The Elfstones of Shannara is a 1982 epic fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks. It is the first sequel to The Sword of Shannara and the second book in The Original Shannara Trilogy. It expands upon the history of the Elves, which was only hinted at in the preceding story, and follows Wil Ohmsford, grandson of Shea (the hero of the first book) and inheritor of the Shannara Elfstones.

The novel, set in a fictional world called the Four Lands, consists of two intertwining plotlines. The first plotline follows the quest of protagonists Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil to create a new Ellcrys, a magical tree that serves to banish all Demons from the Four Lands. To do this, they must locate a specific place in the Four Lands called Safehold, where the process of creating a new Ellcrys can begin. The second plotline focuses on the efforts of the Elven army and their allies to slow a massive Demon invasion, made possible by the dying of the current Ellcrys, to give Wil and Amberle enough time to complete their quest.

Background

After Terry Brooks had completed all work on his first novel, The Sword of Shannara, in fall 1975—having begun it in 1967—he began work on another book soon after. The plot he originally chose featured the son of Menion Leah as the protagonist and a girl with a Siren-like song that could manipulate the properties of objects around her. Brooks outlined about three-quarters of the story before beginning to write; he refused an attempt by Lester del Rey to see it because Brooks wanted to impress the editor. When Brooks finished three-quarters of the tale in fall 1977 after writing around his law practice hours, he found himself stuck and could not think of a suitable ending. He decided to send the story to del Rey to get his opinion on what the end should be. The reply he received was quite unexpected; del Rey firmly believed that Brooks needed to simply get rid of the started novel and start anew due to a plethora of problems he saw. Once del Rey finished a full line-by-line examination of the plot, Brooks leafed through the comments and found them to be disturbingly accurate.

So, Brooks started over. This time, he created an outline for the full story and mailed it to del Rey and his wife for comments prior to delving into the writing process once more. In his frustration about the old story, though, he decided to forget about his former protagonist—even that character's entire generation. Instead, he gave the protagonist role to the grandson of the hero in Sword, Wil Ohmsford. In place of the siren-oriented tale, he took on the history of the Elves. del Rey approved this new plan, and Brooks began weaving the tale in late 1978. He finished it in late 1980 and sent it off to del Rey. He replied in February 1981 with 25 single-spaced pages-worth of errors or problems, including a roughly 200-page span where he felt that the action and dialogue was seen from the author's viewpoint—not a character's. To address this, Brooks used Ander Elessedil, formerly a minor character with little impact on the plot, and turned him into the focus of a majority of the book. Four months later, he sent the story out once again. This time it only required minor alterations. Those rights expired, though Brooks continued to receive inquiries from film studios. In 2011, adaptation plans coalesced around a Game of Thrones-style series, backed by Sonar Entertainment and Farah Films, and executive produced by Brooks, Dan Farah, and Stewart Till. The story would begin with Elfstones, leaving Sword, the first book in the series, for later. By 2012, they were looking for a showrunner and director before pitching to network buyers, at which time they hoped to move into production.

In December 2013, Deadline Hollywood reported that MTV had given a script-to-series commitment to produce the show, with Jon Favreau directing, Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar writing, and Brooks and Farah as executive producers. The result was The Shannara Chronicles, which premiered on January 5, 2016, on MTV. In an interview, Brooks mentioned his pleasure with how his story has been adapted. In January 2018, the series was cancelled after two seasons. Producers said that they would shop the series to other networks.

Characters

  • Wil Ohmsford – Grandson of the legendary Shea Ohmsford, Wil is a good-hearted, calm young man. He takes after his grandfather in looks, with his fair hair and the pointed ears that mark him as having Elven blood. Unlike Shea who is quite callow before his adventures, Wil has a more mature outlook, partly due to the early death of his parents. Their untimely passing inspired him to train with the renowned Gnome Healers at Storlock, and due to his persistence he was eventually allowed to train there despite not being a Gnome. Because Wil has only a small fraction of Elven blood, mastery of the legendary Elfstones does not come as easily to him as it did to Shea, and this coupled with his own fear of the Elfstones' magic and his internal conflict over doing harm after having pledged his life to being a Healer hampers his ability to use them effectively.
  • Allanon – The powerful last Druid of Paranor, this human has mastered many forms of magic and is perfectly willing to hide most or all of the truth from those he protects or leads in order to achieve his goals. Together with Shea Ohmsford and others he defeated the Warlock Lord in the most recent War of the Races. Now, fifty years later, Allanon has returned, apparently without having aged a single day, and he gives Wil Ohmsford the job of protecting Amberle Elessedil.
  • Amberle Elessedil – An Elven princess and the granddaughter of the current King of the Elves, Eventine Elessedil. She is the daughter of his youngest son, Aine (deceased). Selected by the Ellcrys to be a member of the Chosen, Amberle at first enjoys the attention from the Ellcrys but soon becomes disturbed by the sentient tree's overbearing nature and her relationship to it, and she spurns her duty as a Chosen and leaves the Elven city of Arborlon. She is later convinced by Allanon and Wil to return to Arborlon, and she ultimately decides to take on the job of restoring the Ellcrys.
  • Eventine Elessedil – King of the Elves who worked with Allanon and Shea Ohmsford to defeat the Warlock Lord. Fifty years later, he is still the leader of the Elves and still a strong, capable man despite his age. He has three sons; Arion, Ander, and Aine (deceased).
  • Ander Elessedil – Son of Eventine, and uncle of Amberle.
  • Eretria – a human girl raised since childhood by the rover Cephelo, giving a lot of trouble to Wil and the Elves but eventually becoming their ally in their mission to restore the Ellcrys' health.
  • Stee Jans – Known as the "Iron Man", he commands the legendary Free Corps of the Border Legion. This small but fierce force is sent to aid the Elves and they play a pivotal role in the defense of the Westland during the War of the Forbidding.
  • The Ellcrys – A magical and sentient tree with silver bark and crimson red leaves, created by Elves eons ago in the midst of a great war in order to banish the Demons to a dimension called the Forbidding. So long as she stands and remains healthy, the Ellcrys will keep the Demons locked away in the Forbidding. The Ellcrys does age and die, requiring a rebirth, but its lifespan is on the order of centuries and millennia. As the tree weakens, the seal keeping Demons locked away in the Forbidding also weakens. She can communicate telepathically and can move her branches to touch people in greeting. Her bark is warm to the touch and she can give pieces of herself if necessary, as when she produced an "Ellcrys staff" for Allanon. Every year the Ellcrys chooses a select group of young Elves called the Chosen to care for her. The Chosen are almost always men; Amberle Elessedil is the first woman selected in centuries.
  • Dagda Mor (demon) –
  • Changeling (demon)
  • The Reaper (demon)

References