Plot summary
Back in his own "real" world, Thomas Covenant is devastated by the loss of Elena, though he still maintains to himself that his experience in the Land was all just a dream. Tormented by this unanswerable paradox, he neglects his physical condition; he stops taking his medications and fails to treat his head wound, allowing his dormant leprosy to once again become active.
Wandering in the woods outside of his home town, he comes upon a lost little girl suffering from a rattlesnake bite. At this point he is once again summoned to the Land, this time by the desperate High Lord Mhoram, who is in need of aid. Covenant finds that seven years have gone by since the Illearth War, and Lord Foul is preparing for his final assault on the people of the Land. Foul has enslaved the tormented spirit of former High Lord Elena, who now wields the Staff of Law in the service of evil. The Lords have lost their most loyal defenders, the ageless Bloodguard, and the Land has been cast into a perpetual winter. Furthermore, Lord Foul has rebuilt his army, which, under the command of the third Giant-Raver Satansfist, now besieges the Lords' mountain-fortress of Revelstone. As a last resort, the Lords have decided to call upon Covenant, in the hope that he will be able to use the wild magic of his white gold ring to repel the siege and save the Land from total destruction.
Covenant, however, demands that Mhoram release the summons in order to allow him to save the girl's life in the "real" world. Mhoram assents. Covenant does manage to save the girl, but at the cost of being poisoned by the rattlesnake venom he has sucked out of her. In this state and with the knowledge that the girl is safe, he accepts another summoning.
Covenant finds himself once again at Kevin's Watch, the place to which Lord Foul transported him at the time of his first summoning by Drool Rockworm. This time he has been brought to the Land by the joint efforts of Triock, jilted lover of Lena (whom Covenant raped on his first trip to the Land resulting in the birth of Elena) and the Giant Saltheart Foamfollower, his boon companion from the quest for the Staff of Law and one of the last two surviving Giants. Descending from the mountain and travelling east with Triock and Foamfollower in search of Lord Foul's demesne, Covenant is horrified to witness the depredations caused by Foul and his servants. South of the Plains of Ra, Covenant finds that his old bodyguard Bannor has joined with the Ramen in an attempt to protect the Ranyhyn, the intelligent, free horses who formerly served the Bloodguard as mounts. Covenant convinces the Ramen to take the Ranyhyn south to safety; Bannor, now aged as he is no longer sustained by the power of his Vow, accompanies him on his journey east. Kidnapped by Ravers, Covenant confronts Elena and uses the power of his white gold ring to dismiss her ghost, although this results in the destruction of the Staff of Law. Bannor declines to follow Covenant further, although he accepts the metal heels of the Staff for safekeeping and eventual return to the Lords. Meanwhile Lord Mhoram, after a protracted battle, is able to break the siege of Revelstone and kill Satansfist.
Afterwards, Covenant and Foamfollower journey to Ridjeck Thome, the very heart of Lord Foul's dominion, where they succeed in defeating Foul; this act also repairs much of the havoc caused by Elena's breaking of the Law of Death. Covenant, who has finally gained full comprehension of and control over the power of the wild magic, uses it to destroy the Illearth Stone: in the final cataclysm Foamfollower is killed and so, seemingly, is Covenant.
However, his consciousness remains, and while in a state somewhere between being and non-existence, he is spoken to in the darkness by the voice of the old beggar from the beginning of the first book, who is in fact the Creator of the Land. The Creator thanks Covenant for saving his creation and asks him what reward he might accept. Excitedly, Covenant asks the Creator to save Foamfollower, but the Creator regretfully tells Covenant "in a tone of ineffable rue" that even he cannot undo something that has already occurred: otherwise the Arch of Time, the fundamental structure underlying the Land's universe, will be destroyed. The Creator explains that this restriction, in fact, is what prevented him from dealing with Foul directly: he had to act through a proxy, Covenant, and even after causing Covenant to be transported to the Land, the Creator did not interfere with Covenant's freedom of will in any way. The decision to "save or damn" the Land was Covenant's own.
The Creator then tells Covenant that he has a choice: either he can remain in the Land in full health, or he can be returned to life in his own world, where he otherwise would have died from an allergic reaction to the anti-venom treatment applied to his unconscious body. Covenant, still unwilling to fully accept the Land, chooses the latter and awakes in his hospital bed, weakened from his physical trauma, still afflicted with his disease, but happy to be alive, and secure in the knowledge that he had not failed the Land.
Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Today, differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another major difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. The Christian God consists of three persons of one essence, with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. Judaism emphasizes the Oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible as part of its scriptural canon, Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.
Stephen Reeder Donaldson is an American fantasy, science fiction and mystery novelist, most famous for The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, his ten-novel fantasy series. His work is characterized by psychological complexity, conceptual abstractness, moral bleakness, and the use of an arcane vocabulary, and has attracted critical praise for its "imagination, vivid characterizations, and fast pace". Donaldson earned his bachelor's degree from The College of Wooster and a Master's degree from Kent State University. He currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a series of ten high fantasy novels written by American author Stephen R. Donaldson. The series began as a trilogy, entitled The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. This was followed by another trilogy, The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and finally a tetralogy, The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
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Violinist of Hameln is a Japanese manga series created by Michiaki Watanabe. The manga revolves around a group of adventurers named Hamel, Flute, Raiel, Trom and Sizer. They set off on a perilous journey north to the demon continent, seeking to avert a catastrophic event. Hamel, armed only with his magical violin, uses his music to persuade his monstrous adversaries to atone for their misdeeds and meet their demise by killing themselves.
Lords of Magic is a turn-based strategy Microsoft Windows game designed for Windows 95/98 by Sierra On-Line. The game was intended to combine elements of Heroes of Might and Magic II and Lords of the Realm II. The special edition also contains the Legends of Urak quest pack, a set of five individual quests that revolve around stories unrelated to the main plot of the game.
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The Runes of the Earth is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the first book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It was first published in 2004.
The Illearth War is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the second book of the first trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It is followed by The Power that Preserves.
The Phoenix is a Jacobean play, a city comedy written by Thomas Middleton c. 1603-4, and performed by the Children of Paul's. It may be Middleton's earliest surviving play.
The Wounded Land is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the first book of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It is followed by The One Tree.
The One Tree is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the second book of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. It is followed by White Gold Wielder. This book differs from the others in the First and Second Chronicles, in that the story takes place outside of the Land, although still in the same world.
White Gold Wielder is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the final book of the second trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series.
Fatal Revenant is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the second book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series.
Against All Things Ending is a 2010 fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson. It is the third novel in The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant tetralogy, and the ninth novel in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant overall. It was released on October 19, 2010, in the United States and on 28 October 2010 in the United Kingdom.
The Last Dark is a fantasy novel by American writer Stephen R. Donaldson, the final book of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, ending the story that Donaldson began in 1977 with Lord Foul's Bane. It was published on October 15, 2013.
Njan Gandharvan is a 1991 Indian Malayalam-language romantic fantasy film written and directed by P. Padmarajan. It stars Nitish Bharadwaj and Suparna Anand in lead roles. The film is an esoteric fantasy about a girl and her passion for a Gandharva, who keeps appearing from a wooden statue that she found on a beach but is invisible to others.
