The Fire Sword

The Fire Sword, The Crystal Sword, The Rainbow Sword, and The Sea Sword are magical swords representing the four elements. Classic high fantasy about our heroes on a quest to save the land right out of Campbell. However, these books are from the 1980s and are also clearly second-wave feminist speculative fiction centered around gender dynamics grounded in mythology. Each stands alone, but they function best as a set. So Light vs Dark and battle of the sexes and Freudian issues with parents and journeys of self-discovery.

Each magic sword has a magic sheath made from the skin of the Earth Serpent, the only thing strong enough to contain the power of the swords. And sword and sheath are used as literal metaphors (is that an oxymoron?) for show more mystical union of man and woman. So each book is about bringing magical artifacts and magical people together into unbreakable union. Yadda yadda. All very heteronormative and reifying plenty of gender stereotypes.

The Fire Sword begins with Eleanor, a modern women who wakes to find herself in 1220 England. Again, it was the 1980s and modern person yanked to an earlier time was a common trope. I remember reading a lot of stories along those lines, though only The Gandalara Cycle comes to mind right now. And of course, these days Outlander is the obvious example. The narrative is third person personal, mostly from Eleanor's perspective with the occasional paragraph from the hero's perspective.

Anyway, Eleanor wakes up in 1220 just a little confused as to what's going on. Turns out the Darkness is taking over Albion (not England), including the current King Henry on the throne, and the Irish goddess Bridget has brought Eleanor back to carry the fire sword into battle to defeat the Darkness, possibly an evil from another universe, that first appeared in Iberia in 1169. Actually, Eleanor has been dropped into an alternate timeline, where Pope Adrian IV declared the multiverse part of church doctrine, Guillaume the Strong (not William the Conqueror) is the Savior of Albion, Islam never emerged, the Crusades never happened, and Jerusalem is an unconquered Jewish city.

After getting her marching orders and the magic sword from Bridget and being brought up to speed by Brother Ambrosius (such interlocutors are handy for dropping lots of context for the readers), Eleanor finds a wolf companion and is soon underway to Hibernia (Irish legends, remember?). Along the way, she also meets Saille, goddess of willows, Orphiana, the Earth Serpent, and her twin sons Doyle and Baird ever struggling for dominance (and recalling other divine twins or battling brothers including Cain and Abel). Turns out Eleanor has a lot of magical gifts (bestowed by goddesses), and Doyle is a shapechanger. Having special powers certainly helps to defeat evil.

A lot of the dialogue and the emotional heart of the story is very much about intimacy and love, and not necessarily just sexual relationship. This is true for all of the books. They all very much emphasize consent (at least when the female protagonists are dealing with the heroes) and also the omnipresent threat of sexual violence. All about the power and mystery and complexity of woman. Plus king-making and passing the magical artifacts onto the ruler of the land. Then exit stage left to retire and make babies. show less