The Fionavar Tapestry: Difference between revisions

The Fionavar Tapestry is a trilogy of [[High Fantasy]] novels by [[Guy Gavriel Kay]], set partly in our own contemporary world, but mostly in the fictional world of Fionavar.

The trilogy is set firmly and consciously in the Tolkien tradition of High Fantasy. [[Guy Gavriel Kay]] has said that one of his motives for writing it was to show that the 'matter' of High Fantasy was deep enough to be used in various original ways, and that the genre did not have to become debased into nothing but pale Tolkien imitations. The Tapestry tells the tale of five young Canadians, Kimberly (Kim) Ford, Jennifer Lowell, Dave Martyniuk, Paul Schafer and Kevin Laine, who are taken to Fionavar, the first of all worlds, by Loren Silvercloak, a mage of that world. Ostensibly invited to come as guests of the court for a celebration of the anniversary of the monarch's ascension to the throne, all five students quickly find that their roles in Fionavar are far more complex than they originally expected.

* [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]]: The Svart Alfar and the Sluaghs.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: And a lot of them do. {{spoiler|Though two of the main characters who die come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]].}}

* [[Badass Normal]]: Out of the Five it's Dave. {{spoiler|He's the only one that isn't a reincarnation or gains/awakens powers, relying instead on his strength and wits.}}

* [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]]: {{spoiler|Matt Soren and Paul/Pwyll Twiceborn. Averted by Kevin, Imraith-Nimphais, Diarmuid, Finn and Darien.}}

* [[The Dragon]]: Galadan, the Wolflord.

** [[Dragon Withwith an Agenda]]: Galadan serves Rakoth Maugrim, but it's made very clear that this is only to advance his personal goal- destroying the world that witnessed the shame of his true love abandoning him for a mortal and then getting herself killed.

* [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]: Averted when the protagonists learn that {{spoiler|for over a thousand years, every Lios Afar who set sail to the West for their version of heaven... was devoured by a sea monster set to lie in wait for them by the [[Big Bad]].}} "Most hated by the Dark, for their name was Light."

** {{spoiler|Paul willingly volunteers to hang from the Summer Tree till his death to bring rain to the parched land. (He gets better).}}

** {{spoiler|Finn, first by leaving behind forever everyone he's ever known or loved, and then by dying as the only way to prevent the Wild Hunt from killing ''everyone''.}}

** {{spoiler|Kevin willingly sacrifices himself at Dun Maura to enable the Godess to banish Rakoth's winter.}}

** {{spoiler|Matt Soren allows himself to be drained to the death to fuel Loren's spells on Caer Sedat.}}

** {{spoiler|Diarmuid, who fights a duel he cannot win to give Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur a chance to change their fate.}}

** {{spoiler|Imraith-Nimphais, which goes kamikaze on Rakoth's dragon.}}

** {{spoiler|And last but not least, Darien, who hurls himself on a dagger he had just given his father Rakoth...a dagger enchanted so that anyone who kills with it, if they kill without love, will die.}}

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Dave nearly pulls this off near the end of the second book, fortunately a Goddess has a thing for him and it worked out.

{{quote| She could never have explained rationally why the presence of a Dwarf woman should surprise her so much, why she'd assumed, without ever giving it a moment's thought, that the females among the Dwarves should look like... oh, beardless, stocky equivalents of fighting men like Matt and Brock. After all, she herself didn't much resemble Coll of Taerlindel or Dave Martyniuk. At least on a good day she didn't! Neither did the woman who had come for her. A couple of inches shorter than Matt Sören, she was slim and graceful, with wide-set dark eyes and straight black hair hanging down her back.}}

[[Category:TheWorks Fionavarby TapestryGuy Gavriel Kay]]