The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Cover of the first trade edition of Lord Foul's Bane
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| Author | Stephen R. Donaldson |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | High fantasy |
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| Published | 1977–2013 |
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| No. of books | 10 |
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.
Thomas Covenant, an embittered and cynical writer, afflicted with leprosy and shunned by society, is fated to become the heroic savior of The Land, an alternate world. In six novels published between 1977 and 1983, he struggles against Lord Foul, "The Despiser", who intends to escape the bondage of the physical universe and wreak revenge upon his arch-enemy, "The Creator".
The story "Gilden-Fire" first appeared as an independent novella, but is most widely available as a part of most versions of the Donaldson short story collection, Daughter of Regals, 1985. It was set during the action of The Illearth War, and covers an episode from the doomed mission to contact the Giants. Gilden-Fire is told from the point of view of Korik, the senior Bloodguard on the mission. It describes Korik's selection of the mission's Bloodguard, then narrates the mission's passage through Grimmerdhore forest, where they defeat an ambush of ur-viles and kresh (wolves). The narrative ends as the mission leaves the forest.
As per the author's foreword. Gilden-Fire was originally part of a larger, planned section of The Illearth War that followed the mission to the Giants in "real time", but was cut due to space restrictions as well as point-of-view inconsistency with the rest of the Chronicles. The events during the trek through Grimmerdhore are not mentioned in the published narrative of The Illearth War, and some information shared here on the origin and motivation of the Bloodguard does appear in other contexts in the published Chronicles. The rest of the mission after the Grimmerdhore passage was included in the Chronicles, via the narrative device of Bloodguard messengers.
An issue of major importance in the First Chronicles is the question of the reality of the Land. From Covenant's perspective, the Land may well be just a delusion of his disturbed mind; early in his adventure, he gives himself the title of "The Unbeliever". Donaldson goes to great lengths to make this explanation as plausible as any other theory (e.g., Covenant is (to varying degrees) mentally unbalanced, events in the Land seem to parallel his subconscious struggles, his physical condition upon exiting the Land is always exactly the same as his condition upon entering it, etc.). This is the heart of the "Fundamental Question of Ethics" that appears at the very start of the Chronicles, which can be rephrased as "Do one's actions in dreams have any real significance?" Covenant's despicable act early in the first book (the rape of a teenage girl who befriends him when he first arrives in the Land) has consequences throughout the story and can be seen as an attempt to test this theory. The First Chronicles sees the reality of the Land eventually 'proven' to Covenant; another interpretation of Covenant's eventual decision to aid the Land is the realization that, whether the Land is real or not, it matters to him.
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