip and thus it was more prose’y than her later stuff, but it was still had that weird, otherworldly flavor. Just look at the title for goodness sake. Throme instead of Tome. All of the names and creatures are just slightly off. Dagon instead of Dragon. Norange instead of orange. Plus plenty of other instances throughout the story. Reading this was like looking at a familiar picture upside down and not seeing that it IS a familiar picture until your brain “clicks”. That time of discombobulation when it’s all unfamiliar, I love that feeling in a story by McKillip.
This story felt like a colored ribbon of paper instead of a piece of silk like some of her later works. I’m ok with that. Being able to tell a difference in an author’s style is a nice feeling to be honest. One, it means they changed and matured and got better over the years and Two, it means my taste has matured enough to be able to see those differences. Growth and maturation, and acceptance of them, are signs I want to see in myself and hopefully in others too.
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia & Bookstooge
Magnus Thrall, King of Everywhere, welters away in misery, pining for the nonexistent Throme, supposedly written by the Erril of Sherill ages past in another world. In his suffering he will not allow anyone around him to know happiness, including his weeping daughter Damsen, who yearns for the world outside the castle, and his loyal Chief Cnite Caerles, who seeks Damsen's hand. The king refuses to allow the match unless Caerles finds him the Throme.
So in an atypical quest, the Cnite goes seeking what the king demands. With small hope of success, he seeks it in various strange places, only to be misdirected and receive confusing advice as he in turn gradually loses his sword, shield and armor. He borrows a dagon from a girl named Elfwyth, falls victim to a boy's borebel trap, and is cautioned against the cold-hearted Lady Gringold by a jingler in a norange orchard. He visits the Mirk-Well of Morg, the Floral Wold, the Dolorous House of the dead Dolerman, and, in the end, the Western Wellsprings, repository of the answer to Everything.
Ultimately, he solves his dilemma in an imaginative way by writing his own Throme from "the tales and dreams and happenings of his quest."
King Thrall rejects this wonderous throme and continues living in his misery. Damsen throws off his shackles and marries Caerles and they have a treeful of children and live contentedly together.
