Endorsed by Neil Gaiman and Greer Gilman, this new edition of Sylvia Townsend Warner’s final collection of short stories brings her fantasy writing to a new readership. Originally published in The New Yorker, and in book form in 1977 these sixteen sly and enchanting stories of Elfindom show Warner’s consummate mastery of realist fantasy that recalls the success of her first novel, the witchcraft classic Lolly Willowes (1926).
Warner explores the morals, domestic practices, politics and passions of the Kingdoms of Elfin by following their affairs with mortals, and their daring flights across the North Sea. The Kingdoms of Broceliande in France, Zuy in the Low Countries, Gedanken in Austria and Blokula in Lappland entertain Ambassadors, hunt with wolves and rear changelings for the courtiers’ amusement. The fairy ruling classes are charming and insolent, and all levels of fairy society are heartless, in human terms. But love and hate strike at fairies of all ranks, as do poverty, abandonment and the passions of the heart. Enter Elfindom with care.