The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

The first claim Sharon Black, author of The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy, made is fantasy books capture the reader’s imagination.  This is where our minds create vivid pictures of scenes in a book.  I think the book, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, creates very vivid pictures in readers’ minds. When the animals are being introduced for example, “The cat Moriah reached them, nudged its black, flat head under Sybel’s hand, then lay down on her feet and yawned at Coren, showing teeth like honed polished stones.”  As the reader, I am able to picture Moriah lying calmly at Sybel’s feet, while letting Coren know she does not have to be calm, by showing her teeth.  There are many other times when my mind enlisted imagination and created vivid scenes. 

The second claim Black makes is fantasy can be showing readers a classic hero’s journey.  In this it shows that despite its dark recesses, the world is good, and people can overcome their difficulties and find joy.  More than one hero emerges in this book.  Sybel surfaces as our first hero, taking Tam into her home and raising him to become the second hero surfacing.  He grows up quickly when he goes Mondor to live with his father Drede.  Tam shows he is brave when he continues to come to Eld Mountain to check on Sybel, especially the last time when he breaks into the great white house to rescue her from her own thoughts.  Tam also stops his guards from killing Coren, who could also been seen as a hero.  Coren, with his knowledge and wisdom wows Sybel and never stops loving her.  He teaches Sybel how to love and forgive. We witness Sybel change from the hero of the book the one who needs saved by both Tam and Coren, making them the heroes. 

In The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, all ends happy.  The ‘evil’, Drede and Mithran, end up dead, Tamlord ends up unharmed and king, Coren and Sybel end up together, and Sybel is able to call the Liralen.   This book follows the process of showing the darkness of the world through Drede, Mithran, and Blammor (along with what he is capable of doing to men) and shows the world is good through Maelga and Coren’s love for Sybel and Tam.  Tam also proves to continue being good to the world throughout the book.  Sybel proves the last part of the line, ‘people can overcome their difficulties and find joy’, to be true.  Sybel had the most difficulties and in the end fell in love and wanted to learn to love more truly. The book ends with her discovering the secret of the Liralen showing she now sees the good in herself and has found Joy and contentment in being with Coren the rest of her days. 

Blacks next claim, through quoting Bettelheim, is children can comprehend fantasy stories are unreal, but not necessarily untrue.  I am no sure all adolescents could decipher for themselves the parts of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld that are untrue.  For example, people claim to be horse whispers in the world today and some people have chosen to ‘domesticate’ tigers and view them as pets.  In zoo’s wild cats, birds, and more can be viewed by anyone who chooses to pay the entrance fee.  These truths we see in our world today can skew adolescents thoughts about the animals in the book. I can understand where adolescents could view Gules Lyon and Moriah as Sybel’s pets and the thoughts she hears from them only her own thoughts.  It could be believed she is pretending, as the readers did when they were young, the cats and other animals are talking to her to fill a void of people, not found on Eld mountain. 

The last paragraph of Black’s article states, “Fantasy empowers its readers through the unreal truths and the mythical heroes that it shares.”  Fantasy does seem to empower the mind to go on its own journey and create its own vivid scenes.  The reader is able to put himself/herself in place of the mythical heroes or seem to be in the same scene with the characters.  Through conversations with adolescents we can be sure they find the truths and unreal parts of fantasy stories without reducing their imaginations.  The Forgotten Beasts of Eld depicts how Black describes fantasy fairly well although some ideas are left to opinion.