Zimiamvian Trilogy

The Zimiamvian Trilogy is the title given to a collection of three novels by the author E. R. Eddison.

Some chapters in each of the novels take place on Earth in the 20th century, but the novels are largely set in a parallel world named Zimiamvia, which primarily comprises the Three Kingdoms of Fingiswold, Meszria and Rerek (though other lands, such as Akkamma, are also referred to).

Scholarship

Literary critic Don D'Ammassa has claimed that the Zimiamvian trilogy has "powerfully drawn" characters, especially the villains. He notes that none of the protagonists, with the exception of Lessingham, comes across as "entirely admirable".[1]

All the books contain a romantic ethic of fame, fate and eternal recurrence, in which the supreme value is chivalry, both in the sense of heroism and in the sense of idealization of women.[2] In Mistress of Mistresses the underlying philosophy is explained: a Spinozistic pantheism mysteriously combined with polytheism (characters routinely swear by "the Gods"). There are both a supreme male God, named as Zeus in The Mezentian Gate, whose avatars include Duke Barganax and Lessingham, and a supreme Goddess, identified with the eternal feminine and with Aphrodite, and temporarily incarnated in the two queens whom Lessingham serves.

References
  1. D'Amassa, Don (1996) "Villains of Necessity: The Works of E.R. Eddison" in Schweitzer, Darrell (ed.) Discovering Classic Fantasy Fiction. Wildside Press, pp.88-93.
  2. Flieger, Verlyn (Summer 1989) "The Ouroboros Principle: Time and Love in Zimiamvia" Mythlore 15(4):43-46. (No. 58)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.