Extra Credit 5 - Research
Alexander Bowne
The Elidhu in Alison Croggon’s Pellinor series are beings somewhere in between run of the mill faeries and elemental beings, depending on the Elidhu. In the series, they play arguably the most important roles, setting the stage for the plot and occasionally directly interacting with the protagonists, and driven almost exclusively by desire for romance and music.
The series follows a girl named Maerad through her trials and tribulations along her ultimate goal of defeating the Nameless One and, you know, surviving. Maerad, because of her family’s unique bloodline (one of her ancestors was an Elidhu), is gifted with power beyond that of her peers, and uses that power to accomplish her goals.
Both music and romance play very important roles for the faerie-like Elidhu in the series. A romance we did not see made Maerad herself possible, but beyond that, we also see the consequence of an Elidhu’s "love" for a mortal when the Elidhu Arkan falls in "love" (madly and extremely possessively a la Beauty and the Beast) with Maerad. This romance, while it forces several revelations upon Maerad both personally and in terms of her ultimate quest, is notable more for the fact that it is an inversion of the typical “mortal is besotted with faerie” cliché, although Maerad does develop some level of feelings for Arkan (it is unclear if those feelings are just a form of Stockholm Syndrome or something more).
Of greater impact to the story, and in fact the central issue of the story, is the relationship between the faerie-analog Elidhu and music. While the Elidhu were not created by something called the Treesong, they were enamored with it. The bulk of the story revolves around Maerad trying to restore the Treesong after it was broken in two when both the Nameless One and the Elidhu wanted to possess it, since the Treesong had power. In fact, the climax of the series (described so as to avoid too many spoilers) involves Maerad, the Treesong, and the Elidhu. The Elidhu are also drawn by normal music, as both Arkan and another Elidhu named Ardina are attracted by Maerad’s harping.
The series follows a girl named Maerad through her trials and tribulations along her ultimate goal of defeating the Nameless One and, you know, surviving. Maerad, because of her family’s unique bloodline (one of her ancestors was an Elidhu), is gifted with power beyond that of her peers, and uses that power to accomplish her goals.
Both music and romance play very important roles for the faerie-like Elidhu in the series. A romance we did not see made Maerad herself possible, but beyond that, we also see the consequence of an Elidhu’s "love" for a mortal when the Elidhu Arkan falls in "love" (madly and extremely possessively a la Beauty and the Beast) with Maerad. This romance, while it forces several revelations upon Maerad both personally and in terms of her ultimate quest, is notable more for the fact that it is an inversion of the typical “mortal is besotted with faerie” cliché, although Maerad does develop some level of feelings for Arkan (it is unclear if those feelings are just a form of Stockholm Syndrome or something more).
Of greater impact to the story, and in fact the central issue of the story, is the relationship between the faerie-analog Elidhu and music. While the Elidhu were not created by something called the Treesong, they were enamored with it. The bulk of the story revolves around Maerad trying to restore the Treesong after it was broken in two when both the Nameless One and the Elidhu wanted to possess it, since the Treesong had power. In fact, the climax of the series (described so as to avoid too many spoilers) involves Maerad, the Treesong, and the Elidhu. The Elidhu are also drawn by normal music, as both Arkan and another Elidhu named Ardina are attracted by Maerad’s harping.