'Lud-in-the-Mist' by Hope Mirrlees
A Classic Fantasy Novel
From early obscurity, Lud-in-the Mist has risen to acknowledgement as a significant contribution to the development of the fantasy genre. Hope Mirrlees was a translator, poet and novelist whose literary circle of friends included Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot. Her greatest influence, however, was her teacher, companion and mentor, Jane Ellen Harrison, after whose death in 1928, Mirrlees no longer wrote regularly.
Unsettling Wisdom
A quotation from Jane Harrison serves as the epigraph for Lud-in-the-Mist, reminding the reader that human longings for something beyond the everyday world cannot go unheard, even if they are ignored. This sets the scene for Mirrlees’ theme of longing, adding a darker seam of unease and dissatisfaction to a novel which at first glance appears to be a simple tale of a place that ‘had all the things that make an old town pleasant’ (Lud-in-the-Mist, Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks, 2001, p. 1).
European Roots
Hope Mirrlees draws on the traditions of European fairy-tales in creating Lud-in-the-Mist, in the country of Dorimare. An overview of the town and its history introduces the reader to the ‘ancient Guild Hall, built of mellow golden bricks’ with its ‘flat brick houses’ under ‘changeless antique roots’ that gather around a harbour full of ships with colourful sails (ibid.). The beauties of the tree-filled town and its lovely situation between two rivers distract at first from the brief early revelation that Dorimare borders on Fairyland.
Difficult Neighbours
The carefully complacent citizens of Dorimare long ago rejected the wildness of their fairy neighbours and keep themselves secure in commerce and comfort. Mirrlees moves easily from comedy to mystery, with Gothic touches, as the plot balances the dangers of forbidden fairy fruit against the demands of an unsolved murder. The crisis that lead Mayor Nathaniel Chanticleer into Fairyland both frees and unsettles his people, as the barriers between the countries are swept aside.
Deceptive Simplicity
The light story-telling style highlights uneasy aspects it seems at first to gloss. Only through the fear of loss can Chanticleer realise that he loves his son, while his daughter’s kidnap and rescue remain almost incidental. The Dorimarites change from self-satisfied merchants who can refer to fairy matters only via euphemism into hosts welcoming their dangerous neighbours into their midst. Yet Chanticleer’s resolution of matters remains unexplained and the reader does not witness the first meeting of the two cultures.
The Ironic Narrator
This manipulation of the reader reveals the subtly of Mirrlees’ technique. Her rich, sometimes overblown, style is balanced by the ironic narrative tone which in the final sentence warns the reader not to trust the written word. The novel does not provide reconciliation between the mundane and the fantastic but instead becomes a quiet joke at the reader’s expense. As Master Chanticleer learns, there can be successful outcome without a completely happy ending, which is, after all, only possible in fairy tales.
Lud-in-the-Mist in Print
Lud-in-the-Mist, first published in 1926, was reissued in 1970, without Mirrlees’ permission, in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The interest this new unauthorised edition raised led to a further edition from Del Ray, in 1977. Until recently, scholarship on Mirrlees’ work was limited. However, she has contemporary champions in Neil Gaiman, who wrote a new introduction for the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks edition of 2001, and Michael Swanwick, whose articles on Mirrlees include a comprehensive analysis of her life and work.
Further Reading
Gaiman, Neil. “Curiosities : Lud-in-the-Mist” by Hope Mirrlees.” Fantasy & Science Fiction. 97.1 (1999 July) : 162.
Swanwick, Michael. ‘Hope-in-the-mist.’ Foundation: the International Review of Science Fiction. 32.87. (2003 Spring): 14-48.
On the Borders of Fairyland
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